Awareness: Transition from Unconscious to Conscious

“What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine,
you create.”

In his treatise on No Mind, Dr. D.T. Suzuki, probably the best known
interpreter of Zen Buddhism to the West, describes the word Prajna, which in
Sanskrit refers to Awareness or Consciousness, as Self Nature, and as the
awakening of consciousness in the unconscious.

In the ancient wisdom of Vedic philosophy and psychology, unconscious had

powerful positive connotation, in alignment with latter day views of Jung rather
than Freud. Mandukya Upanishad described the third state of awareness as
Deep Sleep, Unconscious and Prajna, a heightened state of awareness.

The next state, the highest state of awareness and consciousness, was
Turiya, the Fourth State, in which the mind disengaged as an observer. This
state in Zen has been described by several words such as Wu-Hsin, Wu Nien
and Wu-Wei.

The origin of these of these words is the Vedic polarity of Brahman and Maya,
reality and non-reality. Unlike the common understanding maya does not
mean illusion or worse still delusion, just unreal, as in not permanent, merely
transient, as our entire life is. Brahman, on the other hand, is the unknowable,
unattainable, indescribably true reality; one that they say, ‘who talks about dos
not know, and who know does not talk about.’

Wu is Chinese, as Mu in Japanese, in the simplest sense is negation, and is

far more when used in the Zen context. It is sunya, emptiness; purna,
completeness; tathata, suchness; and many other variations of prajna. Wu-
Wei is effortlessness in action, arising out of acceptance and surrender. Wu-
Nien is no memory and no thought, not the absence since no living creature
that breathes is without thought but disengaged from thought. These lead to
Wu-Hsin, the no mind state, where duality disappears. This is the state that
Zen refers to as satori, yoga as Samadhi, Buddha as nirvana, the ultimate
state of disengaged bliss with fullness and no polarities.

There are multiple pathways for one who is committed to move from the
mindful sensory existence grounded in fear and greed to the mindless aware
state of fulfillment, compassion and gratitude.

Yoga, with its eight limbs, moving from external practices concerning
behaviour, body and breath, to internal practices disengaging from senses,
and thoughts provides a journey to the ultimate mindless state.

Chakra energization processes help us disengage, energy centre by energy

centre, from memories, emotions and attachments to a mindless body-less
matter-less state of total energy.
Concepts and practices such as Ikigai help us define what keep us alive and
purposeful and then to define where we wish to be to be fulfilled. Almost all
these practices involve some for of meditation, defining meditation as a
practice of self-inquiry that leads us to the Source, the process Otto Scharmer
would call Presencing.

With apologies to Scharmer, I would also define this as the state of

Absencing, a different word with a meaning different from the one he uses,
but to the same end result when the absence of individual ego with no will, no
heart and no mind will result is the highest collective eco benefits.

Coaching is a process that can lead both the coach and when the coach is
absent the client to the state of awareness. The client may not need to reach
the no mind state if not desired. The coach needs to, however. A coach with
the baggage of fear and greed cannot coach. As Buddha as well as the
Brihadharanyaka Upanishad say, they become what they think; they attract
what they feel; they create what they imagine.

When the coach sheds the baggage that they think and feel, disengage from
memories, thoughts, emotions and ego, which otherwise make them
judgmental, be absent from these so that they may be aware and present as
coaches, then and only then can they add value to their clients.