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Somnambulism, further thought

I am going to assert that the feeling which pulls you away from something you are concentrating on amounts to a sort of somnambulism.  Some part of you demands of your consciousness that you walk away, just walk away.

Come here.

Why are we here?

It has nothing to say.  It just wanted you to move.  This is more or less equal to the activation, deep within your nervous system, of some very primitive part of your brain stem, of reflexes which would likely work even if most of your brain was missing.  It is very unconscious, very primitive.

I continue to like the three basic “spiritual”/emotional growth steps of the Kum Nye system of Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche: relaxation/ mindfulness/concentration.

Relaxation opens you to what is there.  It creates the POSSIBILITY of awareness, since many of us live with as little authentic awareness of our inner states as any animal.

Mindfulness is learning about and mapping and taming or managing, or perhaps best, learning to live with and accept the flow of, your rich inner landscape.

Concentration is identifying those elements of your landscape you want to grow and blossom.  It is perhaps a pruning of awareness.  This is true meditation, which in the Sanskrit is called “giving attention”.