Question:

Desires and tendencies – it’s one thing being aware as they come up, suppress them, reduce them, possibly even eliminate them. But there is always a danger lurking of reviving them. I am going through one right now. It’s a line in stone, not on water or sand. And it’s become a demon. Even if I conquered it, some trigger will break it lose again. Guided meditation and daily practices haven’t produced a natural burning of this seed – the tendencies are deeply entrenched. Why hasn’t it burnt the seed?

Answer:

First of all, we must clear our misconceptions about methods used for meditation.

Wrong understanding – A meditation practice that has an external object [sight, sound, flavour, tangible, odour] will burn the internal seed of desire.

Right understanding – The seed of desire is a mind-object [thought buried deep in the unconscious mind]. An object cannot be removed by another object. Guided meditation or Mantra meditation or any sound technique uses sound as an object. So, it is just a temporary relief from agitation. It cannot be a permanent cure.

So what is the purpose of a meditation practice that uses sound as an object?         

An external sound [guided meditation/mantras] cannot completely eradicate internal sound [seed of desire]. It just works as a palliative to momentarily suppress the internal noise of the mind. This calms down the agitation for a while but it is sure to come up again because the seed of the noise has NOT been uprooted yet. But, at least in a momentarily non-agitated mind, one can rest and make an effort to work on a permanent cure.

Why cannot it lead to a permanent cure?

Sound meditation can only calm the mind that has become agitated by a desire just like a vacuum cleaner cleans a dirty room. The vacuum cannot prevent new dirt from entering the room forever, just like that the sound meditation cannot stop desire from entering into the mind forever. That effort will have to be done by you dear. That will be a permanent cure.

How do you do that?

By the clear understanding of the Truth; Desire is the root cause of suffering. Right now, this is just a concept for you, it has NOT become your Truth yet. That is why you are not able to let go of desire as soon as it arises. You need to make an effort from your side to see the Truth.

There are only 2 possibilities, experiment for yourself and arrive at your Truth:

1] Desire arises -> you cling on to it -> clinging leads to pre-occupation of the mind with the desire -> feverishness and agitation arise -> that feverishness and agitation are suffering -> that stirs up the mind and you look for relaxation techniques.

2] Desire arises -> you see it and make an effort to NOT cling on -> no pre-occupation in the mind -> no feverishness, no agitation -> no suffering -> that is relaxation in itself.

The wise one will learn the skill of not desiring and just going with the FLOW of nature. Remind yourself, ‘The FLOW will bring to me whatever is bound to come to me, it always HAS. Nothing that I have today can be claimed to have been attained by me. It was all a gift of the FLOW. If it must happen, it will. I do not need to fret about it.”

This clear understanding of the TRUTH of the FLOW is called Surrender. Surrender is not that when you say temporarily ‘I surrender and now you give it to me’. That is just business. You cannot surrender because surrender is not an action. Surrender is a happening! It happens when YOU REALIZE the TRUTH not when you fake-believe the TRUTH.

How will you know whether you have realized the TRUTH of the FLOW and not fake-believed it?

Simple! The understanding of the TRUTH brings silence in the mind and the noise automatically drops away. Desire drops away.

Then the only technique you need is Silent techniques because you understand that sound cannot take you to silence as it is the opposite of silence. But silence can take you into deeper silence. Then only, can you taste the delicious flavours of the VOID and NOTHINGNESS and NO-MIND!

If you choose to still encourage desires and yet get rid of suffering, know it from your OWN EXPERIENCE that it’s NOT POSSIBLE on this planet dear. Stop fooling yourself, there is no short-cut out there!