Concentrating the Conscious Energy

An Inner Exercise

The conscious energy is like a movie screen, on which all our sensory perceptions appear. It is the pure awareness beneath our senses. It is what is there, here, in the gaps between our thoughts. It is what is always here, under all experience at all times, even beneath our thoughts. It has the qualities of wholeness and peace. When we are purely being, we are abiding in consciousness.

The energy of consciousness is all-pervasive, having no boundaries. The field of consciousness extends everywhere. Yet like the gravitational field, consciousness is stronger in some places, while weaker in others, stronger in some people, while weaker in others, stronger in a person at one time and weaker in that person at other times. It is part of our inner work to strengthen the consciousness within us [1]. If consciousness is strong enough in a person or a group, it can affect the people around them by enabling them to be more conscious as well. The conscious energy can blend with the sensitive energy to form the vessel of our soul, the second body.

The simple act of paying attention engages the conscious energy and strengthens it. In a group setting, various actions can lead to a concentration of the conscious energy: a shared effort, team sports, Gurdjieff movements, group meditation, communal worship, and others. Yet there is also another effective approach on the individual level.

Creating a vacuum in ourselves is an act of will. We cannot act on conscious energy in the same way we can act on sensitive energies. Because when we act, for example by aiming our attention, we are using conscious energy as the intermediary for that action: our will directs conscious energy to focus our sensitive awareness on the chosen object of our attention. Our will engages conscious energy and with that we can act on sensitive energies. A higher energy, such as the conscious energy, can act on a lower energy, such as the sensitive energy. But that direct approach does not work well within the same level of energy. An attempt to direct the conscious energy inside us to act on conscious energy outside us, for example, to draw the field of consciousness into ourselves, is unlikely to be effective.

For that, we can work instead to temporarily create a vacuum within us, to become a vacuum, an intentional emptiness in our core, a void or hole in the center of our being, a hole that consciousness fills. This is an act of privation, of sacrifice, of self-abnegation. A possible byproduct of this action is a vacuum or emptiness in our mind and a longing in our feelings.

Our act of creating this inner vacuum, this inner gap, engages the whole of us and draws the field of consciousness into us, making it stronger in us. Upon entering us, it blends with the sensitive energy in us and stays even after we let go of the vacuum action. By persisting in this action, the conscious energy accumulates to the point that instead of it being hidden behind and masked by our inner and outer sensory perceptions, consciousness grows strong enough to occupy the foreground, to be what we live in for those moments. We grow more robust and present in the World of the Conscious Energy.

Practicing this inner act of emptying oneself also prepares us for yet deeper spiritual openings to come. Here is an exercise:

Concentrating the Conscious Energy:

Sit quietly, relaxing into your body.
As you relax, sensation comes to the foreground. Shift your attention into the sensation throughout your body and stay with that.
Savor the air you are breathing.
Cast your attention like a net into the air around you and draw the active elements, shimmering particles of energy, into your body to build up the sensation throughout your body, the mind energy in your head, and the feeling energy in your chest. Repeat this step until sensitive energy is strong throughout your being.
Inhabit the sensitive energy throughout your body, feeling, and mind. Be in it.
Recognize the conscious energy, this unbounded field of pure awareness, the substantive stillness that surrounds and permeates you. Open to boundless consciousness.
Keeping your attention within your core, create a vacuum there to draw the conscious energy into you. Create and maintain that inner vacuum as a void in your center. Let this emptiness of self deepen and spread to widen the gap between your thoughts, to enhance the feeling of longing in your heart. Let that vacuum fill itself, fill your being, with consciousness. Repeat this as needed to maintain and deepen this void.
Rest in simple presence.

[1] See J.G. Bennett; The Dramatic Universe, Volume 4: History, page 383: "the energies of Consciousness and Creativity can be concentrated in individuals and groups"

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