We all feel there is something missing in our lives; something subtle, indefinable, somehow always beyond our reach.
This sense of missing something makes us feel incomplete. This sense of incompleteness drives us, motivates us to fill this void, either temporarily, or once and for all…
There are two primary engines that drive human activity: desire and aspiration. Which of these two engines we employ to “fill the void” depends on our consciousness.
When we identify ourselves as being primarily the body, vital and mind, we see ourselves as a finite being in a finite world. It seems we might therefore be fulfilled by acquiring more of the finite. This is the promise of desire: that happiness and fulfilment will surely come from getting more, possessing more, learning more; having more things, status, wealth and power.
Yet desire does not work.
Desire is a dog chasing its tail. No sooner do we fulfil one desire, than another takes its place. As soon as the void is filled, it reopens elsewhere.
Desire can never be a permanent cure to our incompleteness, for we are not finite beings – we are spiritual beings. We are infinite, as is that for which we yearn. Only the infinite can know the infinite, and only the infinite can fulfil the infinite.
All we most yearn for – peace, love, joy, wisdom, poise, fulfilment – are spiritual qualities. They are infinite. Only by deepening and expanding our experience of these qualities can the void within us be filled, can we feel ourselves complete.
The yearning for these spiritual qualities is aspiration. Aspiration comes from our heart, and leads to our soul.
Languishing ever in the finite, desire brings us suffering and invites us ultimately to death. Aspiration nourishes with ever-expanding satisfaction and leads us ultimately to immortality.
“We need a resolute determination To silence the pride Of thought-flood.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Imagine thoughts during meditation are birds in the sky.
You are not the birds. You are the sky.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle we encounter in meditation, is the very first hurdle: the stream of thoughts flowing through our minds.
What to do with these thoughts?
Never be discouraged. Everyone faces the same challenge and for everyone, it is difficult. If you give up, you will never reach the goal.
Patience and persistence always win. If your mind is as stubborn as a rock, then bring forth a determination as persistent as water. Water will eventually wear down even the toughest rock.
Imagine your mind is the vast sky, and thoughts are birds flying through your sky. Your task is to remain focused on the sky, not on the birds. There will always be birds somewhere in the sky: accept them as something natural and inevitable, and let them fly right by.
The moment you focus on a particular bird, then that thought-bird becomes a distraction, and your meditation is disturbed. The bird is not to blame; it’s just doing its thing. Your focus on the bird is the culprit.
Let’s focus on what is within our power, and not what is beyond our control. You may not be able to stop the birds from flying, but you can ignore them.
Another version of this approach is to imagine that you are the lead bird flying in formation. You are seeing only sky ahead of you. When a thought comes, that is another bird trying to take the lead. So speed up – redouble your enthusiasm and application – to take the lead again and be immersed once more in infinite sky. Never surrender your lead!
We know that the goal of meditation is to enter into a completely vacant, still and silent mind.
Yet even after years of practise, I am still being bothered by thoughts and distractions. Does this mean I am a useless meditator, wasting my time?
Not at all! To be able to silence the mind at will is a monumental achievement requiring an enormous effort of will, practise and persistence.
From an early age we have deliberately loaded our minds up with facts and falsehoods, details and data, theories, philosophies, beliefs and an ever-mounting mountain of useless information. If our mind is a monster, it is a monster of our own making.
Consider how much effort has been poured into making our mind so active and complex. Now we are telling that same mind: “Please be silent.” Impossible and absurd!
It is like standing in front of a train going at 200 kph and asking it to stop on the spot. It cannot be done. Slowly and gradually the train has to slow down and eventually be brought to a standstill. Similarly, we cannot hope for the mind to cease its activity all at once. Instead, like the train, we need first to slow the mind down. We do this by focusing the mind on one thing: a mantra, our breath, slow counting, a flower or a candle flame. Only once we can effectively focus the mind on ONE thing, can we hope to then empty the mind of all thoughts.
Meditation is not just about quieting our mind: it is more about entering and opening our spiritual heart.
Don’t worry about thoughts and distractions. Focus more on your heart. Your heart will gladly, lovingly take care of your mind.
We are so used to our mind’s constant clutter, that we become inured to its incessant activity. The only time we notice so many thoughts is when we sit down and try to meditate. It’s as though all of a sudden there are all these thoughts at the precise moment we don’t want any! Of course the thoughts have been there the whole time…
If you come from a quiet village to live on a busy street in the city, at first you won’t be able to sleep at night due to all the noise of traffic and activity outside. Yet after a while you get used to the noise. It becomes part of your background. So is it with our thoughts. We just don’t notice them any more – until we try to turn them off.
Yet even though we may not be 100% successful in silencing the mind, there is always tremendous benefit just from the effort to do so. Let’s say the usual level of activity in our mind is around 100 TPM (thoughts per minute). Now when we sit to meditate, while focusing on our chosen object perhaps we are able to bring the rate down to 50 TPM. Because our goal is to have 0 TPM we are disheartened by this: we say “I’m a failure at meditation because I have still have so many thoughts!”
Yet we should be proud of this achievement: 50 TPM is a huge improvement on 100 TPM! What is most important is progress. Little by little by little we bring the mind under our control.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Don’t be tempted to judge the quality of your meditation experience. The only essential thing is to practise with sincerity every day.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” – The Gospel of Matthew, 5:16
If we are inspired to feed the hungry, we must first grow and harvest some crops. If we are inspired to give money to the poor, we must first earn the money.
The same applies to inner wealth: peace, love, happiness and satisfaction. We must first find and cultivate these qualities before we can offer and share them with the world at large.
Many feel a calling to save the world. There is so much suffering, unhappiness, ignorance, anger, fear, stress and despair.
To save the world, we have only to serve the world.
To serve the world, we must first access our inner wealth. When we meditate, the peace, light and bliss within comes to the fore and radiates the way that fragrance emanates from a flower. We do not have to announce, demonstrate or prove anything: it is self-evident.
Just as many candles can be lit from a single flame, so spiritual qualities are communicated directly from one heart to another. When you see someone with a huge smile, immediately your own face lights up in a smile. This is the heart’s inner communication: one heart instantly recognises and claims the joy of another as its own. Among receptive hearts, all spiritual qualities are contagious.
When we have meditated in the morning, we exude a deeper peace and more authentic joy than when we have not meditated.
Therefore to feed the world’s most urgent needs, whatever outer activities we may be engaged in, our first and foremost task is to meditate.
Our morning meditation is the single most precious service we can offer the world.
All of us have a sense that there is something or someone superior in wisdom and capacity – whether part of our own being or beyond us – to which or to whom we would ideally turn for guidance, instruction and inspiration. Be it a family member, friend or counsellor, a scripture, our spiritual heart, soul, God or some other deity, we all feel the need to turn to some source greater, deeper and more illumined than our own minds and emotions.
Those who meditate have come to realise that our most direct access to the source of infinite Truth, Light and Wisdom is to dive deep into our own spiritual heart, where the light of our soul can best be perceived.
Those who imagine God or the Supreme as an external entity have also come to realise, that to receive guidance and instruction from Above clearly, we must first calm and clear our thoughts and feelings.
Either way: to be open and receptive to our superior Source, whether within or without, it is essential to meditate.
At work, we start a task only after it has been assigned by our boss. Similarly, we should not contemplate embarking on our daily activities until we have checked in with whichever superior whose guidance we wish to abide by: heart, soul or God. This guidance pertains not so much to what we shall DO during the day, as to who we shall BE.
Just as we shower, do our hair and dress appropriately, so we need to “look good” inwardly before heading out into the world. Otherwise we will be letting ourselves down, as well as disappointing the world.
Check in with the mother ship; recalibrate your settings before any significant endeavour. Meditate prior to starting every day.
There is a widely held view that we are all either “morning people” or “NOT morning people”. Those who regard themselves as NOT morning people tend to find it more difficult to meditate successfully in the morning, and report better quality meditations in the evening.
Some are tempted therefore to forego their morning meditation, and meditate only in the evenings. This is a mistake.
Regardless of whether one finds it easier or experiences a better quality of meditation in the evening, as a cornerstone of spiritual discipline and lasting progress, morning meditation is indispensable. Meditation at any time is of course wonderful and always beneficial; however, as a transforming agent of our consciousness, there can be no substitute for meditation first thing in the morning.
Gliders are towed by a powered plane to a height and then released, to glide gracefully on air currents and gradually descend to earth. The sensation is free and weightless, the perspective clear and certain, the view all-encompassing.
Meditating in the morning is like being brought to a great height and then released to glide through your day, effortlessly and blissfully, until our life-glider eventually returns to earth. The higher we can start our day’s journey, the longer we remain airborne, the less chance of becoming snared in earthly entanglements. Our goal, with practise, is to start at a sufficient height to enable our consciousness to stay aloft throughout the entire day.
If we do not meditate early in the morning, we start our day at ground level, where we are far more susceptible to the roaming, devouring monsters of stress and ever-mounting problems.
Meditate in the evenings for a delightful experience by all means – but meditate in the morning for a smoother, clearer, happier glide through your day.
Next time you are angry, stressed, confused or depressed, look at yourself in the mirror. What do you feel from this face? Do you find it attractive – or otherwise?
One time after you have had a good meditation, do the same: look at yourself in the mirror. What do you feel from this face?
Which of these two faces would you rather spend time with? Which would you rather represent you to the world? Which is your truer self?
Our face is our identity card, which cannot be faked. A smile or a frown can be false, but the satisfied glow of meditation cannot be faked.
Most of us do not present our true selves to the world most of the time, simply because we are not in touch with our true selves to start with.
If we are presenting a false self to the world, then naturally the world will relate to this false self, leading to a spiral of confusion, misunderstanding and disharmony. Our relations with the world and with ourselves will be disconnected, dysfunctional.
To meditate is to find our true selves in our inner peace, light and bliss.
Because most of our relations with the world take place during the day, it is essential that we meditate first thing in the morning, so we can present our authentic identity card to the world.
A valid ID is required to pass through certain check-points and to enter restricted areas. So it is in life. We are frequently detained at the stress check-point, and we just can’t access the restricted area of lasting happiness without the authentic ID of our inner glow.
Morning meditation offers an “Access All Areas” card to sail through the day’s obstacles and to sumptuously enjoy life’s first-class lounge.
Every day is a new game, a new song, a new journey, a new examination.
Our instrument is our consciousness. Just as an athlete prepares with stretching and warm-up exercises, a musician carefully tunes their instrument, a traveller packs their bags and a student studies for an exam, so our morning meditation prepares our consciousness so we are in shape for our daily game, song, journey and examination.
There are many reasons to meditate: all are good and valid. The important thing is that we do meditate – at least daily.
Meditation itself is a deeply enjoyable experience. Yet very few of us start meditation simply to enjoy the experience of meditation itself. Most embark on meditation in the hope that its practise will transform our consciousness, help us to overcome life’ s challenges and become a better, happier person.
The workshop of our consciousness is our daily life, our interface with the outer world. Our daily life challenges us with stress, tension and confusion; it presents as the problem which meditation must solve.
If we want to enjoy most delicious fruits, we must first pluck the fruits. If we want our day to be full of the fruits of meditation, it is essential that the first thing we do after waking in the morning is to meditate – before anything else.
If an athlete does not warm up, a musician doesn’t tune, a traveller neglects to pack or a student fails to study, the results can be disastrous. So can our day be, if we do not meditate first thing.
Morning meditation insulates us from life’s rough weather, while flooding us with peace, light and inspiration. We are tuned to play, enjoy and become the ever-new, soulful, sweet, thrilling and uplifting song of each new day.
Meditating first thing in the morning is like putting money in the bank.
When we have money in the bank, we can withdraw it to spend whenever the need arises.
It is said: “Morning shows the day.” When we wake up we are relatively unconscious. What we do first thing after waking can hugely influence our state of consciousness for the remainder of the day.
When we meditate, we enter into and bring to the fore our inner peace, poise, light, love, joy and goodwill for the world. These qualities are our inner wealth, which we accumulate in our heart’s inner bank.
Then when we go out into the world, our account is in surplus; we are ready for whatever challenges might come. Let’s say our morning meditation has resulted in us earning $50 inner dollars worth of peace and bliss. Driving to work, someone cuts in front of us and nearly causes an accident: instead of stressing out and cursing the other driver, we draw on our inner poise to take the necessary evasive action and continue calmly on our way. If we had not meditated and accrued a reserve of peace and poise, we might have reacted aggressively and then carried that aggression with us the whole day. Worse still, we might not have had the composure to avoid an accident. This incident might result in a transfer of $10 inner dollars from our account. We’re ruffled but still under control.
When we get to work, our boss blames us for someone else’s mistake, rudely insulting us. Instead of shouting back, we draw another $10 from our inner account, smile and continue calmly.
By keeping our inner account in credit, morning meditation finances our smooth passage through all life’s challenges and obstacles.
The original source of musk fragrance is the male musk deer, which produces the famous scent from a gland in its body.
The story goes, that when the deer first becomes aware of this fragrance, it becomes enchanted, and starts to follow it, seeking its source. The deer walks around in search of this alluring wonder. No matter which way it turns, the fragrance remains always slightly out of reach. It cannot locate the source. Obsessed, the deer starts to run and run, madly pursuing the elusive unattainable.
Finally, exhausted, the deer collapses … and dies.
We are that deer.
The true source of all that appeals, all that beckons us, all that enchants and entertains, all that promises fulfilment and a better, richer, happier life – all is within. Yet we spend all of our time, energy and effort in desperately pursuing its reflections all around us – here, there and everywhere else except precisely the place where fulfilment is to be found: within.
Like the deer, we too sense the presence of something extraordinary, something pure, fine and high. This something seems so close, and yet so maddeningly remote. We too become obsessed with attaining this something and start to run and run in every direction, searching in this place, in that activity, in this book, in that relationship, in this substance, in that pretence, in this club, in that discipline, in this hobby, in that fashion, in this passion, in that mission, in this vocation, in that conviction.
Like the deer, we spend and ultimately give up our life in pursuit of the seemingly unattainable.
The deer’s story is sad, for it follows only its instinct. Our story is tragic, for we know the musk – our soul – is within and our own, yet we meditate not.
There is an infinite universe around us … and an infinite within.
To embrace the infinite, it is customary to identify with something vast, like the ocean or the sky.
You can instead choose something very small. The finite realm we inhabit, which dominates our present awareness, is a fine, flimsy gauze covering the infinite reality within and all around. Just as height and depth in meditation are ultimately the same; so the same truth is embodied within the vast, as in the tiny. Vast and tiny are conceptions of our mind; beyond the mind’s domain, vast and tiny alike dissolve in the One.
An exercise:
Imagine you are sitting alone on a beach, on a glorious sunny day. Focus on your breathing. Following a slow and controlled counting, bring your thoughts and feelings to a still point of serenity.
Now imagine that you have become a single grain of sand on your beach. You are one of billions, perhaps trillions of similar grains, each unique, each complete and perfect in its own being. Yet even this grain is composed of countless atoms. Look further within, to find there is no end to looking further within. Enter into and become just one atom. As an atom, you are composed mostly of empty space, with your nucleus of protons and neutrons, and countless electrons whirring around.
Putting aside the nucleus and whirring electrons, plunge into, embrace and become the emptiness that is the vaster part of your atom. You are now silent pure empty stillness unfathomable, unknowable.
Grains of sand come and go; atoms too – yet the silent impenetrable peace and power you embody is beyond all movement, action and concept, beyond time, beyond space.
You are indomitable, imperturbable, inscrutable, incalculable, irreducible, ineluctable.
To meditate, we must focus the mind. Our tool is concentration. The better our concentration, the easier it is to enter into meditation. As a chef cannot work with a blunt knife, so one cannot meditate with a scattered and wandering concentration.
Just as the force of the sun’s rays can be intensified and multiplied by using a magnifying glass, to the point where a fire can be started, so the mind’s power of concentration can be sharpened and intensified by practising bringing all of the mind’s awareness to a single point.
To develop our power of concentration, there are many exercises where one focuses exclusively on something tiny and imagines oneself entering into, and ultimately becoming that object.
Two of these exercises involve our thumbnail, and a black dot. In both cases, focus exclusively on the object – your thumbnail, or a small black dot drawn on a blank wall in front of you. Feel that the object is breathing and that you are breathing in time with it.
Narrow your gaze so that nothing else exists in your field of vision – only your thumbnail or the black dot on the wall. Imagine that the object is drawing you into it, as though it were sucking you in through a tube or a tunnel – all your thoughts, feelings and awareness is entering into the object. Nothing else exists, either within you or around you.
Imagine that you have become the object. There are no thoughts, no feelings, no distractions. Next imagine that from within the object, you are focusing your attention back onto your original self. Observe yourself, standing or sitting in perfect stillness and calm.
These exercises are difficult to master, and require persistent practise. Don’t give up! Your rewards are in the mail.
