Two young fish were swimming along one day when they met an older fish swimming toward them who said, “Good morning boys, how’s the water?” They each went their separate ways and one of the young fish turned to the other and said, “what the hell is water?”

In the same way, we are immersed in an ocean of consciousness, seldom realizing its existence.

When David Foster Wallace gave this parable he said, “The most obvious and important realities in our lives are the most difficult to see and talk about.”

Wikipedia defines consciousness as the most familiar and the most mysterious aspect of our lives,

Many have struggled with the question of ‘what is consciousness?’ but no one has offered a definition that satisfies everyone. Probably because consciousness is something so close to us that someone else’s definition is just, someone else’s definition.

Let’s clarify this, if we can.

Please close your eyes for a moment and think on the words “I exist.” I think you will agree that this sense of “I ness,” is every ones most intimate experience; it is our constant and direct experience of consciousness. We can’t see or touch it but we know it is there. We can call this our individual self.

Now taking that a step further, you can also think, “I know that I exist.” To say “I know that I exist” implies that someone is witnessing “you.” We can call this the Supreme Self, many call it GOD.

Teachers such as myself don’t eat chocolate because it’s a stimulant. My teacher used to say that there is an advantage and a disadvantage to the all seeing eye of God. He would say that the disadvantage is that you can no longer go into the closet, close the door, eat your chocolate bar and think that no one is watching and the advantage is that you are never alone.

His name was Shrii Shrii Anandamurti , we called Him Baba, which means “nearest and dearest one. He would often say “for me, you boys and girls are Baba.” He composed thousands of songs, each one of them speaking from this intimate place, as if from your own self. One of them, “tumi amar koto apan age bujini,” it’s Bengali and means “I didn’t understand before how close you are to me.

The phrase, “God is Love” has resounded through the centuries since the beginning of time. To know love completely and all it has to confer is an experience we all want and strive our entire lives to find, knowingly or unknowingly.

There are three ways to have this experience.

Death, not very convenient, coma, also not particularly desirable and meditation. Keeping in mind that deep meditation in one form or another is present in all spiritual and religious ideologies, as prayer, contemplation, ideation, etc.

In all three of these states of mind something essential is happening; mind is becoming quiet, detached from body awareness.

In death it becomes absolutely still and many unexpressed reactions to our previous actions rise to the surface of the mind. The mind doesn’t die when the body dies and a new life is a new opportunity to express that which we couldn’t express in the last life.

Also in coma, many of the same things happen. You’ve probably heard of the experiences some have when they come out of coma, dramatic life changing events, near death experiences and so on. It’s because their mind has been temporarily detached from the body.

In meditation the mind is being directed to a place of absolute peace and balance. When you think with concentration on a word that is the embodiment of peace and balance, your mind moves in that direction. This is the beginning. As the mind becomes more subtle we realize that we are caught in an unending flow of intuition, synchronicity and love.

If you see someone sitting with their eyes closed but obviously awake, they may be engaged in so many different practices; prayer, withdrawal, ideation, concentration, contemplation, all of which work together to bring the mind to that place of stillness.

It’s from here that the deeper layers are accessible and make themselves known perhaps in a flash of intuition. Perhaps 10 times in the life of a “normal human being” one will see into the deeper layers of mind and some great truth is revealed. For example, “my child on the other side of the earth is in danger.”

I have an example of this from my own meditation. It seems a bit hard to believe, even for me. As I sat there, suddenly I felt that bubbles were rising from deep within and each contained a truth. When they reached the surface of my mind they popped and I could realize each truth. When the meditation was over I didn’t remember them. But there was the overwhelming feeling that “I am no longer alone.”

Now, I know this sounds like a fairytale, so let me tell you how I make sense of it. In my meditations through the years I’ve heard various sounds from within and they have always been easily recognizable. For example, crickets, tinkling bells. I knew immediately what the sound was, even though it didn’t really answer the question of what it was. So, I think bubbles popping and revealing a truth was just a little scenario prepared by my mind for my understanding. It means to me that there is someone inside who cares enough about me to see that I understood what was happening. Is that crazy or what?

Many who have gone before, tell us that the important element here is to live and work CONSCIOUSLY, remembering that the ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE can be ours, if we make the effort.