We are meditating, or perhaps just walking on the beach, and WHAM! the insight strikes. Wow! But then what happens? In a millisecond, the interfering mind elbows right in, “WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT WAS THAT?” and our insight evaporates like ephemeral foam on a wave.
If only we could keep that meddlesome, nosy mind away for one more moment, then the insight would remain, and deeper and deeper we would go until there would be that immense flash that shifts our consciousness into glorious new levels.
But not our luck; we can’t even watch our breath for more than a few minutes before the manic mind takes over, let alone expect it to behave itself when a tremendous insight crops up. Our hyper mind must immediately identify the insight and figure it all out, completely destroying the subtly that all insights are.
So, what to do? How can we keep the mind quiet so that these insights can ripen? We can’t use a power play, where when an insight arises we force the mind away, because the one doing the forcing is the very mind itself, laughing at us and our pathetic attempts to quiet it. Let’s face it; our minds are powerful, and not easily tamed.
Okay, let’s try this; the mind gets involved because it is protecting us – that’s the mind’s job, and it performs that job well. If we are about to step on a snake, the moment the mind glimpses the snake our body will involuntarily jump back as a reflex, that’s how fast and efficient our mind is, and in many ways, this keeps us alive.
If this is the case, what chance do we have of ever convincing the mind to just leave us alone during insights - but perform it’s regular efficient job with everything else? Fat chance! It doesn’t work that way. So, what can we do? If we don’t solve this problem, our insights will never have a chance to deepen. Fortunately, there is a way to solve this predicament, and it involves a strict training of the mind.
The “jhana” levels of deep concentration meditation explain it best:
In regular meditation, the mind is still caught up in the busy mind with thoughts gone wild, but at the first level of jhana, there are periods where the thoughts subside temporarily, causing rapture and pleasure to suffuse the body. If an insight is experienced during first jhana, the insight will deepen for a long moment before the mind ruins it, resulting in a shift in consciousness.
At the second level of jhana, thoughts are no longer present at all, only feelings of unification, serenity, and internal confidence. Insights experienced at this level will remain for an extended period of time. One might understand, for example, that an awareness permeates all elements, cells and molecules, and that consciousness is the very protégé of this awareness, and therefore all beings, all things in the universe are connected, with no differentiation in any way at a fundamental level. This insight will remain, and manifest itself as unconditional love.
The third level of jhana involves a pleasurable feeling accompanied by equanimity. When insights arise now, the mind cannot jump on them as it has in the past. Now the mind is subdued, tranquil, and the insights go deeply within the meditator with tremendous shifts in consciousness that alter the meditator’s basic being.
At the fourth level of jhana, there are only equanimity and mindfulness, with a complete absence of pleasure and pain. There is only bright awareness now; the mind is now only a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull and cannot interfere with insights at all. The mediator’s insights now deepen dramatically, particularly when the meditator focuses his or her attention on such things as the body, feelings, consciousness, and truths.
Now the insights come non-stop, and the meditator, no longer encumbered by mind, holds on to none of the insights, and as a result, the insights come faster and faster, and still the meditator lets them all go. Then, one day, the great insight appears momentarily, and the meditator understands, in his or her heart, that they are now free.
So don’t be satisfied with that first insight, regardless of how powerful it is. It is only the beginning of what you truly seek – ultimate freedom. Don’t allow your mind to steal your insights, identify, and label them, or capture them and begin using them for its own purposes. Practice your meditation, calm your mind, and your fear will disappear while your entire life changes and has a new meaning. Now you will understand things that never in your wildest imagination had you ever thought of discovering.
Begin with only a few minutes of meditation each night before retiring. If you do it every night, no matter what, in time you will want to do it more. Then you will be on your way to tremendous insights, and a new life.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
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