The Experience of Consciousness: Buoyancy - (Buoyancy Series, Part 3)

In a short essay titled The Suspension of Belief, I suggested that a kind of buoyancy can arise between opposing forces—much like an object hovering between two magnetic fields. Science gives us familiar examples. A hot-air balloon, for instance, can reach a point of neutral buoyancy where it neither ascends nor descends. It does not choose a direction; it remains centered within the conditions that allow it to stay present.

In Great River terms, this is Maintain One Point.

In matters of consciousness, a similar principle applies. There appears to be a region of neutral buoyancy between what is seen and what is unseen. Lean too far toward the visible and awareness collapses into the surface of things. Yield too far toward the unseen and coherence is lost—experience becomes ungrounded, difficult to integrate, or unstable.

Jiu does not ask us to choose between these poles. It asks us to harmonize them.

Neutral buoyancy in consciousness is not passive. It is active balance. It arises when we relax without collapsing, remain grounded without resisting, and allow awareness to extend naturally without strain. This is why relaxation is essential. Tension forces perception to one side or the other. Relaxation restores sensitivity.

Our habitual patterns work against this. A slight imbalance toward the visible pulls us firmly back into ordinary identification. A slight imbalance toward the unseen and we often fall asleep, dissociate, or lose our bearings. In both cases, awareness is compromised.

When alignment is maintained, however, another capacity emerges. From this centered position, awareness can move along a thin thread between the seen and the unseen while remaining coherent. This is Keep Weight Underside expressed perceptually—remaining embodied while awareness extends beyond the immediately visible.

This movement is subtle. It is not effortful. It requires finesse rather than force.

A beginner driver overcorrects—too much brake, too much gas, too much steering. An experienced driver makes minimal input and remains responsive. In martial arts, the same principle applies. A precision adjustment, properly aligned, has far more effect than strength or speed. Bruce Lee’s one-inch punch is a classic expression of this truth.

In matters of consciousness, the smallest adjustment often matters most. Yet this adjustment is difficult to imagine, because it is not movement in the usual sense. It is attunement.

This becomes clear when we speak of stilling the mind. Stillness is not the suppression of thought. It is the result of no longer being against what arises. When resistance dissolves, clarity appears.

Here the distinction between understanding and realization becomes important. Understanding is conceptual and largely objective. Realization is experiential. Understanding can be discussed. Realization reorganizes perception. Once realized, understanding naturally rearranges itself around lived truth.

From a Great River perspective, understanding is imitation; realization is becoming.

Objectivity and subjectivity, then, are not opposed. They are forces to be harmonized. Objectivity allows clarity. Subjectivity allows intimacy. The Witness stands at the point where both are present—aware without detachment, engaged without loss of center.

This is neutral buoyancy. This is Jiu. And this is the position from which witnessing becomes possible.