So now we arrive at the fourth stage of this practice. So far we’ve experienced a practice that trains the attention. But to what purpose? Traditions typically answer that we practice meditation in order to clear the way for the arising of certain realizations about the fundamental nature of reality. Can we do so without being encumbered with religious and spiritual dogmas?
Begin by asking: what is it that allows you to be conscious? This bit of matter we call a brain, no? So what is it that has produced this brain? The universe (and, ultimately, Totality — by which we mean both this universe and anything that is not this universe). And what is this brain conscious of if not both itself and the universe, at least locally? That is to say, conscious of some bits of this universe at various levels of abstraction — also known as perception and cognition.
So couldn’t it be said that the universe has created within itself (by whatever means we need not define) something which is conscious of itself? Which is to say, self consciousness? Which is to say: a brain that allows the universe (and, ultimately, Totality) to be conscious of itself, at least locally: some bits of itself at various levels of abstraction?
Are we not, then, each and every one of us, Totality experiencing and knowing itself?
Bring this recognition, this realization, into your daily mediation practice and into as many waking moments as you can, and soon enough it will become more than just words. It will become the reality of you being that which you are.
With the very best wishes to you as you move along your path.
