MEDITATION: THE ART AND BENEFITS OF FREEING YOUR MIND (Expanded and updated)

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The trampoline point from which to begin to understand the source of all of your ills and woes is that 'consensus reality' is pre-packaged: you are born into it and it is powerful enough to dictate your life via economic systems, government control, media manipulation, educational indoctrination...and so forth. It is naive to believe that these systems are escapable; they have influenced and continue to influence your life in dramatic ways. And allow me to let you guys in on a little secret that I suspect most of you will regard as blasphemy: you do not, I repeat, YOU DO NOT CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY!

To borrow the language of physics the entity that has the greatest mass/energy warps the space-time continuum and dictates its reality to all else. You are a cog in a machine that has existed long before you; and until you understand the workings of this machine, and direct your energies to altering your relationship to it, then a cog is all you will be.

Essentially, the thoughts you think and the desires you intend are not actually your own at all - you are contributing to someone else's reality: those that wield the most power in society.

THE BITTER TRUTH IS THAT YOU EXIST AS A SLAVE IN A SYSTEM DESIGNED BY YOUR OVERLORDS
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You need to first know exactly from where your thoughts are derived and are coming from, and only then can you undertake the task of liberating yourself from these thoughts; so as to subsequently succeed in the attempt to introduce new thoughts and manufacture new structures for yourself, and in so doing create a life that is freer of stress and anxiety, more purposeful and fluid, with a mind that is calmer, clearer, and more powerful.

Now, there is a way, probably the only way, that you can begin to liberate yourself and learn to create your own reality - by entering the silence between thoughts and learning to hold this space ritually for extended, unbroken periods. In effect, to silence the mind at will.

If you do this well, and not a thought enters your head for say 6-8 hours at a time, and you practice this daily, for at least 6 months, then you may begin to influence your reality in accord with the will of the UNIVERSE. Until you master this, and you continue to think habitually without cease...

YOU WILL ALWAYS BE SOMEONE ELSE'S BITCH!
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The benefits of stilling the mind are manifold, yet difficult to describe in words; it is like attempting to tell someone what an orgasm or an LSD experience feels like. Yet, these benefits are expounded upon by every evolved system of thought on this planet and every teacher with a mystical bent; Buddhism calls stilling the mind 'entering the stream' and it is the fundamental tenet of their practices. Eckhart Tolle calls it 'finding the now'; Carlos Castaneda calls it 'stopping the world'; Krishnamurti argues that as long as thought exists there can be no love and no truth. Deepak Chopra calls it entering the 'place of pure potential'.

I was inspired to begin meditation as a practice while reading Krishnamurti’s writings. He was offered the reins of power to the Theosophical Society and was being trained and regarded as a Messiah, but instead turned his back on it to live a humble life of meditation and teaching. His reiterations that 'thought' IS THE PROBLEM, and that the mind itself needs to be transcended hit me like a bombshell.

HOW I BEGAN TO MEDITATE:

During this period I had time on my hands and decided to give 'entering the silence' a good go. I lived nearby a river and in the mornings I would take myself and sit on a grassy patch in front of the river, choose a point in the water to focus my gaze upon, and when thoughts arose, I simply brought my attention back to this point and reminded myself to continue to attempt to keep the mind still. I did this for hours unbroken...day after day.

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I found the first week of this practice the most challenging, and what struck me most was how exhaustingly busy the mind was with an endless stream of chatter –predominantly negative in content, and mostly anxiety- and fear-ridden. It was very, very difficult to remain seated and focused on the task at hand, and of course thoughts constantly intrude.

I may divert my gaze to take in other aspects of my environment: a blade of grass at my feet, the flight and play of birds, the trembling of leaves in a breeze, paraphernalia crossing the path of my gaze, for example, but all of these I would use as a contemplation to banish thoughts, rather than as a springboard into cogitation, thought-association, or fantasy, as we are wont to do. This temptation, one must be vigilant against.

One of the funnier aspects of the practice was when after succeeding in widening the gap between thoughts my mind would produce this phrase in wonderment: “Wow, it’s been many seconds and I haven’t had a single thought...yippee!”. To then realize, to my chagrin, that I broke the silence by thinking again. You learn a lot about the seductive aspects of your own mind.

The key is to acknowledge whatever arises but momentarily, without chastising the self, and then gently bring the focus back to absorption in whatever it is that you are using as a focal point to keep the mind still.

For me, that was gazing at a point in the current’s ceaseless flow, my mind hovering and non-attached as an observer to permanent flux – symbolically apt!

Over time, a few weeks into this practice, I discovered that I was able to hold the space between my thoughts for longer and longer; and then within a few months I became so adept at the practice that I could walk through crowded streets and malls and not have a single thought intrude.

I became completely "ONE" with my reality.

Because as long as you are thinking you are not experiencing reality, but rather, your thoughts about reality. Your thoughts act as a filter dividing you from the world.

GRADUALLY, and incredibly, my entire experience of reality shifted dramatically - my intuition grew: I began to feel an incredible, all-pervading sense of peace, as well as long periods of bliss and joy.

And magical things began to occur - new encounters; new adventures and experiences and connections with people I had never conceived existed. And I was then able to create my reality with greater success.

I believe this is due to the fact that when we are habitually thinking our intentions are scattered and in conflict. But when you learn to still the mind, and then you throw a thought into it like you would a stone into a calm lake, it has no other thoughts or intentions to weaken it - in effect, that thought/desire/intention is akin to a rocket aimed at your destination!

(www.spaceanswers.com)

I have done many things in my life, and disciplined myself through various and manifold esoteric practices, but nothing transformed my experience as intensely as this practice.

For a bootcamp in meditation and if you can find 10 days to spare you can check out www.dhamma.org for a retreat near you; they provide food and shelter and teach you to still the mind in exchange for a donation. I found this also to be an excellent experience.

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N.B: What I am describing above is a more formalized and rigorous approach to meditating. There are tasks that we may indulge in that could be considered a form of meditation with similar rules in play: an interruption of the train of thought; a mind wholly absorbed in whatever it is doing; entering a 'zone' so to speak. Such activities could be playing an instrument, engaging in a sport, surfing, jogging for long-distances, yoga, and so on.

A sitting-meditation is likely not appropriate for all, and people may be approaching Zen-mind in their own fashion. This is also to be considered.

The upside of a more systematic and engaged attitude to meditating is that the period involved can be lengthened to the degree that a silent-mind becomes the default-state, and it is the act of cognition that becomes the 'interruption', rather than the other way around.

This has an especially profound and transformative effect on the psyche and being, that one may not experience involving oneself in brief spurts in the activities I've just mentioned.

Ultimately, the goal is that one approaches whatever one is doing in the spirit of meditation and becomes aware of, and is capable of interrupting the process of ceaseless mental-chatter.

By this means, the mind truly becomes one’s own – a fine and powerful tool at the disposal of its possessor; rather than one at the mercy of others or the environment.

One may attain to higher states of awareness, as acknowledged by the sage, Patanjali, “When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms... In this way comes mastery over the senses. One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind. Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.”

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Good luck in your endeavours!

“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.” (Kurt Vonnegut).