Vivekachudamani: Dissolve the Mind by Concentrating It in the Supreme Self
When Shankaracharya says “Dissolve the mind by concentrating it in the Supreme Self” , what he is saying is that your mind is anyway always concentrated and the type of concentration that you have will not help. This verse just tells you that whatsoever you are concentrating on is going to disappoint you. The mind is always concentrated in all the worldly and miscellaneous things. It is beyond the mind to concentrate on the Truth. Because the Truth is not an object. So, concentration doesn't help, it is not a matter of concentrating, it is a matter of seeing the futility of concentration.
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Questioner: “Acharya Ji, pranam. In shloka 407 of Vivekachudamani, it is advised to dissolve the mind by 'concentrating it in the Supreme Self which is one’s inmost essence.' So, is this inmost essence, the same as 'the I am'—the natural sense of being felt in the heart? If so, is it enough to fix the attention on this, both in my meditation and as I go through the day, bringing the attention back every time it wanders away? Would that kind of concentration be sufficient or is something more required?”
Acharya Prashant: The flower, can never quite feel the root, or can it? You have talked of 'the I am'—the natural sense of being felt in the heart. Whatsoever is felt is always felt in the mind. The heart is that which enables the feeling. In the heart, there are no feelings nor can the heart be ever felt. Meditation is not about concentrating on the natural sense of being. Meditation is not about bringing the mind back from the world to some ‘I am’ idea.
To meditate is to continuously look for That, for which the eyes anyway are looking. You must understand this. Look at the way one’s eyes look. We don't just look. We look purposefully, don't we? The eyes keep on looking. The ears keep on hearing. The mind keeps on processing. The memory keeps on accumulating. One keeps on living. One keeps on breathing. None of that is just happening.
