Mindfulness & Meditation are communion with the truth of your Being beyond the personal. This entails consciously being within the present moment, until our consciousness or conscious mind merges with one's Awareness or one's Source. Together they form a channel for the true Self, as Spirit being Soul, to shine through and light our way. Mindfulness is flowing with the moment, as the moment impersonally, while holding a listening inner ear for intuitive guidance, whereas mediation is more contemplative, whereby our conversation is back and forth communing with Soul being Spirit. Mindfulness is perhaps more like a public conversation while meditation is a more private one so to speak.
Both meditation and mindfulness are a state of Being that is defined by a lack of thinking that leave us in a state of being. When thinking ceases, being happens by default as it is our natural state. In order to 'Be' one must first stop thinking. One must stop taking, following after, or creating thought taken from the mental realm. One must keep their mind on their sense of I am-ness in the present moment. Each time a thought comes or tries to rise, do not follow it but stay anchored in the Now. Eventually thought will die through starvation - through lack of attention. Thoughts can only live with attention.
When thought rises within oneself or taken from the Universal mind, one must not engage or follow after them, least we lose ourselves to illusion. Over time thought or mind will morph into a different quality of being-knowing, as extraneous thoughts, including one's own, cease. You will experience thought or mind differently for it will become intuitive & instinctive - highly aware and peaceful. Thought will be given as opposed to taken. Both the quality and quantity of thought will alter quite drastically, leaving one in peace as opposed to anxious, confused, uncertain or fearful. In today's world we think 90% of the time while unconsciously being 10%. We should be 'being' 90% of the time and thinking 10%.
To practice mindfulness or meditation, hold your conscious mind in a single open-ended thought in & of Awareness. This is meditation. When I say in and of, I mean 'in' your own Awareness as Consciousness. Bring yourself home to Thy Self. Bring your mind back to being present with your body that is always present in the moment of Now. The present moment IS Awareness. So is your subconscious. So is your Soul. All are Awareness. One's Consciousness - one's sense of I am-ness, must therefore stay with its own body, for Awareness is the activity of Consciousness. I conscious mind Am Awareness. The I and the Am must come together as one so that it can channel the true Self - the true I AM beyond the mind. In this way we align with all aspects of our being. I Spirit Am Soul that I conscious mind am subconscious mind. I am that I am is the name of your true Self. It is life living itself. It is pure alignment of all aspects of being. It is Grace.
Most people have their body in the present moment while their minds are elsewhere. This is a house divided against itself. Instead, be aware of everything, letting your concentration or focus be more of a relaxed attention that is more like a loose awareness. The minute you start to think - to take thought or follow after it, rather than letting your conscious mind pull your consciousness/attention away from your body and the present moment - away from your awareness of being, bring it back and hold your consciousness/attention within Present Moment Awareness which translates to holding your conscious mind in your subconscious that is always in the present moment. Be conscious of being aware of everything including all thought and feeling without attending them. Let your conscious mind or attention be held in a broad expansive manner that is more like a witness rather than an actor in the moment as it plays out. Notice yourself, as Consciousness or as the conscious mind, being 'aware' of thoughts and their subsequent feelings, rather than being the thoughts and feelings themselves. Become conscious of being the awareness, that is behind said thoughts and feelings witnessing them. This is called apperception. When one apperceives rather than perceives, one is conscious of being the awareness behind thought and feelings, rather than being caught up in them. Instead of taking life personally, we begin to see life more impersonally, giving us greater choice and control over our lives.
The differences between awareness and attention are this: You are 'aware' you are in the kitchen, but you are your attention is focused on the table. Can you see the difference between the two? One is for seeing up close and noticing detail - it is more personal. The other is broader and more expansive - it is more impersonal. Also, Awareness is felt-known, while attention is more of a thought. Attention is born of the conscious mind and is a faculty of Consciousness, which is thought. The conscious mind rolls out of the subconscious like a wave when we want to attend something. Awareness is the body of thought or the activity of Consciousness and is felt. Now this is where it gets tricky because the 'awareness' of the subconscious is a combination of both your consciousness as the vessel (mind) and your true Consciousness (Spirit) that works through the true Awareness of Soul which contains your subconscious. The subconscious is a part of the Soul which sits in between your conscious mind that you identify as being and your true Self.
Consciousness/Spirit, that you have yet to realize. The son (conscious mind) cannot come to the Father (Spirit) except through the mother (subconscious/Soul). The higher subconscious is under the dominion of Spirit while the lower subconscious is under the dominion of you as the mind aka Incarnate Soul-Mind. Understand that until you are Self-Realized, the mind is an empty vessel so any thoughts arising from it are false images. Every lifetime sees you as the Incarnate Mind-Soul having more dominion over the Soul (your true body) until the subconscious is purified and the personal (you) merges as one within and as the Soul which is always impersonal.
When attention and awareness or when the conscious and subconscious minds come together, they form the meditative mind that is a relaxed attention or a focused awareness that allows our mind to intuit information without losing ourselves to thoughts and feelings conjured up by a mind disconnected to its Source of Awareness. The Conscious mind, rather than rolling out of the subconscious, instead stays put to make conscious intuition/inspiration. Our Awareness (subconscious/Soul) is where intuition comes through so that we might be conscious of it. If we are IN thought, then we are not in our Temple (subconscious/Soul). If we are merely conscious only of our thoughts and feelings, we are too distracted to notice our Spirit guiding us intuitively.
The state of being I am speaking of, that one should hold when being intuitively receptive in the moment, would be akin to waking in the middle of the night to a noise. Standing up in your dark bedroom you listen and feel for where the noise is coming from. You listen with your whole body, right? Not just your ears. You are alive - present in your awareness, sensing everything in that moment. Now let this sensing, delve into your inner world rather than outer world but with relaxation rather than a tenseness. The inner state I am advocating is a whole-body awareness. A whole-body RELAXED awareness that is heartfelt - with feeling, with love.
"Being cannot be thought, it must be felt" - Eckhart Tolle
If you do not allow yourself to 'love' the moment, you will not stay in the moment long. No one stays very long in a place where no love is found. Moreover, you are only half present. One foot in the moment and one foot out. Heart and mind, thought and feeling, must be working harmoniously together for meditation to be complete, true and affective. The conscious mind is thought, the subconscious mind is felt. The whole mind must be included in both meditation and mindfulness. You want your sense of I am-ness to expand beyond your own personal parameters.
In reiteration it is vital to remember that true meditation includes the subconscious as much as it does the conscious mind. Feeling is of the subconscious. It is important you know this & include it in your meditation for the subconscious mind constitutes ninety five percent of our mind. Moreover, the subconscious mind, that feels, is good at holding the conscious mind (thought) steady. It is imperative that your presence in the Now be heartfelt if you are going to get the most out of practicing mindfulness and meditation. One has to be all in. In saying this let me make clear that this will not be easy as the conscious mind in its egoic state has defiled the subconscious Temple, therefore sitting in it consciously will not be easy. Shadow work may be necessary before one can truly rest in the peace and love of the purified subconscious.
In being fully aware and aligned as mind body & soul, one becomes as aware internally (intuitively receptive) as you are externally as a whole. One becomes instinctive and intuitive because of this. One is guided by one's Spirit expressed as Awareness, rather than the mind. In turn life becomes serendipitous in its synchronicity. You will not be able to comprehend how to be in the world without taking thought for it but I tell you it is not only absolutely possible but preferrable. You will never be led astray. On the contrary - you will be led to your life purpose and the peace that comes from living it. Be the witness of everything & leave the rest up to your True Self as Spirit being Soul - which is basically Life living itself. Let the truth of your being inspire you with a sense of knowing that dictates your next move, as you set out upon this journey of Self Realization.
~ Tracy Pierce
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