Stream2

Meditation is about focus. What’s interesting about focus is that it can occur in different places. If any person meditates or even just relaxes on their couch for an extend period of time, their focus will settle into a default position. This is the nexus from which they are accustomed to thinking, sensing, deciding, etc…

This ties into Buddhist theory and in particular the path to enlightenment. The path to enlightenment is none other than the evolution of the nexus of focus of the individual. Let me unpack that.

Any given person focuses in a particular spot by default. If someone has never had a moment of enlightenment, then this particular spot will be what they identify as their sense of self, or their self. The key detail here is that the sense of self is not some truth as to who one is, but rather a particular location of focus. A location one is accustomed to gravitating towards.

What people in this state of being don’t know, is that this process of focusing on the self, or having their nexus of focus be located at the self, is actually a converging process. The self is not a truth, but rather a problem that wants to be solved. If someone in this default state of being were to meditate with extreme focus, they might clue in to a solution they didn’t know existed. They can observe their focus at this nexus, at their self, and learn what it is as a fact, not as an identity. This observance is so jarring, that it causes a surge of energy that results in an expulsion of joy. A joy like the person has never experienced before.

This causes a permanent shift in the way that this individual focuses. From that moment onward, they no longer focus on themselves, but they focus with the intent of reexperiencing a moment of joy like the one they had just experienced. The desire for extreme joy replaces the desire to be grounded in the self. Their nexus of focus has forever moved from one point to another point.

This is essentially levelling up in mindfulness. The person’s way of being mindful is new and stronger. If the person goes on to focus in this new way for a very long time, then eventually they will discover something else. Another observance of what is at the center of this new way of focusing. Again, this observance is so jarring that it results in another blissful feeling, and from this moment onward the person is no longer seeking the first moment of expulsion of joy with their focus, but now they are seeking a reoccurrence of this second moment of bliss. Their nexus of focus has shifted once more!

And so on and so forth!

This is the path to enlightenment. It is the movement of the nexus of focus from one point to another point, brought on by “solving” the problem of the current nexus of focus.