Meditation and Stillness. The human being does not live within his Natural State of Being. He lives in his psychological state, in his mental state. This psychological state of humans is the state of unconsciousness about his Being.
We have this consciousness which is the common consciousness of all, this consciousness which functions here in this waking state and also in the dream state.
This state of ordinary consciousness... in it we have an illusion: the illusion of an individuality. This individuality is the person we believe ourselves to be. And that person is restless, with no tranquility, with no serenity; he or she is without peace.
Psychologically, we live in conflict. We have this conflict with ourselves, we have this conflict with the other, and we have this conflict with the world. The result of this is the absence of stillness.
So, people, nowadays, talk a lot about the importance of meditation, as a therapeutic care action, as a therapeutic aid mechanism for stillness.
So, our subject here is Meditation and Stillness. But there is a confusion here: all the internal disorder of the human being, all the internal confusion in them, all this agitation, this lack of psychological, mental tranquility, in this consciousness, which is the ego consciousness, is something that is present because there is no Self-awareness.
So, we can go in search of meditation... There are several meditation practices being taught nowadays, with the purpose of achieving, in these practices, the tranquility of the mind, the stillness of the mind. And here, when we refer to Meditation, we are pointing to something other than that.
When we refer to Meditation, we are not referring to meditation as a practice for the stillness of the mind, but Meditation as the very Stillness of your Natural State.
So, it is in that sense that we use the expressions “Meditation” and “Stillness” here, because Meditation is Stillness – not the stillness that we can achieve through practice.
Through practice, through willpower, through discipline that you can impose on yourself, to create a certain order to thoughts, it can put the mind into a certain stillness.
So, the practices of meditation are meant to show you how to silence the mind, quiet the mind, pacify the mind, by effort, by technique, by practice.
Here, Meditation is Consciousness itself, in the Natural State of Stillness.
In this sense, we use the expression “True Meditation” here not as a practice, but the True Practical Meditation, in living, moment by moment – at every moment facing yourself and looking at problems.
Problems are the cause of psychological restlessness. We have numerous internal problems. These problems are sustained by thought. Faced with a challenge that life presents to us – always here and now – we want to resolve this challenge, respond to this challenge through thought.
But thought is something that comes from the past, it is something that comes from memory, it is the result of a memory, a remembrance, an idea, a belief. It is not possible, with that, to deal with life at this moment, in this present moment.
I'll give you an example of this: you are here and now. There’s just this going on around you, nothing but life as it is right now. And yet a thought comes up with a feeling, a memory, a remembrance. This brings up a frame that represents the suffering that, at this moment, someone you love, or that you consider to love, is going through.
This memory, this remembrance, at this moment, becomes a problem, because there is this impulse in you to be “someone” to deal with it, and you find yourself unable to solve this person’s problem. Actually, now it is your problem, because you separate from the memory, from the recollection – which is really just a memory, a remembrance – you separate yourself as being the thinker, as being a person having this memory, and you want to do something with it, you want to solve this problem and you know you can't.
For you, the problem is the person’s problem, but, in reality, now the problem is yours. There is a pain present while facing this frame. That pain is created by that separation between you and that memory, between you and that remembrance.
So, this is the challenge of life. At that moment, life presents you with a challenge and that challenge is: life is here and now, whatever is going on, but there is not this “me,” this “I,” to do anything about what is presented.
This is the psychological way of relating to life, to the world, to ourselves, to these images, these memories, and these remembrances.
There is this sense of “I”, which is the sense of the ego, of a “person” present, dealing with this model, which is memory.
The question is: what is thought? Thought is memory, thought is remembrance, thought is image; an image that arises, a memory that arises, a remembrance that arises.
We have the illusion of “being someone,” “somebody” who is bringing this about, which is not true. You are here and memory arises, and remembrance arises – that is thought. That thought cannot cope with reality.
Reality is what presents itself here, what is here, but thought tries to do something with it – it creates the thinker, and the thinker suffers. That thinker is the “I.”
So, there’s this sense of the present “I,” there’s this sense of the present thinker, which is actually thought itself separating and trying to do something with that image, that memory, that remembrance.
All this needs to be investigated. We spend our whole lives not realizing what thinking is in us, how it works in each of us.
The nature of the mind, in the Natural State, is like a lake. But when the wind blows over that lake, it becomes agitated, and when that lake is agitated, because of the wind blowing, we want to do something to calm the lake again; and the lake is under a strong wind and naturally choppy.
So, the egoic mind lives in a state of agitation, under this wind, which is this pattern of psychological conditioning, which is all the time producing problems for each one of us.
So, this “me,” this “I,” wants to solve the problems, but it cannot solve the problems, because this “me,” this “I,” is the thinker. It is part of the problem, because that thinker is thought itself. Do you see what we are saying?
There is no “someone” to solve problems at this level, but there is “someone” to produce problems at this level – at the psychological level.
All the problems, or all that turmoil on the lake, created by that constant wind... Rarely does the lake calm down, settle down. It is quiet for a second or two and then suddenly it is agitated again, because a new volume of memory, remembrance, thought... The nature of the “I” is to produce problems. This “I”, which is thought, is something that is arising all the time within you.
So, there is an internal dialogue, there is an internal monologue, there is an internal chatter, and there is an extraordinary volume of memories, images, frames that represent a form of contradiction, conflict, suffering.
So, there’s this restlessness, there’s this agitation, there’s this choppy lake. This choppy lake is the psychological condition of the human being. There is no Peace, there is no Love, there is no Silence, because what prevails is the presence of this psychological conditioning.
So, what is Real Meditation? Here, I refer to True Meditation. These therapeutic meditation techniques and practices give us a certain help, they give us a certain aid, but it is really a form of self-hypnosis.
We managed to temporarily tranquilize the lake. So, there is a tranquility produced by the mind itself, within that condition where a certain temporary silence is imposed.
So, the mind is as if imprisoned within a condition of order, of discipline, of self-hypnosis, and thus it calms down, becomes still, temporarily, during the practice.
There are several names, there are several practices, there are several techniques. So, there is meditation to sleep better, meditation to de-stress, meditation to reduce anxiety, to reduce depression…
So, there are different techniques and practices that actually carry a certain power with them, which is this power of self-hypnosis, which is this therapeutic power, to quiet the “I.” But the “I” is still present.
We are proposing here a direct work for Self-realization, for Spiritual Enlightenment, for the Awakening of your Divine Nature, which is Consciousness; and according to Ramana, Consciousness and Kundalini are the same thing.
Kundalini, Consciousness and God is that Presence in you that is asleep, that needs to Awaken, and the work of the True Meditation... And for Real Meditation to occur, Self-awareness is necessary.
These different meditation techniques and practices that, in general, people apply and devote themselves to, for some time, this can bring psychological, emotional, physical improvements... This is already proven – the well-being that this causes, which this brings – but this does not definitively solve the problem of psychological suffering.
It doesn't really end this sense of self-identity, which is this sense of separation between you and God, between you and life. So, problems continue.
They decrease. You learn to deal with one problem, but another problem arises, a second one arises, and then another problem after that…
Self-realization, Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening is the end of the ego, of that sense of a separate identity, and therefore it is the definitive end of all psychological problems.
These problems are only possible because the wind is blowing over that lake, and that wind ends when the egoic sense ends, then the mind finds its Natural State, aligned with this Presence, with this Consciousness, which is your Real Nature, which is your Divine Nature.
So, True Meditation is practical because it is experiential. It is based on looking here and now, moment by moment, not at a certain instant, for fifteen minutes or half an hour in the morning or in the evening, like it happens with different meditation practices.
True Meditation is what happens here and now – the observation of that movement of memory when it arises. So, if that memory comes up, you don't put an identity on that memory, on that frame of pain. You look, you don't judge, you don't compare, you don't reject, you don't try to do something, but just observe that it’s just a memory, a remembrance, an image. You don't mistake yourself for that by putting a present identity in that memory, in that remembrance, so it’s possible to break this psychological condition of suffering.
You do not deal with life based on thought, but on the basis of action. But an action that really corresponds, in an intelligent way, to that frame, to that situation, is not possible when there is this psychological disorder, this psychological confusion, this sense of “I” in pain. Mind in tranquility is needed, the mind in stillness.
When there is this Natural Stillness – because the mind has not been forced to settle down, it has not been forced to calm down, it has not been disciplined to put a halt to this movement of thought, to imprison this thought, to hold this thought – you are here and now, free, in Stillness, because this model of the wind blowing, of memory, cannot produce, in you, this illusion of an identity, this illusion of separation between the thinker and the thought, between the observer and that observed thing, which is remembrance, which is memory.
This is True Meditation – the observation of every thought, every feeling, every emotion, every sensation, without putting an identity present into it to judge, to reject, to fight against it, to suffer with that image, to put an experiencer in that memory. So, the brain experiences an extraordinary freedom in this attention, in this observation that it is an image, a belief, a memory, a remembrance.
And when this is done, in this way, without putting an identity on it, this frame dissolves, this suffering disappears, this pain is undone, because there is no longer an identity to give continuity to this image, this pain, this suffering, then the mind reaches that space of Pure Stillness; then a change takes place in the body and mind because of this True Meditation.
Then, True Meditation is possible, and that is Stillness, that is Tranquility, that reveals this Intelligence, this Presence, this Truth of your Being, of your Divine Nature.
This is Spiritual Enlightenment: the discarding of this chaotic, psychological condition of restlessness and uneasiness.
Then, this lake, now serene, in its calmness, can reflect this Presence, this Love, this Grace, this Wisdom, this Truth, which is the Truth of God, which is the Truth of That which has no name, of That which is beyond all this limitation of this “me,” this “I.”
This is the end of suffering and the Realization of the Truth of who You are.
This is the subject that we deal with here on this channel with those who approach. We do this in online meetings, face-to-face meetings, retreats... and here we also offer, in this video, the opportunity to work it out on yourself.
On our channel, we have a playlist about this True Meditation and about the Awakening of this Divine Power that you carry within yourself, which is Kundalini.
If this is something that makes sense to you, join these playlists, but before that, leave your “like,” subscribe to the channel and here’s the invitation to work on it. OK?
Thanks for the meeting. See you next time.
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