Your typical mind is a dense, impenetrable thorny thicket of thoughts.
Every thorny thicket was once upon a time a clear space. And can become so again. Just as time and neglect conspired to allow the bushes and brambles to proliferate and entrench themselves, so time and dedicated effort can slowly untangle and eradicate them and return the space to its former beauty.
There is no easy way to clear such a thicket. It is hard work. Just as the tricky thicket of our mind has become ever denser and thornier over a lifetime of constant distraction, stimulation and ‘education’, so to clear the mind, requires years of patient, determined, disciplined effort in meditation. To clear the mind, just start your meditation journey, continue and persist cheerfully with relentless purpose and unwavering faith, till the task is complete.
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Some mountains are almost never seen. Their summits are perpetually swathed in clouds, mist and fog.
So also, are the summits of our inner life, the peaks of spiritual experience, almost never glimpsed through the swirling cloud and fog of our mind’s thoughts, theories, conjecture, distractions, obsessions, fears, fantasies, illusions and delusions.
Yet once in a rare while, even the most elusive peaks peek through their veil, bearing bright sunlight through a break in the clouds. So also, in flashes we glimpse moments of pure bliss, sense perfect peace, feel universal love, and perceive the inner oneness of things.
The mountain is always there. And so are our inner heights. To see the mountain, we must wait for rare breaks in the weather: just imagine if we had the power to remove these clouds at our sweet will.
Such is the power of meditation: dispersing the mind’s clouds, our inner mountain heights are revealed.