Evolution of Consciusness (36)-Meditation & Gurjeff Self-Remembering

Meditation and Self-Remembering

The word Meditation has become too common like Love.

So, it is not very clear to the common man what exactly it means.

If we look at the word meditation, it contains meanings such as To Ponder, Going into an

issue deeply and so on.

In religious or spiritual context it has deeper meaning like communion with God or Super

Consciousness.           

Normally,

In religious traditions meditation is practiced to attain their religious goal – Mukti,

Nirvana,  Salvation etc.

They may do so in a monastery, ashram or even in a mountain cave isolated from the

material world.

                                                              

For a common man,

Several schools based on various religious traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, Christianity, and

Sufi etc) or otherwise teaches methods of Meditation.

Normally they are aimed at achieving good health, peaceful mind, concentration etc.

These methods generally constitute Prayer, Breathing techniques, chanting Etc, derived

from religious traditions.

.

They are generally successful in their aims with testimonials to support the claim.

Now,

We will see little detail about the techniques and depth psychology explanation.

Prayer

Prayer is normally a petition made with utmost faith,

The faith and the surrender of the self silences the active conscious mind,

This quietness enables the conscious mind to be in a receptive mode,

Then the unconscious which has more depth and clarity projects an answer to the prayer

into the conscious mind. 

Probably it must be so, because

Not only saintly people,

Even a terrorist or a leader prays before planting a bomb or bombing a country and their

Prayers are answered.                                   

It must be their unconscious mind - God can not be a party to those affairs.

Breathing

Breathing techniques are based on the theory that breathing pattern is related to state of

Mind.

                                                               

We can normally notice the difference in breathing when angry and normal.

But there are subtle pattern changes in the breathing, which are not so obvious but related

to particular thoughts, feeling or abstract state of mind.

So, by regulating or controlling the breathing pattern, it is possible to alter the state of

Mind or acquire the desired state of mind.

By regularly plasticizing and prolonging the duration of desirable breathing patterns, the

other breathing patterns are used less and  less, and over time because of disuse thoughts

related to the patterns loose their dominance and wither out.

It is like muscle entropy, where muscles die out of disuse.

Chanting

Chanting involves repeating a particular word or phrase, generally a positive suggestion.

Constant repetition dulls and silences the conscious mind and the unconscious accepts the

Positive Suggestion,

Over time that brings changes in the conscious level of the person without being aware.

Concentration

Concentrating on an Image or Personal God excludes the other thoughts and focus on a

single thought or image silences the conscious mind, putting it in the receptive mode.

The unconscious works on the demand.

Some may have vision of the Deity or God and hear inner voice projected by the

unconscious mind in to the conscious mind.

 

One can see, in all these there is a demand or aim for fulfillment, and since the conscious

mind is made quite, the unconscious mind find ways to fulfill the demand.

That is,

This ‘Meditative’ state of mind is more efficient than the normal active mind but same in

its essence,

Because the problems addressed are Personal and ego-centric issues.

So, by being successful, they can only strengthen and advance the ego-self.

These explanations are meant only for a common man, because the same traditional

approaches practiced by austere Saints or Monks can have ultimate effect of dissolution

of Ego-Self, since their Prayers and Aims are not ego-centric.                 

So meditation can be practiced for relative fulfillment of personal mind or absolute

dissolution of the same.

But it is better and also imperative that one has to understand the personal mind

before going for its fulfillment or dissolution.

.

Common Man’s Meditation technique to understand the Personal Mind or Ego-Self     

                                                                                                     

We know about Gurdjeiff’s   self-remembering and fairly discussed about it in the earlier

posts.

Remembering one self is becoming conscious of every action and response

It includes even normal acts like walking, eating and talking etc.

No act or thought should escape one’s awareness, however trivial.

Normally, as habit one does not ‘Remember one self’, whether ‘acting’ or ‘responding’.

One acts or responds mechanically and impulsively based on past memory.

This Mechanical act or response does not bring about understanding of the situation

Or the ‘Me’.

So, to understand, one has to stop the mechanical response.                                                     

For that to happen,

One has to remember one self during the act.

In other words,

Apprehending the consciousness as it acts.

To understand what is “Apprehending the consciousness as it acts”

Saint to a Disciple: What are you meditating on?

           

Disciple: I am meditating on Anger

           

Saint     : Are you angry now?                                                                                 

Disciple: No

 Saint     :  Meditate on Anger, when you are angry.

 So,

Apprehending the consciousness as it acts is self-remembering and also meditation.

It will stop the mechanical response,

That is consciousness is arrested from appealing to the ‘Me’, which provides the ground

for an automated reaction from the past memory.

Added to that,

One become conscious of the particular 'Memory' or 'Experiance'  that qualifies

the situation (Good or Bad) and subsequent automated response.

Here,

Since consciousness is arrested at the act and not yet associated  with the the ‘Memory’,

One become conscious of the 'Memory' but not influenced by it,

So, the response now can be based on merit or fact of the situation, not necessarily on

memory alone.

It may appear little misty in the narration.

By testing   ‘Self-Remembering ’, one can gain complete clarity.

So,

                          

Self-Remembering is the simplest (not easy) Meditation technique for a common man to

understand the Self and its contents (Desires, Motives, Prejudices etc).

Because,

It makes no demand except attention and also it can be practiced any time, any where and

for any duration.

We will visit Meditation again later.

Evolution of Consciusness (35)-Desire & Gurjeff Self-Remembering

Anatomy of desire and Gordjieff Self-Remembering

Life is all about desire, however troublesome it may be.

Usual but serious metaphor is camel eating fruits along with thorns

 and bleeding but continuing to do so.

Human desire is much more complex.

We will try to see the simplicity (kernel) behind the complexity in this post.

Desire is felt as an urge ‘to be’, ‘to have’ or ‘to do’ something that gives pleasure or

satisfaction, and also to avoid pain or suffering.

Fundamental urges meant for Preservation, Procreation etc, which are independent of the

Ego or the Personality also comes to the surface in the form of Desire.

How this mute Drives are felt as personal desire is another topic.

 If we take bodily need to have water.

It is expressed as a desire to drink water, pleasure in drinking and

a feeling of ‘satisfied-thirst’.

Generally

Everything one does is out of desire including

Desire to avoid pain,

Desire to remain content,

Desire to eliminate desire,

And Desire for God or Enlightenment

It is obvious that all desires can not be realized, so fear, frustration, struggle etc.

exist along with desire.

To avoid negative impact arising out of desires in one’s life and society,

Desires are categorized into good, bad, necessary, not essential, luxury etc to have some

control over them and permissiveness as well wherever resistance is futile.

But it is evident that,

Spite of both Control and Permissiveness, frustration and struggle still persists in one’s

life and as well as in the society because of desire.

Approaches of Control or Permissiveness are addressing the desires in its concrete or

particular forms and hold good for some time before breaking up.

So, instead of approaching concrete or particular desire,

We will try to approach desire in its abstract or generic form.

Now,

we will see the basic or general structure of Desire and its mechanism.

One can put it as a sequence for easier understanding

It begins with,

1) Perception of an object.

 2) Contact with the object.

3) Sensation generated by the object.

4) Association of sensation with an Idea or Image in the memory

5) Idea or Image qualifying the object as desirable or undesirable

6) Desire to seek or avoid the object.

It is from the 4^th stage that the desire as such comes into existence.

Let us take an example,

 A person is status conscious and strongly believes that owning a luxury car will improve

his social standing.

Supposing he happens to travel in a luxury Car, we will see how the ride affects his

Consciousness. 

Now the steps,

1)      Rides in a Luxury Car (Perception and Contact)

2)      Pleasant sensation is experienced

3)      Pleasant sensation is associated with his ‘Status Image’ of the Car

4)      The ‘I’ with the ‘Status Image’ qualifies the Car as essential for status.

5)      Desire arises to own such a Car.

Let us look at it the other way.

Supposing he has no status image associated with the Car, what would be the out come.

He will still enjoy the ride as before and might even say ‘It is an excellent Car to have’.

But,

Since there is no particular ‘I’ or personality with ‘(Car) Status Image’ in the Ego-Self,

There is no creation of an association or bond between the sensation and the ‘Me’.

So, once the ride is over,

The sensation ends or consummated leaving no residue to linger on.

Result is,

There won’t be any urge to own the car or frustration of not owning the car.

So, it is the Image in the memory that is responsible for desire not the sensation itself.

In this case, the image can be easily deduced but may be difficult in other cases.

For instance, among the similar cars, one may prefer a particular model.

The preference may have more than one image in the background.

Now,

One can logically understand the mechanism of desire,

But, to be effective in real life, one has to be consciously aware of  the mechanism.

Self-Remembering and becoming conscious of Desire.

Normally, things happen fast like Contact, Sensation and Desire.

Mind acts mechanically, impulsively and one do not remember one self during the

episode of a particular Desire.

To become aware or conscious,

One has to be attentive and ‘remember one self’, when desire rises.

One has to hold on to the consciousness as such during ‘sensation’.

One has to stay with the situation (Sensation) without engaging the past to recognize the

Sensation (Associating with an Image) or ending the situation by taking a decision

(Resisting or yielding to it).

As we mentioned before,

Mind will stagger for a while and then become calm and stable.

Here,

The perception is not distorted –Not qualified by the past or concluded by a decision. 

In this perception (reversed one), one can become aware or see that,

It is not the Object that creates the Desire but an Image in the ‘Me’ finds the object

desirable.

Now, one can identify and analyze the image, its background and features consciously

(It is not analysis done after the episode like Postmortem).

This stops the mechanical nature of the mind and enables one to have conscious control

over desire.

This control in turn enables the person to accept or decline the ‘Desire’.

This is not Resisting or Yielding to the desire, which has frustration behind.

One has to test it in every occasion possible.

Again,

Self-Remembering here is not about eliminating the desire but becoming conscious,

making a conscious response instead of impulsive mechanical reaction.

This will help one to identify imaginary needs and false personalities in the ego-self.

This in turn may bring one little closer to the True-Self.