~~ The Way of 'Attention' -1. ~~

~~ The way of 'Attention'-1 ~~

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Dear Friend,.....!

It is true that every being, from the very birth itself, 

is prone to 'delusion', i.e. 'Moha' 

इच्छाद्वेषसमुत्थेन, द्वन्द्वमोहेन भारत ।

सर्वभूतानि संमोहं सर्गे यान्ति परंतप ।।

Thus says Shri Krishna to Arjuna , in Gita 7/27.

And,

नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभुः ।

अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तवः ॥

in Gita, shloka 5,ch.15.

That is the reason why even the so-called Pandits

and scholars usually fail to interpret the Shastras.

Yes, We can say there are 3 kinds of 'sleep', the first  

is the 'moha-nidra', which may be termed as 'waking sleep'.

And no one can escape it.

When one becomes aware of life itself, one's own mind, one can realize that they are 'result' of some 'karma', 'Karma' is the only Cause for their coming into existence. How a 'result' may be 'free' ? It is always according to causes, depends totally upon them. So all talk of 'free-thought', 'free-will'  is doubtful.

But this 'awareness' or simply the 'consciousness' asso- ciated with the body-mind remains ever unaffected by the actions of the body, mind, feelings, memory, good and bad, 'time' and 'space', and is the only clue to the 'Self'.

When this awareness deepens, the body-mind and their actions go into abeyance.Only the Self remains into the

sight. And even the sight itself dissolves ultimately into the Self.

Therefore it is perfectly right to see that the thread of 'awareness' can be held only during the waking-state of the mind.

It is non-verbal attention, silent observation in the beginning.

After some 'practice', the right balance is achieved and one can 'see' how during waking hours various things of the mind (Vrittis) appear and disappear, and their hold on the mind gradually loosens.

One can see that one is NOT those things.

After some time, one can even understand when the 'sleep' overpowers and how the mental things that were so far in the form of 'thoughts' and 'feelings',...(vritti), take the dream-form, figures and sounds.

Then the dreams too disappear, and one remains aware that a dark veil of ignorance has clouded over the 'attention'.

During the waking hours, There is awareness of the external world also, with a body within, which is accepted as 'I'.

During the dreaming hours, likewise a subtle body is there, that 'experiences' the dream-world.

During the dreamless sleep, only 'I know nothing'-vritti remains.

But the 'I' remains in all these 3 states.

When 'attention' grows, one remains aware about the coming and going of these 3 states, and somehow understands the inherent underlying 'REALITY', -the 'pure attention' /'awareness' free from the division of the subject-object.

Hope this will help you to understand what may be the 'un-interrupted meditation'.

I know it is in the context of your particular question, and the meaning in the shloka is far more vast, appli-cable according to varying intersts of different kind of aspirants in different ways . 

(I agree that the terms used here don't adhere strictly to the classical vedantik terminology, so please excuse me)

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