Bring4th

This is small article I've written for a friend. It is a simple and eloquent summation of the teachings of the Buddhas. Enjoy.

Quote:What is trance? What is meditation? What is an altered state?

An altered state is any state of being which exists outside of conventional reality; this is how it would normally be defined, anyway. In reality, the everyday experience of people is actually an altered state; people are walking around in a trance and they aren't even aware of it - they are technically asleep.

When you dream at night, you experience it as real; then when you wake up in the morning, sometimes you'll remember the dream and realize that it was only a dream - it wasn't real. However, the next time you go to sleep and dream, you once again forget that it isn't real until you wake up and remember. One who is asleep is unaware that they are asleep - this is the nature of sleep.

If someone wants to awaken from their trance then they first have to realize what it means to be awake; it means to be conscious, ofcourse, but there are many different levels of consciousness. Consciousness is very misunderstood in our society and it's not hard to understand why - consciousness is actually a mirror.

I'm sure you've looked into a mirror before, but have you ever tried looking at the mirror itself instead of peering into the reflection?

When you are looking into a mirror, what you're seeing is a distortion - it is an illusion, it is maya.

Consider for a moment that what you really are is consciousness - what you really are is a mirror. When you look at the Moon, for example, you're not actually looking at the Moon - you are looking at a reflection.

There are many people who seem to believe that they are the physical body; this means that what they're actually doing is looking through the mirror of consciousness, into the reflection, and then identifying with the reflection - this is akin to holding a diamond in your hand and believing that you are the diamond. It's really quite stupid but it's not their fault - they were taught to do this by society. They've been given suggestions by society and have been in a trance every since.

Just be the mirror; just be pure consciousness and nothing more. The things which appear in the mirror, the reflections, come and go but the mirror remains the same - it is empty and unattached.

If you do this successfully, nirvana will no longer be just a word for you - you will truly know what it is.