Meditation can change your life and your very sense of who you are. There is a reason it has been around for thousands of years and practiced by people from all walks of life and on all parts of the globe. There is a common myth about meditation, however, that often leads to a sense of failure and, consequently, an unnecessary abandonment of the practice.
The Myth: Meditation is supposed to calm the mind. Or, otherwise expressed, correct meditation will lead you to stop thinking. False! A feeling of calm and a quieter mind is sometimes a result of meditation, and a lovely one, but the purpose of meditation is not to calm the mind or your self. You have not failed if your mind does not become like a still pool as a result of this practice. It is the nature of the mind to keep generating thoughts, endlessly, whether meditating or not. Some people who have meditated for decades continue to house a wild animal, (otherwise known as the monkey mind) inside them. The purpose of meditation is not to change the nature of the monkey, not to turn it into a basset hound. Rather, the purpose is simply to observe the monkey -- to SEE what is happening within your own mind and your own self. That's it! Nothing fancy, but everything necessary. Noticing the mind jumping about -- doing its monkey thing -- is meditation. If the mind quiets as a result of being observed (which it often does), that's wonderful, but whether it does or not is of no consequence.
What changes as a result of meditation is not necessarily the speed and frequency of the thoughts that appear in our inner landscape, but rather our relationship with those thoughts. Through the practice of meditation, we become less identified with the ticker tape that runs through our head, less convinced that our thoughts hold some inherent truth or importance, and less committed to solving each problem/emergency about which our thoughts remind us. You could say that we lose a degree of interest in the monkey mind's song (or screech). Sometimes the mind quiets as a result of our lack of interest -- of our paying it less mind -- and sometimes it just screeches louder. Again, neither outcome is a testament to the success or failure of meditation, just something else to notice.
So what is the big deal, then? Why all this talk about meditation when (possibly) nothing about the mind changes as a result of it. What is startling is that everything can change as a result of not trying to change anything. It is counter-intuitive, really -- we do not set out with the purpose of changing who we are (or if we do, we simply notice that too), and yet who we are changes once it is simply allowed to be. What happens as a result of witnessing our own mind (without judgment or commentary) is that, over time, we realize that we are actually not that mind, nor the thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and all else that it spews out. We realize that the mind will happen on its own, generating content, with or without our participation. We realize that who we are, our very identity, is the one who is witnessing all that goes on, that monkeying about. The purpose of meditation is not to change our mind, but to awaken the self that is aware of it!
You are successfully meditating if you meditate. If you take one moment to see what is occurring inside your own mind -- without getting involved in its contents, without engaging in the dialogue, just looking -- you are doing it right. What happens to you as a result of the observation, therein lies the wild and magnificent adventure!
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Ed and Deb Shapiro: Meditation: The Pearl in the Oyster
The Benefits of Meditation | Psychology Today
How Meditation May Change the Brain - NYTimes.com
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Of course such discussion can intimidate people who are starting out, or who have not yet mastered the small mind, leading them to believe that there is a hierarchy and thus something to which they must strive; any striving during meditation will actually stimy your progress! Nevertheless the nature of the entire Creation is towards progression so there will always be an expansion of what we are currently experiencing, the trick is to fully accept and embrace where we are Here and Now, without judgement or comparison, and allow the unfoldment to occur in the time, space and sequence that is right for you.
It is also important to bear in mind that meditation is just a small segment of our day, and our "progress" during that time is directly correlated to our progress in every other aspect of our daily lives.
But where is the union of the observer and the observed?
As long as one is watching चित्तवृत्ति cittavritti (literally mind wave) the movement of though or what you term as monkey mind there is separation between this stream and the one who is observing. Only when the two are merged into the act of observing that there is what is generally termed as ध्यान (dhyana) meditation.
"We realize that who we are, our very identity, is the one who is witnessing all that goes on, that monkeying about."
We are not apart from the observation. We are the observing. Both thought and this watching of its flow is nothing but the process of observing.
The purpose of meditation as a practice is to enable us to make this paradigm shift from द्वैत dvaita (duality) this separation of the observed from the observer to अद्वैत advaita (non-duality) where the observer and the observed are subsumed back into the process of observing.
But meditation is only one step that can only be correctly performed within the proper context. Without study, service, and devotional dedication, this shift may not necessarily occur.
नमस्ते
Namaste
Thank you for boldly saying it!
It helps me to hear it again, so I can stay focused on meditation, not expectations.
What a powerful statement. Thank you.
I am not my mind. I am the self that is noticing my mind. I am the gap between my thoughts.
Spot on! With 5 years of daily meditation under my belt, I say thank you for the breath of fresh air! Too many people get discouraged by thinking that they are doing it wrong when their minds keep chattering. They will! And, you will hear them more as you are turning up the volume by actually paying attention to those thoughts! That's the point!
If when you meditate you get overwhelmed by the frequency and intensity of the "monkey mind", congratulations! You're doing it right!