The universe is made up of a feedback between information-containing energy and consciousness. The energy coalesces into visible matter due to our awareness of it and does so on an infinite fractal scale dependent on a fundamental pattern of the division of space. The ever-present and permeating universal information that pulsates through us in every moment is filtered and made tangible and available by our senses. Our senses are the direct antecedent of the mysterious entity known as consciousness, which also acts in a fractal nature. I strive to focus on noticing the different levels of my awareness in order to come into touch with my thought stream and its impact on my direct experience of the world.
As I understand my experiences there exists what I will call a primary level of being. It consists of the direct experience of the universal vibration surrounding us and entails complete receptivity outside of thought. This state is most organically accessed through meditation, through the stripping of all thoughts and the surrendering to the eternal moment and the infinite energy contained within one’s organism. This primary and organic level of being forms the foundation for a cascading waterfall of possible states of awareness.
Beyond the world of energy and information, there exists a secondary level which is made up of the thoughts that course through the mind. These thoughts are very much the result of years of conditioning and life experience. They are the highly present and easily overlooked mental chatter that determine to an enormous degree the nature of our reality, the way we frame the information containing energy around us. They are the librettos which we constantly write attempting to make sense of our experiences.
On the next level, there are interpretations of the thoughts that arise out of our experiences. Being present in our body and mind enables us to take a birds eye view of our thought stream, of the very entity that is determining our reality. These interpretations are no less real than the secondary level of thought as they lead to new ideas, new insights and a renewed and intimate relationship with our own mind. We can be mindful of our own thoughts, which is to say understand where they arose from, what stemmed their arising and what significance their origins hold.
Moving to another level of awareness, we can write these thoughts down or subject them to further pondering. This continued filtering of cognition and experience hones and focuses the thought stream to a new level and provides a fresh way to gain insight on our surroundings and on ourselves. This practice is an amazing tool to come into an intimate understanding of our disposition and thought stream. From this level, the fractal begins to become evident. Through practice, we essentially expand the awareness of our awareness. Our new insights can again be put through the same cascade of consciousness to the point where, as I am doing right now, we are writing about writing about thinking about thinking….etc. We write mental meta-programs for our learned awarenesses there by allowing room for new energies and rubrics to flourish. Every moment, every event and every thought can be mulled over and made sense of within the framework of existence using the conceptual hall-of-mirrors known as awareness. This meta-cognition is highly expandable and extremely useful for getting in touch with our subconscious.
The focus of meditation is to gain insight on the nature of existence, to come into union with the primary information energy passing through us and to learn how to use it to our advantage. It teaches us how to be completely present in each moment of our lives. The act of sitting in silence and paying attention only to breath gives rise to an intimate experience of the primary level of being. The breath is the only bodily function that is both consciously and subconsciously undertaken, therefore mindfully existing with it provides a gateway to contact the intuitive latent higher self. For most of us though, silencing the mind which has been influenced by years of bombarding advertisements, busy lives and constant stimulus is very hard. Through practice we can learn to take the stairwell to the higher self which allows us to observe our mental chatter and dismiss it along with each passing breath.
The practice of letting go and being one with the permeating energy effectively allows us to take a seat in the base of our soul. When we are truly in touch with ourselves and recognize the universal presence within each atom of our body there is no indecisiveness and no confusion. We are able to understand the cosmic significance behind each event we experience. The difficult and the easy, the good and the bad become visible as two sides of the same coin of existence. When we can glide through each and every situation with the grace of flowing water we can find complete and utter contentment. We find ourselves in union with all that is and all that will be. In order for us to accomplish this, we must rise above the mindless chatter and focus on the primary level of being where all that exists is the present moment, the present breath and loving grace. We must also exercise the meta level of expansive questioning and insight to develop our ability to come into the infinite nature of our cognition and its promise in creating a new possibility of conscious evolution.
Our intention holds the ability to overcome some of the physical limitations of life. We have evolved to a point where we are aware of our awareness and can use it as a tool much like our ancestors used modified pieces of nature to descend from the trees and become the beings we are today. Currently, as affluent homo sapiens existing in 21st century life, we have overcome our need to exist on a fight or flight basis. Through yogic asana practices we can actively engage our ability to elude the physical and mental yearning to escape strenuousness in practice and in life. We can begin to learn how to operate from a loving place where the well being of all things is sacrosanct. Our own mental facilities become the next tool to be harnessed in the evolution of our species. Instead of developing new physical ways to adapt to our environment, we can mindfully adapt our culture and our cognition to better our ability to relate to each other and to the universe.
The highly subjective nature of reality as proved by modern physics enables us to use our intention and awareness to shape reality. We do away with the multi-generational prescriptions of growth and are able to take quantum leaps in evolutionary change. We can literally adapt our genes through mindful action. We solidify the paradigm of mind over matter and realize the true nature of the interaction between nature and nurture. This direct puppeteering of our evolutionary growth is beyond exciting and paves the way for a new existence when, as Saul Williams foresees, ‘sayings like out of the blue will reveal their hidden origin.’ When there is little need for a continuing physical adaptation to environment we are able to focus our energy on the evolution of our ability to love and to see ourselves in each other. Unexplainable situations, events that transpire outside of our capacity to explain, and beauty that exists independent of our current reason become the framework of life.
The endless and disorganized thoughts of the unexamined secondary level of being beg to keep us slaves to our conditioning, to the past and to the shortfalls we see in ourselves. Some believe that the choices and decisions that we make along the journey of life are completely tied to and determined by previous experience and conditioning. These deterministic rubrics of existence leave no room for free will in our choices. However, if we can use meditation, yoga practices and insight to center ourselves, understand our past experience and come into touch with the infinite than we can make decisions based upon what we want to make of the world instead what the world wants to make of us. When we shed the chatter we understand the effect of the conditioning and we do away with the predestined story of our lives that is seemingly outside of our control.
As everyone has experienced, story has an incredible ability to transport its audience into a knowing and understanding role in the discernment of the significance of its events. Clear cognizance is engendered by a captivating book or movie, cognizance about why each event in the story took place and what significance each had on the whole. It sheds divine light on situations and interactions so that the audience gains a heightened state of observation and a greater ability to distinguish the gravity and importance of events. Essentially the viewer/reader is taken directly into the role of the observant godhead.
In our own day to day lives we are constantly writing the narratives of our existence. Reality and language are undeniably entangled and often times people walk around unaware of the nature of their inner language while allowing their apparent shortcomings, disappointments and fears to take the authoring role in their realities. When we can come into union with ourselves and our environment through the yoga of being present and mindful in the here and now, we are empowered and our intuition becomes extremely focused. Every uncomfortable thought or situation that we experience and are mindfully able to confront, accept and discern meaning from allows us to further sort through the garbles of our minds which only serve to keep us confused and ignorant. Our secondary level of cognition starts to become more and more based upon a deep and holistic comprehension of ourselves and our world. Experiences manifest synchronistically and stem directly from intention. Signals and signs make themselves evident. We gain a prescient view from the higher self and are essentially able to become the authors of our own lives. We cease to exist in the past and the present and begin to shape the eternal moment into an artwork of our choosing. We are able to execute actions based upon our own free will and in resonance with a great understanding of the nature or our situation and the interconnected relationship we share each other and the entire biosphere. In every moment, in every decision and in every passing thought we know that, without fail, all we do has cosmic significance in the drama of the universe and the collective consciousness that is constantly shaping it. Instead of eternally trying to grasp the fleeting mystery of life we become one with it and flow through it like water flows down a river. We dance, we sing and we smile like the Buddha, all the while enjoying each trickle of time down the cascade of life.
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