Imagination, song, the soaring spirit.
Separate them to know them as aspects of the whole,
Join them to know the mystery of totality.
The mind, if focused, can become the most powerful force we know. Yet for most of us, we are lost in the vastness of our own uncharted minds. We play around with different aspects, find certain modes that we can get by with, and leave the rest unexplored. Those who follow Tao do not do this. They want to explore all the dimensions of the mind so that they may find a wholly integral mode of consciousness.
The primary means of exploration is through concentration of the mind. Practitioners first select an aspect and delve into it by daily focus. Only when they have fully understood do they go on. It is like studying. When you are first introduced to a subject, you must put your attention to work in order to master the knowledge. Such concentration leads to absorption, like mixing liquids together in a bottle : Once they are combined, they cannot be distinguished from one another.
With concentration, all the various aspects of the mind can be joined together into one superconscious mode. Sound is the same as sight, taste is the same as smell, touch is the same as thought, and all that we are is identical with the spiritual energy that resides within us. In this high concentration, there is complete union, and we feel the joy of total integration with all our facets.
Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise yourself about this part of philosophy. Nothing is so apt to produce magnanimity. Such a man has put off the body, and as he sees that at any moment he must go away from among men and leave everything here, he gives himself entirely up to just actions, and . . . resigns himself to the universal nature. But as to what any man shall say or think about him or do against him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with . . . acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him; . . . he lays aside all distracting and busy pursuits, and desires nothing else than to run the straight course — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
I tend to think of concentration in terms of the memory matching game we played as kids – remembering where one thing is in relationship to other things. I rarely think about one thing at a time – I’m usually able to focus on one thing in relationship to other things, though.
But perhaps that is just part of how I think about things. I tend to see things in terms of process, how one thing relates to another and how things move and change into other things. I can find a small plant at a nursery and know how it will look in a few years in the garden, or I’ll read something and relate it to something else I’ve read or heard. I go to yoga class and relate it to my Pilates class or to the movements I make while gardening, and find myself doing yoga all day long eventually.
When I’m learning something new, I do focus on it and concentrate my attention on it. But I’m usually also thinking about how I can use it to do something else. I don’t feel that I’ve totally integrated everything into a superconciousness yet, though. I do enjoy integrating things together rather than treating everything as a seperate activity.
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