As we begin to cultivate active attention, or deliberate Mindfulness, we discover two common habits of mind that we may not have fully recognized before. One is our tendency for excitation, which in the context of meditation is distracting, the other is called laxity. We often oscillate from a busy mind, full of free associative thoughts, to mental dullness that is a suspended, vague quality of consciousness. This is called our coarse mind which is our functional conceptual mind showing its limitations. We also have more subtle aspects of mind which are obscured if we do not know how to be quiet and contemplative. Before we learn to turn inward, we have much less access to deepening degrees of subtlety and are confined by the perceptions gathered exclusively from our coarse perceptions of mind.
Our world view is a synthesis of what we learn and how we interpret what we perceive to be happening personally and globally. When we are limited by operating out of our coarse mind only, we easily mis-perceive our reality and the world at large, impeding access to our holistic intelligence and causing perpetual confusion and suffering. As we gain access to the subtler dimensions of our minds, we will also greatly alter and expand our world view.
Today, reflect on your current world view. What would you say are three or four salient aphorisms that you feel define life as a whole, that govern your outlook on what makes life meaningful? Ask a few different people this question today and see if you share their current ‘worldview’.
