THE AWAKENED MIND

 
   The Vernal Equinox marks the time of the awakening of nature from the sleep of winter. In nature, this periodical awakening is guided by natural impulse. However, in the human kingdom the awakening of the mind requires self-induced and self-devised effort. It is an ironic fact of human experience that one can be in the waking state of consciousness and yet one’s mind is not fully awakened.

   Mostly we are awake to our passions, desires, memories, sensations, thoughts and imaginings that arise from contact with our natural surroundings and other beings. While this awareness is necessary for functioning and communication on the physical plane, it does not awaken the mind to the reality of spiritual life and spiritual being. While this awareness is useful for the fulfillment of desires and the accomplishment of plans, there is nothing in such experience that awakens the mind to compassion and spiritual knowledge. Meditation is a means to awaken the mind to spirit, compassion and truth.

   There are two kinds of meditation. The first kind of meditation practice takes place on a daily basis during a specified time period. Its purpose is to awaken the higher mind so that light of spiritual knowledge can illuminate the lower mind. In fact, the higher mind is always awake on its on plane, just as the sun is always shining even on a cloudy, overcast day. This kind of meditation practice removes the clouds of illusion that obscure the light of wisdom.

   The second kind of meditation is sometimes called the “lifetime’s meditation.” It is that mind training that takes place in the midst of all the activities of our lives. This kind of continuing stream of meditation allows the seeds of thought planted during the meditation session time to sprout and grow in the consciousness of the lower mind. It directs the restless mind to concentrate on spiritual truth in spite of all the distractions of sensation and memory. It clears the “bridge” of communication between the higher and lower mind.

   For example, a primary goal of a specific meditation session might be for the disciple to grasp the reality of the Self as the enduring unborn perceiver that has no identifiable characteristics and the transient dreamlike quality of all phenomena. From this awareness arises the realization that the one Self is the same Self in all, or the spiritual identity of all beings. The lower mind is the “great slayer of the real” - the disciple is urged to “slay the slayer.” The lower mind, influenced by desire and sensation, formulates concepts that are as illusionary as the phenomena upon which they are based. The idea of separateness is one such illusion that needs to be killed out of the lower mind and replaced with the idea of unity. The meditation session allows for uninterrupted cultivation of loving kindness and compassion for all that lives.

   During the lifetime’s meditation, the drifting lower mind is continuously reminded of the temporary and illusionary nature of objects of sense. The lower mind is repetitively brought back to the consideration of soul, spirit and the Self of All. The experiences of daily life offer many opportunities to use awareness of the attachments of others as a reminder of our own personal attachments to the “pairs of opposites” and the results of action, and to practice non-attachment. Because of the fundamental unity of life and spiritual identity of all beings, we share in the effects of the errors and sufferings of others, as they are influenced by our virtue and happiness, and vice versa.
                     

                                                                                    QUOTES

Man, made of thought, occupant only of many bodies from time to time, is eternally thinking. His chains are through thought, his release due to nothing else. His mind is immediately tinted or altered by whatever object it is directed to. -  W.Q. Judge

I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.  - Billy Joel

The man of meditation is happy, not for an hour or a day, but quite round the circle of his years. - Isaac Taylor

Meditation ... the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books. 
-  William Cowper
      
Thus meditating you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will remember only that you are seeking the Truth.  - James Allen 
    
When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. - Alan Watts
Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.
- Jeremy Taylor

"I am that which is." That is, I am Brahma, and Brahma is everything. But being in an illusionary world, I am surrounded by certain appearances that seem to make me separate. So I will proceed to mentally state and accept that I am all these illusions. I am my friends, - and then I went to them in general and in particular. I am my enemies; then I felt them all. I am the poor and the wicked; I am the ignorant. Those moments of intellectual gloom are the moments when I am influenced by those ignorant ones who are myself. All  this in my nation. But there are many nations, and to those I go in mind; I feel and I am them all, with what they hold of superstition or of wisdom or evil. All, all is myself. Unwisely, I was then about to stop, but the whole is Brahma, so I went to the Devas and Asuras;  the elemental world, that too is myself. After pursuing this course awhile, I found it easier to return to a contemplation of all men as myself. It is a good method and ought to be pursued, for it is a step toward getting into contemplation of the All. I tried last night to reach up to Brahma, but darkness is about his pavilion.
-  W.Q. Judge

     “Theosophical Independence”  is produced monthly by Associates of The United Lodge of Theosophists in Philadelphia.  Comments, questions and contributions for publication may be sent to The United Lodge of Theosophists, 1917 Walnut Street,   Philadelphia, PA  19103.
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