“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”  ― Voltaire

 

Introspection is looking inside and viewing our own mental processes. In essence it’s the individual mind looking at and investigating itself. This is an intentional process of thought and analysis, with the mind, memory, and cognitive processes actively engaged. When engaged in introspection the mind is asked to monitor itself, watch the processes of thought, images, and feelings in order to better understand the self.

 

This is in contrast to contemplative practices which for the most part attempt to reduce thought and mental activity and quiet the mind. This is a process of attempting to disengage the mind, to reduce active thought and internal speech, and to lose the self. Both contemplative practices and introspection look deeply within but differ greatly in how they’re experiencing the internal state.

 

In contemplative practices there’s an attempt to observe experience while disengaging the mind. This then raises the issue that if the mind is disengaged then what is observing experience? If it’s not the mind, then what is? It is sometimes termed awareness, but that only labels it and doesn’t help us to grasp any better what it actually is.

 

There’s an internal presence or spirit that seems to be aware of experience. It’s easy to miss as it’s always there and always has been there. So, it’s easy to take it for granted and ignore it. But, when engaged in contemplative practice its presence is revealed by the removal of the mental process that normally obscure it. We seem to become aware of awareness itself. But, how? How does a watcher watch a watcher? We feel its presence but how does presence reveal itself?

 

In a sense when engaged in deep contemplative practice we appear to be trying to engage the same thing that’s perceiving experience at perceiving itself. We’re attempting to look with what is looking. It’s like trying to turn the eyeball around to look at itself or trying to have the ear hear itself.

 

Experience itself reveals the experiencer. We see things rising up and falling away constantly changing. But, you can’t see change when you’re the thing that is changing. The earth moves through the universe, changing position constantly with respect of other celestial bodies. But, we are unaware of its movement since we’re moving with it. To see the earth moving we need to be standing on a different platform. Similarly, in order to experience that experience is changing we need to be on a different platform. That different platform for our ongoing ever changing experience is the presence, the spirit, the awareness.

 

Like not seeing the movement of the moving earth that we’re on it, we can’t see the platform of awareness that we are on. It is where we’re seeing from and so can’t be seen. As a result, it seems a complete mystery. But, we know it’s there because we are aware of experiences. Like becoming aware of the earths movements by seeing other celestial bodies seeming to be moving, we can become aware of awareness itself by viewing the ever changing experiences that it is aware of.

 

When we look deeply at our experiences they appear to be rising and falling away from nothing into nothing. A sound arises from nothing. A sight arises from darkness. An odor arises from emptiness. This is why many seers use the expression that it’s a void, that awareness is a void with infinite potential; a potential to have anything appear or disappear. Could it be that it only seems that way because we can’t see what’s seeing, after all to the ear, the ear is invisible and to the eye, the eye is invisible.

 

Once we have experienced what’s experiencing and we accept the mystery of it, we can experience awe at the miracle of being, at the amazing gift of our presence, and at our truest deepest nature.

 

So, be aware of the awareness and revel in its mystery.

 

“Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” ― Osho

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies