Conditioned, Unconditioned. What are they?

Think of a glass of muddy water. There is a lot of mud, murkiness, turbulence, to hold your attention if you choose to give it your attention. Now, let that glass stand for a while. You’ll find that the mud begins to settle revealing the water which was previously not so obvious. The longer you allow the glass to stand, the more mud that settles and the clearer the water becomes. You would hardly believe that such clear water was actually present when you first held that glass! Yet, it was there, just obscured by the mud.

The mind is rather like that glass of muddy water. The mud reflects the conditioned mind; the clear water, the unconditioned mind.

Give the mind a chance to sit quietly and the mud, the conditioning, the habitual thoughts, feelings, sensations, start to settle, revealing the clear mind. I sometimes call it the clear water mind, the unconditioned mind.

This is one of the many beautiful and effective analogies used in Buddhist teachings about mind. It is not as if there are two minds – conditioned and unconditioned. Rather, there are different states of consciousness.

The conditioned state of consciousness/mind is the one that is most dominant in our lives. Is if filled with activity – thoughts (particularly thoughts of judgment and discrimination), feelings (particularly of cravings and attachments, fears and aversions) and sensations. It is conditioned by all our life experiences and all the beliefs that we have acquired from our earliest days.

The unconditioned state of consciousness is that which is always present yet obscured by the conditioned mind. It is not conditioned by our life experiences. It is the primordial mind. Like the clear water, it is revealed when the conditioned mind is allowed to settle. Most often, this settling takes place when we sit in quietude, in mental observance, as we might in meditation.

But the ‘settling’ can also happen as a sudden, spontaneous event, as when we enter into the presence of great beauty such as a rainforest or a full moon or a mountain view, an unexpected creek, a waterfall, a newborn child, a new love, daybreak….For a few, brief moments, the conditioned mind is dropped, disarmed as it were, spontaneously and effortlessly as the mind focuses on sheer beauty.

So, the unconditioned mind is by nature radiant, luminous, peaceful, joyous, free, limitless, creative, creating, love and loving. It has no attachments, cravings or aversions. It simply is. Spend time in the unconditioned state of consciousness and you return to your original state – whole, complete, needing nothing, lacking nothing.

Live more and more from this state of consciousness and the world becomes a much more friendly place. Much less threatening. Much less demanding. Much less frantic. Much less unkind. How? Because when your consciousness shifts, so does the entire world’s. There’s no separation between consciousnesses. How could there be?

Peace.

Lucy
How shall I serve you, my Love?

For Online and Offline Mentoring/Meditation/Workshops/Retreats Contact lucy@lucylopez.net
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