POST 6 >> THE TRASCENDENCE OF THE EGO-CONSCIOUSNESS, PART 1 (FREE/THEMED POST)

To talk about the trascendence of the ego-consciousness, we need to talk first about how this can be possible from our own experience. So, today I will talk about a proccess related to a practice and to an oriental phylosophy, specifically the chan budism (zen budism in Japan). This practice is the meditation. To be rigorous, meditation is a practice that a lot of cultures discovered naturally, even us. Is related to those moments when we want (and maybe we need) to be alone to think or release the mind from thinking; those moments when we feel lost and we want to find ourselves, when we are looking for a self-encounter. It's some kind of rest. A mind resting. But according to chan budism, is not any kind of resting, it's not like the sleeping. It's an conscient entering to a deeper and deeper calm. A deeper and deeper state of consciousness (for some people, maybe including me, it's not the same that state of mind, because the mind as we understand it commonly, is only one possibility in our consciousness).

How can we meditate?

Well, actually, this beautiful act is very simple to do... in theory at least. The only thing that you have to do is breathe and focus on your breathing. Breathing is something that everybody know how to do, with, maybe, some extreme exceptions. But breathing is one of those few actions that you can control and do on porpose, and when you don't, it is done automatically, always. If you feel that this it what happens with your breathing, then you can meditate. So, the way to start can be explain with steps:


1.- Look for a confortable place in a confortable moment, after you have, if it's possible, a good sleeping.
2.- Sit in this place, cross your legs, put your hands where you whant to put them, and be sure that you feel confortable. For some people, this could be problematic, but it's also something that you can practice.
3.- Close your eyes.
4.- Focus on your breathing.
5.- Begin to breathe every time deeper and slower. Every time deeper and deeper. Every time slower and slower.
6.- Let your consciousness become a peaceful and silent experience. At long-term, free of any thought.

0.- Necessary condition: you have to be genuinely determined to try it, even if it is just to explore it.

Meditation is recommended to be practiced one hour per day, if it is possible. If it's not, 10 minutes per day can work too. After a lot of meditation, some people have experiment something that the chan budism calls "illumination". It means the trascendence of the ego-consciousness. The ego is the "me". And a consciousness that realize the illusion of the "me", changes radically. But it is not something of one day to other. It is a patiently practice of the meditation.