Just as light illuminates it’s surroundings in a gentle way, so our awareness keeps us conscious in a watchful and functioning way. In order for that light to generate enough power to burn paper, cut through steel and melt rock, it needs to be concentrated as in a laser beam. In order for our mind to cut through the cloak of illusion, it also needs to be concentrated. It is with this steady concentration of the mind that we uncover the greatest illusion ever, the illusion and miss-identification of SELF,  and penetrate to the heart of true understanding.

At first we observe the mind in a fluctuating manner, sometimes aware of it’s object of concentration and sometimes aware of other sense perceptions that are not the chosen object of concentration. If our object of concentration is the touching sensation of the breath at the very tip of the nostrils, it is in this very noticing that the mind is distracted, and returning it to it’s chosen object of concentration, that we develop an acute attention that can penetrate into understanding. By holding the mind steady, we build a force, and this force overrides other sense awarenesses. We are lifted to an elevated state of consciousness that becomes self sustaining and blissful, and because of these qualities we become more able to maintain our periods of sustained attention over longer and longer expanses of time.

We begin to ‘Wake up’ and the periods and lapses of clarity become less frequent and of less duration in time. Of course this is a maturing process that may take awhile, but with regular application we start to prefer this, and feel more happy and more content in our lives and feel less the need to suffocate ourselves in distracting activities. For example anything that takes us away from our present moment and life situation. We cannot wake up in the future, we can only wake up at this very moment.

Just like a warrior in the midst of battle, remain steadfast and cut down your enemies one by one as they come before you…… The enemy of your Delusions……

Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah. The cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.