Involution: The Secret to Surviving and Thriving in 2021
Law of the One Series: The Four Meditations
If 2020 was the year of the great revealing, things coming into focus, and all the turmoil and stress that brings, then what will be the overarching theme of 2021, and how can we not only stay healthy and survive it, but thrive through these global societal transformations?
Perhaps the secret lies not in changing the outer world — bringing things ‘back to normal’, ‘back to the way things were before’ the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps the secret lies not in trying to change the outer world at all, but in our experience of it.
We may not feel that we can change what is happening in the world, or the direction it is going, and that can leave a lot of people feeling powerless, impotent, ineffective, or unimportant. However, we can determine how we respond to the world around us in each moment, and this has the opposite effect, allowing us to feel in control, competent, and effective — even important ;-) . Every day, we are presented with more evidence that the universe, and our experience if it, is responsive, sensitive to our consciousness interacting with it. The observor’s paradox. Every day we discover more evidence that the universal machine operates with the same principles, dynamics, and processes on all scales of creation, (the branching of trees, rivers, and blood vessels, or the dynamics of galaxies, hurricanes, and water flowing down drains.). It’s all the same math, same physics, same song.
Often, the unconscious person allows the experience to override the experiencer, forgetting that the entire purpose of the experience, is to have it, witness it, discover more of ourself and the Universe, through it. What matters most in every experience is the same — the opportunity to awaken more within it.
Come on a journey with me.
Meditation 1: Breathe
For every state of being, mind, and emotion, there is an associated breathing pattern
Earlier in my life I would share the importance of breathing, using two primary examples:
1) I would describe how the diaphragm is a unique muscle innervated by the autonomic nervous system, and also completely controllable with conscious intent. All day and all night the body breathes just fine on its own, whether we are paying attention to it or not. But we can also take total control over that muscle, changing our breath with our awareness and intent, even stopping it for long periods. As such, the diaphragm, and the act of breathing, is the doorway to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the autonomic and the somatic, the conscious and unconscious states of being.
2) I would also describe that for every state of being, every state of mind and emotional activity, there is an associated breathing pattern. The patterns in the nervous system and consciousness are developed over the course of our lives, based on our responses to “environmental conditions”. These could be internal or external. The brain doesn’t really know the difference between “physical reality” and dream, daydream, or “thought” reality. The brain creates patterns, just as it experiences all the patterns of natural and human dynamics. In order to survive, it labels and categorizes every experience as good/bad, threat/no threat, and the nervous system reacts accordingly. When we see a pattern happening that is similar to something we experienced in the past, we are now more prepared for it, and our bodies and subconscious mind, attempt to predict future experiences, outcomes, and therefore we react physiologically “subconsciously”, without conscious thought or choice. The breathing patterns are important because by paying more attention to the breathing, we can change how we breathe to determine how we want to feel, and therefore consciously determine how we will respond to the environment/experience we are having. Unconscious breathing is connected to the subconscious and autonomic nervous system’s involuntary responses. Conscious breathing connects us to more awareness itself, and the somatic, voluntary responses in the body, shifting energy from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system. Result: we calm down and feel more in control.
The breath is so important because it gives us a doorway into our own subconscious, therefore bringing it into conscious awareness (self-realization), and also allowing us to be self-determined, (self-actualization).
The act of conscious breathing breaks the unconscious patterns of reactivity to the environment and offers us the ability to control our inner physiological landscape, regardless of what input there is from the environment.
Working with consciousness usually starts through attention to breathing and posture, and then movement, learning to abide in the awareness of being aware, through all experience. Learning to witness and control our breathing, both the rhythm, speed, and depth, we discover, and subsequently gain control of our physiology, mind-state, emotions, and totality of experience. More awareness of our physical posture and movement, allows us to gain more control over our entire state of being and how we move and respond to the world in each moment — the embodied presence.
Through this practice, I discovered that using the body’s wisdom and internal circuitry, we can reprogram it with conscious awareness and intention. The body under extreme stress, or in fear, or just exhausted, has no time or energy to divert to paying attention to breathing. Therefore, unconscious breathing is connected to these types of experiences — fear, anxiety, tension, fatigue. Conscious breathing, on the other hand, is connected to states of being on the other end of the spectrum — calm, contentedness, peace, trust, gratitude, and love.
If you have time and energy to devote to “paying attention”, to directing your attention to your own breath rising and falling, the message is sent to your body that, “We are ok. There’s no threat. We can relax.” The simple act of redirecting awareness to mindfully, consciously breathing, has this immense calming effect on the body.
Practice:
Try it. Breathe. Take a slow conscious breath. Did you notice the shift in your awareness? Like a light switch gets flipped in the brain. Do you feel your body more intimately? Are you more present? Are you more connected to the momentary experience? See if you can keep breathing slowly while you read the rest of this article.
Now breathe in slowly and deliberately again, and this time pause at the top of the breathe. It doesn’t matter how deep you breathe in, just pause for 3–5 seconds before breathing out. Notice what happens as you slow everything down. Pause again at the bottom of the breath, before breathing in. Again, watch what happens. Time itself slows. The heart beats, awareness grows. This witnessing is the root of mindfulness. As it deepens and lengthens, it becomes the most powerful tool in the toolbox of consciousness evolution. This is the first level of the practice. It is also the highest level of the practice. It is true. In the most expanded, divinely unified state of consciousness, the highest level of Samadhi, complete dissolution and union with all that is, consciousness melts into itself through its own inward gazing, until it finds complete union. In that state there is no doer, and nothing to be done. All is pure Being.
Meditation 2: Look
There is a different state of being associated with every position your eye finds itself in.
The breath is not alone in this experience of being. There is an even more delicate and sensitive process of awareness that can be experienced. That is the eyes.
The eyes are not connected to the brain. The eyes are an outgrowth of the brain itself. Everywhere the eye goes, the brain’s attention is directed, and the mind follows, whether your eyes are open or closed. The eyes direct the activity of mind, and where they land and rest, is determined by internal value systems, perception of value, beliefs, and attachments and importance. Just as we can slow down the breath and slow down the nervous system, we can slow down the movement of the eyes, and learn to look consciously through them, direct them intentionally, and in so doing, learn to regulate and inform our own consciousness, mind, and biological system.
These are the first two important lessons in the eyes:
1) Everywhere you look, your consciousness is slightly different, and has a different focus.
2) Eyes can be used to look inward, activating inner-reflection, interaction with self — thought and memory — or they can be used to look outward, activating outer reflection and interaction with ‘other’.
The focus of the eyes has everything to do with our state of consciousness. The more focused our attention on one thing, the less we take in the whole. The more stress we experience in the body, the more we tend to focus on details and particulars, and less on the bigger picture. If you are looking through a more diffused focus, or peripherally, you are engaging more of your subconscious / super-conscious. The next time you find yourself deep in thought, daydreaming, or “unconscious”, you may not be focused on anything at all, though your eyes are still. That state of your mind is associated with unfocused seeing, because your mind is elsewhere, not consciously looking through the eyes at all. You may be scanning your memory, or having a conversation with yourself, or in a full-blown dream scenario. If you focus your awareness on the act of seeing consciously, of ‘Looking’, with full Presence behind your eyes, and focus on one spot, you can breathe and stay centered in active looking, and become fully aware in the moment. Then you can unfocus your eyes and allow yourself to look at all points in front and to the sides of you simultaneously. This sends the relaxation message to the central nervous system. See if you can feel the shift in consciousness, and the shift in energy in your nervous system and brain when you do this.
Your eyes will go to a new spot with a new thought. They will go to a new spot to retrieve a certain memory, or to access a certain feeling. Each place they go, is connected to signals in the eye muscles, the face, the optic nerve, areas of the brain responsible for memory and association, and the entire central nervous system.
Practice:
Here is a little meditation that’s quite simple and fun. When you are done reading this paragraph, pick a point in front of you and look at it. It doesn’t matter where your eyes fall. Hold your gaze and don’t look anywhere else. Now, holding the eyes fixed, become more aware of who is looking. Become the consciousness looking out through your own eyeballs. Feel your eyeballs like windows you are peering through. Feel your consciousness behind them, behind your eyes, actively, deliberately looking through them. Whether open or closed, your eyes are the windows with which you perceive the world through the medium of light and darkness.
Now that you have become more aware of yourself looking at that spot, move your eyes to focus on a new spot in front of you. Notice again, being the awareness behind your eyes. Become aware of who is looking. Did you feel the change from a moment ago, looking at the first spot? Did you feel a subtle shift, when you moved your eyes? It can be very subtle, but each place you rest your eyes, is a new state of energy and consciousness, a new opportunity to experience this unique moment of awareness, this configuration of energy, the song the universe is singing.
Meditation 3: Listen
Listen intently, and feel through the ears, the liberation of consciousness.
Practice:
Start by feeling your ears on both sides of your head. As your awareness moves from your eyes to your ears, many people notice a shift in perception, as though the world just came more into focus, or consciousness just expanded out to the sides in an experience of a new dimensional awareness. And it’s true! Instead of focusing only on what is in front of you, relative to the focus of the eyes, now awareness is also extending out the sides of the body, listening through our opened, receptive ears. Our consciousness expands accordingly.
Feel your ears more and more. Move them around if you can, to get in touch with them. Feel them with your mind. From the inside. Listen consciously. Hearing is passive. Listening is active. To listen, you have to be there, receiving the sound. The more you listen, the more you can hear. In fact there is no limit to what you can hear if you start paying attention to it. Like any muscle, it can be exercised, strengthened, honed, and made more sensitive.
Hold this awareness in your ears, consciously listening and feeling through them. Active listening, like active looking, is the embodied consciousness, receiving information/stimuli with self-perception, simultaneously looking inward as it receives input and information from the environment.
Slowly, we are building a system of perceptual awareness that will allow us to be both the experience and the experiencer at the same time. We are training the consciousness to be more than it was before, to be more aware than it was before, to be the central repository for all of this information simultaneously flowing into us, as we are also aware of the consciousness that is receiving the information, and any reactions there are to it.
Meditation 4: FEEL
Your face is the mask you are wearing. Your entire body has become a suit you have put on.
The fourth level of awareness, after breathing, seeing, and listening, is feeling. Feeling the body consciously from the inside brings consciousness even deeper into embodiment. Many times we feel the body only through pain, or pleasure, and the rest of the time we don’t feel it at all, prioritizing other experience. Consciously feeling the body without stimulation, without pain, without pleasure, just in stillness, brings incredible peace, power, and bliss. Once you have a sense of the body’s vibration and energy in complete stillness, practice feeling this sensation with slow movement, like walking meditation, tai chi, chi qong, or yoga. With this inner awareness, the bliss experienced in stillness can carry over into all activity.
Practice:
Sit or lie down, and proceed to feel each part of the body with your consciousness. Move through the body until you have rested in all places and connected your consciousness to them. Sometimes it helps to breathe into each area and consciously tense and relax it. Now, feel the entire body at once. Feel the vibration in the hands and feet at the same time. Without stopping your awareness of these sensations, feel everywhere in between. Feel your face, your head and neck, your back chest, stomach, hips, legs and feet. Feel everything at once. If you are still, gently breathing, looking consciously within, you can feel the pulsations, the scintillating vibrations of life moving through your nervous system. Sit or lie very still, and you will notice some very amazing things.
Now you have the four meditations: Breath, Look, Listen, and Feel.
The next thing to do is unify them. Expand your consciousness to be able to experience all four off these experiences at the same time. I will leave you to your own experience with this tip: Consciousness becomes coherent, as the energy of the body, its energetic field (biofield), the vibrations of the ear, the eye, and the entire nervous system, all become harmonically resonant. When you become aware of the one harmonic song, you are in harmony with the entire universe. Uni-verse = one song.
As we close out 2020 and ring in the new year, we can simultaneously apply these levels of conscious awareness and send a four-fold set of signals to the body, eliciting relaxation, expanded thought, open mindedness, equanimity, balance, and gratitude. Let’s see what effect that has on our collective experience!
For a guided meditation experience of this, visit the LUCID MIND Youtube Channel:
https://youtu.be/c6BfLeT5LjU
