Attention Is Enough

I dislike the term “mystical experience.” What happens during methodless meditation is neither mystical nor an experience. It’s a phenomenon that is new each time it occurs. But I don’t know a better term for it. 

In total, non-directed attention, the movement of thought falls completely still. The mind is emptied, allowing the brain to be suffused with energy that cannot be captured or conceptualized. Such states have been called, devotionally or derisively, mystical experiences. 

Through passive watchfulness of the outer movement of nature and inner movement of the mind, the brain awakens its capacity for awareness quicker than thought. That allows non-directed attention to gather unseen in the brain. Without will, effort or direction, attention then acts on thought and quiets it. That opens the door to the sacred. 

Effortlessly watching every mental and emotional reaction, without judging or controlling the memories, feelings, and physical states that arise in the moment, is the only action that is needed.

In terms of mental activity, there are two levels of reaction. There are spontaneous reactions, such as when part of a conversation one had yesterday replays in the mind. 

Then there are secondary reactions, when we evaluate what we said or did. Evaluation is a reaction of the self. True meditation occurs when one observes the unprompted reactions of memory and emotion without the secondary reactions of judgment, choice and interpretation.

We experience both types of reactions as arising from the ‘me,’ a seemingly independent entity at the center of our existence. But the self doesn’t actually exist as such; it’s a program, like an operating system in a computer. Apparently early on in human evolution however, the self and survival became linked at the emotional level in the brain. That’s why it’s so hard for the self to let go.

When awareness grows quick enough to see through the illusion and habit of the mind continually dividing itself from itself, the observer and self dissolve in attention. 

Since all methods and systems of meditation are fabricated by thought, they therefore sustain thought in one form or another. Then what brings about a meditative state?

After allowing the senses to attune in a relatively quiet spot of nature, ask oneself (without answering): Is the observer operating? That draws attention to the mechanism of the observer and allows the brain to watch without the watcher. Then, observing without the observer, the mind effortlessly grows deeply quiet. 

Sensory impressions are no longer mediated by words, images and memories, and they become acute. A deepening state of insight ensues. In ending the movement of thought/time, a meditative state awakens. One directly connects with the energy of life, the brain is renewed, and the heart expands.

Mystical experiencing cannot be embedded in any religion or tradition, whether of the East or the West. Nor is it the idiosyncratic product of an individual’s mind. It’s accessible to anyone who understands and applies the principle of undivided observation of the movement of thought/time.

When the flame of attention ignites a meditative state, the darkening shadow of the past is incinerated without smoke or ash. At least temporarily, and that’s good enough. 

However a meditative state is never the goal. There is simply the intent and delight in watching what is, within and without. A quickening of awareness and intensifying of attention in the shifting currents of consciousness effortlessly bring about transcendence.

The spiritual and intellectual enervation of the West cannot be divorced from the Judeo-Christian theology that underpinned western civilization, and now, in its death throes, has largely brought us to this pitiful pass.

But in a reaction to organized religion, secular progressives have dismissed or denied the religious dimension of human life. They have thereby ceded the field to conservatives, who are filling the spiritual void with white Christian nationalism – a triple threat to democracy, religious freedom and inward flowering. 

Mystical experiencing cannot be contextualized within any given religion, tradition or culture. Its essence is ending the domination of conditioning and belief systems within, and the opening of the mind and heart to inviolability beyond any and all constructions of the mind and hand.

What’s called mystical experience is simply the direct experiencing of the wholeness of life, the sublimity of being, and the sacredness beyond thought, knowledge and the known.

It’s near sunset, and kite falcon hovers over the field. Miles away, the canyon cliffs stand out in breathtaking relief in the late afternoon sun. The kite masterfully employs the wind to remain stationary while scanning the ground, and a golden light reflects off its white under-wings.

For more than half a minute the kite holds its position. Then, it stops fluttering its wings for a few seconds, and doesn’t move at all. With a grace beyond words, it drops to the ground, its immobile wings pinned back as it plummets to the earth. It ascends without prey, and I soar away with it.

Martin LeFevre

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