Thinning the Mind

Among the first steps we can take to regain the sovereign topography of our own minds is to thin the volume of content generated by our minds

By simply reducing the amount of content our minds experience, we can effectively alter how we experience the world.  

Less mental volume produces a more peaceful consciousness.  It also offers a quality of clarity and lack of general busy-ness that provides a more positive environment for making decisions and choices.

In time, reducing the mind's volume of content will allow the aspirant to enjoy a simple, natural form of meditative experience.  He will discover the capability to sit for long periods of time and enjoy effortless silent stillness.
Along with this deepening experience of "no-mind," the meditator will emerge from meditation with a subtle, yet profound and serene joyfulness.  She will discover that she is happy for no other reason than just being alive.

He will also begin to recognize that mental content--no matter what variety or degree of emotional significance--may not, in fact, be the true ground for his personal consciousness.  She may begin to recognize that all mental content, marvelous as it can often be, is simply the creative and repetitive impatterning of energy.   

Energy, matter, is the substance of our being.  However, when we begin to quiet our minds and relax our bodies, we may begin to comprehend that all energy emerges from a single unbroken frequency that is the Mother of all creation.  In the tantric tradition, she is often referred to as Kundalini. 

When our minds become sufficiently quiet, we may perceive a single primordial frequency.  Ancient meditators recognized that a very still and quiet mind is able to hear a subtle tone.  This subtle tone was named OM.  The source of the OM is the experience of a frequency of vibration so subtle and pure that only when the mind and body begin to surrender all other tensions and distractions can it be perceived.

When the quiet, meditative mind listens intently only to this OM, soon the relaxed body will begin to feel a profound resonance.  The sensation is as though one's body were a single, taut string on an instrument.  When the OM fills one's consciousness, it feels as though a divine hand is drawing a bow across this single strand.  This ecstatic vibration resonates throughout one's being. One cannot emerge from this quality of meditative experience without being transformed.  It is an unforgettable kind of experience, and one that the meditator will seek to experience again and again until that particular quality of transformation becomes a permanent aspect of one's awareness.

In our next post, we'll discuss some strategies and practices that will assist us achieving greater awareness of the silent ground of our conscious experience.