Question:

Didi – due to some recent experiences I have been wondering about this. Why is it so hard for people to understand this spiritual aspect of life and not meditate? which can help live a stress-free life in the general sense. Why isn’t this knowledge to meditate readily available like other habits that we have like ‘brushing a teeth’ or ‘taking a shower every day‘?

Answer:

Sweetie, you must understand that other habits are ‘of the mind’. Meditation means attaining ‘no-mind’. It is the exact opposite of what one is used to and not an easy habit to cultivate. It requires a spiritual thirst that develops and grows naturally. The knowledge to meditate is everywhere, it’s just that it needs thirsty eyes to be recognized.

How does the thirst develop?

One must really get tired and fatigued of doing/attaining/achieving/mastering all worldly aspects of life. Once he masters them and still feels a void within sincerely [not as a fashion/trend that everyone talks about], when he truly sees the futility of the samsara, then he cannot but keep away from ‘silencing the mind’.

Why?

Because now, he has realized that, irrespective of what he attains in the Samsaara outside, he is still empty and noisy within. He does not know it so clearly in words but now starts feeling the thirst to taste silence. It is a thirst that is gradually developed.

There are different levels of thirst:

Initial level: Someone comes into spirituality with just a mere inquisitiveness/curiosity to ‘check it out’. But they are not genuinely feeling the thirst, emptiness, noise inside so they stay at the periphery. Meditation is only ‘Kama purta’ means ‘I will meditate when I am disturbed too much but otherwise, there is no need’. Meditation is just a painkiller tablet for them taken once in a while to shoo the pain away

Basic level: Some people start realizing the futility here and there, but their Ego says, “You have built this little empire of house, car, career, family; how can this be futile?” This struggle between ‘sense of futility’ and ‘ego’ happens every once in a while. And then they force themselves to meditate so that the ‘sense of futility’ gets suppressed. Meditation is now an antibiotic that has at least a 5-10 day course that must be completed to cure the feeling of futility. Slowly, it fades away and they are back to their ‘chaki-peesing’ [mundane lives].

Intermediate level: Whatever you resist, persists. The thirst becomes stronger because the emptiness and futility keep popping their heads up more often. One starts feeling that ‘I was better without spirituality and meditation’. This is because the sense of emptiness in the external world has grown a lot. The Ego says even more strongly now, “this is not the right path, this is not the right Guru, try something else. How about more money? How about gambling in the casinos of Las Vegas?” The harder they try, the stronger the emptiness gets. And the right guidance in the form of a Knowledge sheet/Satsang/Gurus words brings them to meditation. This time their thirst is intense and they start progressing must faster. These people now start meditating regularly because of the realization that attaining the ’no-mind’ state [even if for a few seconds] gives peace. They are still not very clear about how to handle the struggle between the Ego and Futility, but they carry on somehow.

Advanced level: They finally accept the futility of Samsaara. They finally accept that it is their ‘OWN MIND’ that causes ALL the noise and there is no external agent responsible. They finally accept that the emptiness within is thirsting for a state of ‘No-mind’. Now Meditation is no more a pill to be popped to suppress something. Now meditation becomes REAL. This is the actual beginning of spirituality. It first begins as a search for God, Enlightenment, Moksha, Dispassion, etc. This is where one has taken a 180 degree turn away from the Samsaara. He starts exploring various corners of his mind in meditation. He develops the interest in learning about his own Self.

Expert level: One soon comes to a realization that he is doing the same in the spiritual world what he was doing in the material world— feverishly running behind an object; only now the object is a spiritual object like a Guru/Knowledge/Concept of Liberation/Concept of Dispassion etc. This takes immense courage to drop and learn to ‘Just BE’. This is a typical spiritual phase where one might again feel like dropping this or that. But meditation/knowledge/seva [atleast one of them] does not drop away, it has now gotten established as your path. Here one starts going deeper into the Self if one does NOT go astray. [That is a BIG ‘IF’ in this stage because he can regress from here too]. But if one crosses this hurdle, he finally starts understanding and experiencing the meaning of ‘JUST BEING’ moving closer to the peak of meditation!

Master Level: He starts mastering ‘Just being’. One’s thirst is so intense that he cannot stop himself from attaining the ‘No-Mind’ state. But remember, you are finally all ALONE at this stage; the Advait cannot be attained along with another object. This highest state is reached when he masters ‘JUST BEING’, where he is in a constant state of ‘no-mind’, he walks meditatively, he talks meditatively, he breathes meditatively. Amanni Dasha [No-mind] where there are no doubts, no ego, no struggle, NOTHING!
Compassion, Love, Friendliness, Seva-bhaava, Surrender, Silence and above all ‘GNYANA that comes from his own SELF’ are now his established nature.

Where are you?