In the present moment consciousness is in its natural state without any conceptual constructions or conditionings. We can be totally present in the moment, in the immediacy of the now, not obscured by thoughts of the past or of the future – or even by thoughts occurring in the present moment. This condition of the silent mind, nirvikalpa, is not within the linear measurements of conceptual time, but is beyond time because presence of awareness is beyond the mind, the linear succession of thoughts that create conceptual notions of time. Pure consciousness cannot be contained, confined, or limited within conceptual constructs, so its inherent clarity remains completely uncontracted and without conditioned fabrications of thought. When a thought arises, we just don’t cling to it and let it go on its way; attention is released from it and that is what stops the chain of further automated conceptualization. It is like a cloud slowly disappearing out of the sky. Our pure consciousness is like the sky with no clouds in it, but when a cloud (thought) starts to form, no attention is given to it and it dissolves away again because its life depends on the amount of attention given to it. Thoughts are like breezes and moving clouds, nothing tangible at all, just insubstantial appearances like the appearances reflected on the surface of a mirror. They simply arise and appear and are nothing more than what they really are. The background of thought structures is our pure consciousness, the gap we notice between two thoughts, the space between the trains of the mechanical hubbub of thought where there is a restful silence, the space of luminous clarity. Although this background of pure consciousness exists in everyone everywhere, it remains unrecognized. When awareness recognizes itself as the object of contemplation, it is realized that this is the only object which is not really an object, since it is purely subjective. In actuality, pure subject recognizes itself, but never as an object per se. This is the immaculate introversion of attention and the supreme samadhi.
