“What is standing in your way now is self-awareness. If you can begin this fasting of the heart, self-awareness will vanish. Then you will be free from limitation and preoccupation. You are familiar with the wisdom of those who know the material, but you have not yet learned the wisdom of those who know the empty.” Chuang Tzu
Meditation plays a very important role in all the Asian philosophies. But why is this the case and what is meditation anyway? As you read on I’m sure you will find that you already meditate in one form or another. You may not see yourself as meditating, because like most people you believe meditation is sitting in the lotus position with your eyes closed and chanting Om! But this is only one of many forms of meditation.
There are only two essential ingredients to meditating. An absence of self-awareness and the distortion of time. Although it may not be immediately apparent to you, we have all had these experiences. Experiencing an absence of self and time is very favourable, since this is the only time we experience our ‘true nature’.
On this page I’ll be discussing the three most essential forms of Taoist meditation.
Mindfulness
“If you spend a long period of time in study and self-cultivation, you will enter Tao. By doing so, you also enter a world of extra-ordinary perceptions. You experience unimaginable things, receive thoughts and learnings as if from nowhere.” Deng Ming-Dao
I’m sure everyone has had the experience of being so immersed in something, that they have lost all thought of time and self. You may have had the sensation that you and the object of your attention have become one action. This experience may occur while you write, draw, read, garden, renovate, fish or anything else you enjoy. You often emerge from this period of focused attention feeling revitalised, wondering where the time and all your worries had gone. This is mindfulness.
Physicists now believe the flow of time only occurs in a conscious mind and it isn’t something that occurs in the physical world. Consequently, if mindfulness is a state outside regular consciousness; it doesn’t seem beyond reason that a distortion of time could occur. Einstein himself said, “When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”
Everyone is aware of the pleasure they receive from losing themselves in something they love doing. This is why so many of us have hobbies and interests that on the surface seem to serve no useful purpose. However, it is widely accepted that mindfulness is very beneficial for our health and wellbeing. The benefit comes from the respite it provides us from self-awareness. Mindfulness is often the only escape we get from the feeling of “I” and the clutches of our over demanding ego.
With the exception of drugs and alcohol, ego is often responsible for our most regrettable behaviour. It is our ego that allows us to rationalise our self-interests. It perpetuates our illusion of isolation which leads to a sense of alienation and hostility to the world. On a global level our combined egocentric arrogance becomes a highly destructive force.
From another perspective, many of our internal torments and anxieties are a result of a preoccupation with ourselves. We incessantly feel the need to defend our sense of self-worth. We habitually over analyse our own thoughts and second guess our own decisions. We persistently worry how others view us; when in all likelihood they are too busy worrying how others view them.
In mindfulness we experience pleasure that can only be known without self-awareness. It is the harmony that comes with being an action of Nature.
Without ego or our calculating intellect, this is the permanent state of all other life forms on earth. They are in constant unity with Nature. Animals live without the understanding of time, so they live without a care for yesterday or a worry for tomorrow. When it comes time to build a nest or move on, they intuitively know without questioning. This is the virtue of being one action in Nature.
From our experience of mindfulness, we may begin to see our self-awareness as a liability. Further to this, the ego we once thought to be an essential part of ourselves, can now be seen for the illusion it actually is. Mindfulness also enables us to experience the ‘eternal now’ moment. In this period of focused attention, the troubles of the past and the worries of the future have no presence.
Intuition
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. Albert Einstein
The ancient Taoists believed intuitive knowledge is a blossoming from within ourselves. This is in contrast to the usual Western belief that knowledge is something that must be tediously pried out of Nature. We generally have little respect for intuition, since the author is unknown and the information is unreferenced. However the author is Nature and her wisdom is always self-evident.
Through Nature’s design all the animals intuitively know what to do and do it with perfect timing. They know the optimum time to raise their young; how and where to build their nests and burrows; organise social order; have extraordinary abilities to locate food; and time their journeys to coincide with favourable conditions many kilometres away. The wisdom of Nature is beyond anything we can comprehend.
You may say this is “just instinct”. But what exactly is instinct and why are we so dismissive of it? Why do we belittle the amazing abilities of animals considered to be far less intelligent than ourselves? Isn’t it incredible that migrating animals can pinpoint an area thousands of kilometres away? To do the same feat we would need GPS and a huge amount of equipment. Yet these animals do it with nothing other than what Nature provides.
Once we understand the animal kingdom has direct access to Nature’s wisdom and that we too are animals; it only makes sense that we also have access to the same intuitive knowledge. All we need to do is make ourselves open to receive it.
There is little doubt the intuitive ‘Tao Te Ching’ of Lao Tzu and the profound ‘Inner Chapters’ of Chuang Tzu were both products of astonishing insight. Their incredible observations of Nature and human conduct have withstood more than 2000 years of scrutiny and parallel modern science. Intuitive insight often occurs when considering a problem while in a very relaxed state of mind. Physicist and Author Fritjof Capra, notes that most advances in scientific knowledge were conceived by Scientists while they relaxed.
The questions one should seek to answer will become evident in the next meditation, ’empty mind’.
Empty Mind (Sitting Forgetting)
“Only after the great awakening will we realise that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to understand things.” Chuang Tzu
Most people find it beneficial to ‘zone out’ for a while, especially after a stressful day. Most of us do this by sitting in front of a television, often not absorbing anything. We may try to recall what it was we were contemplating, only to realise our mind was completely empty. This is an example of what the ancient Taoists called ’empty mind’.
Empty mind meditation could be involuntary as described above, or intentional such as practiced in meditation classes. Intentional meditation is very difficult because of the misconception that it is mind control, when in fact the opposite is true. Meditation is letting go of all control and simply letting everything be as it is. Chuang Tzu called this type of meditation ‘tso wang’ which translates to ‘sitting forgetting’.
Although this type of meditation is not sleeping, there are similarities. Sleep is not something that can be forced to happen. All you can do to induce sleep is to get comfortable and allow the process to happen. The same is true with empty mind meditation. All you are able to do is create the conditions that are most conducive for it to happen. This could be as simple as sitting on a comfortable chair in a quiet room for 20 minutes once a day.
For most of this time your mind will just drift. However, every so often there may be just a second or two when all thoughts and internal chatter cease. This nothingness is the Tao. The ’emptiness’ where all things originate and all things are one. (Emptiness may also be referred to as oneness, nothing, nothingness or the great void.) This underlying state of total unity parallels what many Physicists call the unified field.
Since “I” is nonexistent during meditation, this isn’t something you can be aware of while you are actually experiencing it. The delight of meditation comes from the sudden and unexpected flip back to regular perception. After reflecting on your experience, you intuitively begin to understand that this is the emptiness you were before you were born and the emptiness you will be after death. In time this will enable you to overcome any fear you harbour for death.
Enlightenment is the sudden insight that the emptiness you experienced during meditation is what exists behind your awareness. Emptiness is the real you and it always has been.
Emptiness is a very difficult concept to understand or accept unless you have personally experienced it for yourself. This is the only way to end the thoroughly convincing feeling of personal isolation. To illustrate the strength of separateness, even an enlightened person must continue to meditate to prevent this illusion from returning.
Most people have heard enlightenment ends suffering and therefore assume it must be inconceivable happiness. However enlightenment is usually just an intuitive aha moment. Nevertheless, this is all that is needed to be released from the confusion of separateness. This quote from T. S. Eliot may be the best account of this experience.
“The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
Finally, I think Taoist meditation is best summed up by Deng Ming-Dao in the following:
“Those who follow Tao are fond of pointing out the wisdom of animals. When they see a cat sitting motionless in the sun or a turtle who stretches her head upward in a still pose, they say that these animals are meditating. They know how to be still and conserve their internal energy. They do not dissipate themselves in useless activity but instead withdraw into themselves to recharge.”
It is only people who label meditation as some sort of odd religious activity. This is not the actual case. Something like meditation happens when we sleep, or when we are absorbed in reading a book, or when we “daydream” and become so lost in a thought or an image that we do not notice what is going on around us.
There is no reason to think of meditation as something out of the ordinary. Quite the opposite. Meditation is the purest and most natural expression we can have. When you next look at a cat or a dog sitting still, and admire the naturalness of their actions, think then of your own life. Don’t meditate because it is a part of your schedule or is demanded by your particular philosophy. Meditate because this is natural.
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Karen Velen 