I had a good session on the black mat this morning from 2:55 to 3:35 ante meridian. When I went to the mat, I was riding high on the wild horse of the mind, and of course enjoying the ride as I always do. But I reined in the beast within five minutes or so and slipped into one of the antechambers of quiescence where thoughts persist but at a slower pace and of a nobler sort. For example, "Who is thinking these thoughts?" "I am thinking these thoughts." "Who am I?" And then the thought arose: to identify the thinker of thoughts is to objectify that which, as the thinker of thoughts, cannot be objectified. Of course, THAT is just another thought: it is the thought of the irreducibly subjective, and thus nonobjectifiable ultimate subject of thinking. Just another bloody thought! And so still at a remove from the Source of thoughts. But then I slipped a little deeper down as these thoughts vanished. Next thing I knew I caught myself falling over. I had fallen asleep. This was about forty minutes into the session. And that brings me to my point.
The trick in meditation is to achieve cessation of all thoughts while remaining fully alert. So you need to do two things: rein in the wild horse of the mind, and then abide in full alertness in the resultant mental quiet.
But this is only the first stage in meditation proper.
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