{"id":343,"date":"2024-05-06T20:22:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T18:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/?p=343"},"modified":"2024-05-07T20:14:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T18:14:06","slug":"meditation-beyond-thinking-and-not-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/06\/meditation-beyond-thinking-and-not-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation: Beyond Thinking and Not-Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Budhaa<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Meditation is the most life-transformative practice I have ever come across in my life. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Meditation!! A word that has reverberated throughout the history of humanity. The reason is simple. \u201cIt works.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong>A library can be created with books on meditation. Thousands of scriptures, books, audio guides, and spiritual teachings are available on meditation.  Yet meditation is an understanding that comes only through practice and living life. The popularity of meditation has surged tremendously in the last decade as a tool to manage mental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people start exploring meditation to find a way to have a calm, clear and peaceful mind. And nothing is more confusing than just starting to meditate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Confusion<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A hypothetical story<\/em><\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day you saw a video on how meditation is very life-changing, during the day. You decided \u201cI will practice meditation today.\u201d <\/em>After a hectic workday, you went home, cooked food and had a nice dinner. Now you feel a bit relaxed, and it was time to meditate. You pulled your yoga mat, sat down and closed your eyes. Once you closed your eyes, all thoughts started attacking you. \u201cWhy did I behave like that in office today?  Why did my boss behave like that with me? Am I sitting correctly? Did I close the door? I should stop thinking. I should concentrate more.<\/em>\u201d You stopped thinking for a bit also. Then you start thinking again. Then you try to stop thinking again too. You opened your eyes and checked the phone. To your surprise, only 2 minutes had just passed that felt like 10 minutes. You feel a bit confused and anxious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who has tried meditating has gone through a version of this story including me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The major confusion of people who start to practice or try out meditation is, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do. Should I think? Should I not think? What to do ?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Meditation is not \u201cThinking\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You start meditating. Let\u2019s say you are having a problem with your career right now in life. A thought pops up, \u201cI will never be a successful person.\u201d You feel a bit more anxious, and you think, \u201cI  should apply for new jobs.\u201d <\/em>Then you think, \u201cI should develop my communication skills to get better at interviews.\u201d <\/em>Then you think, \u201cI should watch videos on YouTube on how to be better at interviews.<\/em>\u201d The train of thought goes on.  After a while, you forget that you were meditating in the first place. This is not meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking is like this: A child is crying in front of you. You start beating it, hoping it will stop crying.  The more it cries more you beat it.  This is how thinking works, with the mind. You keep chasing thought after thought after thought, and it never ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meditation is not thinking. It does not make your mind calm and peaceful. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Meditation is Not \u201cNot Thinking\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The most popular and bad advice on meditation is \u201cSit with yourself and stop thinking.\u201d<\/em> This is a very bad advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can easily stop thinking, by forcing your mind to stop thinking. This is not really meditation, it is concentration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are sitting in meditation. You have stopped thinking. Now you feel like there are no thoughts in the mind. Now an ambulance passed by your house. You said to yourself, \u201cAh!! My meditation just got disturbed. That ambulance sound distracted me.\u201d This is what happens when you are concentrating. You get easily distracted. Concentration creates a sense of seriousness. When you sit and force your mind to stop thinking, you become rigid and serious. This is also not meditation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concentration is like this: A child is crying in front of you, you get angry at it, and it gets afraid and stops crying. This stopping of crying is an illusion, that the child has really become peaceful. The child just pretends to be calm and peaceful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Concentration is a forceful stopping of the mind. It is not really a calm and peaceful state. It is a state where you are constantly fighting with your mind to keep it in a state of not thinking. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dreams: Beyond Thinking and Concentrating<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a peaceful and calm mind by thinking or by forcefully stopping the mind.\u201d This understanding creates a huge confusion about what is the practice of meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have ever had a dream while sleeping, then you already know what meditation is.  Dreams are a great way to understand meditation. A dream is a series of thoughts and emotions passing by in your mind and body. You don\u2019t think that tonight I will have this particular dream.  You are not creating it, by thinking. It is something that is happening to you. You are also not suppressing it forcefully that I won\u2019t see this. You are not trying to avoid it by concentrating. You are just watching the dream like a movie. This is exactly what meditation is. You just have to be in this state without having to sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A great understanding from dreaming is that you can just watch yourself without doing anything. You can look at your thoughts and you can feel your emotions as they are.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What is Meditation?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Here is the simplest description, by Gautam Buddha from \u201cThe Dhammapada\u201d  (Translated) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love yourself and watch today, tomorrow and always.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two fundamental aspects to it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Watchfulness:<\/strong> Observe what is happening, feel it totally, and be fully aware of it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Love yourself: <\/strong>Whatever you are observing, feeling and being aware of, don\u2019t have any judgment of it, of what is good, what is bad. Accept it in totality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Meditation is when you are simply present, aware and watchful of something, and there is an acceptance of it. Even there is no thought that \u201cI completely accept it.\u201d You are just there. When you just start meditating, most of the time spent sitting with yourself is confusion and chaos. It is something like a child trying to figure things out. It takes practice to put yourself into this state. Initially very confusing, and difficult, but slowly you get a feeling of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When one reads something like, \u201cYou can\u2019t have a peaceful and calm mind by thinking or by forcefully stopping the mind\u201d. It is easy to assume that, thinking or concentrating is a bad thing. One understanding has to be that it is very natural to think or forcefully stop thinking. It is not a bad thing, neither it is a good thing. It is just natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Meditation has no concern with thinking or not thinking. It is just about being aware and watchful of thinking or not thinking. This awareness is transformative. It creates peace and calm within.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Today meditation is a tool to manage mental health. It is much more than that. Meditation is the most life-transformative practice I have ever come across in my life.\u00a0 Half a decade ago my mind was extremely chaotic and stormy. Thankfully today it is a bit less chaotic and stormy. Meditation really works. Books, videos, and mentors can guide you, but it is something you have to understand for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    – Sachin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Understand why meditation is not about thinking or not thinking also. It is a total awareness of right now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[16],"series":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-meditation","tag-meditation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacreduality.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}