A Million Thoughts

by Om Swami

  The golden rule of meditation is: you cannot not think about something by thinking about it.

  It’s impossible to avoid thinking about anything by telling yourself that you are not going to think about it. If you follow the golden rule of meditation, following the below mentioned six principles will become much easier.

  No Recollection: Don’t Pursue Thoughts of the Past

  Your mind will repeatedly draw thoughts of the past from its vast store of memory. Don’t pursue those thoughts. Simply drop them and gently draw your attention back to the present moment. If you do so mindfully, thoughts of the past will not interfere with your meditation.

  No Calculation: Don’t Pursue Thoughts of the Present

  When you refuse to disturb your attention and let go of any thoughts of the past, your mind will shift to thoughts of the present situation. You will think about where you are sitting, your surroundings, temperature of the room, fragrance of the incense and so on. Once again, pay no heed and draw your attention to the object of your focus.

  No Imagination: Don’t Imagine What May Happen in the Future

  When you drop thoughts of the past and present with determination and alertness, your mind will conjure up all these images. You may start to think about the future or dream your life a certain way. If you remember that thoughts are empty in their own right, you’ll find it relatively easier to drop the thought. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself daydreaming while meditating. As soon as you find yourself thinking about the future, drop the thought and get back to the present moment.

  No Examination: Don’t Analyze Your Thoughts

  No matter what type of thought it is, don’t get into analysis. For example, a thought of you getting hurt or abandoned in love might arise. If you start analyzing why it happened to you or where did you go wrong or why did your partner do this and so on, before you know, it your concentration will be lost. While meditating no thought must ever be examined, unless you are doing contemplative meditation, in which case you train your mind to contemplate on a singular thought. For now, just be mindful that any examination or analysis will have an adverse effect on the quality of your meditation.

  No Construction: Don’t Try to Create an Experience

  Sometimes with persistent meditation, you experience beautiful sounds, fragrances, hues or even glimpses into different states of consciousness. One of the most common mistake meditators make is to crave for the same experience again. This deviates you from the path. If you find yourself longing for a certain experience or waiting for it, gently draw your attention to the present moment. Remind yourself that any desire for an experience is no more than a thought. And thought must be dropped at all costs.

  No Digression: Don’t Wander; Simply Stay in the Present Moment

  It is common to feel different emotions during your meditation. You laugh, you cry, sometimes you feel sad and elated at other times. While a beginner meditator can’t plug his emotions right away, it’s absolutely critical not to examine your emotions or try to find their cause (you can do that after your meditation if you like but not during the session). When you find yourself digressing from your meditation, gently draw your attention to the present moment. You could listen to your breath.

  The greater effort you put in following the instructions above, the more you’ll gain from meditation. If you sit down to meditate and start to analyze or pursue your thoughts, you will not progress in gaining mental stability and calmness. The four primary hurdles of meditation continue to bother such a meditator.

  In the joke that I used at the beginning of this chapter, Ron got distracted, engaged in recollection of the past, analysis of the present, examined what it meant, imagined a certain future and craved for an experience – all that out of nothing! Next time you are meditating and you want to recall the six principles, just think of this joke.

  In a nutshell: while meditating, don’t brood over, don’t resent and don’t repent your past. Don’t examine what’s going on in your present life. Don’t imagine any future. Don’t analyze any thought. When a thought comes, don’t run after it. It’ll disappear. It’ll wither away on its own. Don’t crave for any specific experience or else you’ll end up mentally constructing that experience, thereby jeopardizing your meditation. Don’t let your mind wander. Simply maintain your awareness with alertness. Just be here now, in the present moment and you’ll see the beauty of meditation soon enough. Let me show you how to meditate now.

  Attention

  Once upon a time, a man was taking a stroll in the market. He came across a jewellery shop and saw a gold ornament on display. He picked up a rock lying nearby and broke the glass with a powerful blow. Before anyone could realize, he was scurrying away with the jewel. But the security guards nabbed him in no time and he was presented before the magistrate.

  “I’m surprised,” the judge said. “You attempted burglary in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy bazaar. What were you thinking?”

  “It was the gold, Your Honor,” the thief said. “I couldn’t resist it. I got so blinded that I couldn’t see anything else. I didn’t see the guards or the owner, I didn’t see other people around either. All I saw was the gold.”

  All I saw was the gold: it’s all about attention, more specifically, it’s about the art of attention. Before you feel anything, your mind thinks about it. It takes you back to the old memory, the person, the incident and a chain reaction kicks in. The mind is then bombarded with more memories of the same nature and before you know it, those thoughts have added up and they have brought about a complete change in the mood. You were fine a few moments ago but now your day is ruined because the thoughts have turned into feelings and the feelings have completely overpowered you. It happens in a fraction of a second but it’s enough to throw anyone off balance, for the power of a thought is as great as its speed.

  If I’ve to sum up the act of meditation in a single phrase I would say ‘presence of mind’. That’s where meditation is different from sleep or other forms of relaxing activities. While you experience a suspension of consciousness in sleep, it’s the exact opposite in meditation – a razor sharp consciousness.

  The moment you lose your presence of mind, you are most likely going to have an accident. A head-on collision with your thoughts. If you aren’t attentive, you’ll start listening to the blabbering of your mind and end up drinking when you shouldn’t be.

  The ability to direct your attention and keep it yoked to the object of meditation is fundamental to good meditation. This is the singular most important instruction, the only way to keep your mind in the present moment. Think of a concert pianist playing a difficult piece, let’s say Chopin Étude Op. 10 No. 4. Her fingers move on the piano as if they are doing an effortless dance. The pianist seems to be enjoying playing this difficult piece. To reach this level of proficiency, however, she must have put in more than ten thousand hours of practice.

  Learning how to meditate and channelize your attention is no different to learning how to play any musical instrument or sport. It’s easier to direct our attention when the activity is enjoyable, interesting or engaging. Meditation, in the beginning, is neither of these. It’s difficult and tiring and the word ‘boring’ may come to mind too. But only in the beginning. Your attention shifts from one thought to another. The more you try to tie it down, the louder it retaliates. Fortunately, there is a way to keep your attention alive and channelized.

  No matter how short or long your session of meditation, your attention is going to experience nine different states. Yogic scriptures call it navaakaaraacittasthiti, literally for the nine forms of the mental state. Having spent years practicing meditation, I can tell you with utmost conviction that all great meditators, from absolute beginners to the finest of yogis, go through these stages. No one is born with the skill to meditate. It’s learnt like any other art.

  Master Vasubandhu gives nine critical instruction
s on the art of settling your mind so that you may meditate. In his commentary on Sutraalankara, he says:

  Stabilize the mind

  Settle it completely

  Settle it firmly

  Settle it intensely

  Clear it of obstacles

  Pacify your mind

  Completely pacify it

  Channel the mind into one stream

  Settle the mind in equipoise

  Once you reach the ninth stage, you are ready to meditate. It seems hard work, it perhaps it is too. But if you are serious about meditation, eventually it will become effortless to you. Following the aforesaid nine instructions pushes your attention into a different state. Each state is progressively better than the preceding one. During the days of my intense practice, I used to remind myself of these instructions at least twice in a span of 24 hours.

  A disciple once asked his guru, “Why do we pray after completing our meditation?”

  “We do it to thank God that it’s over,” the guru quipped.

  On days, meditation truly feels like a boring and difficult activity. I remember feeling extremely tired and exhausted from intense meditation lasting 18 hours a day, sometimes 22, and doing it like a madman day in and day out for hundreds of days. But, you need that kind of madness to succeed at anything. It’s that madness that gets you results.

  If you remind yourself of the nine instructions on building, directing and harmonizing your attention, your mental state will go through a transformation in nine stages. It’s important to understand that you’ll experience these nine stages in every session of meditation. They are not post-meditative states. Instead, you’ll experience them every time you sit down and meditate. In the beginning, you may never experience the ninth or even the fourth state for any more than a few seconds. If you do, then probably you had dozed off. As you progress on the path, however, you will slip into the ninth stage of your attention within the first ten minutes, if not earlier. The rest of your session will be good meditation. Here are the nine states or stages of attention. For now, I’m giving a brief account on the instructions on attention. In the subsequent sections, you’ll learn how to put these instructions into practice for flawless meditation.

  Positioning of Attention

  Scriptures call it cittasthaapana. It also means placement of the mind. This is the first stage in the life of a meditator. At this stage, the mind constantly wanders off and doesn’t stay on a thought for any more than a few seconds. Meditation feels more like a battle with the mind at this stage. Basically, a meditator’s attempt to channelize his thoughts only results in more restlessness at this stage. This is the beginning of your meditation. You sit down with an alert mind and position your attention at your object of meditation (which could be breath, sound, form or void, but more on that in later sections). This stage corresponds to the first instruction: stabilizing your mind.

  Intermittent Attention

  This stage is called samsthaapana and it also means comforting or encouraging attention. The meditator experiences short periods (lasting a few seconds) of good attention during the meditation.

  These are the times when the mind is not wandering off. After a mental quietude of a few seconds, thoughts come knocking again, but often the meditator remains unaware for several minutes of the stray thoughts. He ‘forgets’ that he is meditating.

  For most part, you’ll discover that your mind wanders off. Every time it does, bring your attention back with the second instruction: settling your mind completely. You had stabilized your mind in the first stage and now you are focused on settling it.

  Constant Attention

  This stage is called avasthaapana, which, interestingly, also means to expose. What happens when your body is exposed to heat or cold – you feel it more, right? Similarly, when you expose your mind during meditation, you become more aware and alert.

  Mindfulness is exposing your mind. The primary difference between this and the earlier stage is the degree of alertness. In this stage, the meditator keeps his vigil on-guard and becomes aware as soon as the mind is distracted.

  To strengthen your attention and improve its quality, follow the fourth instruction: settling your mind intensely

  Fixed Attention

  It’s called upasthaapana. Literally, it means to be ready, and that’s what this stage is all about: getting ready for the real meditation. In this stage, the aspirant is mostly able to hold his attention during the session but is still bothered by periods of restlessness and dullness.

  If you follow the first four instructions properly, then by this stage your mind will start to retaliate a bit. It doesn’t want to be restricted. It wants to go its own way. At this stage, if you follow the fifth instruction, you’ll experience fixed attention, and the fifth instruction, as I said earlier is – clearing your mind of obstacles. There are going to be certain obstacles like restlessness, torpor, etc. If you gently draw your attention back to the present moment, you are well on your way to the next stage.

  Lucid Attention

  The meditator is able to experience deep tranquillity of the mind.

  This stage is called damana in Sanskrit, which means tamed or passionless. The attention of the meditator is tamed at this stage. I must mention a common misconception that many meditators have: when you feel peaceful in meditation, it is not the same as taming the mind. Sometimes it’s purely because you’ve lost the lucidity, the sharpness of your attention.

  While you are getting your attention ready after stabilizing it, positioning it, settling it and clearing its path, you start to feel a little restless, quite restless actually. You can’t afford to interrupt your session by talking to yourself or holding a communion with your mind. Instead, you must carry on with the sixth instruction that is pacifying your mind. (The later sections of this book will cover in detail how to pacify one’s mind.)

  Pacification of the Mind

  This stage is called shamana and it means extinguished. By this stage, thoughts extinguish in the mind of this meditator, and, the mind is clear of most mental obstacles. However, this mental exertion sometimes gives birth to subtle feelings of restlessness or excitement. It is predominantly so because at this stage, you’ve done what mind is not used to at all – to be quiet, to be still. Only the sincere and dedicated practitioners reach this stage.

  Complete Pacification of the Mind

  It’s called vyupashamana. Most interestingly, the term vyupa means the one who eats out of his own hands. This is one of the finest stages of meditation. In this state, the mind is looking at itself sharply. It’s able to recognize dullness, restlessness, thoughts, emotions and all the other distractions. It is completely pacified and is not afraid to remain established in tranquility.

  If you have followed the first six instructions correctly, you’ll most definitely experience this state. As your mind remains attentive but pacified up to this point, there’s still a great chance that it may become restless. It’s like a toddler abruptly waking up to a nightmare in the middle of the night. Or a sudden twitch of the body wakes you just when you were about to fall asleep. It’s like how you put a baby to sleep. Even after she’s gone to sleep, you must continue singing the lullaby or patting for a little while longer to completely put her to sleep.

  At any sign of loss of attention due to your mind rebelling, focus on the seventh instruction: completely pacify it.

  Intense Attention

  The mind attains single-pointed concentration at this stage. It’s called ekotikarana. The meditator can carry out an uninterrupted session of lucid meditation lasting nearly two hours in the steadiest posture. There is practically no dullness or restlessness. At this stage, follow the eight instruction: channel the mind into one stream. Your attention will now flow like a gentle

  Himalayan stream – beautiful, serene, tranquil.

  Profound Absorp
tion

  It’s called samaadhaana and it means perfect tranquil equipoise.

  The meditator meditates effortlessly and can remain in tranquil equipoise for an average of four hours at a stretch, including maintaining the posture. And let me tell you four hours of tranquillity can keep you calm for days at end without the slightest ripple of mental disturbance. In the context of meditation, however, the ninth state of attention prepares you to slip into an insightful and blissful session of meditation.

  This stage corresponds to the ninth instruction: settle the mind in equipoise. With a mind that’s settled in equipoise, you are ready to either take deep dives in the ocean of bliss or perform penetrating analysis with discerning wisdom and unearthing a wealth of knowledge and insight for the welfare of those around you.

  Once you are ready to meditate, you need to know what makes meditation effective, rewarding and transcendental, notably, the four elements of meditation.

  Posture

  Posture in meditation has a direct impact on channelizing vital energies in your body. The ten vital energies are detailed in the appendix to this book. Before I elucidate the eight key elements of a good posture, I would like to draw your attention to Patanjali, one of the greatest meditators to walk on our planet in the last five thousand years. In his aphorisms, he places great emphasis on the quality of posture. He uses the term asana siddhi, perfection of the posture.

  According to Patanjali, it is only after perfecting one’s posture that one advances on the path of yoga. Breath regulation (pranayama), withdrawal of senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and realization (samadhi) are only possible for a meditator if he is able to perfect his posture. I concur with this view. Perfecting your posture is a great challenge and majority of the meditators quit at the rigors it poses. By perfecting I mean to reach a state where you can sit unmoving in one posture for as long as you want without experiencing pain or numbness in your body. Your body is bound to experience a certain tiredness but without the aches.