About 30 years ago I began to experience brief spontaneous periods of thought-free awareness. I assumed they were flashbacks to when I’d learned the art of deep thought-free meditation…
They lasted only a minute or two and could happen at anytime, anywhere – while I was shopping, watching the TV or talking with friends, etc. During these episodes, however, I wasn’t meditating as my eyes were open and I was still going about my daily life.
The experience is expansive and uplifting. These spiritual highs soon became integrated into my life and brought an extra dimension to everyday consciousness.
Eventually I realised that the Sense of Self, the intimate sense of my identity, was actually pausing during these brief spontaneous episodes.
In the absence of the Sense of Self what remains is pure consciousness. This state is beyond words, knowledge, intellect, intuition, instinct, concepts, meditation and all the functions associated with the Sense of Self. This isn’t metaphysics or philosophy, I’m just accurately describing this extraordinary state.
Pure consciousness has been known to be spiritually significant for millennia: the Indian sage, Patanjali, wrote about it 2000 years ago and considered it to be the essence of spirituality. He called it “stilling the mind”.
I had no Idea this would have a powerful effect on my life or that it would lead directly to inner peace and happiness. I now call this process spiritual enquiry.
Spiritual enquiry
Stumbling into it
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