Exploring the first of the four and#8216;superconscious statesand#8217; todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte titled and#8220;Integrationand#8221; by Sangharakshita takes us in for a closer look at the energies of both the conscious and unconscious mind and how the process of integration leads to greater harmony and ease.
Excerpted from the talk, and#8220;A Method of Personal Development,and#8221; given in 1976 as part of the series and#8220;Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow.and#8221;
[Music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. [Music] So, stage of integration. Integration means bringing things together. It means making them into a whole. And this does not mean holding them together as it were by force, by means of some external bond. It means holding them together, bringing them together, making them into a whole bite, as it was subordinating them, bringing them into harmony with a common principle, or even grouping them, arranging them around a common center of interest. In the present context, which is that of personal development or meditation, the integration is primarily psychological. And what is brought together, what is integrated, are the different aspects and functions of the mind itself. And when we actually meditate, when we try to concentrate, the common principle, the common focus of interest is what we call the subject of the meditation, or the particular mental or material object on which, as a preliminary practice, one focuses attention. And this may be a mantra, it may be one's own breath, or it may be a disk of color. And this psychological integration, we may say, is twofold. It's what we may describe as horizontal, and it's what we may describe as vertical. And the first, the horizontal integration, represents a sort of bringing of things together, a bringing of ones, mental states, and functions together, within consciousness. It's a bringing together of all ones conscious interests and energies. And this, of course, is comparatively easy to achieve. We can do it at least for a short time. But the second, the so-called vertical integration, consists in the bringing together of consciousness and unconsciousness and their respective contexts. In other words, consists in the bringing together of the interests and the energies of both the conscious and the unconscious minds. And this is very much more difficult because the two are very often pulling in opposite directions. But now they become gradually unified. They're given a common direction. They're given a common purpose. They're brought together. And energy, therefore, begins to flow from the unconscious into the conscious mind. And concentration becomes easier. We find that we can sit longer in meditation. We experience a sense of harmony and repose. We experience an absence of conflict. So this is the state or stage of integration. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
