Let's close our eyes.
There are a lot of definitions of meditation.
And there are innumerable ways of meditating and practicing meditation.
But somehow a common complaint is I get a lot of thoughts in my meditation or I get a lot of negative thoughts in my meditation.
My mind is distracted.
I can't focus.
These are the common complaints.
But what we are doing here is very specific.
It's very simple as well.
Before I explain what the specificity in what we do here as we sit for meditation,
I want to address some of the complaints not by answering them but by opening the question a little more.
All complaints can be captured in having thoughts while your eyes are closed and you are sitting.
Negative thoughts,
Distracting thoughts,
Lack of focus,
Etc.
So thoughts is the biggest problem that one faces in meditation.
If we accept this claim,
We are accepting the underlying definition of what meditation is.
Which according to this claim is something that is devoid of thoughts.
If you have thoughts,
You are not meditating.
If you don't have thoughts,
You are meditating.
That's the definition that is being implied here.
With this definition,
We embark on a self-judgment journey where having thoughts is a sign of failure and the judgment of I'm not good enough to meditate,
Therefore I shouldn't meditate.
Our human experience comprises of perceptions which include sights,
Sounds,
Tastes,
Textures and smells.
Perceptions,
Thoughts which include images,
Sounds.
And lastly,
Emotions which include sensations and feelings.
There is nothing beyond these three categories that we experience as human beings.
And somehow,
The only problem seems to be with thoughts.
Nothing is wrong with perceptions and nothing is wrong with emotions.
It's only the thoughts that interfere with meditation.
So we embark on this quest to control our thoughts,
To kill our thoughts so to speak,
To make them go away.
What will happen if you start fighting with a particular aspect of your human experience?
What will happen if you start fighting with a particular aspect of your human experience?
It's like rattling a cage of a lion.
Suddenly the lion is the problem.
If you start fighting with thoughts,
Then thoughts will seem to be a problem.
Asking thoughts to stop or expecting thoughts to stop or wanting thoughts to stop is like asking water to not flow.
Or to curtail a part of human experience.
If thoughts wasn't the only problem,
Somehow due to cultural exposure,
We have condensed the problematic area to be a certain section called negative thoughts.
So now we are going to go through every thought and make concessions for some thoughts but wrestle with the so-called negative thoughts.
You see,
The more I'm describing the problem in detail,
The more ridiculous it sounds.
Because we have a hard time explaining simple things,
We tend to complicate them.
Maybe that's the reason why this definition of meditation has become so convoluted.
But all of us are intelligent.
Whatever I'm describing,
Our intelligence is working through this explanation to see if it makes sense or not.
I have Commandrupt relative like the one behind me.
I was once reading a book by a Buddhist monk and she suggested that she had travelled all over the world exploring meditation and trying to find the quietest place to meditate and no matter how remote she went,
It was never quiet in the deepest and darkest caves,
She could hear all kinds of insects making sounds that's when she realized that sounds are not a problem because the more you try to avoid them,
The more you see how ubiquitous they are and just like that,
The more we try to avoid thoughts,
The more we are bombarded by them not to mention an insight that happens in this process which is,
We don't have any control over our thoughts thoughts arise and dissolve on their own accord in the middle of this sitting,
You might get a thought about home,
About office about getting something from the grocery store,
Completely random did you have any control over your thought?
So what if we stayed true to our experience?
And from that we come up with a definition and a description for what meditation is now that we have debunked the most common complaint about meditation namely thoughts are a problem thoughts,
Sounds which fall under perceptions,
The sensations arising in your body the feelings that are arising in your body,
They have their life of their own it's not a problem we don't wrestle with sounds,
We don't wrestle with sensations we have a similar approach towards feelings,
Wherein we categorize them as positive and negative feelings,
But I will let everyone explore that as a homework using the same higher reasoning that we used for thoughts so once we start from this baseline that no perceptions,
No thoughts,
No feelings,
No sensations are a problem then we get to define meditation as Mob machines you you the imagery that I want to use for this definition is being on the banks of a river and watching the river flow you with a deep rooted wisdom and insight that we explored earlier that the river has its own flow so sitting on the banks of the river all we are going to do is watch the water flow at that point it's not even a river it's just water flowing without we interfering in the flow without us focusing or concentrating on a certain section of the flow without judging,
Criticizing,
Naming,
Categorizing anything that is happening in the flow so whatever perceptions,
Thoughts,
Sensations,
Emotions that are arising and dissolving one after the other as a flow of the river all we are doing is watching the flow no matter how exciting the thought is how true the thought is how untrue the thought is how exciting the emotion is how pleasant or unpleasant the sound is or the sensation we are just watching it flow from one perception to a thought to a sensation,
To an emotion there is no judgment,
No categorization of any part of the experience into positive or negative,
Good or bad no negotiation with the flow,
No interference with any of the thoughts or emotions just letting the flow flow and being as being you you you you you thank you
