A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

This is called vitarka prajñā. Other than intellect, vitarka also means reasoning and opinion. Prajñā means wisdom, knowledge or intelligence. In this state of awareness, intelligence is limited to intellectual analysis at the external level. A mild meditator’s wisdom is often devoid of experiential intelligence and is limited to intellectual understanding of all phenomena. At this level, everything you know is second hand, someone gave it to you. Meditators at this level are happy to accept the knowledge passed on to them through their scriptures or teachers.

2. Investigative Awareness

Yogic texts call it vicāra prajñā. It means the intelligence you gain from deliberating on a thought with discerning wisdom.

The meditator now develops a degree of mental alertness. Such an individual is no longer keen to accept the scriptures on its face value, he starts to internalize the teachings and reflect on them to arrive at their own truth. The first two states are limited to mild meditators. The next two, however, are experienced by the average or medium meditator.

3. Blissful Awareness

It is called ananda pragya. It’s most interesting to note that an average meditator starts to experience an awareness of bliss long before realizing the final state (which means bliss is not the ultimate state in its own right). Beginning to rise above the social and religious conditioning, this meditator starts to feel disconnected from scriptures and preaching. He or she gains the courage to question the scriptures and validate the truth on their own. A certain stability starts to emerge in their sessions of meditation and, while experiencing tranquility, they get glimpses into their real nature. When they persist, they invariably experience the following higher states of consciousness.

4. Self-Awareness

This is called asmitā prajñā. Asmitā generally means ego. The meditator in this state experiences his individual self (a sense of ego) merging into the cosmic self. You begin to experience that you are an exact replica of the macrocosm, and that you are just about as infinite and eternal as the universe. You start to realize, not just intellectually but empirically, that you are not just the body, mind or senses, but something beyond. That you are more than the sum total of flesh and bones, more than just your desires, that there’s more than what meets the eye. Intense meditators progressively experience the next four states of consciousness.

5. Yoked Awareness

Yoga sutras and Upanishads call it vashikara prajñā. Its common meaning is subjugation of desire. This is the first irreversible state for an intense meditator. A practitioner at this level does not experience restlessness due to his or her desires even when they are not meditating. Their consciousness is now yoked to their object of meditation while carnal and other desires are curbed by superior awareness. Imagine what happens when someone falls in love. At the back of their mind, they are constantly thinking about the other person. Their consciousness is yoked to the thought of the one they love. This is a similar state of awareness with one important difference: a meditator cultivates it consciously and is in control of their awareness and not the other way around.

6. ‘Cessative’ Awareness

I am not sure if ‘cessative’ is a legit word, but I couldn’t think of a better one to explain what I mean. This state is called virāma pratyaya. Virāma means cessation and pratyaya means understanding, intelligence or consciousness in the current context. When the seeker continues to walk the path of meditation, the chattering nature of the mind starts to subside. You are able to remain focused on whatever you so wish without being bothered by internal noise or wandering thoughts. Better than subjugating your desire (however effortless) is to not have them at the first place. Hence, ‘cessative’ awareness is better than yoked. Remember that when we don’t abandon a thought it eventually either becomes a desire or an emotion.

7. Natural Awareness

This is called bhava pratyaya and it also means mental quietness. I’ve carefully chosen the word natural to depict this level of awareness. When you go beyond even concentration and focus, when you experience total cessation of all mental activity, something profound happens: you experience a complete stillness of the mind – no thoughts, no emotions, no analysis. This leads your mind to its natural state of pure, unimpeded eternal bliss. In this state, your desires and emotions don’t make you restless.