(📩740 words, a ten-minute read)
We were last seen staring at an apple; an apple that had become the enemy…
The ‘habitual mind’ had objected to our creation of a single-point of focus – the concentration of attention. This was preventing it hopping from one bright thing to another; the usual method of mental existence. Concentration is difficult to master, and requires continuous effort, but it is the key to success in ‘ordinary’ life…
But does that mean it’s the key to success in the seeking of inner states of more peaceful and powerful consciousness?
For those who seek that path to a richer existence, concentration’s purpose is to hold off the butterfly meanderings of our usual attention for just a few moments until something deeper happens, and we form a living link – what rapidly becomes an identity – with a part of us that is hauntingly familiar and attractive.
We do need practice, but if your intent has power, that will happen sooner than you expect. What we’re really seeking is a bubbling sense of warmth…
Our inner, meditative state is experienced as a glowing state of peace and belonging. We have taken ourselves beyond the habitual and reactive grasp of the ego-self, whose fears, anxieties and appetites normally keep us locked into a restricted way of living; one that is actually alien to our true nature. The ego is not a negative thing; it’s a necessary structure that protects us.
But it also numbs us.
Is it any wonder that we are so often sad?
This is simply a journey, whose destination is belonging to another realm of being, one that is focussed on the inner and not the outer. This does not mean we reject the outer ‘ordinary life’; far from it. We return to the outer calmer and with more energy. We also return with a simple sense of ‘fullness’ in life.
For many people, this rediscovered state is the first time they have felt anything genuinely ‘spiritual’, and then we see what spiritual really means.
None of this depends on our outer achievements, material status or cleverness. This inner land is a place we all share. All we have to do is reach for it with conviction and a sense of fun and confidence.
Yes, fun. This deeper-me has that bubbling feeling of joyfulness. No-one’s thumping Bibles in there… And if you find a figure that is, you’ve encountered the psychological superego that usually treats you like a child.
Give it your packed lunch and send it on its way.
It is not an intellectual exercise; it’s simply an exercise in discovering the real us – and coming to see that we have never really understood the fullness inherent in that.
So… let’s be practical. Time to make ‘the apple’ a friend.
Place the ‘apple’ or other chosen object in front of you, where you can look at it in a relaxed way. Don’t strain to concentrate. This needs to feel like a friendly path. Soon, it will.
Your mind will start to chatter, commenting on the facets of your chosen object and going off on tangents of association. Don’t interfere… let it do what it will but watch it at its habitual work and realise that these ‘thoughts’ are just a stream of reactive words; yep, words. Someone’s reading a script and it’s not the deeper level of your-self.
All these words are history. The commentary is entirely made up of bits of the past: judgements, emotions, frustrations, a whole bundle of negative bits. Smile at them and feel them left behind as you note each, then let them fade away, untended.
We don’t need history. What we need is the eternal freshness of the now – the hidden.
The minute you succeed in this, you will feel a smiling detachment from the ‘automaton with words’ that normally constrains your attention – and generates the dullness. You will realise that what you took to be the ‘watcher’ has a real and silent witness beneath it.
In the next post of this series, we will add something essential into the mix: we’ll replace the ‘apple’ with something far closer to us.
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©Stephen Tanham 2024
All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.
Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers a guided inner journey from the state of conscious personality to the awakening of realised personal Self and its world of Being.
There are two blog streams:
(mystically-oriented writing)
and
(general interest, poetry and travel)
Wonderfully descriptive and useful way to connect with being. Thanks Steve.
Thanks, Brad. I’m glad it ‘connected’. 😊