Reference: Course on Human Nature
This meditation is done under the Discipline of Mindfulness. It helps the viewpoint of a person move from being in mystery to a state of full knowing.
During this meditation, the person starts by focusing on the notion of mystery. Then he works his way up by focusing sequentially on mystery of unconsciousness and waiting; fixation on sex, eating, symbols, thinking, effort, and emotions; and on looking, knowing about, and not-knowing; and finally, on full knowing.
At each level the meditation is resolving some sort of fixation. If you meditate at a level for a few minutes and find no fixations, simply move to the next level. If a fixation comes up then simply be aware of it and continue to meditate using the discipline of mindfulness. You will know when that fixation is resolved. You then move to the next level of focus.
You go through all these levels in sequence again and again. It may take weeks or months until you suddenly find that there are no fixations any more. As you make progress you will feel an increasing sense of freedom. Finally you will have a great sense of freedom.
“Meditate on the notion of mystery.”
A mystery is anything that remains unexplained or unknown. The anatomy of Mystery is an inability to predict, followed by terrific confusion and then total blackout. The person just shut it all off and said, “I won’t look at it anymore”. Mystery is the level of always pretending there’s something to know earlier than the Mystery. There really is nothing to know back of a Mystery, except the Mystery itself. Meditate on mystery until you recognize that it is a mystery. There is nothing earlier; you just have to look closely at what is there.
“Meditate on the mystery of unconsciousness.”
Unconsciousness is a condition wherein the organism is uncoordinated to greater or lesser degree in its analytical process and motor controls, such as, under anesthesia. Death is more than unconsciousness; it is the disintegration of the body and identity into atoms and monads. You meditate on the mystery of unconsciousness to see what comes up. Meditate on unconsciousness until the feeling of mystery starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the mystery of waiting.”
Waiting is inactivity or being in a state of repose, until something expected happens. You meditate on waiting to see if any mystery comes up. If so then meditate on it until the feeling of mystery starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on sex.”
When a person thinks he is not going to survive, he will go into the “sexing-ness band”. If you starve cattle for a while they’ll start to breed, and if you feed them too well, they’ll stop breeding. This shows that the fixation on sex is closely associated with the anxiety to survive. Meditate on fixation on sex (on anxiety to survive) until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on eating.”
Animals eat animals to stay alive. This is their level of knowledge. Here we have fixation on eating and the knowledge associated with it is very condensed. This is what we understand as the dog eat dog world. One has no appreciation of other people and things, other than as means for their own survival. Meditate on any fixation related to eating (on own survival) until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on symbols.”
A symbol contains mass, meaning and mobility and it is in motion relative to some orientation point. At this level a person figures with symbols. His sense of knowledge is very literal, and it doesn’t go any deeper than the surface. Meditate on any fixation on symbols until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on thinking.”
At this level a person is fixated on thinking. He is, forever, trying to figure things out. There is no progress because he cannot work or act. This is the “figure-figure” case. Meditate on any fixation on thinking until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on effort.”
At this level a person got to touch everything and feel everything before he can know anything. He’ll get a mental image picture of a past incident in order to get an idea of what is happening to him in the present. He cannot observe for himself. Meditate on any fixation on effort until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on the fixation on emotion.”
At this level we have to have knowledge by emotion. A person has all kinds of emotions about things. He knows things by his emotional reaction to them. Meditate on any fixation on emotion until the feeling of fixation starts to resolve.
“Meditate on looking.”
At this level we have to look to find out as opposed to simply knowing. Meditate on looking and not simply knowing until whatever came up starts to resolve.
“Meditate on knowing about.”
At this level a person has indirect knowledge of something as opposed to knowing it intimately. In this process you meditate on things you only know about indirectly until whatever came up starts to resolve.
“Meditate on not-knowing.”
There are things that we don’t know anything about and use speculation in their place. Then we start to believe that speculation to be the reality. In this process you meditate on knowledge that is speculation only until whatever came up starts to resolve.
“Meditate on knowing.”
There are things that you are so intimately familiar with that they have become part of your nature. You don’t even notice them. In this process you meditate on things that have become second nature to you until whatever came up starts to resolve.
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