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How does it feel to meditate? According to The School of Meditation, ‘meditation leads the attention beyond the gross to a subtler level of mind, where there is less activity and fewer compelling images. Beyond that, it leads to a level subtler still, where there is no experience, no thought, no imagery.’ This state can be compared to deep sleep, when one has no experience of images in the mind. At this level, awareness ‘is a condition of being at one with pure consciousness.’

The three states of being

According to The School of Meditation’s book Being Oneself, there are three states of consciousness that are ordinarily experienced. These are sleeping, dreaming and waking.

There is some consciousness in deep sleep in that one knows one has slept well upon waking up. Upon waking, one experiences a broader level of consciousness and experience. ‘We become conscious of this other world, in which we spend our working days.’

Then there is the dream state, where our ‘dreams are related to the world we perceive in the waking state, but are often distortions of it, without its usual limits of time and space.’ There is a level of consciousness here too ‘for there is something awake in the dreamer that can inform him that he dreams.’

Meditation

Dreaming can continue into the waking world. ‘We do not always acknowledge their presence, but in fact when we are busy recalling yesterday and imagining what will happen tomorrow, we are dreaming.’ That’s because one isn’t facing reality as it is in the present.

Through meditation, one moves into a state of consciousness ‘which is always the same.’ A feeling of unity within can ensue, and one can begin to feel at one with oneself. Being Oneself explains that ‘consciousness of this unity is known as Self Consciousness; and when the meditator reaches that, he begins to have a special inner knowledge of himself and of the people and events with which he is connected.’

Meditation helps one to know oneself and once this has been experienced, regular meditation practice can help one to ‘become stabilised in this inner unity.’ One can then begin to see this unity everywhere.

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