TRANSENSING - TS

TS is a way of using the obvious, deploying our attention on an aspect of the way we are in the moment, in order to demonstrate the universal resource of being able to see, hear, sense sensations, and even reflect on thoughts in the context of a more expanded, or panoramic perspective.

Conservative custodians of consciousness maintain that these three domains of experience are exclusive, and banks of belief have been raised to contain each in proper and mutually exclusive course.

Yet, moment-to-moment consciousness will inform us as to how unreal that conception is as compared with the perception that this experience we all share called “consciousness” is so multi-layered and interwoven as to be totally indescribable... but that does not render it useless... nor unintelligible.

However, we must come to terms with the belief that life can only become intelligible and manageable when we contract consciousness into a narrow band of attention which does, in fact, become a tension.

TranSensing points to the experience that there is no need to have a tension while exploring and experiencing a more expanded way of being. Also, we can experience that in a consciously expanded state, sometimes referred to as “Presence,” the focus of attention will not be distracting nor disruptive, i.e., attention is no longer a tension. The expanded stare now supports and balances attention.

For most people, consciousness is habitually contracted, so practice in allowing more expanded states will be necessary.

This begins by returning to the merging of the senses, including thought formation, and the expansion thereof.

Full attention of any sense will tend to magnify it. Having magnified each in succession, there is a stepping-back into the mode of simultaneity.

At this point, one returns Consciously to the multi-sensory world of humanness-- but in a different way.

We will notice that it is equally possible to have a simultaneous perspective of thoughts, and an awareness of thoughts while they are still in “seed” form, before they develop into “trains” of thought.

We can “just be,” yet also simultaneously do, precisely as I am experiencing just now in writing these words. That may at first seem paradoxical, but, on further scrutiny, one can see the possibility that it is in fact just a mundane observation, as we find ourselves embodied on this planet, with the commitment to life-cherishing in place (hopefully with firm intention).

So, we cannot avoid the doing; that need not prevent us from the harmonising experience of fully conscious be-ing.

The turning point is reached when all effort is voluntarily released. If guiding another, this is the last invitation. Without effort, attention ceases, for it requires an effort to maintain attention. To put it another way, in an effortless state, attention is no longer a tension. Don’t get me wrong; I am not rejecting effort outright, nor the need for the application of effort in living and in conscious cultivation. I am discriminating instead against struggle, meaning the compulsive and unnecessary, wasteful application of effort. “Wasteful” here translates as “energy becoming depleted for no satisfactory reason, resulting in a pervasive feeling of unfulfillment.

The fact is that the concentrated practice of effortlessness, which some call “meditation,” results in a less struggleful life. During such a concentrated practice, the only attention that is relevant is the expanded, minimal attention required to maintain the clarity of awareness. Focused attention on thought-forms always contracts that pure awareness, and is the “something extra” from which struggle originates.

After sitting for some time in stillness, thought trains may begin to reappear. Worries, wants, and wonderings.

It may be useful to label which variety, or even to encourage yourself to notice how it feels to pursue this line of thinking, i.e., to let attention manifest in that way. Notice if that seems more effortful and if the sense of struggle begins to reappear. If so, just gently suggest the retreat back to simply observing the thought(s), and then expand once again into the full panorama of all possible thought forms as you release any effort concerned with either concentrating (attention) or refraining from concentration.

It is important to note that TS is not a “practice” in the conventional sense of that word. It is more like a “remembering.”

The guidance of attention is never toward fantasy, visualisation, nor on being someone different or some place else.

The emphasis is simply on exploring and expanding consciousness into what is already her and now. One becomes more conscious of other possible ways of being in the here and now, perhaps more pleasant, always more inclusive.

Explored regularly, this Remembering gradually eases any sense that something is missing.

A contemporary thinker has pointed out that:

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. Because we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes, limits, and conditions our thoughts and deeds.”