Freedom from the Known

We are born with a simple, clear, and open awareness. Yet, this pristine consciousness is short lived. As we navigate life, our experiences – linked to external approval or criticism – progressively reduce our scope of consciousness to limited ways of perceiving reality, ingrained habits, and automated reaction patterns.

Unbounded curiosity, exuberance and awe, novelty, and spontaneous creativity give way to the ordinary, known, and mundane. Our lives become conditioned, molded and contracted by the weight of accepted norms and a subtle system of praise and critique. What once seemed expansive and open is replaced by a seemingly “functional” existence, as the natural vitality of an expansive life fades into the background. Join me in discovering how we find our way to home to a natural freedom from the known.

Transcript

                                        Freedom from the Known 

We are born with a simple, clear, and open awareness. Yet, this pristine consciousness is short lived. As we navigate life, our experiences – linked to external approval or criticism – progressively reduce our scope of consciousness to limited ways of perceiving reality, ingrained habits, and automated reaction patterns.

Unbounded curiosity, exuberance and awe, novelty, and spontaneous creativity give way to the ordinary, known, and mundane. Our lives become conditioned, molded and contracted by the weight of accepted norms and a subtle system of praise and critique. What once seemed expansive and open is replaced by a seemingly “functional” existence, as the natural vitality of an expansive life fades into the background.

In Intimations of Immortality poet Wordsworth speaks to us of our original and unconditioned awareness, its presence and eventual loss:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;—

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day.

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Similarly, in Little Gidding T.S. Eliot evokes the return journey to that lost sense of our primal and foundational self:

We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring
 Will be to arrive where we started
 And know the place for the first time.

 That return and the direct experience of who and what we truly are – the freshness of an unobscured presence and awareness – is the great and noble aim of meditation. It seeks to strip away the accumulated and entangled layers of conditioning that veil our inner light, revealing our essential nature once again. Yet unlike a child, as adults we can become aware of our true nature and are capable of living and sustaining it over time.

Deconditioning – the essence of meditation – is a gradual process of undoing decades of habitual patterns and mental contraction. While glimpses of our true nature may arise spontaneously at any moment, they are often fleeting due to the deeply ingrained activity of our conditioned mind which draws us back to our ordinary mind. Meditation practices aid in achieving stability by establishing and practicing a new relationship with ever present mental activity and offering access to our expansive yet obscured awareness.

Through practice, we cultivate a wise understanding of the nature of thoughts, freeing ourselves from attachment to mental appearances. As a result, the mind naturally settles into stillness, revealing our pristine consciousness. In time, this awareness stabilizes and seamlessly integrates into daily life.

We often miss the opportunity to decondition our lives – either because we fail to recognize the limitations of conditioned existence or because we view meditation as merely a tool for relaxation and stress reduction. Too often we stop at these surface-level benefits, neglecting the transformative potential of meditation.

 However our journey is not just about creating a more comfortable existence – rather, it is, as T.S.Eliot suggests, a return to where we began: a state of pristine consciousness, but knowing it for the first time. Knowing is the key. Unlike a child who unknowingly allows the gift of expansive consciousness to slip away, we can recognize, cultivate, and protect it, ensuring that it is not lost again.

The first step in meditation, and for many, the last step, is to calm the overactive mind with what we can call “meditation with support.” We use a focal point and bring our attention to it. This point can be breath, mantra, verbal guidance, walking, or any other activity that nurtures attention and concentration. When we lose awareness of our focus, we gently bring our attention back. Practiced consistently, these methods calm the mind. However, they are only preparation for the deeper stages in meditation.

The second step begins to open the meditation. The approach shifts from focused awareness to an open, observing awareness. We let go of our focus on a specific object and allow awareness to expand naturally. This is an important shift. We gain the insight that, when left unattended and without elaboration, mental activity is fleeting and transient. We discover that if we take no interest in our thoughts, they quickly dissolve on their own, leaving stillness in their wake. A simple Zen proverb illustrates this well: Allow mental activity to enter through the front door of your mind and leave through the back door—without serving it tea! This is the essence of open meditation without support.

The third step in meditation is becoming aware of awareness itself. This may seem a bit strange for two reasons. The first, is that it is a non-dual state in which awareness is aware of itself. The subject and object are the same – awareness. Second, awareness itself does not have the qualities of a “thing.” It has no shape, color, mass, specific location, or contour—yet it’s everywhere all the time, like space. We must learn to recognize and become comfortable with this no-thingness of awareness. In the beginning, we are drawn again and again back into mental activity/objects. We watch this, let the mind return to stillness and then resume awareness observing awareness.

The fourth step is distinct from the first three. It happens spontaneously – when it happens cannot be willed. This movement is the union with awareness itself. Awareness watching awareness dissolves into pure awareness, much like a river merging into the sea. In this state there is oneness, unity, wholeness. When it happens, you will know. There is nothing to do – just rest in the easeful isness, suchness, thatness of the moment. And that, is the return to where we started from, – pristine awareness and presence.

These moments of union and pristine awareness will be brief and transient. You may find yourself dropping back to awareness watching awareness, witnessing awareness, or even an object-based focus on mental activity. Allow your mediation to unfold naturally. Notice when the ego arises – when it becomes frustrated, seeks to control and structure the meditation, or judges the experience. It’s all okay, if you maintain awareness and presence.

With practice, during and after formal meditation, you will develop greater stability and extended periods of presence. It is then that you will come to know truth and essence directly and the gift of seeing all experience as “appareled in celestial light” will be revealed once again. This simple and unconditioned awareness will again become the fabric of your life.