3- Conscious Experience and the Objectives of Meditation
A MODEL OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
Consciousness consists of whatever we’re experiencing in the moment.
It’s a lot like vision: just as the objects in our field of vision change from one moment to the next,
objects in our field of conscious awareness, like sights, sounds, smells, and other external phenomena, also arise and pass away.
Of course,
this field isn’t just limited to what we perceive with our outer senses.
It also includes internal mental objects, which come in the form of
transitory thoughts, feelings, and memories.
Attention and Peripheral Awareness Conscious experience takes two different forms,
attention and peripheral awareness.
Whenever we focus our attention on something, it dominates our conscious experience.
At the same time, however,
we can be more generally aware of things in the background.
For example, right now your attention is focused on what you’re reading.
At the same time you’re also aware of other sights, sounds, smells, and sensations in the periphery.
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The way attention and peripheral awareness work together
is a lot like the relationship between visual focus and peripheral vision.
Try fixing your eyes on an external object. You will notice that, as you focus on the object,
your peripheral vision takes in other information elsewhere in your field of vision.
You can compare that with your experience of attention and peripheral awareness in daily life,
where you pay attention to some things while remaining peripherally aware of others.
For instance, you may be listening intently to what a person is saying.
At the same time, you’re peripherally aware of the flavor of the tea you’re drinking,
traffic noises in the background, and the pleasant feelings of sitting in a cozy chair.
Just as with vision, we’re more fully conscious of the object in the focus of our attention,
but we remain conscious of the many objects in peripheral awareness as well.
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When we shift our focus, what had been at the center of attention moves to the periphery.
As attention moves from one object to another—from the conversation to the mug of tea
we become more fully conscious of each object in turn,
while remaining peripherally aware of the others.
It’s important to realize attention and peripheral awareness
are two different ways of “knowing” the world.
Each has its virtues as well as its shortcomings.
Attention singles out some small part of the content of the field of conscious awareness
from the rest in order to analyze and interpret it.
On the other hand, peripheral awareness is more holistic, open, and inclusive,
and provides the overall context for conscious experience.
It has more to do with the relationships of objects to one another and to the whole.
In these articles, whenever the term awareness is used, it refers to peripheral awareness.
It never means attention. The distinction between the two is key.
The failure to recognize this distinction creates considerable confusion.
You work with attention and peripheral awareness to cultivate stable attention and mindfulness
the two main objectives of meditation.
In meditation,
we work with both attention and peripheral awareness to cultivate stable attention and mindfulness,
the two main practice objectives of meditation.
THE FIRST OBJECTIVE OF MEDITATION: STABLE ATTENTION
“Concentration” as a concept is rather vague, and in danger of being misinterpreted
or of having meditation students bring their own preconceived ideas to it.
I prefer to use the more accurate and useful term, “stable attention.”
It’s more descriptive of what we’re actually trying to do in meditation.
Stable attention is the ability to direct and sustain the focus of attention,
and control the scope of attention .
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Even though this weighing process isn’t under our conscious control,
we can still influence it through consciously held intentions.
Just by intending to observe an object and to come back whenever we get distracted,
we’re training that unconscious process to help us stay focused more continuously.
It’s a lot like learning to throw darts.
The complex motor skills you need for dart throwing also involve
training an unconscious process using intention and repetition.
By holding the intention to hit the target as you throw the darts,
you train unconscious and involuntary hand – eye coordination
until you can consistently hit the target.
Any information held in consciousness is communicated to the unconscious.
Formulating the conscious intention to focus on the meditation object
provides a new piece of information for unconscious processes to take into account.
Holding this intention, together with returning our attention to the breath over and over
whenever we get distracted, informs the unconscious weighing process
that keeping the focus on the breath is important.
You start throwing mental darts at the target of sustained attention in Stage Two.
By Stage Four,
you have developed a consistent ability to keep your attention on the meditation object.
Attention feels continuous and stable at Stage Four, but
the focus of attention still alternates rapidly between the meditation object and distractions
which we experience as objects that stand out from peripheral awareness.
In order to truly master directed and sustained attention,
we have to overcome this tendency for attention to alternate.
Exclusive attention to one object, also called single – pointedness,
is very different from alternating attention.
Exclusive attention doesn’t move back and forth between distractions
and our intended focus.
In Stages One through Five,
you greatly improve your overall stability of attention,
but you only achieve exclusive attention in Stage Six .
Repeating simple tasks with a clear intention can reprogram unconscious mental processes.
This can completely transform who you are as a person.
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We’ve just described how conscious intention
influences the unconscious mechanisms that sustain attention,
but that’s only the beginning.
Throughout the Stages,
you use conscious intention to train the unconscious mind in a variety of ways.
The correct use of intention can also transform bad habits, undo incorrect views,
and cultivate healthier perspectives.
In short,
skillfully applying conscious intention can completely restructure the mind
and transform who we are.
This is the very essence of meditation:
we reprogram unconscious mental processes
by repeating basic tasks over and over with a clear intention.
When the mindfulness of a samurai warrior fails, he loses his life.
When we lack mindfulness in daily life, something similar happens.
We become so entangled in our own thoughts and emotions that we forget the bigger picture.
Our perspective narrows, and we lose our way.
We do and say regretful things that cause needless suffering to ourselves and others.
Mindfulness allows us to recognize our options, choose our responses wisely,
and take control over the direction of our lives.
It also gives us the power to change our past conditioning
and become the person we want to be.
mindfulness leads to Insight, Wisdom, and Awakening.
But what is mindfulness?
“Mindfulness” is a somewhat unfortunate translation of the Pali word sati
because it suggests being attentive, or remembering to pay attention.
This doesn’t really capture the full meaning and importance of sati.
Even without sati, we’re always paying attention to something.
But with sati,
we pay attention to the right things, and in a more skillful way.
This is because having sati actually means that you’re more fully conscious and alert than normal.
As a result,
our peripheral awareness is much stronger, and our attention is used with
unprecedented precision and objectivity.
A more accurate but clumsy – sounding phrase would be
“powerfully effective conscious awareness,” or “fully conscious awareness.”
I use the word “mindfulness” because people are familiar with it.
However,
by “mindfulness,” I specifically mean
the optimal interaction between attention and peripheral awareness,
which requires increasing the overall conscious power of the mind.
Let’s unpack this definition.
Mindfulness is the optimal interaction between attention and peripheral awareness.
Fortunately, not every experience needs to be analyzed.
Otherwise, attention would be quite overwhelmed.
Peripheral awareness takes care of many things without invoking attention, such as
brushing a fly away from your face while you’re eating lunch.
Attention can certainly be involved with brushing the fly away, as well as with other small things,
like choosing what to eat next on your plate.
But there are simply too many basic tasks that don’t require attention.
Using it for all of them would be impossible.
There are also situations that happen too fast for attention to deal with. For instance,
attention can’t provide the quick, reflexive response of
a mother who stops her child from running into a busy street.
Because peripheral awareness doesn’t process information as thoroughly as attention,
it responds much more quickly.
If peripheral awareness doesn’t do its job,
attention is too easily overwhelmed and too slow to take over these functions.
As a result, we don’t react to these events at all, or
we react to them in a completely unconscious and automatic way
blindly, mindlessly, and with none of the benefits of conscious processing.
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Another way attention and awareness work together is by helping us see things more objectively.
On its own, attention usually involves a strong concern for “self.”
This makes sense, considering that part of attention’s job is to evaluate the importance of things
in terms of our personal well – being. But
it also means that objects of attention can be easily distorted by
desire, fear, aversion, and other emotions.
Attention not only interprets objects based on self – interest,
Peripheral awareness is less “personal” and takes things in more objectively “as they are.”
External objects, feeling states, and mental activities, rather than being identified with,
appear in peripheral awareness as part of a bigger picture.
We may be peripherally aware, for example, that some annoyance is arising.
This is very different from having the thought, “I am annoyed.”
Strong peripheral awareness helps tone down the self – centered tendencies of attention,
making perception more objective.
But when peripheral awareness fades, the way we perceive things becomes
attention and peripheral awareness can be either extrospective or introspective.
Extrospective means that attention or awareness is directed toward objects
that come from outside your mind, such as sights, smells, or bodily sensations .
Introspective means the objects in consciousness are internal
thoughts, feelings, states, and activities of mind.
Even though attention and awareness can be either extrospective or introspective,
only peripheral awareness can observe the overall state of mind
( e.g . , whether it is happy, peaceful, or agitated), as well as the activities of the mind
(e.g . , whether attention is moving or not, and whether attention is occupied with
thinking, remembering, or listening).
The condition in which the mind “stands back” to observe its own state and activities
is called metacognitive introspective awareness.
Attention, on the other hand, can’t observe activities of the mind because
its movements and abstracting of information from awareness are activities of the mind.
In other words, we can’t attend to attention.
When attention is focused on remembering, for example,
you can’t also use attention to know you’re remembering.
But you can be aware that you’re remembering.
Also,
because attention works by isolating objects,
it cannot observe overall states of the mind.
If you do turn your attention introspectively,
it takes a “snapshot” from peripheral awareness of your mental state right before you looked.
Say someone asks, “How do you feel?”
When you look inside, attention tries to transform awareness of your overall mental state into
a specific conceptual thought, like, “ I am happy. ”
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Everything we think, feel , say , or do from one moment to the next
who we are , and how we behave
all ultimately depends on the interactions between attention and awareness.
Mindfulness is the optimum interaction between the two,
so cultivating mindfulness can change everything we think, feel , say , and do for the better .
It can completely transform who we are.
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There are many ways you can lose mindfulness, but they all come down to
not enough conscious power for an optimal interaction between attention and awareness .
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Attention and awareness draw from the same limited capacity for consciousness.
The goal is to increase the total power of consciousness available for both.
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Proper training in mindfulness changes this equation,
providing more conscious power for optimal interaction, and no more trade – offs.
The goal, therefore, is
to increase the total power of consciousness available for both attention and awareness.
The result is peripheral awareness that is clearer, and attention that gets used more appropriately:
purposefully, in the present moment, and without becoming
bogged down in judgment and projection.
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Like strengthening a muscle, developing powerful mindfulness involves
enhancing a natural capacity that we all have.
With this practice, you move steadily away from dullness toward
enhanced states of consciousness that support increased mindfulness .
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The Benefits of Mindfulness
When you have cultivated mindfulness, life becomes richer, more vivid, more satisfying,
and you don’t take everything that happens so personally.
Attention plays a more appropriate role within the greater context of
a broad and powerful awareness.
You’re fully present, happier, and at ease, because you’re not so easily caught up in
the stories and melodramas the mind likes to concoct.
Your powers of attention are used more appropriately and effectively to examine the world.
You become more objective and clear – headed, and develop an enhanced awareness of the whole.
When all these factors are ripe, you’re ready for profound Insight into the true nature of reality.
These are the extraordinary benefits of mindfulness.
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The two main objectives of meditation practice are :
• Developing stable attention .
• Cultivating powerful mindfulness that optimizes the interaction between attention and awareness.
Don’t forget however,
that the Path is as important as the goal.
The Stages outlined in these articles may bring you to a state of peace and Insight,
but they are also an exciting journey of discovery into the nature of the mind.
Relish in this beautiful and sometimes challenging journey.
The goal isn’t just getting to a calm, quiet pool, but
learning about the makeup of the water itself as it goes from
choppy to still, from cloudy to crystal – clear.
This series of articles highlight and focus on the first 3 stages
of the 10 stage process towards the Ultimate goal of Awakening.
I have come to regard these first three stages as outlined by
Neuro Scientist John Yates… AKA Culadasa
to be the most useful way to learn how to meditate
for Ultimate goal of meditation.
With his neuro science along with his psychology background and lifelong Buddhist Practice,
he has the unique qualifications to bring together the complete Spiritual Path together
in the most thorough way.
This subject has many different traditions and perspectives that for the most part
evolved separately in various locations around the world, and yet,
they all point toward the very same outcome…
Attaining the highest form of human consciousness possible, with names such as…
Enlightened, Awakening, Self-Realized… that all offer the Ultimate goal and Fruition of…
Liberation of pain and suffering.
Beyond these first 3 stages is beyond the scope of what I can effectively share,
but for those so inspired… This book is a must read:
The Mind Illuminated:
A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science
for Greater Mindfulness
by – John Yates; Matthew Immergut; Jeremy Graves