Today, the term meditation is used to denote a broad range of techniques that are designed to promote a wide variety of positive things such as relaxation, compassion, love, patience, generosity, and forgiveness. Many of these techniques are contemporary in origin, and only superficially (perhaps even not at all) consider the intent of the meditation techniques originally described in ancient eastern texts.
The meditations described in these ancient eastern texts were exclusively focused on techniques that enabled an individual to induce a new mode of transcendental consciousness that is different from the three commonly known states of consciousness; waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. There are two different approaches that can be taken to induce this transcendental consciousness.
One approach is based on trying to consciously control the mind to move in directions that eventually cause it to experience the desired silence and the peace associated with meditation. This control can vary between 1) relatively gentle suggestion of imagining a peaceful place and entertaining soothing thoughts to 2) forcefully trying to control and silence the mind. These forceful control techniques are very difficult to perform, and the efficacy of the gentle suggestions is questioned by many.
The other approach is to entice silence in the mind by giving it what it wants. In this approach, a transcendental state of consciousness is induced by mental repetition of a mantra without forcefully trying to exclude other thoughts. Rather, the mantra is favored over the other thoughts when these other thoughts are noticed. This simple focus on the mantra causes the mind to be immersed in transcendental consciousness.
Repeated immersion in transcendental consciousness through regular practice of meditation enables the practitioner to stimulate an internal energy (aka life force) which is capable of promoting the relaxation, compassion, love, et al of the simpler contemporary meditation techniques. Additionally, these eastern meditation techniques are believed to enable practitioners to eventually attain a particular higher state of consciousness that enables the practitioner to enjoy an indestructible sense of well-being and all-knowing invincibility while engaging in any ongoing life activity. This collection of higher states of consciousness (three in total are described) is known as enlightenment.
It is easy but also very naive to believe the practice of meditation and pursuit of enlightenment is going to be simple and straightforward. That is frequently the understanding implied (perhaps even out right stated) by meditation instructors. While it is true that the actually process of meditation is simple and straightforward to do, the process of integrating regular meditation into a lifestyle and sticking to it for the decades required is not. Additionally, this regular meditation practice creates and sustains a cascading series of changes (so very many changes) as the transformation from regular to enlightened person is taking place, and some of these changes can at times be somewhat unsettling and difficult to integrate.
Meditation is a Powerful Thing
These mantra based techniques are simple to learn and easy to do, and there are positive results that start to appear almost immediately. It all seems relatively benign, but in reality, any type of meditation that is capable of inducing the transcendental consciousness is a powerful, life altering technique that is going to profoundly (albeit slowly) change someone, mentally and physically.
The transcendental consciousness activates the self-cleaning mechanisms that naturally exist pre-programmed in the mind. Using these self-cleaning mechanisms is relatively effortless, but the cleaning process stirs up the things being cleaned. If your meditation practice is simply to improve the immediate quality of life and to enable more joy in your life experience. You might not experience any unpleasant consequences from a very slow cleaning process of your slow steady spiritual development.
If on the other hand, your goal is to reach spiritual enlightenment you will likely be pushing the techniques with approaches like rounding. Rounding is industrial strength meditation where things like increased numbers of meditation per day are used to accelerate the process of spiritual growth. Additionally, there are advanced techniques that you will most likely pursue to further speed things along. Accelerated spiritual growth brings with it a much greater likelihood of discomfort that can in some cases be escalated to full blown panic attacks.
The source of this discomfort can be traced into the three different aspects of the spiritual cleaning process of purging, transitions, and witnessing.
Purging
Everyone's mind is cluttered with innumerable recollections of and the associated impressions left by past experiences in their lives. Certainly, these recollections and impressions exist for everything in this life, but when the transmigration of consciousness is considered, they exist for everything in every other lifetime too. The impressions left by these past experiences impose considerable impact on one's current actions through the endless cycle of desire, action, and impression illustrated in figure below.
As consciousness is stimulated by something in the environment, it automatically draws from its vast stores of past impressions. These past impressions are factored into the analysis of this new stimulus to formulate the action plan that will be executed. In effect, the past is strongly shaping our actions in the present and this shaping is not always in a positive way. If it is possible to understand and control these past impression driven knee jerk reactions, we can be freed from the bondage of our past impressions in our present actions.
There are two level of understanding the endless cycle of action. At the simplest level, it can be understood intellectually. Understanding the existence of the mechanism that drive us to action is helpful in developing strategy to remediate the possible negative impacts, but there is a deeper understanding that actually helps us rise above this cycle of action. Coming to know this cycle from the direct experience of consciousness can actually create a situation where our present actions are not dictated by past impressions because over time the practice of direct experience of consciousness actually minimizes the significance all these past impressions.
The cleansing process stimulated by immersion in transcendental consciousness actually removes these past life impressions. Over time, past life experience still exist in memory, but the nature of the memory's impression is changed. The recollection of the nature of the impression remains (i.e. was it a good or a bad experience), but the significance of the impression that previously enabled it to impact actions in the present no longer exists.
These past impression are like bubbles embedded in consciousness which contain the specific feelings that were generated as a result of some previous action in your life. The transcendental cleansing process is akin to the popping of these bubbles releasing these trapped feelings and the hold they have on future actions by eliminating them from the cycle of desire, action, and impression. There is a tremendous sense of freedom that results from this release that typically won't be realized until the process is largely done.
The exact nature of the process that eliminates these past impression is not really known, but negativity of these past impressions can generate discomfort as they are released from consciousness. The extent and nature of this discomfort will of course depend on the extent and nature of the event that originally created the impression bubble. Many refer to this discomfort as the unstressing.
Meditation starts and perpetuates with regular practice a forward, positive transition in the practitioner. This transition is actually a series of many small micro-bursts of change. These micro-bursts are very small transitions that when taken together appear to be a smooth continuous change over time. Each micro-burst is a single step in a series of progressive disclosures that is the unfolding of enlightenment in intervals that are small enough for the individual to easily assimilate. The gradual nature of this smooth transition makes it largely discomfort free, but there are exceptions.
The evolution of consciousness is a lot like the ascent of an airplane after takeoff. The airplane attempts to make a smooth transition through the air that is more layered than uniformly continuous. These layers in the air are generally the result of different temperatures and other conditions, and in most cases, there is a thin interface of air that develops between the two layers. Frequently, clouds develop in the interface between two adjoining air layers because the layers have slight or considerable differing properties. In these interfaces between air layers, there is a greater opportunity for turbulence to develop. The airplane on its ascent will experience this increased turbulence on passing though this interface between air layers.
Consciousness exists in a similar layered way with interfaces that are more prone to mental and emotional turbulence. When the ordinarily smooth transition of meditation passes through one of these interfaces, there exists the potential for some level of discomfort.
Additionally, there are actually two types of transitions. In addition to the micro-bursts just discussed, there are some transitions that are much more abrupt. A quantum leap transition is a single transition that discontinuously jumps in one single step through the equivalent amount of change as many individual micro-burst type changes. In a quantum leap, the intermediate steps skipped, and the general nature of a quantum leap change can be more unsettling by virtue of the magnitude of the change.
Spiritual enlightenment is reputed to be the ultimate human achievement. As such, it has to be a very special and even spectacular thing. It is described in ancient writings with the usually stated caveat that it is really that which is beyond words. At a minimum, it is the pinnacle of human intellectual and emotional ability, but these ancient descriptions also refer to spiritual abilities and powers that many today believe are not even possible. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjalis describes a number of these powers which include levitation and the ability to read other persons minds. With all this acclaim, enlightenment must be incredible beyond the belief of most.
Those individuals who have assumed the industrial strength approach to meditation in an attempt to reach enlightenment will have glimpses of this incredible beyond belief enlightenment in episodes called witnessing. During one of the episodes of witnessing, the individual will experience some small portion of enlightenment for a brief time. These witnessing episodes are like short preview screening of portions of enlightenment before enlightenment is actually permanently attained. The previews though typically of short duration are very striking and have a dramatic effect on the one who witnesses them.
A very common example of witnessing is something that happens during deep sleep. During a night witnessing episode, the individual will be consciously aware and their body will be noticeably still asleep. When a person goes to sleep, certain body functions automatically shut off. For example, an almost complete paralysis of the body occurs during rapid eye movement sleep. The body hardly moves except for intermittent twitches. It is as thought one's brain is active in a paralyzed body because threshold stimulus required to excite them has been raised. The experience of night witnessing (i.e. being consciously aware in a paralyzed body) is very similar to the clinical described condition sleep paralysis.
Seekers who are not prepared for these witnessing experience can find them somewhat (perhaps even very much) troubling on first encounter. This unsettled feeling is inspired by the incredible enormity of the truly mindbogglingly awesome inner chambers of the mind and beyond.
It is not difficult to scan the internet and find those who have practiced various forms of meditation and its associated transcendental consciousness who are disillusioned and in some case even angry about their experiences. In one instances, the disgruntled former meditator complained about the trouble they experience getting the mantra out of their head saying the process took two years.
Over the course of my evolution, I have seen some dedicated mediators suddenly drop out of the pursuit. In both these cases (i.e. online and personal experience), none of them have ever offered any type of explanation for their sudden abandonment of the pursuit, but it is my conviction that they are the victim of one of these three causes.
Enlightenment is the ultimate goal of all humanity, but it does not come until the process of spiritual evolution is sufficiently advanced. It will eventually come to all when their time is come.
There are two level of understanding the endless cycle of action. At the simplest level, it can be understood intellectually. Understanding the existence of the mechanism that drive us to action is helpful in developing strategy to remediate the possible negative impacts, but there is a deeper understanding that actually helps us rise above this cycle of action. Coming to know this cycle from the direct experience of consciousness can actually create a situation where our present actions are not dictated by past impressions because over time the practice of direct experience of consciousness actually minimizes the significance all these past impressions.
The cleansing process stimulated by immersion in transcendental consciousness actually removes these past life impressions. Over time, past life experience still exist in memory, but the nature of the memory's impression is changed. The recollection of the nature of the impression remains (i.e. was it a good or a bad experience), but the significance of the impression that previously enabled it to impact actions in the present no longer exists.
These past impression are like bubbles embedded in consciousness which contain the specific feelings that were generated as a result of some previous action in your life. The transcendental cleansing process is akin to the popping of these bubbles releasing these trapped feelings and the hold they have on future actions by eliminating them from the cycle of desire, action, and impression. There is a tremendous sense of freedom that results from this release that typically won't be realized until the process is largely done.
The exact nature of the process that eliminates these past impression is not really known, but negativity of these past impressions can generate discomfort as they are released from consciousness. The extent and nature of this discomfort will of course depend on the extent and nature of the event that originally created the impression bubble. Many refer to this discomfort as the unstressing.
Transition
Meditation starts and perpetuates with regular practice a forward, positive transition in the practitioner. This transition is actually a series of many small micro-bursts of change. These micro-bursts are very small transitions that when taken together appear to be a smooth continuous change over time. Each micro-burst is a single step in a series of progressive disclosures that is the unfolding of enlightenment in intervals that are small enough for the individual to easily assimilate. The gradual nature of this smooth transition makes it largely discomfort free, but there are exceptions.
The evolution of consciousness is a lot like the ascent of an airplane after takeoff. The airplane attempts to make a smooth transition through the air that is more layered than uniformly continuous. These layers in the air are generally the result of different temperatures and other conditions, and in most cases, there is a thin interface of air that develops between the two layers. Frequently, clouds develop in the interface between two adjoining air layers because the layers have slight or considerable differing properties. In these interfaces between air layers, there is a greater opportunity for turbulence to develop. The airplane on its ascent will experience this increased turbulence on passing though this interface between air layers.
Consciousness exists in a similar layered way with interfaces that are more prone to mental and emotional turbulence. When the ordinarily smooth transition of meditation passes through one of these interfaces, there exists the potential for some level of discomfort.
Additionally, there are actually two types of transitions. In addition to the micro-bursts just discussed, there are some transitions that are much more abrupt. A quantum leap transition is a single transition that discontinuously jumps in one single step through the equivalent amount of change as many individual micro-burst type changes. In a quantum leap, the intermediate steps skipped, and the general nature of a quantum leap change can be more unsettling by virtue of the magnitude of the change.
Witnessing
Spiritual enlightenment is reputed to be the ultimate human achievement. As such, it has to be a very special and even spectacular thing. It is described in ancient writings with the usually stated caveat that it is really that which is beyond words. At a minimum, it is the pinnacle of human intellectual and emotional ability, but these ancient descriptions also refer to spiritual abilities and powers that many today believe are not even possible. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjalis describes a number of these powers which include levitation and the ability to read other persons minds. With all this acclaim, enlightenment must be incredible beyond the belief of most.
Those individuals who have assumed the industrial strength approach to meditation in an attempt to reach enlightenment will have glimpses of this incredible beyond belief enlightenment in episodes called witnessing. During one of the episodes of witnessing, the individual will experience some small portion of enlightenment for a brief time. These witnessing episodes are like short preview screening of portions of enlightenment before enlightenment is actually permanently attained. The previews though typically of short duration are very striking and have a dramatic effect on the one who witnesses them.
A very common example of witnessing is something that happens during deep sleep. During a night witnessing episode, the individual will be consciously aware and their body will be noticeably still asleep. When a person goes to sleep, certain body functions automatically shut off. For example, an almost complete paralysis of the body occurs during rapid eye movement sleep. The body hardly moves except for intermittent twitches. It is as thought one's brain is active in a paralyzed body because threshold stimulus required to excite them has been raised. The experience of night witnessing (i.e. being consciously aware in a paralyzed body) is very similar to the clinical described condition sleep paralysis.
Seekers who are not prepared for these witnessing experience can find them somewhat (perhaps even very much) troubling on first encounter. This unsettled feeling is inspired by the incredible enormity of the truly mindbogglingly awesome inner chambers of the mind and beyond.
Staying the Course
It is not difficult to scan the internet and find those who have practiced various forms of meditation and its associated transcendental consciousness who are disillusioned and in some case even angry about their experiences. In one instances, the disgruntled former meditator complained about the trouble they experience getting the mantra out of their head saying the process took two years.
Over the course of my evolution, I have seen some dedicated mediators suddenly drop out of the pursuit. In both these cases (i.e. online and personal experience), none of them have ever offered any type of explanation for their sudden abandonment of the pursuit, but it is my conviction that they are the victim of one of these three causes.
Enlightenment is the ultimate goal of all humanity, but it does not come until the process of spiritual evolution is sufficiently advanced. It will eventually come to all when their time is come.
