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Problem Words: ‘‘Pure Consciousness’’; ‘‘Being’’; ‘‘Cosmic’’
The question really is not to define the fact—for we cannot do that—
but to get at
and experience it.
Edward Carpenter (1844–1929)1
A word is a word. An experience is an experience. Both are different.
S. Shigematsu
Kobori-Roshi advised me early to beware of words that had multiple
meanings.
This chapter probes a few more of them.
The phrase ‘‘pure consciousness’’ continues to sow confusion more than a
decade after Forman pointed to its semantic pitfalls.2 When someone
employs the
term today, it remains unclear whether its usage describes an early
moment, an
intermediate step, or some ultimate stage among the several optional
varieties of
consciousness.3
When I started to meditate in Kyoto, it took several weeks before I
stumbled
into the early moments of thought-free awareness. That first episode
was a surprise
to a neurologist. I never expected my awareness could rest lightly on
nothing!
Later, when the quiet moments of open awareness had lasted longer, I
could
realize that my physical sense of self had been dropping out
increasingly from the
mental field.
Chang had written, back in 1959, that a ‘‘stopping’’ of the breath
(Chin.: chih
shi) was a common, natural phenomenon that occurred during periods of
meditative
absorption.4 TM investigators went on to conduct a detailed study of
these silent
epochs of so-called pure consciousness that could occur during
meditation.
They confirmed that the episodes were often accompanied by a
suspension of respiration5
(see chapter 20) [Z:93–99].
However, these particular ‘‘pure’’ moments which do recur during
meditation
have thus far tended to be, in Forman’s word, ‘‘rudimentary.’’6 I
agree. Most
are interpretable as ‘‘shallow preludes’’ to the much deeper states of
the major
absorptions [Z:99].
James H. Austin, MD; Zen-Brain Reflections
