You must know with certainty what meditation means, and how meditation can help you. Is meditation a complete therapy or do you need a therapist on whom you can lean for many, many years and still not understand yourself? First of all, you should understand that your life has two aspects: life within and life without.
It is easy to adjust to the external world, but it is not so easy to understand the self within, because your thoughts, emotions, desires, and appetites can lead you in many different directions. Once you understand that life is not merely relating to people and having things, then you will come to realize that life has a deeper purpose, that of fulfillment. With this knowledge you should first try to understand yourself and then adjust to others in the external world.
Understanding yourself philosophically is different than understanding yourself in a practical way. Sometimes modern teachers say that you can understand all the problems of life if you know meditation. This may be true if you understand meditation well. Actually, the word meditation has not been defined in any of the English dictionaries. According to the encyclopedia, the word “meditation” means “contemplation” and “contemplation” means “meditation,” so there is no explanation there. Even in the Bible the word meditation has not been well explained.
The word “meditation” is actually somewhat like “meditation,” meaning “to attend to something with full devotion and commitment. You need to come to know yourself on all dimensions and levels. When you understand this truth, then you can begin to systematically understand the whole process of going within.
No therapist in the world claims to be perfect, and if therapists are not perfect, then there is no chance that they can make you perfect. At some point you will learn that you are your own therapist―you have to be. You have to be independent, and not lean on external crutches. You want to obtain that education that has not been imparted to by colleges, universities, or any other external source.
When you have finished examining and learning about the external world, then you want to know the world within. You find that the mind is a small foot-ruler, and you want to measure the whole universe with the help of that small ruler called the mind. You will become disappointed, for when you examine the facts, the mind itself is a very small instrument.
The school of meditation says that you have to learn to go beyond the mind, to a state of tranquility, equanimity, and equilibrium. Once you attain that, then you can easily adjust to the external world and fulfill the purpose of life. That is called contentment. If you expect to find something different, some other experience besides contentment, then you will be lost on the path of meditation, but if you want to be a good human being, and attain perfection, then mediation is a very helpful way. It is a form of self-therapy.
Many people engage in meditation and yet they are disappointed with the results. They expect too much from doing nothing. They don’t want ot do anything and yet they expect a lot. They are attracted by fake claims, they have unrealistic expectations and they dwell on spurious experiences. They think that a muscle spasm or a warm bottom signifies the awakening of Kundalini. Actually, if you want to work with yourself, if you want to know and understand your internal states, to understand yourself on all levels, then meditation is the only way to do that.
There are three schools or approaches which are very close. One is called prayer, another is contemplation, and the third is meditation. All three of these schools make you aware of your innermost being, the center from where consciousness flows on various degrees and grades. The purpose of these three schools is to lead you to that fountainhead of life and light from which this power flows, and there is a system for achieving this. In your whole life you are asked to move externally. Meditation is a journey which leads you ahead without movement. In this journey you don’t move and yet you go forward. In meditation you are motionless.
Excerpted from Dawn magazine, Vol 7, No 1