in the current state of thought, mental phenomena are divided into two types: conscious thought and subconscious activity. Both of these forms of cognition are derivatives of the Tathāgatagarbha (suchness-mind) and Dhyāna (meditative absorption) states.

That is to say, what we now call conscious and subconscious thought are the result of the evolution of universal meditative absorption—the undifferentiated attentiveness present in the higher states of mind—into two distinct functions in our current state of cognition. In those higher states, there exists only universal meditative absorption; there is no such thing as selective attention or Universal Noticing as we experience now.

Therefore, the fundamental task of meditative investigation is to reintegrate conscious and subconscious functions into a single form of awareness—that is, to return to subconscious absorption and reestablish the original universal meditative absorption.

-Master Qingliangyue