Clearing Your Consciousness into a Blank Slate

As we make our way through each busy, hectic day of responsibilities and activities, we spend much of our time rehashing what has happened in the past, or fantasizing about what might happen in the future. Although we may think that we're living life as it happens and we understand what real living is, those thoughts couldn't be further from the truth. Our physical senses tell us what is happening in the world around us, but the input we gather from them is not precise and prompt enough. Our perceptions are filtered through ears that cannot hear a pin drop, eyes that cannot see as keenly as a telescope, noses that aren't even as sharply attuned as a dog, and touch that is less sensitive than a lizard's skin.

Although you may think that your senses are telling you what is happening throughout the day, senses do not work in real time. For example, when you read something written on a page, you are not reading it at exactly the same time as you are seeing it. Light has to hit the page so you can see the words; the light has to return through the lens of your eyeball back to the retina; that energy has to be transferred to your optic nerve; then the image has to be delivered to your brain to be analyzed. All of your senses work in a rhythm together, but they do not work in real time. Therefore, they are not sufficiently relaying reality to you. By the same token, your mind doesn't function in real time either. Mental processes require a certain amount of processing time, and they are continually limited by subjective influences.

Although you can't physically see the microcosms that compose the universe, you can imagine them in your mind's eye. So your inner Witness is clearly more capable of helping you to live in real time, rather than depending upon your physical senses to deliver messages promptly and clearly. Your inner Witness is always with you, always in the present, and mediation is the means by which you can access that Witness and gain inner control of your life, in real time as it happens.

When you are awake, your physical senses are in operation and you react to their input in routine ways without your mind being involved. When you are sleeping and you dream, your mind is operating alone without input from physical senses. So no matter whether you are awake or dreaming, you are limited and hampered by unreality. Meditation gives you the opportunity to discover the pure consciousness that will not be influenced or blocked by the human limitations of physical sense or mental impulses. With meditation, you can roam the entire universe in real time, experiencing true reality, without interference.

The Blank Screen approach is one type of meditation that will allow you to clear out the unreal from your consciousness. Sit in a quiet, comfortable place and assume your traditional meditation posture - relax, close your eyes, and notice the sound and feeling of taking breaths in and out. Focus on your breathing without commentary, judgment, or comparison to all else around you. Just be at peace, breathing. When you feel completely comfortable, shift your attention to your mind's eye, and simply watch what passes by. Witness what your mind experiences, without reacting, analyzing, or contemplating in any way. If you begin to feel your mind drifting off into its regular chattering, or you feel your body jerking or your emotions stirring within, don't criticize yourself; simply set aside any emotion and go back to observing your mind's eye. The point of this entire meditation is to change your mind's eye into a blank screen.

If you be patient, watch your mind's eye, and do not react, your mind will soon stop fighting with your attempts to blank it out, and it will be clear, clean, and open to receive the reality that contains knowledge, truth, and bliss. The more you practice this meditation, the more familiar you will become with the feelings that lie within your subconscious, just waiting to habitually arise when you react physically, emotionally, and mentally to stressful situations of daily life. Becoming familiar with these subconscious triggers will help you to liberate your inner Witness from the slave-like reactions that drain you and make you waste energy by fidgeting, becoming emotional, and engaging in mental chattering that is unreal and unnecessary.

The Blank Screen meditation technique takes place in the here and now and is performed consciously. The more you can experience consciously, without external influences or slave-like automatic reactions, the more you can actually experience living your life as it happens.