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"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." Albert Schweitzer |
Those who have a burning desire to develop a deep knowledge, understanding, feeling or action plan need to restructure their minds to achieve their goals in addition to harnessing it with the practice of deep diaphragmatic breathing, visit Harnessing the Iceberg. We need to practice deep contemplation or meditation to develop our minds to meet the challenge. There is no limits to the profundity or difficulty of our goals; we all have natural ability to meet them provided we have the necessary motivation and resolve to persist in a disciplined manner. It is helpful, though not necessary, to begin the process of retructuring the iceberg with a degree of skill in deep breathing as shown in Figure-1.
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Figure-1 shows the level to skill in deep breathing recommended for beginning the practice of meditation or contemplation to trasform the mind for meeting the ultimate personal goal of the practitioner. Notice there is no content of the subconscious popping into consciousness. |
What kind of goals should be targeted for contemplation or meditation? Obviously, those which are not easy to reach in ordinary daily lives; mundane goals will be too trivial for the rigour of the discipline. Ask yourselves big questions to set the goals; no holds barred. The more the challenge in reaching them, better suited they are to daily discipline and stepwise personal development like climbing a very high ladder one step at a time. You may want to crack the secrets of living organisms including yourself, realize the essence of God, realize ultimate reality of the universe, develop the ability of unconditioned love and compassion, solve global problems faced by humanity, serve your country, develop a gizmo to make everyone happy and free of disease, know how matter appeared in the universe, etc.
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Figure-2 shows contemplation or meditation at stage-1. The practice comprises of deep breathing adds a profound and meaningful seed for the mental capacity to cultivate by the restructured mind. This mental seed reaches from the conscious to the unconscious just like a deep breath does, then to the subconscious and then back to the conscious. It successively reshapes the mind as the seed circulates from one domain of mind to the other. Notice there is no content of the subconscious popping into consciousness. |
Figure-2 shows how to proceed from deep breathing to meditation or contemplation. Conscious contemplative input of a profound mental seed of a goal close to the heart of the contemplator in the atmosphere of deep calm induced by deep breathing can make the seed germinate and grow fully restructuring the whole of the mind including all three layers to full feeling and understanding of the essence of the subject in such a way as to transform the way of life of the contemplator to harmonize with the restructured mind. In addition, there is the health and wellness benefits of deep breathing.
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Figure-3 shows meditation at stage-2. Breath becomes subtle and goes background while the mental seed dominates conscious mind. |
As meditation develops, it completely eliminates random interactivity between the sobconscious and the conscious contents ofthe mind at the same time dimming the interactivity between the unconscious and the subconscious.
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Figure-4 shows meditation at stage-3. Breath is totally in the background; it is now the responsibility of the subconscious and the unconscious parts of the mind. The only content of the conscious mind is the mental seed used to restructure the mind as it grows. |
Stage of meditation shown in Figure 4 is marked by one pointed focus of the mind on the object of meditation.
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Figure-5 shows meditation at stage-4. At this stage, even the seed to grow the mind goes in the background as mental effort needed earlier to keep it consciousness becomes unnecessary. |
At the stage shown in Figure 5, little effort is needed to keep te mental seed in consciousness.
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Figure-6 shows the ultimate state to which mind can develop. Both breathing and the seed recede from conscious mind which is left with no content other than consciousness itself. By this stage, the practitioer has already reached the farthest identifiable depth of knowledge, feeling or action of which the seed is capable. At this stage, the practioner realizes the limits of identifiable content of the mind (knowledge, understanding, feeling or action) and unites with consciousness that underlies everything. Then, the practitioner just exists in the awareness of oneness of everything and in total stillness of mind consistent with survival of the body. |
