| The Insight | | | | thinking about focusing on my breath, I'm seeing |
| The popularity of meditation rises and falls | | | | the idea of breath, and suddenly I realize that I |
| according to the levels of fear, insecurity and | | | | am no longer experiencing my breath directly but |
| uncertainty experienced by any given Human | | | | only paying attention to my thoughts about |
| population. But meditation is not like many other | | | | breath. One awareness is the actual experience of |
| disciplines that are less difficult to master, and | | | | what is going on right here and right now, the |
| what makes it so difficult is found in the very | | | | other is the conceptual experience of a collection |
| nature of meditation itself. So many people are | | | | of words in my mind that form an idea of what is |
| unable to overcome the challenges of this uniquely | | | | going on. The act of realizing that my awareness |
| powerful tool and therefore are unable to take | | | | has shifted from direct experience to an |
| advantage of its powerful benefits, that I thought | | | | intellectual construct is called mindfulness and is |
| a little insight into the basics of all meditation | | | | the all important recognition of the subtle shift of |
| techniques might help. | | | | attention. |
| | | | What, Where and When Am I? |
| The Subtle Shift | | | | The reason I call it the subtle shift is, well, it's so |
| This awareness is a very different kind of | | | | subtle that a beginning meditator doesn't notice |
| awareness, or perhaps more precisely, a different | | | | that their attention has shifted away from the |
| level of awareness. It is the illusive nature of this | | | | here and now. This changes in time, as we begin |
| awareness that has resulted in so many people | | | | to develop our mindfulness, that unattached |
| giving up on meditation before they begin to | | | | observer that does not respond to the random |
| realize any benefits. They are simply not prepared | | | | thoughts of the mind but only notices them arise |
| for the alien reality that is native to meditation. | | | | and fall from awareness. Not all thoughts are |
| And this is the irony of the world according to | | | | meaningless, some of the thoughts that bubble up |
| meditation. That alien reality that we are not | | | | from our unconscious mind are about issues that |
| prepared for, is actually the real world, reality as it | | | | we needed to become aware of in order to deal |
| truly is. The question is; if that is the real world, | | | | with them once and for all. But still, we don't get |
| what world are we living in? Which is the question | | | | involved emotionally or intellectually, we don't let |
| and the need that we turn to meditation to solve | | | | the tyranny of our random thoughts take us to |
| in the first place; the need to see the world as it | | | | the past or future or some abstract imaginary |
| truly is, rather than our conceptualized versions of | | | | reality. |
| reality. | | | | Eventually, with practice, we develop the mental |
| This brings us to what I call the subtle shift. And | | | | discipline and mindfulness necessary to allow us to |
| this is where most people succeed or fail at | | | | be aware of the activity of our mind and what |
| meditation. The subtle shift is the shift of our | | | | our thoughts are about, where our thoughts are |
| attention from one reality to another, one level of | | | | about, when our thoughts are about, as they are |
| awareness to another, one state of | | | | about. When this occurs, we begin to see what is |
| consciousness to another. Most meditation | | | | real and what is not, we begin to see reality as it |
| techniques require that we sit motionless and try | | | | truly is, when it truly is, where it truly is. More |
| to focus our attention on some object or | | | | than any other discipline, meditation requires the |
| condition. Let's take the vipassana technique which | | | | investment of patience, commitment and |
| focuses on the breath. There I sit focused on the | | | | perseverance, but the return on these |
| experience of breathing, I feel the air passing | | | | investments can be huge in both the spiritual and |
| across the entrance of my nose as it comes in | | | | material worlds. |
| and goes out. But then something happens, I'm | | | | |