A digest for conscious living
Today was a day of clarity. I was able to do my yoga this morning, but did not have time to meditate before going to the office. I managed to take an hour out of my day around lunch time however to put in my ear plugs and fade into Big Mind.
It was clear to me today, that although meditation is the cornerstone of developing the awakened state, alone, it is not enough to maintain it. After all, what good does it do to be able to “see God” when I am on my meditation cushion, if our habits of mind take over again immediately after I get up? What I am really looking for then, is a kind of applied meditation. To extend the state that one has directly after meditation into our daily lives and hence exact a true transformation of consciousness.
There is a strong parallel I can draw here between spiritual development and violin playing. The mechanics of violin playing are so subtle and complex, that they must be learned at a very early age in order to ever be mastered. These skills are learned at a time when one is hardly conscious that one is learning anything at all- very much like learning a language. By the time one becomes aware of what one is doing, one can already play the instrument. I began playing the violin at the age of 6. Personally, I don’t remember ever not being able to play. I do however remember coming to the realization later in life that not all the violin playing habits that I had learned as a child were good or effective. As I became more advanced, it became apparent that certain fundamentals needed to be “fixed” in order to be able to progress to a higher level. This was far from easy. These habits of playing were so engrained, were learned at such a developmental stage, that I felt powerless to do anything to change them. No matter how much I practiced to improve certain habits, I always seemed to fall back into my old way of playing- particularly when I felt nervous or under pressure. In my mid-twenties, I went to a great Russian teacher who was well known for helping people fine tune aspects of their technique that were weak. He listened to me play, and after complementing me and telling me how talented I was etc. proceeded to dead pan, “Now there are a few things we have to fix which will require you to play nothing but open strings and the simplest of exercises for the next 6 months”. What? Six months! “He must be kidding,” I thought “how am I going to make a living if Im not able to play anything but exercises fit for a 4 year old?” Nevertheless, I trusted him and took the time off that would be necessary.
Only with time did I realize why this period was so necessary for me to successfully adjust my technique. At first it was mind numbingly boring and completely frustrating. “What am I doing wasting my time like this?” I often thought. Slowly however, I began to realize that in order to be able to change my playing, I needed to first become aware of what I was doing in the first place. This was only possible by simplifying my technique to the most essential level and shining the light of scrutiny on what I was doing. After 6 months of doing this kind of work, I slowly began to work my way up to the point that I had been at before. It took about two years before I was really able to enjoy the fruits of the labor I had put in under the tutelage of my teacher. More importantly, what I learned, what I was given, were the tools to understand what it is that I am doing on the violin, so that from that point on, all my work became more effective. The result was a degree of freedom on the instrument that I had never known before and which I continue to cultivate to this day.
The mind works very much in the same way. The components that make up our habitual way of thinking and interacting, with ourselves and the world around us, were also formed long before we ever became aware of who we are. By the time one reaches adulthood, one is leading a life according to a mental paradigm that was constructed during childhood. Eventually, if one has even the slightest sense of discernment, and sensitivity, one realizes that not all habits of thought and action are positive or effective, but because of their deeply engrained nature, changing these habits can be exceedingly difficult. This is why one meditates. Meditation shines the light of consciousness on the the most fundamental of human activities: breathing. By isolating this simple action and scrutinizing it, one eventually becomes aware of what one is really doing when one is simply… being. From that point, one slowly becomes aware of every other layer of thought and activity which eventually build up into the Tower of Babel which is our ego, our identity. By regularly bringing our attention to this level of simplicity, and recognizing brick by brick how the foundations of our thought work and interact, we are able to make the necessary “adjustments” in our life and mind that will grant us the freedom to be able to truly be free in our life.
Goodnight,
Kikta
Awesome post! Thank you!