A Million Thoughts

by Om Swami

  This is the easiest way of walking the extraordinary path while still living and enjoying the pleasures of this world. Over time, as you progress, your priorities will become clearer to you. You’ll know what truly is worth treasuring and what all you should focus on. As they say, your heart is where your treasure is. As you find your treasure, you will have discovered your truth.

  Silence and Awareness

  A seeker approached a master who lived in extreme solitude. For tens of miles near his cave, there lived no one.

  “You must feel really lonely here,” the seeker said.

  “Now that you are here, I’m lonely indeed,” the master replied. “Earlier I was rejoicing in my own company.”

  Silence and awareness has an intimate relationship. It plays a crucial role in correct meditation. Silence of the mind is the outcome of a good meditation and silence of the speech is the hallmark of a great meditator.

  Even if you can’t be mindful, and you can’t sit down and meditate, if you at least learn to be silent, you will most certainly progress on the path.

  When we meditate, one of the greatest hurdles is our thoughts. Often thoughts take the form of conversations. Whatever you may have talked in the past keeps playing back in our head while you meditate. It’s an irresistible urge – the urge to talk. If you look around you will find most people are talking most of the time. The urge to talk arises directly from the restless mind. Whether such talk is useful or useless, positive or negative is subject to individual interpretation.

  At any point in time, the average human mind is engaging in one of the three forms of conversations.

  Gross Conversations

  All conversations held with others using words or gestures are gross conversations. Most of us spend the majority of our day engaging in gross conversations. This could be in the shape of writing emails, phone calls, in-person conversations and the like. While a lot of what we do may be required to operate in this world, most of it is unnecessary, in my view.

  Gross conversations add to the unrest of the mind. A good way to start turning inward is to reduce the number of these conversations as much as possible. Given your personal, professional and social engagements, it may not be possible for you to cut down on these a great deal immediately but getting started with resolve will unfold the path for you step-by-step.

  Once you get used to staying quiet for long periods, you will experience certain quietude of the mind. That naturally diminishes the urge to talk. Next time you want to talk about weather, politics, etc., hold the urge for it is unlikely you will gain anything out of it, and, chances are that the other person is not actually listening to your point of view anyway. Most people are not really listening but simply waiting for the speaker to finish his point so they can begin theirs.

  Mental Conversations

  Whenyouare nottalking tosomeone, chances are, youare holding a communion with yourself. Thoughts when pursued are mental conversations. These do not allow your mind to rest and settle. Mental conversations are also the greatest hurdles in holding lucid sessions of meditation. We are so used to talking that when we are not talking to others, we are talking to ourselves. The unfailing sign of a restless mind is its inability to stay quiet. A mind that is brooding over matters, or a whining negative mind, a lustful passionate mind or a talkative restless mind are examples, triggers and boosters of mental conversations. The only two ways, of stopping these conversations are either engaging your mind elsewhere, which is a temporary fix, or quieting your mind, which is a permanent solution.

  Mindfulness is the first step in putting a lid on mental conversations. Each time you find yourself holding a mental conversation, just be mindful. Ask yourself the golden question, “What am I doing right now?” A certain awareness will arise. Don’t try to stop a mental conversation by instructing yourself to stop it or by curbing it. Instead, stop it either by ignoring it or by shifting your attention.

  Subtle Conversations

  When you are neither talking to someone nor holding a self- communion, in great likelihood, you are holding a subtle conversation. Since the mind is unsettled and restless, you want to keep it engaged, almost involuntarily, just like the hyper and naughty kid the parents want to keep busy. Are you wondering what subtle conversations are? When you are not talking to anyone or to yourself but you are watching others converse, you are holding a subtle conversation.

  Watching TV or listening to radio are examples of subtle conversations. Stereotypically, without prejudice and justification, men do not hold the first two types of conversations as much as women, therefore, they often compensate by engaging more in the third one. You will find men glued to TV more than women and more frequently at that. The more restless the mind, the greater the flipping through channels. Reading a book is a more useful form of subtle conversation, because while reading your mind listens more than processing and directly engaging in an act of learning.

  While meditating, sometimes conversations of other people keep playing in your head. By being a listener, you are effectively participating in that chat. That is an example of a subtle conversation too.

  Conversations to Silence

  An untamed mind must find an outlet and conversations provide exactly that. It is one of the reasons that sleep is relaxing. For, among benefits to the body, at least you are not aware of the talkative mind beyond recollection of their dreams. Is it any wonder that brain cells only get repaired during sleep? A good way to understand your reliance on subtle conversations is to make a resolution to not watch TV, read newspaper or listen to radio for a certain number of days.

  The nature of conversations, material or spiritual, can have a temporary bearing on the state of your mind. Any conversation can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. The pleasant ones are the ones you find engaging and the unpleasant ones are the ones that you want to avoid. The neutral ones can swing either way depending on your interest. Interest in any conversation is the direct result of the conditioning of the mind. Someone who has conditioned his mind with repositories of information on politics or automobiles will find those topics interesting compared to those who may be more interested in fine arts or literature, for instance.

  In any case, a sincere seeker should avoid harsh, useless, meaningless and abusive speech. Unrestrained speech and bogus conversations play a havoc on the quality of your meditation. When you sit down to meditate, your mind plays back these conversations to you. This causes agitation and restlessness.

  The more you try to curb these conversations during your meditation, the more they spring up. When you are unable to tackle restlessness caused by mental chatter, it leads to frustration ruining your meditation right away. Rather than a meditator you become a mediator – trying to negotiate between the assault of random thoughts and the desire to be quiet.

  Silence of the mind leads to nine different forms of awareness. It is impossible to experience any stage of awareness without silence. Each stage leads you to a unique experience.

  Before I dive into the various states, it’s important to understand that a fleeting or one-off experience in meditation should not be confused with attaining a certain level of consciousness. For example, feeling a sensation in your spine or between your brows, or seeing flashes of light or glimpses into your future do not mean a meditator has reached an advanced level (unless you experience it every time you meditate). These experiences have little meaning. They can even be distractions, in fact. Consistency in anything comes from correct practice. And, practice is the basis of championing the art of meditation. Here are the nine states of awareness directly impacted by the quality of your silence and mindfulness.

  1. Intellectual Awareness

  This is called vitarka prajñā. Other than intellect, vitarka also means reasoning and opinion. Prajñā means wisdom, knowledge or intelligence. In this state of awareness, intelligence is limited to intellectual analysis at the external
level. A mild meditator’s wisdom is often devoid of experiential intelligence and is limited to intellectual understanding of all phenomena. At this level, everything you know is second hand, someone gave it to you. Meditators at this level are happy to accept the knowledge passed on to them through their scriptures or teachers.

  2. Investigative Awareness

  Yogic texts call it vicāra prajñā. It means the intelligence you gain from deliberating on a thought with discerning wisdom.

  The meditator now develops a degree of mental alertness. Such an individual is no longer keen to accept the scriptures on its face value, he starts to internalize the teachings and reflect on them to arrive at their own truth. The first two states are limited to mild meditators. The next two, however, are experienced by the average or medium meditator.

  3. Blissful Awareness

  It is called ananda pragya. It’s most interesting to note that an average meditator starts to experience an awareness of bliss long before realizing the final state (which means bliss is not the ultimate state in its own right). Beginning to rise above the social and religious conditioning, this meditator starts to feel disconnected from scriptures and preaching. He or she gains the courage to question the scriptures and validate the truth on their own. A certain stability starts to emerge in their sessions of meditation and, while experiencing tranquility, they get glimpses into their real nature. When they persist, they invariably experience the following higher states of consciousness.

  4. Self-Awareness

  This is called asmitā prajñā. Asmitā generally means ego. The meditator in this state experiences his individual self (a sense of ego) merging into the cosmic self. You begin to experience that you are an exact replica of the macrocosm, and that you are just about as infinite and eternal as the universe. You start to realize, not just intellectually but empirically, that you are not just the body, mind or senses, but something beyond. That you are more than the sum total of flesh and bones, more than just your desires, that there’s more than what meets the eye. Intense meditators progressively experience the next four states of consciousness.

  5. Yoked Awareness

  Yoga sutras and Upanishads call it vashikara prajñā. Its common meaning is subjugation of desire. This is the first irreversible state for an intense meditator. A practitioner at this level does not experience restlessness due to his or her desires even when they are not meditating. Their consciousness is now yoked to their object of meditation while carnal and other desires are curbed by superior awareness. Imagine what happens when someone falls in love. At the back of their mind, they are constantly thinking about the other person. Their consciousness is yoked to the thought of the one they love. This is a similar state of awareness with one important difference: a meditator cultivates it consciously and is in control of their awareness and not the other way around.

  6. ‘Cessative’ Awareness

  I am not sure if ‘cessative’ is a legit word, but I couldn’t think of a better one to explain what I mean. This state is called virāma pratyaya. Virāma means cessation and pratyaya means understanding, intelligence or consciousness in the current context. When the seeker continues to walk the path of meditation, the chattering nature of the mind starts to subside. You are able to remain focused on whatever you so wish without being bothered by internal noise or wandering thoughts. Better than subjugating your desire (however effortless) is to not have them at the first place. Hence, ‘cessative’ awareness is better than yoked. Remember that when we don’t abandon a thought it eventually either becomes a desire or an emotion.

  7. Natural Awareness

  This is called bhava pratyaya and it also means mental quietness. I’ve carefully chosen the word natural to depict this level of awareness. When you go beyond even concentration and focus, when you experience total cessation of all mental activity, something profound happens: you experience a complete stillness of the mind – no thoughts, no emotions, no analysis. This leads your mind to its natural state of pure, unimpeded eternal bliss. In this state, your desires and emotions don’t make you restless.

  The primary difference between simple blissful awareness (third state) and this one is fluctuation of the consciousness. At the third state, even though you experience bliss, it’s easily disturbed by other thoughts and emotions. In the current state, however, you’ve already gone past subjugation of desire, you’ve already mastered cessation of mental activity. You remain undisturbed.

  8. Skillful Awareness

  This is called upāya prajñā. In Yajurveda and various Upanishads, upāya means approaching, accompanying, craft, or that by which one reaches one’s aim. But, I like B.K.S Iyengar’s definition of upāya the most, he calls it ‘skilful’. It is insightful to note that skilful awareness has been placed even after blissful and natural awareness. There is a pretty good reason for that. In the first seven states, while the meditator continues to progress, his or her contribution to the world at large is still quite limited.

  They are still working towards their own bliss and peace. In the present state, however, it’s not just about them. Skilful awareness means they are able to retain their natural awareness of light and love, yet operate in the world forever helping others. The lives of many great masters, across many cultures, demonstrate exactly that. There are meditators who don’t stop here, they keep going.

  They are called ‘supremely intense’. The next state is witnessed by such practitioners.

  9. Supreme Awareness

  The supremely intense meditator experiences the final state of awareness called para vairagya. It means supreme detachment. If not having desires is better than subjugation of desire then maintaining equanimity in fulfilment or non-fulfilment of desire is the ultimate state. Because, even though desires may well be the primary cause of most suffering, we can’t deny that they have also been at the root of human progress. At a practical level, their value can’t be underestimated. Somewhere someone desired a solution to a certain problem. And they came up with fire, tools, wheel, electricity, phone, airplane, computer and so on. An adept at this stage develops altruistic consciousness remaining unaffected by his or her desires. Firmly established in samadhi or shamata (calm abiding) they go on to dedicate their lives for the welfare of all sentient beings.

  Is it necessary that you go through the rigours of meditation to experience supreme detachment? Not really. I chose meditation because its scientific basis appealed to me. There’s another way as Patanajali put it:

  Īśvarapranidhānātavā 72

  Fluctuations of the consciousness may be restrained by meditating on God and total surrender to him.

  If you believe in God, you may still reach a state of supreme detachment by developing a personal relationship with your god and by surrendering to His will. This does raise an important question though: what about an atheist or an agnostic? Well, they have just as much chance, if not more, to live with supreme detachment. Ultimately, it’s not about meditation or belief in some scripture or religion, it’s about flowing with the river of life, it’s about living it with compassion and gratitude. The more elevated you are, the more compassionate you are naturally. A spiritual being, regardless of their religious orientation, automatically develops a selfless concern for the welfare of everyone in our beautiful creation. Such temperament leads to the final state of emancipation – complete liberation.

  Knowing what you now know about meditation, there’s only one thing I would like to spell out further. If I can effectively communicate the only practice that matters in meditation, you will overcome all hurdles like a fine stallion jumping across a low barrier. Let me get to the crux of the meditation in as few words as possible.

  Mental Exertion and Relaxation

  Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman served as an advisor to the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. He once addressed the Knesset, the unicameral parliament of Israel. Soon after his spe
ech was over, a Knesset member approached him and said, “In the Talmud, Hillel summarized Judaism in one sentence, ‘What is hateful to you, do not do so to your neighbour: this is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.’ Could you summarize economics in one sentence?”

  “Yes,” replied Friedman. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Similarly, if I were to sum up the art of meditation in one sentence, it would be, “Exert when relaxed and relax when exerted.”

  Treat your mind with love, care and patience. It is through your mind alone that you reach a state of no-mind. To be mindful, alert, determined, disciplined, you need a sharp mind. You may tame a beast with fear but it will hurt you the first chance it gets. So, we have to tame it with love, compassion, firmness and discipline at the same time. You need to know when to pull up your mind and when to pacify it. This comes with practice and experience. This is the art of alternating between mental exertion and relaxation.

  When it comes to the practice of meditation, this is the only thing you have to keep in mind. While meditating, when you feel restless or jittery, practice mental relaxation. Mental relaxation can be practiced by stopping your meditation and just breathing deeply. You could listen to the rhythm of your breath (not if you were actually meditating on breath to begin with, in which case simply stop and settle your gaze at a distant point).

  Restlessness is caused by excessive thinking or mental exertion. Sometimes when you try too hard, you may be exerting more than necessary. It is absolutely critical to stop exerting at that time by not trying to renew your concentration. Instead, just stop and breathe.

  When your concentration is crisp, your mindfulness fresh and your alertness alive, you experience the best meditation but after a while, it gets tiring for the brain. It often means that rather than letting your mind settle in its natural state, you may have been exerting. You don’t need to paddle a bike that’s going downhill. You just need to know when to apply the brakes.