What is the unconscious?
Something that usually lies dormant, only now and then manifesting itself in a dream or a slip of the tongue? Is the impact of the unconscious so limited that we can disregard it, or does it actually influence everything we think and say and do?
Most people probably assume that the unconscious does not play a significant role in their lives, and tend not to give it much thought. But Acem Meditation encourages a different view. The unconscious is an active and dynamic faculty that continually influences our decisions, experiences and personalities in hidden ways of which we may never be aware.
One of the qualities that affect our daily lives but may remain below the level of consciousness is empathy. Being empathic is the opposite of being egocentric. It means being autonomous but at the same time having the capacity to identify emotionally with other people and see things from their points of view. All successful relationships between people are partly based on empathy. Being a good mother or father, or an effective leader of an organization or a company, requires the ability to empathize.
How is empathy developed? The most important factor seems to be the early relationship between parents and child. If in this formative phase the mother or father interprets the child's attempts to communicate, for example by crying, from her or his own perspective and not in accordance with the child's real needs, an empathic relationship is not established. The pre-verbal infant is entirely dependent on its parents' intuitive and sensitive responses, and if these are not forthcoming the child has no model of empathic behaviour to follow. By contrast, a child who has met with empathy may automatically show empathy to others.
However, even where empathy has not been learned in childhood, it can be developed in later life through close relationships and self-exploration. Most psychologists and therapists understand the value of empathy, but their tactics for cultivating it do not always reach very deep. There is a rhetoric of understanding - a kind of jargon or psycholanguage - that makes frequent use of words such as 'feelings' but does not necessarily reflect a profound understanding of how other people really feel.
So far we have been discussing empathy as an outwarddirected attribute concerning our relations to others. However, empathy can also be directed inwards, and in this form it involves introspection, or the capacity to understand and show sensitivity towards ourselves. Knowledge and comprehension of the self gained through introspection is one of the deepest foundations of a genuinely empathic nature, but this quality, which may be described as 'empathy turned inwards', is frequently undervalued in contemporary cultures.
Many schools of therapy are preoccupied with outwarddirected empathy - our ability to empathize with others.
Acem Meditation recognizes the importance of this, but focuses more on the introspective element of empathy, and this involves engaging with the unconscious. The more introspective self-understanding is established, the more likely it is that spontaneous empathy will come into play. The ability to examine your own thoughts and feelings is crucial to working with your unconscious. In Acem Meditation you strengthen your relationship to yourself and your unconscious by introspective observation of your mental and emotional life over a period of time.
Acem Meditation can be looked at in different ways.
From one perspective, it is a straightforward method of relaxation - as simple as that. From another, it can be seen as a means of renewing the foundations of our inner lives.
During meditation we can be released from the structures that usually shape our views of and responses to ourselves, others and the world around us. This freedom creates an opportunity for change.
However, it is not always easy to detach ourselves from the controlling and limiting structures of the mind. Sometimes they infiltrate the performance of meditation itself, initiating a process known as 'actualization', when we get into a tangled mental state that seems inextricable. By working with this in a processual manner, i.e., by meditating regularly and discussing our experiences with someone able to give guidance, we may gradually reach an understanding of the factors that limit our perception and performance both during meditation and in life in general.
Loosening the 'meditational tangle' represents an important first step towards changing something within ourselves.
It helps us to become more attuned to a non-verbal inner dialogue and to engage in subtle yet substantial modifications of the way we lead our lives.
The changes accomplished through Acem Meditation occur primarily on an inner plane, within us. Longer periods of meditation provide an opportunity to restructure some of our deeper, more lasting psychological frameworks. Aspects of ourselves that are persistently suppressed, distorted, unfinished or unlived can occupy a great deal of mental and emotional 'space' and result in troubled, dissatisfied states of mind. Relaxing and opening our minds through prolonged meditation has a liberating effect on such facets of our psyches, unblocking channels through which they can find expression and fulfilment.
One of the main benefits of Acem Meditation, then, is that it helps to activate inner potential that might otherwise be repressed or restrained. A significant path to change is also opened during meditation by the tendency for scattered or fragmentary thoughts to become cohesive and complete.
Dispersed and chaotic elements of identity come together during meditation to form the significant themes of our existence. We may now start to recognize similarities between who we are during meditation and who we are in the rest of our lives.
This form of self-exploration by means of non-verbal introspection is both fascinating and enriching. It satisfies parts of our seeking selves that might otherwise find few outlets, and meets the need for experience to be anchored in wisdom. The psychologist Jung spoke of realizing the archetype of the self. Acem Meditation is a way of achieving a more living relationship to the self and the unconscious by making both more accessible for realization.
By meditating regularly, we embark on a journey, but we should not do so in the expectation that it will ultimately lead us to The Answer. To benefit from meditation, you need to be oriented towards process; aiming at final or definitive solutions will only impede your progress. Acem Meditation is not an intellectual, philosophical or psychological practice. It is an organic and intuitive grasping of the self, others and the world, in alliance with the deeper and wiser parts of the psyche.