Meditating can turbocharge your faith. Understanding the difference between your mind and consciousness begs questions that only faith can answer.
Conscious mind
Your thoughts are evidence of this aspect of your mind; conscious thoughts are like breaths and heartbeats: single, consecutive and constant. Yes, your conscious or thinking mind can only handle one task at a time! If you need convincing, try simultaneously counting and reciting the alphabet. Right, so don’t text and drive! This is the aspect of your mind that you hear; it’s the part you interact with; you’re either engaging it to make a decision or it’s engaging you, acting like a monkey dredging up permutations of ego, memory and sensation from your sub-conscious mind. You CAN learn to control the conscious aspect of your mind and thus the clarity and nature of your thoughts.
Subconscious mind
You can’t hear this aspect of your mind nor can you control it; the only evidence of it is its functionality. This aspect of your mind is responsible for three things: (i) sensory receipt and processing, including seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, feeling, moving, talking, eliminating, and reproducing – things you don’t have to think to do; (ii) memory storage; you carry around a mental impression of every conscious thought (e.g., sight, sound) you’ve ever had; and (iii) the root of your ego: your sense of “I”.
Consciousness
When you tried counting and reciting the alphabet at the same time, two things did happen simultaneously: the thinking – and the awareness of your thoughts. The awareness OF your thoughts is your consciousness. Your thoughts change constantly, but your awareness OF them never does. The ancient texts say this part of you can’t be drowned or burned with fire – and yet you know it exists because without it you wouldn’t realize that you were reading this! Without it life would be pretty dull; imagine being unaware of being alive! What would be the point?!
Meditation
Think of your subconscious mind as a child bringing things to show you. To listen effectively to your subconscious mind, your conscious mind should be in neutral: observing without thinking. You know you’re simply observing if you don’t hear your inner voice analyzing, judging, or commenting. When your conscious mind is not obscured by thoughts, consciousness sees what your subconscious mind wants it to be aware of. As your subconscious mind unburdens itself, you draw closer to the deepest, most subtle aspect of you, your essence: your immutable consciousness.
Understanding the nature of consciousness – and tapping into its quiet, calm, stillness though meditation – opens your mind to an entire universe of questions that only faith can answer!
Happy trails, Skip
