Entanglement

Why Mind is not the problem and Meditation is not the solution.

“Hi Shiv, referring to your last article on attention, just wondering if you have any hints or tips on how to focus on awareness, it’s difficult to pin down. Metaphorically speaking of course, mentally I feel like I’m being tortured on one of those medieval stretching racks, but I’m being pulled apart in all directions, I’m more than happy to be mentally ripped apart but I’m being held in that constant state of tension, not too much so that the joints come out of their sockets, but not enough to feel at ease either, and there’s nowhere to go and no escape (apart from sleep), so some kind of technique to focus on awareness in my daily life would be great. I do transcendental meditation occasionally, but the attainment of cosmic consciousness was abandoned years ago. Thanks.”

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How to focus on awareness… it’s a difficult question to answer because awareness is so simple and obvious.

It’s like asking - “How do I focus on my breath?” You just do. Your breath is ever present. You focus on it by turning your attention to it.

Similarly, your awareness is constant. You are always aware of something - an object, a feeling, a sensation, a thought. Just turn your attention to the fact that you are aware of that object, that feeling, that sensation, that thought.

It’s mundane, really. You probably do it several times a day without even registering it as significant. There is no magic trick or advanced technique I can give you.

Just do it, is all I can really say.

However, your confusion may stem from a certain misunderstanding that you seem to hold. It is a false assumption many spiritual seekers tend to make. The assumption that “Awareness” is something separate from the mind. They believe it is some hidden capacity that is revealed when the mind becomes quiet and does not obstruct or impede perception.

It’s why many are drawn to meditate. Driven by the belief that meditation leads one to some higher state of consciousness in which awareness is freed of the mind. But this is another misconception. Let me illustrate to you why.

I used to go camping a lot in my 20’s with my college friends, and I had a reputation amongst them as somewhat of an expert undoer of knots. Typically, when one packs up a tent, the ropes which secure the tent and tent-fly tend to get tangled over time if they are not meticulously put away. At each of our camping trips, there was always at least one person who would have a mess of tangled and knotted ropes that they would have no idea how to untangle. That’s when they called me, because of my knack for untangling these impossible webs.

My strategy was simple - I never focused on one knot for long. I’d get a feel for the whole rope in its tangled state and let my intuition guide me as to where to put my attention.

Fast-forward 20 years, and I seem to find myself in a similar position helping people attend to the mental knots they tie themselves in.

Awareness is the rope. What we call the mind is just a series of knots and tangles within that rope. In other words, your mind is just a unique pattern of entanglement that the rope of awareness has formed itself into.

Therefore, it is crucial that you first understand that awareness and mind are not separate things. Just like the rope and the knot are not separate things. A knot is simply an entangled state of the rope. Mind is simply an entangled state of awareness.

Therefore, the essence of the rope and the essence of the knot are one and the same. And further, the rope can manifest without the knot but the knot cannot manifest without the rope. Therefore, there is, in actuality, only the rope. In its tangled or untangled state.

Similarly, the essence of awareness and the essence of mind are one and the same. And further, awareness can manifest without the mind but the mind cannot manifest without awareness. Therefore, in actuality, there is only awareness. In its tangled or untangled state.

The untangled state we call meditation. The tangled state we call mind. But awareness is all there actually is.

Now, knots are not inherently problematic. They can be tremendously useful. A rope in its untangled form has very limited uses. But the moment you learn to knot it skillfully - you can do all sorts of things with the rope - you can haul heavy objects, you can rappel off a cliff, you can secure a boat to a dock, you can tow a vehicle, you can secure a tent fly.

Similarly, when awareness is tangled with skill and clear intention, the mind emerges as a highly powerful and functional tool that can build bridges, perform complex surgery, split the atom and create profound art and music.

However, just as if you neglect a rope and treat it haphazardly it will develop problematic knots and tangles over time that will inhibit rather than enhance the use of that rope, so also does neglecting our awareness and taking it for granted lead to a state of unintentional entanglement that becomes increasingly problematic to parse through.

As a skilled undoer of knots, I can tell you that a tangled rope approached with impatience, frustration, struggle or despair will only develop more tangles. As insurmountable as the task you are faced with may appear, acknowledging three things right from the get-go, before you commence your task, can be tremendously beneficial:

1. The rope doesn’t give a shit whether it is tangled or not. Only you do. (Awareness is unaffected by the presence of the mind and its problems.)

2. Working with a knotted rope teaches you more about the essence of the rope than you would ever learn from an unknotted rope. So, see this as an opportunity to learn rather than as an obstacle. (Engaging with the suffering that emerges from the mind teaches us more about the essence of who we are than the peace of meditative states.)

3. Ropes can still be used in their entangled states. It is not the end of the world. Better to have a tangled rope than no rope at all. (Even a busy and troublesome mind is worthy of gratitude.)

Most people when trying to untangle a rope get fixated on the knots. They become obsessed with working on a particular point of entanglement and freeing that up. When they don’t succeed, they feel defeated. When they do succeed, their elation lasts only for a short while because unraveling a knot in one place often just leads to the formation of a new knot in another.

The mind is no different. We become fixated on or frustrated with particular thoughts, beliefs, emotions and sensations and develop a sense of identity around them. We are no longer able to perceive awareness because we are busy obsessing over the entanglements we find ourselves mired in, which we label as suffering.

We begin to think awareness must be some elusive quality we have lost and have to regain. But it isn’t. It is ever present even in the midst of the myriad entanglements of our minds. Even in the midst of our conflicting thoughts, our tumultuous emotions. Just like the rope is always still present within the knot.

A rope is unaffected by the presence or absence of knots. It is no more or less ‘rope’ whether it has a hundred knots in it or only a few. Similarly, awareness is unaffected by the presence of the mind and its conditioning. Whether the mind is tied up in a hundred conflicts or only a few, neither diminishes nor enhances awareness in the slightest.

The reason I was so good at untangling ropes was because my focus was rarely ever on the knots itself. It was always on the rope. I would allow the rope to inform me as to which knot required attention first and just how much to loosen it. Loosening a knot too much could cause another to tighten. Sometimes, I’d have to work on several knots simultaneously and loosen them all ever so slightly in sequence in order to allow a larger section of the rope to be freed.

When working with the mind, don’t fixate on it. Hold it lightly even if it is problematic and the source of a lot of needless suffering. Just like you cannot disentangle a rope by fixating on the knots, you cannot disentangle your mind by fixating on its thoughts, emotions, beliefs and grievances.

To disentangle a rope you must get a feel for the whole of it and allow the rope to inform you as to where, how and to what extent you need to give it your attention. Similarly, to disentangle your mind, you must get a feel for the awareness that is its whole essence. And allow inspiration and intuition to guide you as to where, how and to what extent you need to give your mind attention.

You see yourself as a unique pattern of mental knots - a sequence of ideas, traits, feelings and convictions. But in essence you are really the rope. Awareness.

When you realize this to be your real self, then the knots of life no longer define your experience. You can approach them with a sense of ease knowing that no matter how unsolvable they may seem, they cannot alter the truth of who you are in the slightest.