Aligning the Four Qualities
In our approach to consciousness meditation, we must first examine the inner work process. Most important are the four qualities (humility, gratitude, compassion, harmony). This is necessary because our grasp of the observation → emotion dynamic discloses the bias driven emotional response(s) that construct our inner dialogue. Alignment with the four qualities will neutralize those conditioned interference patterns.
Our ego-bias habituation frames the emotional responses provoked by our observations. We have diverse types of observations: via the five senses, memories, visualizations, thought wandering, and especially our inner dialogue. A default mode inner dialogue shaped by ego-bias conditioning is a potential source for cyclic generation of destructive intruding emotions that deter us from greater perceptual capacities offered through consciousness meditation.
Key Contemplation: Emotional responses are distinct forms of energy that not only feed our inner dialogue but also influence the unified conscious field. Read my article, Observation as First Cause, Part 1.
A Collection of Influencing Energies
The four qualities function as active energies—codes that unlock different aspects of our bias restricted awareness. Humility is the expressed energy of my beingness, of my presence, I see myself in every human being. Gratitude is my expressed energy of observing and accepting situations and interactions “as is,” without bias conditioned manipulations. Compassion is the expressed energy of my humanness I offer to all sentient beings without qualification. Harmony expresses my natural synergy with the unified consciousness field.
One of the essential elements of inner work is to consciously engage the four qualities during all observations, regardless of the type or form of observation. Consciously engaging the four qualities means:
· I am humility
· I am gratitude
· I am compassion
· I am harmony
The four qualities are sine qua non to expanded consciousness experience and meditation—e.g., without enlisting the four qualities, consciousness meditation efforts will not be fruitful. The intention to experience expanded consciousness will be constantly interrupted by our still unevolved inner dialogue.
Distractions Only Deliver Distractions
Some forms of meditation will attempt certain shortcut tactics to subdue the inner dialogue interference, such as breathing techniques. Breathwork can (temporarily) focus concentration away from the inner dialogue, but more intense breathing techniques might create altered states of brain activity.
Holotropic breathing practices are claimed to deliver expanded consciousness or “spiritual” hallucinatory experiences, but these events are simply a process of inducing brain activity through oxygen flow manipulation. The altered experience ends when the exercise stops.
The Unnamable Energy
Expanded consciousness realized through the four qualities is an evolution in human perceptual cognition, an outcome that is exclusive to the human species. Inner work, the four qualities, and consciousness meditation progressively intertwine until we begin the experiential phase of our expanding consciousness.
The four qualities gradually merge into a single force of influencing energy (often referred to as unconditional love), and the four imperatives (insight, guidance, knowledge, wisdom) begin the early stages of expression. Read my article, The Four Imperatives, Part 1. The new influencing energy is not nameable. The presence of that energy within the practitioner signifies that she or he no longer has a capacity to cause harm or detrimental actions against any sentient being.
Key Contemplation: Expanded consciousness is not attainable without the mastery of the four qualities. This is precisely why the global population has not emerged as a community defined by the energetic influences of humility, gratitude, compassion and harmony. The lack of clarity regarding the four qualities, by the religions and spiritual methods—and those who teach and represent those systems — is precisely why they have never delivered on their implied solutions for war, poverty, disease, despair, or the consciousness elevation of our species.
One cannot divulge what one cannot perceive.
For a maturing practitioner, consciousness expansion reveals the secret conversations happening around us—the silent emotional communications before thoughts, the influencing energies passing between strangers, the way gratitude energy travels faster than words. We become fluent in this unspoken language.
Part 3 will continue with deeper aspects of consciousness meditation.
Feel free to ask questions privately: contact me
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Four Imperatives?
The Four Imperatives—insight, guidance, knowledge, and wisdom—are capacities that become available to the practitioner during the experiential phase of expanded consciousness.
How long does it take to master the Four Qualities?
There is no rigid timeline. Every practitioner will experience the journey differently.
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Rob Taylor
Rob Taylor
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