Three Realms of Being

"Karl Jaspers distinguishes three realms of Being: Being-there, Being-oneself, and Being-in-itself, and then proceeds to state that these three realms 'are in no sense reducible to one another.' Blackham in his Six Existentialist Thinkers speaks for Jaspers:

"The person who is made aware of them may participate in all three; Transcendence embraces the world of objects and subjects: but the logical understanding, founded upon the objects of empirical existence, being-there, is unable without falsification to describe the other realms of existence or to bring them into a common system; their discontinuity is invincible, only to be reconciled in the life of a person and by faith in transcendence."

...This "calling and responding" is one of the methods frequently used by Zen masters in order to make us come to a Zen awakening. The awakening itself is a simple psychological event, but its significance goes deep down to the basic make-up of human and cosmic consciousness. For we humans thereby penetrate into the structure of reality which is behind the dichotomy of subject and object, of Man and Nature, of God and Man. In terms of time we are back at the point where there is yet no consciousness or mind or intellectualization; therefore, it is a moment of timelessness, a moment of no-thought rising in the breast of the Godhead. A satori (third-eye) event takes place at this moment, and there is for the firs time a possibility of communication- a wonderful event, biologically speaking, in the evolution of consciousness, in which Nature comes to itself and becomes Man, known in Zen as "the original face" or "the nose" or "the primary man".

~Zen Buddhism, Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki, Edited by William Barrett

Okay, so once you shake off all the enlightenment jargon in this piece it appears to me that this is describing the "aha" moment(s) that meditation and mindfulness can provide. It reminded me of my first true break-through during meditation which was so profound-yet so simple- that I was moved to tears of gratitude right then and there. And it was this: The idea that no matter what is taking place in your life or the storm you may be experiencing internally, you forever maintain a private sanctuary within you that you can house and revisit as often as you like. Given the circumstances of my life at the time, this realization was paramount to my survival and offered relief within hardship. These moments of clarity are often so simple and I can't help but wonder if maybe we just think too much.

As my husband pointed out, it seems strange that we have to go physically seeking for things like beauty and solitude when our ancestors were surrounded by it constantly. Some theorists believe this removal from our most basic primal instincts in the face of modernism and technology is partly responsible for the increase in depression in recent years.

So, herein lies the importance of slowing down. Return to yourself.

Please share your stories of meditation below.