Beyond the Self — Overcoming Reification
Consciousness is still a tricky concept, let alone how you should develop it. We arrive here in the area of meaning, religion, philosophy and philosophies of life. But also of (neuro) psychology, spirituality and mysticism. In short, the ideas about what it is and how to do it are very diverse and sometimes confusing.
The 4 Fases of Consciousness Development are my synthesis of 40 years of study and practice in different psychological schools and spiritual traditions [1].
This model offers a theoretical and practical approach to the consciousness development that we can go through in our lives.
The Realization Phase
In Beyond Emotions — Overcoming Emotional Reactivity we looked at the 1st Autonomous and 2nd Emotional Phase, and in Beyond Thought — Overcoming Mental Reactivity, we looked at the 3rd Mental Phase. In this part we examine the 4th, the Realization Phase.
I captured the essence of the whole development process in the next slogan:
WHATEVER HAPPENS
FACE IT, EMBRACE IT
AND REST IN WHAT IS
WHATEVER HAPPENS
We all have enough life experience to know that we have relatively little influence on what happens, on the external and internal circumstances we have to deal with in our lives. Unfortunately, for various reasons we are often tempted to think that we can exercise decisive influence with the use of certain convictions or techniques. Undoubtedly you have the same experiences as I do — great efforts with little lasting effect. Everything changes inevitably, as an important doctrine in Buddhism states, regardless of what we think about it.
We can book more progress with training how we deal with these continuously changing circumstances. Dealing with our reactions to it — pleasure, success, enthusiasm but also frustration, anxiety, fear and failure. Of course we are raised with hope and fear — with all kinds of judgments and reflexes in dealing with our circumstances. Old, and usually counterproductive habits. What is striking is that we are remarkably more affected by our reactions to our circumstances than by the circumstances themselves.
FACE IT, EMBRACE IT
To face what presents itself here is primarily to engage our shadow, those emotional-psychological parts that we would rather not have or be. We have to make them familiar again, to see them as the parts of ourselves that they actually are. Disgust, impatience, frustration, anger, hatred, fear and loneliness are bearable if we take them as an inseparable part of our existence, and we do not want to get rid of them anymore. To include means that we do not express them unaware in our interaction with others, but take responsibility for them. Doing so we are aware of them, and, like our love, joy, contentment and generosity, we abide in them. Eventually, we’ll face and embrace our existential possibilities and limitations.
AND REST IN WHAT IS
Resting in what is marks the transition to the Realization Phase. When we face it and include it (beyond the reactivity of hope and fear), we experience peace and space. Literally in our minds, but also the space to be and freedom of reactivity, making the necessary choices and decisions (because that reality continues until the end of our lives).
Resting in Attention
The 4th Realization Phase is named so because we go in this phase from glimpses, short moments and longer periods to the stable realization of the nature of our mind. Hard to grasp in words, this pure, wordless, conceptless state of being. Essential is the insight that this state has always been present, it is not something that we manufacture or bring about through our practices in the earlier phases.
A nice reference to the essence of this Attention [2] is the question ‘Who am I?’ This is the traditional question in various spiritual traditions to come to self-reflection (attention inside). In this Phase, however, the question is ‘Who or what is it that poses the question, who wants to know who that’ I ‘is?’ It is a higher level, it is the ultimate question. Here it can no longer be answered conceptually with a new, more comprehensive concept, but is a direct state of being. Non-conceptual.
This non-conceptual state is sung about, or expressed in poetry, classic forms to overcome the paradox of the non-conceptual. These must then be taken figuratively. It is the finger that points to the moon, but it is not the moon. It is the reflection of the moon in water, but not the moon itself.
Non-meditation
A tricky aspect of the Realization Phase is that nothing can be done (anymore). After all, it is. For us as doers, as we always did in the earlier phases, here comes the transcendence from doing to not doing. For example, an important practice in this phase is non-meditation. The term clearly shows the paradoxical character — we are in a state of meditation, but we no longer meditate on something, as we did in the Mental Phase. There is no object of attention anymore, nor someone who meditates (subject). We are Attention.
It is evident that reaching this Phase requires for most of us long-term effort and discipline in the earlier phases. That is why it is important to face wherever you are in your consciousness development, and to relax in it. Relaxing, embracing and transcending is always the mechanism of development wherever you are. Relaxing as an action in the earlier phases is the preparatory practice for the eventual Resting in Attention — resting as a state of being is Realization. Clear being, energetic, alert in the current moment, without distraction, without hope or fear.
The characteristics of non-meditation are:
- rest without desire
- rest without effort
- rest without changing anything
- rest without doing anything
What remains if you do this is Rigpa. [3]
Dzogchen
In Tibetan Buddhism the highest realization is called Rigpa. Tulku Thondup illustrates this state briefly and concisely in his introduction to ‘The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding’ of Longchenpa [4] with these quotes:
Summarizing Dzogpa Chenpo [5] meditation Longchenpa writes :
It is important to look directly at [the nature of] thoughts when they emerge.
It is important to stay in [the nature] if you are sure [this is it]
It is important to have meditation-free meditation as your meditation
Hold it without hesitation: this is my heart advice.
The Third Drodrupchen (1865–1926) explains how to realize intrinsic awareness (rig pa):
Use intrinsic awareness as the way [meditation]. Keep only that awareness
alive. Do not employ any concept, because concepts are mind [and not the
nature of the mind].
Meditate [on intrinsic awareness] after making a distinction between mind
and intrinsic awareness.
Through such training one achieves the absolute perfection of the realization of intrinsic awareness, which is the ultimate universal nature. Longchenpa writes:
The true nature of the world is the true nature of the mind.
It was never born and is past suffering.
Liberation will be realized by seeing the nature of mind itself, the true
nature of phenomena. There is no other peace to achieve. “
Have a good heart!
[1] My model of Consciousness Development distinguishes 4 Phases — the Autonomous, Emotional, Mental and Realization Phase. The first Autonomous Phase runs until our adulthood (about 25 years) after which we enter the Emotional Phase. How we develop in this and whether we will move on to the next phases is entirely dependent on our own insight, dedication, motivation and discipline, and yes, luck is a factor.
[2] One of the proof readers of the coming book “Enlighten Your Life” noticed that I wrote the word Attention with a capital A, and asked if that was necessary. The difference in meaning of attention and Attention is that attention refers to our ordinary skill to focus our attention on something, and on Attention that is the essence of our mind itself. Without Attention there can be anything (universe, earth, people, animals, nature, etc.) but then we do not know about it. We are Attention, and therefore more than just applied topical attention.
[3] Rigpa (Skt.Vidyā, Tib.རིག་པ་) is a Tibetan word that generally means ‘intelligence’ or ‘awareness’. In Dzogchen, however, the highest teaching in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, rigpa has a deeper connotation, “the most inner nature of the mind.” The whole teaching of Buddha is aimed at realizing this, our ultimate nature, the state of omniscience or enlightenment — a truth that is so universal, so primordial that it crosses all boundaries, and even beyond the religion itself.
[4] Longchenpa (1308–1364 or 1369) was a teacher within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and was the main author of the Dzogchen teachings. His most famous treatise is the ‘Seven Treasures.’ “The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding” is one of these Seven Treasures.
[5] Dzogchen, also called Atiyoga, is the most important of the nine yana systems (vehicle, path, road, instruction) of the Nyingma school in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of “Dzogpa Chenpo” (“Great or Perfect Perfection”). The notion in Dzogchen is that Enlightenment does not have to be sought outside a person, but is immediately present in the pure, original nature of the mind, the consciousness.
