What is Meditation?

Meditation is not an act that one can perform. Meditation is not a speculation. We cannot generate theories and philosophies out of meditation. It is a certain knack that either we get,or we don’t. It cannot be transferred to others. There is no master or disciple in meditation. It does not concern itself with whether there is a God or not. We have to walk all alone on the path of meditation. It demands tremendous courage and fearlessness to be ready to know who we are. It introduces us to our interiority, our unconscious contents and realms. It makes us aware of how much darkness we carry within and outside ourselves. It sheds light on our ignorance, misery, and suffering. We get so stunned and amazed when we enter the world of meditation. It is not the job of a coward or an escapist. It demands great love and passion to know the truth. Unless we are ready to face even death on the path to truth, we remain unable to taste the sweet taste of meditation. Without meditation, the world is too flat, boring, and pointless. We wonder how we keep on living with the burden of our mechanical lives, going round and round. It looks so funny how naïve and ignorant we are, as we have boundless treasure within us, but we never pay attention to it. We are beggars who ask the other beggars to fulfil our needs and desires. Meditation is the decision to stand all alone. It is the decision to escape no more. Let’s face hell or heaven. Let’s face death equally. That’s why we cannot treat meditation as just another hobby. We have to say goodbye to our childish tendencies and habits if interested in meditation. We do not find enough words to praise meditation. Words are too shallow to express the serenity, freedom, and peace meditation introduces to us. To enter meditation is to enter the world of paradoxes. Meditation does not make much sense to a logical mind. It is not linear. It does not reside in the realm of time. There is no yesterday and tomorrow for meditation. In meditation, we become utterly silent. Words lose their significance and worth in it. The world is too chaotic, disorderly, and always at war without meditation. We wonder how poor, wretched, and miserable creatures we are without meditation. It makes us reflect that we live a life out of escape, that even our gods and prayers are a form of escape. We do not dare to face reality out of our cowardice. We have distorted the world around us so much that it now seems like a herculean task to see the true picture. We are unable to see what is what now. Reality is right there in front of us, but we are too asleep to see it. We accumulate physical bodies over the years, yet see how attached we are to them. We have borrowed our thoughts from our surroundings, but see, we get ready even to wage wars for them. We live in such utter confusion that we do not even realize how confused and ignorant we are. We wonder how we have allowed such a way of life that is full of misery, suffering, loneliness, and utter chaos. What kind of insanity are we going through! Our gods, saviors, and messiahs are all part of this ridiculous game we keep on playing. How insensitive we have become that even with so much pain and misery, we fail to be a little loving, caring, and generous. Meditation points out that this is not the way life is. Life is sacred. It informs us of a way out of our sufferings. There is a definite solution to our miseries and sufferings. We need to come back to ourselves. We need to get rid of our tendencies to escape the truth. Nothing can fulfill us. There is a fountain of joy, bliss, and freedom within us, and we will be fulfilled only by drinking from it. No amount of wealth, fame, or power is going to help us out. They are all mirages. No need to ask anyone, even God. Come to yourselves and face. If we are miserable, let’s not escape. If we are confused, let’s admit it. If we feel lonely, let’s stay there. Let’s pay attention to our miseries, confusion, and loneliness. Let’s approach them in a loving and caring way. Let’s not resent them. Let’s go near them. It is quite possible that we may encounter a different story there. We have already seen and experienced too much. How long will we keep repeating the same old rotten patterns of our miserable lives? Let’s approach life in a different way, in a meditative way. Let’s explore our bodies, minds, and emotions. Let’s see what resides in our unconscious. Let’s make it fun. Let’s not be so serious. Let’s be a little playful in a sincere way. Let’s pay attention to the ways we sit, stand, and move our bodies. Let’s feel the sensations it creates when it gets tired or itchy. Let’s not name them. Let’s not run immediately to food when the stomach is empty. Let’s keep our stomachs empty for a while and feel the sensation of what we call hunger. Let’s taste the joy of true hunger without any name or label. Let’s try to touch the ground with our bare feet, the trees with our hands, and our dear ones with hugs. Let’s not give a name to any of these sensations. Let’s allow them to be there. Let’s feel the sensitivity of our bodies without assigning any labels or categories. Let’s just see the actuality without any name. If we still do not fully stop labelling and naming, let’s ask what a thought is. From where does it come, and to where does it go? Let’s pay attention to our thoughts. Don’t we realize that thoughts come and go? Is there not a gap between one thought and the other? Let’s just ask this question attentively, lovingly, and in a sincere, fun way: What is the gap between two thoughts? Why is a gap there if it is so? Why did we not ask this question before? Let’s pay attention to this gap. Let’s explore it. Let’s see what it is. But who will see it? Who is the watcher here? Let’s move slowly and not be in a rush. We have a highly sophisticated and subtle situation here. There are thoughts, and there is a gap between one thought and another. So, there is a gap between thoughts. Or, in other words, there is a space between thoughts. Let’s not approach this intellectually. Let’s get involved here in an existential way. Let’s not name it as space or gap. Let’s feel the taste of this, what we call the gap or space. Let’s not let it go away with another thought. Let’s allow it to emerge more fully. Let’s not go back to thoughts again. Just stay there with it. Be more alert and awake. See what is there between thoughts. Yes, thoughts are there. There are too many, and they move too fast. Yes, it is there too; we label it as space, but thoughts hide it. Alright, no issue. Let’s not pay attention to thoughts this time. Let’s be more attentive this time…………………………………………………………………………………………. Oh, my goodness! It is not just a name. It’s a taste: a taste of freedom. We taste freedom and joy! Congratulations, we've got the knack of meditation!

Perhaps for the first time, we realize what amazing things we have been missing. We took thoughts as if there was nothing beyond them. We realize we have been living in such a great illusion, believing what our thoughts report. We have constructed our whole identities around our thoughts. Now our identities start to shift from thoughts to a newly discovered space. We want to go further into it. We want to see the complete picture. The more we stand with it, the more grip thoughts loosen. Sometimes we lose our awareness, and our thoughts hinder our awareness. But the flame of it does not get extinguished now. We come back, and with our gentle persistence, it happens that one day we find that the entire thought-making machinery dissolves in front of our awareness. We now enter into a totally new territory. We cannot name it. For the sake of communication, we can call it a vast space. Now our consciousness is no longer constrained by our thoughts. It is not the case that thoughts go away; no, they rather lose their strength. We can watch them like we watch a passerby. They have no more authority over us. They do not define us now. We have discovered our true identity, which is beyond thoughts. Thoughts happen within our awareness. We are not thoughts. It is not that thoughts are bad or dangerous. We can imagine so many things with their help. We can remember our past memories with them. We can write them down. We realize that it is our identification with thoughts that creates problems. Now we do not define good and bad based on the moral principles we have received. We now have the touchstone within us. Anything that does not help to grow our awareness is bad, and anything that does the opposite is good, no matter how bad it is in the eyes of received morality. Now we know that there is a difference between true morality and conformity. To conform to the given standards of good and bad does not represent true morality. How can one be good if one does not know who they are? A person who is asleep cannot be moral. One should first get rid of one’s ignorance. One should come to terms with life that is aware. A 180-degree turn comes into our lives. No teachings, no matter how great they sound, will help us unless we know who we are. The contradictory realm of thoughts is not going to help us solve our problems. We have to come to terms with reality and see what is what. Man is asleep. He is in the grips of his thoughts. He does not know his true nature. There is only one job worth doing for him: to get out of his ignorance. He should know who he is. He should genuinely ask who is behind his thoughts. Who is the observer here? Is he merely an aggregation of his thoughts or something else? He should discover this first before committing himself to any task. If he does not do so, he will meet with disaster for sure. How far can a blind man travel? He must meet with some accident soon. But look around, how much we bother about this. Look how much time and energy we spend on our mere survival. What kind of life are we living that has no beauty, no dance, and no grace? We are human beings. We must be different from animals. We are not here to just survive like them. We are here to know who we are, what our true being is. We are not just humans, we are beings. The true guide is within us. Instead of seeking here and there, we should come back to our own source. This source is fantastic and fabulous. It is a light, a flame that brings clarity into our confused minds. It can penetrate into the very depths of our unconscious world. No matter how vast and deep the darkness of an illusion is, when it comes in front of the light of our awareness, it is just no more there. We need not fight with our darkness. Once a mosquito approached God, who was very disturbed by the air; God said, " Let’s listen to the other party too. " When the air came, lo, the mosquito was not there!You didn’t come this far to stop

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