From the monthly archives: "November 2020"

Earth's spheresIn the last post, I discussed a few benefits that come from regular meditation practice. One benefit which warrants its own piece is that meditation makes the mind ripe for inspiration. To understand this phenomenon, I will have to introduce a concept, one that is similar to the notions of God, soul, or Higher Mind (next post). Having no way to prove the existence of any of the above, and also having no way to falsify them, these abstract ideas are unprovable and fall into the realm of faith. However, I would like to point out that, despite there being no rigorous way to prove or disprove the forthcoming concept to others, you can gain experiential proof for yourself by doing what the Buddha always encouraged of his students; he’d say, “Ehipassiko,” or come see for yourself.

To understand what I am about to share, you must first understand the spheres which surround the earth. Although Earth has seventeen known spheres, I will only touch upon five: the geosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. A sphere is a three-dimensional shape equivalent to the two-dimensional circle, of which every point on its surface is equidistant to its center. The Earth itself is a sphere. One may think of Earth’s spheres, then, as smaller to larger orbs in, on, and surrounding the globe. The first and smallest is the geosphere, which occupies the space within the Earth’s core. It is the molten rock deep inside the Earth’s surface, magma as it is called, and also the mantle and plasticky-layer known as the asthenosphere. The geosphere is what makes up the inner core of the planet.

Next sphere layers outward start with the lithosphere, which is the rocky crust of land on the surface of the Earth. Litho- means “rock,” and thus the lithosphere is the mountains, volcanoes, and other rocky surfaces of the planet. Along with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere makes up the surface of the Earth. As its name implies, hydro- means “water,” so the hydrosphere is the Earth’s bodies of water. The biosphere is all the living things on the planet, including humans, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. And then there is the atmosphere, which surrounds the Earth in a sphere just larger than the planet itself. The atmosphere contains the gasses needed by living things to breathe and carry out photosynthesis; it maintains pressure sufficient for the presence of liquid water, and it also provides protection from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Each of these spheres contributes to Earth’s many functions, or to the ecosystems residing on the planet. Another sphere, and the one which I wish to introduce as the abstract, unprovable concept, was postulated by two thinkers at approximately the same time (and through mutual influence on one another). It is called the noosphere. This sphere is the hypothesized sphere of information, named after the Greek nous-, which means “mind” or “intellect.” The two founding conceptulizers of this evolutionary biospheric development are French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky. I will not discuss their complete conceptualization of the noosphere. For that, I recommend further reading, specifically Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man (Harper Perennial Modern Thought). I merely wish to discuss how you can use the concept of the noosphere to understand from where inspiration may come, and how you might be able to tap into this potentially ever-present source of information.

I think it is most useful to think of the noosphere as a “cloud,” very much like the information cloud in which we store our digital data. The noosphere is all the information that has ever existed or will ever exist. So unlike the internet cloud, which is the information humans have access to currently, the noosphere contains all that, along with all past unknown or lost information, and all future information as well. According to this concept, individuals do not create information with their neurology, but instead tap into the cloud of information that is the noosphere, and as such download that information as a stream of ideas and inspirations. Think about it—all mathematics, all music, all art, and all technological innovation come from the noosphere, where each individual (monad) taps into and downloads the information. We all do it. Every idea you have ever had comes from this sphere of information.

Clear MindNow how do some ideas lead to innovation that ends up influencing humanity for years, generations, and even millennia?  Why do some people get big ideas while others seem to think diminutively? The answer is more complex than I can do justice in this one article, but the simple explanation is that some people are proficient at clearing their minds of the relentless mind-chatter I have referred to in a previous article on mindlessness. As a result, they clear the receiver, and thus enhance the transmission channels from the noosphere. Furthermore, while almost everyone gets great, inspirational ideas from time to time, not everyone acts on them, which a big mistake in my opinion. A discriminating mind is obviously needed to determine which ideas should be acted on and which shouldn’t, but it seems more common than not for the average person to disqualify their inspirational ideas as crazy, undoable, or unworthy for whatever reason people do. Again, as a result of my understanding of the noosphere, I think it is a mistake to discount your downloaded inspirations.

While meditation is not the only practice which can increase your transmissions from the noosphere, it is a simple tool which you can utilize immediately. There is a right and wrong way to meditate, as simple as it may sound, and I find many come to my courses without having had the proper instruction on technique and philosophy behind an effective meditation practice. Both elements are necessary as philosophy without technique is empty, and technique without philosophy is blind. So my recommendation is to learn both. If you would love to learn the hows and whys of meditation, as well as other techniques which will strengthen your ability to both tap into and increase the transmission from the noosphere, please contact me. Every great idea has been downloaded from the noosphere; yours are no less great, you simply need to act on them. Tap in, download and act—it really is that simple. Contact me and I can help you with each.

Meditation Los AngelesWhat is meditation? Is it what we speak of when discussing mindfulness? In short, no – meditation is tool, while mindfulness is a state of mind. A good reminder from a previous article is that we spend the bulk of our waking time on auto-pilot. This habitual activity-mode allows us to think while we drive, talk on the phone while typing, or discuss vacation plans while having sex. It is a state of mind; one which we specifically differentiate from being laser-sharp focused – or mindful.

Meditation, on the other hand, is a practice. Without a doubt, regular meditation strengthens focus, and thus it strengthens one’s ability to enter mindfulness, but it is purely a tool, one that needs to be practiced regularly and earnestly to become effective. Greater mindfulness is a consequence of consistent meditation. But meditation is not the only path to mindfulness, it just happens to be an extremely effective one. For sure, the Bhagavad Gita discusses meditation as a form of yoga, and it is a path to awareness, but by no means is it solely so: in fact, greater mindfulness is merely one consequence of many for the meditator. Meditation can be used to come to know the Self, to connect with the Source (or Absolute in Vedantic philosophy), and ultimately to unionize with the Source (samadhi). It achieves these aspirations by dissolving the boundary between self and other, between the one and many, and between sensory experience and reality.

To practice meditation is to attempt to go to the “other” side of thoughts: to allow what comes to come and what goes to go. Meditation is the start to separating the Self (true nature) from the self (body, mind, and sense of individuality). By repeatedly practicing awareness and focus, the proper conditions are beings set for release of self to Self. This state of being is called samadhi and is known to many spiritual disciplines. Because reaching this state is purely experiential, you cannot fully understand it with words alone. In fact, this is true for every stage along the way to samadhi as well, such that meditation leads to an inner unfoldment, a progression, where each layer spread out brings one closer to one’s true Self (not the self of the physical body and mind).

Mind Dissolves Meditation, by virtue of this inner unfoldment, leads to a greater receptivity to reality. As awareness expands, illusions become shattered and nightmares neutralize as a greater sense of oneness and orderliness flood the consciousness. Purpose becomes clearer, problems unite with solutions, and visions sharpen; meditation opens channels to understanding and inspiration.

Even the physical body changes morphologically through regular meditation. Studies show that meditation is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. While taking on meditation to attain physical or intellectual prowess might be mundane, these are a few interesting side-effects regular meditation brings.

Understanding that meditation is a tool is imperative, because it is easy for some to mistake the tool for the goal, which can lead to a discontinuation of practice for sheer lack of interest or significance to the practitioner. It can also lead to a false sense of achievement and thus stagnation in others. Understanding that meditation is simply a tool to achieve varying levels of awareness helps the practitioner stay on track and open to each layer of Self as it unfolds. It also allows the practitioner to remain unattached to the tool, because Self-realization can and will occur outside of meditation as well. Attaching to the tool can prevent the practitioner from reaching deeper levels of awareness by holding onto the illusion that the tool is necessary. It isn’t. It’s just a tool.

Deep sleep meditation coursesThat tool is used ultimately to get you to different states of consciousness. Recall that mindlessness, our typical waking state, is the state of unconscious consciousness: minimally aware of moment-to-moment details. And mindfulness is conscious consciousness: intense awareness of moment-to-moment details. Samadhi, then, that state of oneness to which we aspire through meditation, is an entirely different state altogether: we can call it a state of conscious unconsciousness. This is a strange concept to anybody hearing it for the first time…conscious unconsciousness? Appreciating this term is best done by associating it with something we do every night: deep sleep. The sleep cycle is split into four stages: light sleep, moderate sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Deep sleep is about twenty five percent of each sleep cycle and what we call restorative sleep. When a person is in deep sleep they are unaware of everything: their body, their mind, and their individuality. They are conscious in the general sense that they are not dead, but they are dead to the world for the period they are in that state. An even better example is the person who is put under anesthesia, like I was in 2006 to have my appendix removed. Just before the operation the anesthesiologist told me, “This is going to be your cocktail for the night, Mr. Campos.” And the next thing I knew it was, “…Mr. Campos, Mr. Campos, wake up, you’re done.” And that was that, time passed but to me it was instantaneous. I was in a state of unconsciousness, and I was unconscious to it.  We go there every night in deep sleep. Every person has had the experience of waking up and thinking, “Where am I, how did I get here?” That’s unconscious unconsciousness. Samadhi is being in a deep-sleep-like state, yet being aware and conscious throughout. Weird, huh? But that’s what it is, conscious unconsciousness: a truly experiential phenomenon. Words cannot describe.

The main point is that meditation is a tool to get you to a state – the state of conscious unconsciousness. Once you are there the goal changes, but I will leave that for another article. Most important for you, the practitioner, the aspirant, is the revelation along the way. This unfoldment of Self is what changes life for good.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.