An ancient and authoritative text on meditative awareness. Yoga Vasishtha, states that the wise one, whatever the circumstances of life, remains aware of the movements in the mind.

A moment's reflection will show us that this is indeed a possibility and it points to an important fact. All that we encounter, whether they be physical objects in the material world or their more subtle counterparts seen in introversion or dreams, are witnessed in the mind through the light of awareness. We even, quite commonly, have conversations within ourselves, as though there was one person speaking a particular viewpoint and another listening and then responding with a different one. Consummate actors that we are, we all have a whole legion of personae which we more or less skillfully adopt according to the circumstances and company in which we find ourselves. All these masks of personality are, again, projected through the mind by the same light of awareness.

Just as the Sun that illumines our universe never sets, but only appears to do so because of the movements of the planet, so this light of awareness never sets within our being. It illuminates our experiences by day and our dreams by night. It remains constant even through our deepest sleep. Even when the Sun is obscured by clouds, it is still by its light that we can see the clouds. Similarly when the mind is burdened and "clouded over" by thoughts, it is the light of awareness that enables us to be aware of them. This light of awareness is what distinguishes the "quick" from the dead.

CONSIDER THIS DIAGRAM

BEING/BECOMING
Object/Sense
Sound/Hearing
Feeling/Touching
From/Awareness
Seeing mind/Being
Flavour/Tasting
Scent/Smelling

This scheme of this is self-evident in our daily experience. It places mind as the central, transforming medium, like Newton's prism, through which our awareness of being is translated into the outward and visible signs of the objects of creation and, since it is a two-way process, these outward and visible signs are re-presented to our understanding. As the Rig Veda states (reproduced in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad) in a hymn in praise of Indra, 'The Pure Mind' (Hermes to the Greeks and Mercury to the Romans, in both cases messenger of the gods):

The first recorded words of Jesus Christ when he began to teach are given as "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". Repenting has become confused with having remorse, but the root of the word indicates the resolution of the fivefold energies which make up our sensory experience back to their source.

This is confirmed by the original Greek text where the word used is metanoia, which literally means a complete turning of the mind so that the intelligence is established in its source, in Being, through meditative awareness, rather than being absorbed and involved in gross objects.

We can understand, and meditation enables us to realise, that the mind is like a two-way mirror. A mirror simply reflects what is presented to it. It does not discriminate and judge: "I don't like this face so I wont reflect it", or "I love this one so I will preserve it". It just reflects what is there. And since our lives are expressed through relationships at many levels, our relationship with our own bodies of experience, our families, friends and all the people we meet. With the environment, the ever-changing atmosphere, with the universe itself, the mind then fashions our response to what is reflected in our presence in such a way as to maintain harmony, efficiency and delight. Such is the ideal reflected in meditative awareness.

Unfortunately, too often the mind is used not as a mirror but as a photographic plate, attempting to retain only the pleasant images reflected and avoiding that which caused discomfort of distress. Soon the bright surface of the mind is covered by a confusion of prejudices, preconceptions, misconceptions, filled with certainties conceived through past experience which may well not be relevant to the present circumstance. The free flow of relationship is hindered by expectations and demands which are often quite unreasonable, as Shakespeare states "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all, and the native hue of resolution is sicklier o'er by the pale cast of thought."

The answer to this, provided by meditative awareness, is to have respect, which means to look again. Just as we have come to realise that power of listening to sounds without putting a mane to them or reacting with like or dislike of what we hear, so we can realise the value of just seeing without naming or reacting to what we see.

A group of students of meditation were invited to inspect a scallop shell, one of a pile provided as ashtrays in the meeting room. In a very short time the exercise was completed. It was an ashtray - so what? When invited to take another look, without naming, liking or disliking, the group took much longer in their inspection, with varying degrees of realisation of the harmony of the form, the delicacy and beauty of the colouring, the sheet "magic" of this superficially ordinary and everyday object.

To practise this meditative awareness through seeing we could use any visible object. We can also adapt a well-known exercise from yoga called Trataka which uses a candle flame. Light a candle and sit comfortably and at ease in a position where the candle can be watched without straining. Desire only to see the light of the flame. Now you are the seer and the flame is the object seen. Put another way, the light of awareness is connected to the light of the flame by the light energy of seeing. Maintaining this connection, you may realise that it is the same light which fulfills these three apparently different functions. Light, indeed, is one. Still maintaining this steady focus you may come to appreciate the clarity, beauty and intelligence of this relationship of light. See how the form hormoniously and efficiently reflects its function, then became aware that the clarity, beauty and intelligence is a reflection of yourself and delight, in that awareness.

Angelus Silesius, a Christian mystic of the 17th century, wrote:

"I myself the Sun must be, shining clear and bright, Painting life's lacklustre sea with God Itself as light."

(From the Cherubinic Wanderer)

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