I am deeply impressed by Sam Harris and this is mostly because of his very unique view on how to make sense of reality, consciousness and the self. After reading several of his books I think that there is too much meaning in them to decompress and it requires comprehensive analysis and review. It’s a journey to be undertaken by bringing his ideas into practice and testing them one by one to see which ones can be easily incorporated and have an immense effect on well being
He places consciousness as the central idea - refers it to as the only important thing in the universe. Consciousness is described as turning the lights on/off - of an existance of an inner world of feelings and perception - that I know. This is a property present in higher order mammals.
Another example to form a uncover a different view of consciousness is considering the english language, we understand the english language and its components - alphabets, words, sentences and the rules - grammar but at any point of time in the conversation we can’t un understand these - they are always present. In other words the transcription of these audio signals to something which makes sense is in the unconscious, we are not aware of how it happens and even if we want we cannot uncover it.
At some level - all of the perception, internal or external, thoughts, conversation and interaction with the elements of reality takes place in the field of consciousness. Imagine C as a tank of moist clay - when we insert something into the goo moist clay it temporarily takes the shape of it and the clay can feel the object (however limited) and once it’s taken out it’s back to it’s original form. Similarly any kind of information sharing between ‘us’ and the world has to occur in consciousness
This raises another question - what exactly are we? Are we brain tissue? are we the computation inside the brain - referred to as the mind. SH thinks that we are C at the end of the day and therefore to achieve a deeper sense of self and to live a meaningful life is to cultivate this C or rather remove the obstructions which hinder it’s normal workings. This makes easy the process of engagement which is the true meaning of life - maximal engagement in every waking moment
To achieve this SH suggests mindfulness meditation - it’s not something extra to do but a procedure to undo and observe the hinderances in this process. Eg instead of mindlessly being occupied by a concern, a thought, an activity or a feeling - sitting down and inspecting sensation from the base:
How do you know you are sitting down? Is it from the tension in your folded legs? What about your legs? Or is it because of a few body parts touching the ground in a way which only happens in sitting. Once you have fully explored this move on
Inspect any bodily sensation - are there any tensions in the body which are attracting attention, any pain - don’t try to avoid it, either fix it or try to attend to it and truly see what is happening - where exactly is the pain, what kind of a pain is it, is it pangs like a wave or consistent? Move on once you are at peace with these sensation and there is not much left to explore
Inspect the current real estate in your mind - whats’ going on? What are you thinking currently? Step out - try to watch it as if you were looking at some one else brain. Once you do this you will recognize that conscious thinking is not mindless persistence, you can see these thoughts come up and fade into the background, like ripples in a lake with a particular energy signature which you can feel in the body. The point is not to be attached with a particular thought so much that you loose C (attentiveness/ awareness of the task at hand)
Are there any visions? Are they blurred? The point is to examine and understand by proof that things are always taking place in consciousness and we are often captured by them. Sense organs just add extra depth to them but we are able to recreate these sensations at a moments notice - which may not be high fidelity but are there. The point of this entire exercise is to understand whats’ going on and identify the points where you loose track of C and are captured by the happenings. The point is to observe without hinderance. Like keeping a hand on a vibrating body part and truly feeling that vibration - adjusting the hand in such a way that it doesn’t dampen or agitate the vibrations
Finally try to see this process of observance - how do we know that there is a thought, how do we know that it’s fleeting - can we see that mechanism? That exactly is C and it is inherently free. Attitudes, moods and emotions are things which can taint C but they are not C, they can apply a filter over it (over the information processed by C) and present it in a different light but nevertheless they are still more process applied after an object has been perceived in C
The goal is to be in this calm - attentive state for long periods of time and eventually identify each moment as a happening in C and be as much engaged as possible with any given moment. This can be done by choosing an object of focus - the most frequent suggestion being the sensation of inhale and exhale in the nostrils also called object of meditation. The goal being to focus on this chosen object for a set period of time and noticing all the distractions that come through. Not interacting with them, not trying to subdue them or explore them - just noticing them and letting them pass by
Balance app teaches several other properties in the breath to be identified like temperature, pressure, flow of air etc but I think this again leads to distraction - we should pick one and be as pinpointed as possible
Balance app also suggests us to label distractions - this is basically a technique to identify distractions - and to avoid a state or being too distracted to even notice distractions
SH terms this as sitting and thinking without noticing that you are thinking
SH suggests that everything in life is a skill and mindfulness is also a skill which gives us an extra degree of freedom to live in the world. Mindfulness enables to understand difficult emotions like anxiety and helps us to navigate thorough them