Meditation as ahe Exploration of Forms of Consciousness

Gernot Böhme defines meditation as achieving specific states of consciousness by concentration and “switching off” the attention usually paid to diverse areas of everyday life. Böhme goes on to discuss what he considers to be the main meditation-generated forms of consciousness, like non-intentional consciousness, empty consciousness (a stand-by state in anticipation of contentual fulfillment), consciousness of presence (e.g. of one’s own bodily presence in the here-and-now), the awareness of nonduality (the fading of all contradictions, e.g. between the object and subject), and self-awareness, which extends beyond the normal sense of identity and reveals the hidden, unconscious dimensions of the deeper self (Yi in Oriental meditation). Böhme anchors these reflections in his philosophical critique of today’s reified consumerism and postulates the inclusion of this inquiry path in classical epistemological analysis.