7. Natural Awareness
This is called bhava pratyaya and it also means mental quietness. I’ve carefully chosen the word natural to depict this level of awareness. When you go beyond even concentration and focus, when you experience total cessation of all mental activity, something profound happens: you experience a complete stillness of the mind – no thoughts, no emotions, no analysis. This leads your mind to its natural state of pure, unimpeded eternal bliss. In this state, your desires and emotions don’t make you restless.
The primary difference between simple blissful awareness (third state) and this one is fluctuation of the consciousness. At the third state, even though you experience bliss, it’s easily disturbed by other thoughts and emotions. In the current state, however, you’ve already gone past subjugation of desire, you’ve already mastered cessation of mental activity. You remain undisturbed.
8. Skillful Awareness
This is called upāya prajñā. In Yajurveda and various Upanishads, upāya means approaching, accompanying, craft, or that by which one reaches one’s aim. But, I like B.K.S Iyengar’s definition of upāya the most, he calls it ‘skilful’. It is insightful to note that skilful awareness has been placed even after blissful and natural awareness. There is a pretty good reason for that. In the first seven states, while the meditator continues to progress, his or her contribution to the world at large is still quite limited.
They are still working towards their own bliss and peace. In the present state, however, it’s not just about them. Skilful awareness means they are able to retain their natural awareness of light and love, yet operate in the world forever helping others. The lives of many great masters, across many cultures, demonstrate exactly that. There are meditators who don’t stop here, they keep going.
They are called ‘supremely intense’. The next state is witnessed by such practitioners.
9. Supreme Awareness
The supremely intense meditator experiences the final state of awareness called para vairagya. It means supreme detachment. If not having desires is better than subjugation of desire then maintaining equanimity in fulfilment or non-fulfilment of desire is the ultimate state. Because, even though desires may well be the primary cause of most suffering, we can’t deny that they have also been at the root of human progress. At a practical level, their value can’t be underestimated. Somewhere someone desired a solution to a certain problem. And they came up with fire, tools, wheel, electricity, phone, airplane, computer and so on. An adept at this stage develops altruistic consciousness remaining unaffected by his or her desires. Firmly established in samadhi or shamata (calm abiding) they go on to dedicate their lives for the welfare of all sentient beings.
Is it necessary that you go through the rigours of meditation to experience supreme detachment? Not really. I chose meditation because its scientific basis appealed to me. There’s another way as Patanajali put it:
Īśvarapranidhānātavā 72
Fluctuations of the consciousness may be restrained by meditating on God and total surrender to him.
If you believe in God, you may still reach a state of supreme detachment by developing a personal relationship with your god and by surrendering to His will. This does raise an important question though: what about an atheist or an agnostic? Well, they have just as much chance, if not more, to live with supreme detachment. Ultimately, it’s not about meditation or belief in some scripture or religion, it’s about flowing with the river of life, it’s about living it with compassion and gratitude. The more elevated you are, the more compassionate you are naturally. A spiritual being, regardless of their religious orientation, automatically develops a selfless concern for the welfare of everyone in our beautiful creation. Such temperament leads to the final state of emancipation – complete liberation.
Knowing what you now know about meditation, there’s only one thing I would like to spell out further. If I can effectively communicate the only practice that matters in meditation, you will overcome all hurdles like a fine stallion jumping across a low barrier. Let me get to the crux of the meditation in as few words as possible.
Mental Exertion and Relaxation
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman served as an advisor to the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. He once addressed the Knesset, the unicameral parliament of Israel. Soon after his speech was over, a Knesset member approached him and said, “In the Talmud, Hillel summarized Judaism in one sentence, ‘What is hateful to you, do not do so to your neighbour: this is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.’ Could you summarize economics in one sentence?”
“Yes,” replied Friedman. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Similarly, if I were to sum up the art of meditation in one sentence, it would be, “Exert when relaxed and relax when exerted.”
Treat your mind with love, care and patience. It is through your mind alone that you reach a state of no-mind. To be mindful, alert, determined, disciplined, you need a sharp mind. You may tame a beast with fear but it will hurt you the first chance it gets. So, we have to tame it with love, compassion, firmness and discipline at the same time. You need to know when to pull up your mind and when to pacify it. This comes with practice and experience. This is the art of alternating between mental exertion and relaxation.
When it comes to the practice of meditation, this is the only thing you have to keep in mind. While meditating, when you feel restless or jittery, practice mental relaxation. Mental relaxation can be practiced by stopping your meditation and just breathing deeply. You could listen to the rhythm of your breath (not if you were actually meditating on breath to begin with, in which case simply stop and settle your gaze at a distant point).
Restlessness is caused by excessive thinking or mental exertion. Sometimes when you try too hard, you may be exerting more than necessary. It is absolutely critical to stop exerting at that time by not trying to renew your concentration. Instead, just stop and breathe.
When your concentration is crisp, your mindfulness fresh and your alertness alive, you experience the best meditation but after a while, it gets tiring for the brain. It often means that rather than letting your mind settle in its natural state, you may have been exerting. You don’t need to paddle a bike that’s going downhill. You just need to know when to apply the brakes.
When your mind is tired from exerting or resting, it leads to loss of clarity. At that time, the mind not only starts drifting away, it actually is unable to detect laziness, sluggishness, loss of vigilance or any other defect. It essentially falls into a slumber and mindfulness is lost. The moment you become aware, practice mental exertion. Mental exertion is basically the act of renewing your vigour and focus. You can visualize a bright light, joyous tweeting of the birds on a warm winter day, gentle breeze, blue sky, anything to lift your mood.