The Non-Meditative "Discovery Reflection"
DISCOVERY REFLECTION
This reflection is specific and directed at discovering what you truly want in life.
All that your Identity has learned since your birth relative to the apparent world that we live in influences in great part what consciouness declares are the objectives of your life. This conditioned learning is set in place by the state, education, religious teachings, parents, peers and experiences encountered during development as a child and as an adult.
This is laid upon the Identity foundation, which was an unfortunate gift of birth.
Independent of this learning is the homeostatic process which tries to balance and harmonize body and mind in accord with the natural system.
Within most people the homeostatic system is well-blanketed. In others, a voice giving the cry that all is not well with the system is experienced. In a few, the voice of homeostasis is strong and clear.
The first group look for nothing more in life than what Identity demands, guided by the daughters of Mara: Confusion, Acquisition and Aversion. A fourth Identity demand is also encountered, which is Fixation.
The second group responds on the base of these four subliminal Identities as a result of the non-satisfaction of their demands. They detect the voice of homeostasis, but their search is subliminally directed respectively at encountering in their life a comfortable "nest;" encountering a freedom from Suffering; encountering an Awakening which fits their mental idea of the spiritual life, which is stained by their mental conceptual restrictions ("my way"). The Fixation group desires a relief from their isolation and at the same time a clear path of their future which includes a strong Identity: I, me.
The third group search for the Truth that appears to exist beyond their present life.
This panorama is complicated for the second group by the fact that there is great social pressure against confusion and fixation, so that the conscious homeostatic liberation impulse is weighted towards the idea of relieving Suffering or attaining a Spiritual Awakening.
It is this second group that requires a clarification in order to see more clearly the impulses that direct them towards liberation.
The Aversive and Fixation temperaments look then for spiritual Awakening, but the problem is they look with Identity although they are not conscious of that fact. So they paste together a path to Awakening that suits their intelligent evaluations.
The Confused and Acquisitive temperaments look for spiritual relief from Suffering. The problem here is twofold. The Acquisitive temperament is easily trapped by the aesthetic qualities of some teachings and cannot advance because of the Identity craving and clinging. But they believe that all is going well because of the emotional feedback from their devotion. The second problem is that when Suffering is reduced by circumstances and there is external pressure to accept social attachments, the practices and meditations fall apart.
However all believe, when all goes well, and there is a resultant temporary lull in Suffering that they are indeed upon the spiritual path. The Confused temperament is the exception. This temperament is never sure that they are doing correctly and there is continual doubt and falling away if other tempting incorrect easier Dharma practices are presented.
What is necessary then is a clear picture of the balance between all these components within memory, cognition and consciousness, so that a healthy choice can be made about the path, practices and meditations.
That is why a "free critical reflection" is required of the internal state.