Meditation and Symbolic Contemplation: From Concentration to Abstract Mind

MEDITATION
Prolonged concentration becomes "meditation". In meditation, one observes the image point by point and makes all considerations to understand its ideal content. In meditation, one reasons and has a perception of dualism between the meditator and what is being meditated upon.

CONTEMPLATION
From meditation one passes to contemplation in which the absorption of the symbol's archetype in relation to the meditator's consciousness is complete, because the function of meditation, once exhausted, is replaced by perfect union or identification between the Self and the figure and the pure idea that it represents.

CONSTANCY: Very often our problem is given by the difficulty of maintaining a constant and concentrated flow directed in the same direction for a prolonged time, this because generally attention is moved by interest which is not always voluntary, but outside the domain of will.

INTENSITY: But another problem is also dictated by the intensity of consciousness and the state of Wakefulness. Those who have dedicated themselves to practice will have noticed that when they manage to enter a more vigilant and awake state of consciousness automatically, when the intensity of consciousness increases automatically the symbols speak to the individual. There are indeed periods or phases that are free or earned through asceticism in which all symbols seem to speak to the individual and reveal themselves, this because the intensity of consciousness has exceeded that minimum threshold to penetrate and go beyond form.

There are various tools to solve these problems and maybe we'll talk about them later at the end of the meeting if there are questions. A very important tool for obtaining stability of mind and intensifying consciousness and psychic intensity is breathing.

ABSTRACT MIND AND CONCRETE MIND
However, the crucial point to understand is that at a certain point in this process, indicatively between concentration and meditation, the concrete mind and rational thought must suspend themselves in favor of an activity of the abstract mind and thought. It's important to understand well the distinction between these two tools of thought that we have but that we are not very used to distinguishing unless through particular introspection:

ABSTRACT | CONCRETE
IDEA | FORM
GENERAL | PARTICULAR
INTUITION | RATIONALITY
SYNTHESIS | ANALYSIS
ATTUNEMENT | DESCRIPTION

The object of concrete thought is a FORM, conversely abstract thought has no forms but IDEAS. For example, from a concrete point of view I can think of a circle, from an abstract point of view of Circularity.

The concrete mind reasons on the particular, that is, analyzes and distinguishes particular cases like the features of this House. Conversely, abstract thought involves general characteristics that refer to the idea of house.

Concrete thought is rational, that is, it analyzes, weighs, deduces. Abstract thought instead intuits, that is, penetrates the reality of the thing. One is analytical, the other synthetic. With concrete thought you describe objects, conversely with abstract thought you attune yourself to them.

EXAMPLE OF CREATIVE PROCESS AND VARIOUS ASPECTS OF MIND
To better understand this distinction, let's examine a creative process that will allow us to better understand this main division between the informal world or reality and the formal world or reality in which we live.

Let's make a simple division, even if not accurate, that serves to understand this concept: Man is formed by a visible part and an invisible part, let's say by a material part and a spiritual part (where here we make no distinction between soul, spirit etc...). A manifest part and an unmanifest one, a visible and an invisible one. His action therefore will be visible as well as invisible.

To do something simple that everyone can understand, let's suppose we have an inventor. Let's suppose we have an inventor who wants to invent something. But these phases of the creative process are the same for any creative act: a story, a novel, a work of art.

First of all we have his will: The individual wants to realize an invention. He still doesn't know nor has an idea of what he will realize, he only has the intention, the will to realize it. The writer like the inventor has the will to write a novel, he doesn't know what it's about, or anything, but only that he wants to write something.

Subsequently he cradles this idea, conceives it even though at this point it still doesn't have a form yet. For example, I want to write a book, I cradle this idea of writing a book or a novel even though I don't know yet the subject, setting or plot.

When I pass to a successive level, here then the artist as well as the inventor among all possible ideas or fields chooses one, for example inventing a vehicle. Conversely the artist can choose to want to write a heroic novel, of heroism.

At this point the travail begins, the concentrated mind is stretched in seeking an attunement with the idea he has in mind that still doesn't have a precise form, but slowly structures itself and takes form according to the subject's mentality, culture, historical period, opportunities so that in the end the inventor invents for example the Ferrari. From an idea now we have a precise, specific mental form. The idea of the vehicle is always the same, it hasn't changed, if the inventor was in the time of the ancient Egyptians he would have invented the racing chariot, but according to the mentality here this idea has taken a specific form dictated by the cultural context, etc...

The same for the novelist who sees the plot of the heroic novel forming, the characters, events, until having the entire plot perfectly structured, that is, a Mental Form.

Once the mental form is realized, here arrives the desire to practically realize this mental form and finally here is its physical and material realization.

SYMBOL ALLOWS THE PASSAGE
The symbol is therefore a form that has behind it an idea that is what the creator of the symbol put there. In the case of traditional symbols, the idea behind the symbol is the God-Man, which is why they are so important.

PRACTICAL PART: MEDITATION ON THE SYMBOL (CUP)
RATIONAL STUDY OF THE SYMBOL analysis: search for information everywhere, example of...