THE STATE OF PURE IGNORANCE

The various practices prescribed by the sages were designed to deliver the soul to a unique state of consciousness, which can be characterized as a state of pure ignorance. It was also viewed as a state of pure consciousness.

One of the most commonly used methods involved the practice of meditation—like Transcendental Meditation as taught all over the world by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in modern times. The purpose of these meditative techniques was to allow the mind to settle down to increasingly subtle levels of the thinking process so that it could fathom finer and more abstract thoughts. The process of transcending was often compared to following the sound of a struck bell as it fades into silence. When the most subtle level of the thinking process is transcended, we experience an unbounded state of silent darkness as tranquil as a waveless sea and as transparent as the night sky devoid of stars. In this state, there are no thoughts, no sensations, no emotions, and no active form of cognition. The entire world and everything in it, including all notions of time and space, are completely forgotten or ignored. For this reason, the sages often described it as a state of pure ignorance.

Yet this state of pure ignorance represents not a state of unconsciousness, but a state of pure consciousness in which consciousness is left alone without any object of cognition. All that remains is the subject of cognition—the knower. According to the ancients, this ignorant knower underlies all cognitions of the thinking human mind. The sages concluded that as a result, all conceptions of the unenlightened human mind are rooted in pure ignorance. By transcending the thinking process, the soul comes to know the truth regarding its unenlightened experience. It comes to know that all such experience is founded in ignorance.

The unbounded field of silent darkness experienced on the level of pure consciousness actually has an objective counterpart. It corresponds to the vacuum of outer space—the field of silent darkness that lies between all the stars and galaxies, and that appears to be empty or vacuous. The subjective cognition of the unbounded vacuum state during the practice of meditation occurs initially in a transient manner. It is cognized between two sets of thoughts. As the practice progresses, the thoughtless state is experienced for longer and longer periods. In the end, it becomes permanent.

The permanent realization of the thoughtless state marks a major milestone on the preliminary path to enlightenment: It marks the necessary precursor for the dawn of enlightenment. It can be compared to the darkest hour of the night before the dawn.