I was meditating yesterday doing the Noticing Exercise, not really with any particular goal in mind other than trying to relax and de-stress myself by focusing within and just becoming “lost”, allowing my mind to drift where ever it wanted.  Anyway, I was staring out into the blackness trying to “notice” changes when I began to notice more than just slight changes.  These were full patterns instead, in some cases full objects.  Now, I never really considered in the past that I’d see more than just “slight variations” in the blackness.  But, I started focusing more on the patterns that I was seeing and I’d see an eye, maybe a wing of a bird, or a cube, etc…

I’m not sure if this is a twist so much as a realization of the nature of the exercise, but instead of “passively observing” I tried “actively creating” in that blackness.  I began to look at the blackness and the swirls of changes that I usually see, and tried to find patterns in it.  I don’t actively create either, I just kind of allow things to ‘form’ until I recognize something (ie: a wolf howling), then I try to focus upon whatever it is. The object will either get stronger or it will just fade away, at which point I start the process again of allowing something to form.

Now, the trick here isn’t to see a pattern and think to yourself, “Oh, I see a circle!” or anything like that, you still want to remain passively observing, yet focused upon the image you’re seeing and try to strengthen it if you can (don’t try too hard, remember to stay relatively passive).  Bring your full attention towards it.

You might even see more than one pattern at a time!  Try to bring them together if you can by using your Intent. Then to deepen the state, try interacting with whatever you’ve created. Try making it move. If it’s a person, move an arm by using your Intent. If it’s a ball, try rolling it around the blackness.  Your goal here is the same as the Noticing exercise: the total removal of your conscious awareness from this physical reality and place it ENTIRELY within the blackness (viewing the blackness).

So a quick recap… the usual Noticing Exercise would have you staring into the blackness behind your closed eyes and trying to “notice” any changes in that field of vision.  Then you would focus into those changes, and try to see more changes, and then focus into THOSE changes… etc.  This Noticing Exercise with a Twist is different because instead of focusing in on “changes”, you’re going to focus in on recognizable patterns that you’re seeing.  These patterns might initially start off as slight “changes”, but then just use your Intent to try to “see” more.  You can even try to mentally give a command and see what happens.  🙂

Give that a shot and drop me a comment if you need any clarification on this.