Myths about Meditation
Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, one of the popular beliefs about meditation is that your mind will stop and you will not have any thoughts. A lot of the so-called Gurus say that your mind should be completely blank – no thoughts, and if any thought comes, that means, you are doing it wrong. That does not sound very correct to me. So what exactly is meant when you say stilling the mind or acquiring the mind?
Acharya Prashant (AP): The mind has to value stillness. That is called ‘meditativeness’. Mind, at every point, at every moment, is a choice. The choice on one side is restiveness (lack of rest). Choice, on the other side, is restfulness. Then, what is meditation? – to be in the right choice continuously, 24×7. That is ‘meditation’. You cannot stop the movement of the mind.
The mind is nothing but movement.
You just have to ensure that it moves rightly. That is meditativeness. And meditativeness is that when, just by chance, when there is no need for the mind to move, then you do not become uncomfortable and start forcing it to move. When the mind is moving, it is moving in the right direction. When it is not moving, then it is not moving rightly. Because it is quite possible, be cautious, that there might be a need for the mind to move and yet the mind is so lethargic, so ponderous, that it refuses to move. In fact, such a mind can even use the name of ‘meditation’ to defend its inability or unwillingness to move; even though, movement is the need of the moment.
When it is right, there has to be movement. When there is movement, the movement has to be in the right direction. When it is right, then there can be no movement. None of these is sacred on its own. None of these is a gospel truth on its own. Should the mind keep moving? – not necessarily. Should the mind keep still? – not necessarily. Those, who say that the mind must necessarily be still, are as much in darkness as those, who are compulsive movers of the mind. These are two extremes. On one hand, there are people addicted to mental activity. They become very uncomfortable if somehow the mind pauses even for a while. They cannot tolerate silence. They cannot tolerate rest or stillness. You must have met such people, sometimes in the mirror. Heard of the phrase ‘awkward silence'? How can silence be awkward? But we do find silence awkward many-a-times. It is because we are used to noise. This kind of mind is unhealthy. At the same time, there are people, who just have lost the ability to think, to reason. Theirs has become a dull and dead mind. It is not a welcome situation, obviously.
The mind must be perfectly capable of rapid movement when needed. “When needed.” And when it is not needed, then the mind must be equally comfortable in lazily sleeping, with no trace of guilt.
There is no need to move. So the mind is not needlessly hopping about. And when there is a need to move, the mind is lightning-quick. Both of these are included in ‘meditativeness’. Do we get this? – almost like a Tennis player, a Soccer player, or a Cricket player. Seen how still the batsman is when the baller is approaching him in his run-up? Then what is needed is the stillness of body, of mind as well. And the moment the batsman is able to read the baller, what does he do? – he has to move with great agility. The ball is going to take a fraction of a second to reach him. The batsman must be nimble enough to adjust him beforehand. If he cannot adjust himself beforehand, then the opportunity is lost. He has failed the test. So you need to be still when you need to be still. You need to move when you need to move. And you must be adept at both. This is ‘meditativeness’.
In either case, whether you are moving or you are still, what is the objective? – the objective is peace, Truth, a final rest. You rest for the sake of final rest. You move for the sake of a final rest; like a good traveler does. If the journey is long, do you ever move continuously, without a break? – No. You move. What do you move for? – you move for the destination. And then, sometimes you take a break and you rest. Now, you are not moving. You are not moving for the sake of movement. You are not moving so that you may move properly, nimbly, speedily, when needed. That is ‘meditativeness’. It is devotion, another name for devotion, continuous devotion. Obviously, it cannot be a trick, a technique, a thing that you do mentally or physically. When you define ‘meditation' in those terms, then you pull it down to a very low level.
There are people who come up with questions like – “What happens during meditation?” Well, if you are not insane, then life. If you are insane then you will have some insane experiences during meditation. Otherwise, meditation is life. Life is meditation. And if life is not meditation, then there is insanity. Do you get this? As I speak to you, do I speak continuously? Is there an uninterrupted volley of words? That’s what, right? You speak when needed. You don’t speak when not needed. You stop when needed. The objective is the same, whether you speak or you stop. What is the objective? – The objective is clarity, the objective is light. This is ‘meditativeness’. Are you getting it?
Q: So, I notice as I go about my day, literally from the time I get up, there are always judgments about things, and oftentimes they are not positive – this is dirty. That should be our away. He is doing this. This is unclean. So, in meditativeness, do these thoughts go away?
AP: You have to have the right thoughts. You need to judge rightly. You need to ask yourself - is this the best thing, the only thing that I need to be judgemental on? Or are there better things, more important things I reserve my judgment for? Being judgemental is not a problem per se. The question is firstly, what are you so involved in judging? Secondly, what is the criteria? I am speaking to you and my mind is busy judging the quality of this hand towel. I mean, is this the right thing to be focusing on, at this moment? Secondly, how do I judge whether this thing is proper? What is the criteria? – the brightness, number of times it has gone through laundry, how expensive it looks and feels, how exactly do I judge?
So be a better judge. That is meditativeness. Keeping your arrow in the right direction, irrespective of where you stand. If you are standing on the dimension of judgment, be 'a better judge'. If you must think, then be 'a better thinker'. If you cannot avoid company, find 'a better company'. Irrespective of where you stand, what you are doing, and what your prakratik configuration is making you do, do it in a better way. Point towards greatness all the time. Can’t you be a great judge?
Q: So I like what you said - “be a great judge”. And the thought that comes up to me is how do I know it’s not my ego trying to be superior and saying – oh! I am great!
AP: That is exactly what we have to do to the ego – make it a great ego. How else do you kill the ego? – by making it great.
Q: So, what is the criteria for the great?
AP: You know when things are petty. How did you know that it is petty to be talking of the towel now?
Q: I just know. But I guess, I get worried about whether this is conditioning.
AP: You just know, because here the cause is simpler, more obvious. In other cases, if you apply yourself, you do not get carried away, you will equally well know. It’s very obvious that it is petty of me to be talking of the towel right now. In other moments of the day as well, you will realize. Just ask yourself- “Is this the most important thing I must do?” I have come to this place, called Bodh Sthal and I am judging the rabbits. And you can judge the rabbits – one of them is a little villain, two of them are... you could use the choicest words for them. And here you are, standing and judging them. Are you here for the rabbits, really? Why are you judging the rabbits? And if you must judge the rabbits, judge from a higher position and then another and then another and then keep elevating yourself.
Q: This makes sense. I guess what comes back (maybe this is a lot of the fake guru stuff, I have been exposed to), is the sense of ‘it’s all subjective.’ Everyone has got a different perspective. I know that sounds silly.
AP: Then that subjectivity is life. There is nothing but that. Remember that we are nothing but the ego. You cannot just jump out of your ego. You have to travel with this ego to that point where it reaches, it meets its climax. That’s what I am calling greatness. You cannot say “don’t be judgemental”. Even that is a piece of judgment, right? If you can see, when you say “don’t be judgemental”, are you not being judgemental this very moment? So, you cannot just drop the ego. You are the ego. You can’t even leap out of your skin. How will you leap out of the ego? So, you have to remember that, that which you are, itself has to be elevated, elevated, elevated and if you can elevate it high enough, then you have transcended.
Transcendence does not really mean a change of dimension. Here, I am contradicting myself. Sufficient change in degree can precipitate a change in dimension, sufficient change in degree, honest change in degree. So you keep elevating yourself, elevating yourself, elevating yourself. At one point, you find that your very DNA has changed, not literally. But you understand what I am saying. You are no more the same species. It just happens.
Know where you stand. Know what your prakratik tendencies are. And that’s the way you have to take. If Prakriti has made you in a way where jealousy is prominent, then you have to use the same jealousy as your way. You have to be a better jealous person. Your jealousy has to be directed towards a higher object. If yours is the way of inertness (as some people are), you want to provoke them, excite them, they won’t get excited. They don’t really achieve much, because they don’t really react much. Then they have to use that particular personality trait as their way. There are people who are insecure. You have to use this insecurity itself as your tool. Why? – Not because it is quite smart to do that, but because there is no other way.
We are not saying that it’s a very-very clever trick to use your insecurity as your technique. But the thing is ‘you are insecure'. A lot of it is in your genes. And some people are genetically more insecure than others. What do they do? – Dynamite their body? Substitute their DNA? They can’t do that. So what do you do then?
Whatsoever has been given to you has to be utilized in the service of the highest, irrespective of what you have been given.
If you have been given strength, use strength. If you have been given weakness, use weakness. “He is a greatly weak person”; that does not mean you are a very weak person. That does not mean that you are great among the weak ones. You have to be greatly weak. Weak, yet great. You have to take your weakness towards greatness, riding on your weakness, you move towards greatness.
So, that door is then open for everyone. It’s just that, to that door, a thousand different paths come. There are as many paths, as there are people. Your very personality is the method. And therefore no ‘one method’ can be applicable to all. What will work for you, will not work for her. So don’t be ever disappointed. Never say that "I do not have the aptitude or the acuity that a Krishna had, or a Buddha had. I do not have that, so how do I make it?" No. You have what you have. And that is sufficient.
On one hand, you have to kind of despise yourself, as Jesus said, “Unless you hate yourself, your life, your father, your mother, your friends, you cannot come to me.” On one hand, you have to be very disdainful towards yourself. On the other hand, you have to know that you are all you have got. You don’t have anything else. You are all you have, like somebody in the middle of a jungle, stuck in his old car. What do you do? Set the car to fire? What do you do? – Yeah, you can curse and kick the car as much as you want. But ultimately, it’s the car that will get you out of the jungle.
So that’s us, ‘the person stuck in the jungle’ and that’s us ‘the car you are stuck with’. We are both; ‘the person’ and ‘the car’. And believe me, we seriously are a very outdated, shabby, dilapidated specimen of a car. But that’s all that we have. Stuck there, no point in dreaming of brand new SUVs and such things. That rusty piece of metal is all that you have. This rusty piece of metal (that we are), is all that we have. Curse it, all right. And having cursed it, to your heart’s satisfaction, now use it. Curse it every day, use it every day. Yours might be a judgmental car. It’s fine. What can you do? – keeps judging, makes so much noise, everything inside is jangling. Judgment, judgment, judgment. What can we do? Metal against metal, wire against wire!
