Meditation, Contemplation, Concentration

1. Associations; OneThought Leading to Another

Then the childhood goes on being connected with other things and you move in "circles". Whenever you are at ease, try to go back from your thinking to where these thoughts came, go back and retrace the steps. Then you will see that another thought was there, and that led to this. And they are not logically connected, because how is a dog on the street connected with your childhood. There is no logical connection-only association in your mind. If I was crossing the street, the same dog will not lead me to my childhood, it will lead to something else. In a third person, it will lead to still something else. Everyone has associated chains in the mind. With anyone chain, any happening, any accident can lead to the chain. Then the mind begins to function like a computer, then one thing leads to another then another, and you go on and on the whole day doing this. Write down on a sheet of paper whatsoever comes to your mind honestly, you will be just amazed at what is happening in your mind! There is no relation between two thoughts, and you go on doing this type of thinking all day every day for your whole "life". This is what is called thinking, but it is not, this is just association of one thought to another, and they lead themselves, you are led.

2. Thinking Becomes Contemplation

3. Concentration is Staying at One Point,

4. And Then Meditation!

In ordinary thinking, mind is allowed to move anywhere, in contemplation it is allowed only in one direction; all other directions are cut off. In concentration it is not allowed to move even in one direction. It is allowed only to concentrate on one point. In Meditation mind is not allowed at all. Meditation is “no mind.” Meditation means no mind, not even concentration is allowed, mind itself is not allowed to be! That is why meditation cannot be grasped by the mind. In ordinary thinking all directions are open. In contemplation only one direction is open, in concentration only one point is open no direction. In meditation even that point is not open; mind is not allowed to be.

Meditation is not some strange technique that we have to learn with great effort and difficulty. There is already a strong element of Meditation in our lives, but we are simply not aware of it. When we read, study, play video games or do research, we have to focus the mind. When we drive a car or operate machinery, we have to pay attention. When we explain something to a friend, we have to concentrate in order to make ourselves understood, and our friend has to concentrate in order to understand us. "Lovers" meditate on one another. A mother meditates on her child. Whatever we accomplish in this world, we accomplish through the power of concentration, which is nothing but Meditation. Until now, our concentration has been focused on mundane things. But if we simply turn within, we will be meditating on the self. Just as when the mind focus outside it perceives the outer world, when it looks within it sees the inner world. It is as simple as that. So there are some points which must be understood before we can move inwardly. First, the consciousness is at the center. Second, the senses through which the consciousness moves out are at the boundary, and the objects in the world to which the consciousness moves through the senses are beyond the boundary.

Look at it from this direction. Senses are just between, just in the middle. At one side is consciousness, at another side is the world of objects. Senses are just in the middle-between the two. From the senses you can move either way, Either you can go to the objects or you can go to the "center", and either way the distance is the same. From the senses, doors open both ways. Move to the objects or move to the center. The human body is a mysterious mechanism. Its working is two dimensional. In order to go to the outside, your consciousness goes through the senses to meet the world, to meet matter. But this is only one dimension of your body’s functions. Your body has another dimension also, it leads you in. When you see through the eyes, the eyes are not seeing, they are only openings to see. The seer is behind the eyes. That which looks through the eyes is not the eyes. That is why you can close your eyes and still see dreams, visions, and images.

The seer is behind the senses, he moves through the senses to the world. And if you close your senses, the seer remains within. As an example, from my eyes, my center is just as near as you are near me. I can see you if I move outward, I can see myself if I move inward. This is the goal of meditation. And we are at the door of the senses, but, naturally, body needs are such that consciousness moves outwards naturally. We need food, we need water to drink, we need air to breath, we need shelter where to live. These are our bodily needs, and these can only be found in the world, so quite naturally, consciousness moves through the senses toward the world. we need air to breath

YOU WILL NEVER MOVE INWARD! UNLESS YOU CREATE A NEED

For a child food is the basic need. But if a child should be born who can be self-sufficient, who does not need any food, who does not need any outward help to be alive, it will not move in the world at all. There would be no need. And unless a need is there, the energy will never move out. We move outwardly not because we are sinners. We move outwardly because we have needs which can be fulfilled only through objects - objects which can be gained if we move in the world of objects. Why do you not move inwardly? It is because you have not yet created the need to move inward.

Once the need is there, it will be as easy to move inward as it is to move outward. Man is born with a center, but he remains completely unaware of it. Man can live without knowing his center, but man cannot be without a center. The center is the link between man and God. It is your root. This again when understood demonstrates why meditation is so important to the well being of every individual. You may not know it: knowledge is not essential for the center to be, but if you do not know it, you will lead a life that is rootless. You will not fell any ground: you will not feel yourself based, you will not feel at home in the universe. You will be homeless. So this is why there is a need for Meditation daily.To be at home once again.

Of course, the center is there, but by not knowing it, your life will be just a drifting, meaningless, empty, reaching on where. You will feel like you are living without life, just waiting for death. You are just passing time, and that feeling of deep frustration will follow you like a shadow. Man is born with a center, but not with the knowledge of the center. The knowledge has to be gained. If you do not know your center you will feel as if you have been thrown into the world, homeless, fatherless, motherless, an outsider in the universe. Then fear, anxiety and anguish is bound to result. A man as an outsider in the universe is bound to feel deep anxiety, dread, fear, anguish. His whole life will be just a fight, a struggle, and a struggle which is destined to be a failure. Man cannot succeed because a part can never succeed against the whole. So take meditation seriously it will be one of the best investment in your time and energy you have ever made.

You cannot succeed against the universe, but you can succeed with it, but never against it. And that is the difference between a religious man and a nonreligious man. Religion, means that intutional realization of the existence of GOD, and one’s relationship to it. A nonreligious man is against the universe, but a religious man is with the universe. And, in the degree that man realizes the existence of the indwelling Self immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what Spiritual Development means-the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the spirit within us. A religious man feels at home. He doesn’t feel he is thrown in the world, he feels he has grown in the world, remember the difference between being "thrown" and being "grown".

It is thought that spirituality is a difficult attainment. It is neither, that is, it is neither difficult nor an attainment. Whatsoever you are, you are already spiritual, nothing new is to be added to your being. And nothing is to be discarded from your being, you are as perfect as possible. It is not that you are going to be perfect sometime in the future, it is not that you have to do something arduous to be yourself. It is not a journey to some other point somewhere else, you are not going somewhere else. You are already there. That which is to be attained is already attained. This idea must go deep. Only then will you be able to understand why Meditation can help. If spirituality is some attainment, then, of course, it is going to be difficult - not only difficult, but impossible. If you are not already spiritual, you cannot be. You never can be because how can one who is not spiritual be spiritual? If you are not Divine already, then there is no possibility, then there is no way. And no matter what effort you will make, effort made by one who is not already Divine cannot create Divinity. If you are not Divine, your effort cannot create divinity. then it is impossible.

You are already that which you want to attain. The end of longing is already there, present in you, here and now, this very moment, you are that which is known as Divine. The Ultimate is here, it is already the case. Life is a paradox, to reach near you have to travel far; and that which is already achieved you have to achieve again. That which is to be achieved you are already. In essence nothing new is to be achieved. You have only to discover, uncover that which is already the case. Hence, both the difficulty of spiritual endeavor and the simplicity. It is very simple if you can understand, but it is very difficult because you have to understand that which you have completely forgotten. This is why meditation is so important, through the practice of meditation you are again united with your center, your inner-most self the real you. It is so obvious that you never become aware of it, that which is just like your breathing. It goes on continuously, uninterruptedly, but because it goes on continuously, uninterruptedly, you need not be aware of it. your awareness is not needed, it is not a basic requirement. You can forget it or you can remember it, it is a choice. You can achieve all that is possible to human consciousness at any moment that you decide to achieve it. And when I say this, I mean many things. First, Spiritual Explosion is not caused by anything, it is not a causal phenomenon. If it were caused by something, then time would be needed. Time is only necessary for cause to take place.

And if time is needed, then it cannot happen this very moment. Then you will have to wait for tomorrow or for another life, the next moment would be needed. If anything is caused, then the cause has to take place, then the effect will follow. And you cannot produce the effect right now without the cause, time will be needed. But a Spiritual happening is not a causal phenomenon, you are already in that state. Just a remembering is needed. The more alert you will become, the more you will recognize who you are, where you are and what has happened. Meditation is for a growing alertness. You are already the person you long to be, you are already where you want to reach.

Meditation is helpful because it is scientific. You are saved from unnecessary wandering, unnecessary groping. If you don’t practice a meditation technique, you will take many lives. You will reach the goal, because the life energy within you will move unless it comes to the point where no movement is possible. It will go on moving to the highest peak, and that is the reason why one goes on being born again and again. Left to your self you will reach, but you will have to travel very, very long, and the journey will be very tedious and boring.

Truth is always here. It is already the case. It is not something to be achieved in the future. YOU are the TRUTH just here and now. So it is not something which is to be created or something which is to be devised or something which is to be sought. Understand this very clearly, then Meditation will be easy to understand and also to do.

Mind is a mechanism of desiring. Mind is always in desire, always seeking something, asking for something. Always the object is in the future, mind is not concerned with the present at all. In this very moment, the mind cannot move. It can move either in the past or in the future. It cannot move in the present, there is no space. The Truth is in the present, and mind is always in the future or in the past. So there is no meeting between MIND and TRUTH. When the mind is seeking worldly objects there is no problem, it is not so difficult. The problem is not absurd, it can be solved. But when the mind starts seeking the Truth, the very effort becomes nonsense. Because Truth is here and now, and the mind is always then and there, there is no meeting. So understand: You can not seek Truth! You can find it, but you cannot seek it.

The very seeking is a hindrance. The moment you start seeking you have moved away from the present, away from yourself, because YOU are always in the present. The seeker is always in the present and the seeking is in the future. You will never meet whatsoever you are seeking. THAT WHICH YOU ARE SEEKING IS ALREADY HERE. The mind is always in movement, moving from A to B to C to D then back to B then to A, then back to D. This is nonsense, but this is the facts of mind and it is natural for mind to move in this fashion. Non-movement of mind is death for the mind. So mind will not allow you to kill or destroy it. It will fight with every thing it has. Try to hold the mind on one thing, see how long mind will allow you to be one pointed, and this is not a total no mind , and mind will not allow. So to be totally in the present allowing no movement of mind is death for mind. And when there is no mind , you are thrown to your center, you encounter yourself, The Lord God of Truth Within.

The East is basically different from the West in its attitude toward inner transformation. Christianity thinks that something has happened to man’s being itself, the sin. The East thinks that nothing has happened to the being itself, nothing can happen, the being, the reality, the lord God of truth within is absolutely pure. There has been no sin. So man is not condemned in the East. He is not something degraded. On the contrary, he remains the Divine that he is, that he has always been. So there is no sin, Just False Identification. We have become identified with the mind. With our experience, our knowledge, our memories. Regaining the original mind means regaining the purity - without experiences, without knowledge, without memories, without the past and without the future.

So All meditative techniques are basically methods to remove you from the past and to allow you to plunge into the here and now. Unless you are free from the past you will remain in bondage, you will be a slave. It is not that your mind is disturbed, rather, your mind is the disturbance. It is not that you are tense within, but rather, you are the tension. Understand the distinction clearly. If the mind is ill then the illness can be treated, but if the mind itself is the illness then this illness cannot be treated. It can be transcended, but it cannot be treated, and that makes the basic difference. A word of caution- it is impossible to pass inwardly by meditation along unless one also ASPIRES. Aspiration means that longing for the Reality's presence within one's own universe.

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