A Short Discourse on Meditation

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “meditation” as the act or process of meditating. Meditating is defined as: to engage in contemplation or reflection. There are other meanings as well: to engage in mental exercise (as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness; to plan or project in the mind. 

I think the second definition is more or less what “meditation” is generally understood to be. There are certain images that are associated with the word which have been cultivated through time as a result of its popularity in the last hundred or so years. It has become immensely popular and I think it is quite obvious that it is now viewed as a physico-spiritual act which can solve one’s physical, personal and spiritual problems and which is generally beneficial to do. There is a whole web of ideas, concepts and systems built around it. 
 
Meditation is also recognized as a component of almost all religions, and has been practiced for over 5,000 years or so. Almost all religions have practiced it in one way or the other. Through time, there have been many additions and modifications in it and as with technology, the whole subject, the idea of meditation has also evolved.

I’m sure most of us are more or less familiar with this word – “meditation”. The word has become very popular - both in the east and the west in the last 100 years or so. Especially during the 60’s, among Hippies and Pop stars and Hollywood celebrities, when drugs became popular, meditation also took to popularity. Some used drugs, some used meditation and some used both. India became a large exporter of meditation gurus and these gurus established their meditation centers around the world.

Today, there are different schools, methods and systems of meditation. These ask you to sit in a certain posture, breathe in a particular way, visualize some scene or concentrate on an image. There are also methods which give you a certain word or a phrase to repeat. Most such schools and systems promise some sort of transcendental experience. (Transcendental - that silly word, perhaps an invention of some romantic Orientalists, who have imagined India to be some sort of mystical, mysterious, and spiritual country). So, there is laughing meditation, dancing meditation, sleeping meditation, and also, as I recently came to know, hopping meditation.

Though I’m no expert on meditation, still it is perfectly evident to me that all that mostly passes on in the name of meditation is simply a form of self-hypnosis and self-ddeception. It is nothing more than amusing oneself. In their very nature, they are utterly mechanical.

The word "meditation", has become a much abused word, like the word "love". Everybody uses it, practices it, without having an understanding of what it is. The word is loaded with tradition, theories, systems, concepts and beliefs of all kinds. Though many profess and tell what it is and which system to follow, I think it is more important to see what it is not.

As J. Krishnamurti has indicated in many of his talks and writings, meditation is not following any system. It is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration. It is not control of thought. Meditation is not to sit in a corner repeating a lot of words. It is not thinking of a picture and going into wild imaginings. Meditation cannot be practiced. It is not an intellectual affair. It is not the pursuit of pleasure and the search for happiness. It is not a means of achievement. Meditation, on the contrary, is a state of mind in which there is no idea or concept of any kind.

Any conscious effort to meditate is not meditation.

So, why should one meditate at all? One should ask this question beforehand. What place does it have in one’s life? Not in the so-called spiritual, mystical, occult life but the actual, everyday life.

And only when we have found the answer for ourselves should can we understand the basis and significance of this thing that is meditation. Surely, the basis of it, the starting point, should be self-awareness. One should be aware of oneself - one's responses, behaviour, thinking, beliefs and opinions. Without self-knowledge, there can be no meditation.

When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, are aware of yourself, that is the begining of meditation. When one looks at oneself as one is - directly and discovers how heavily the mind is conditioned - that is laying the foundation of meditation. When one discovers the movement of one’s thoughts and feelings, that is the begining of the timeless flow of meditation.

So, it can take place when you are sitting in a train or walking on the road, or looking at the trees or listening to the sound of birds. It is a state when the mind is still and there is total attention. It is a state when the mind is empty and there is a direct contact, direct perception of the flow of life. When the mind is empty and in that meditative state, there is a feeling of love and of being apart of the immense movement of life.

Meditation cannot be defined in positive terms because then it becomes a process, a technique, a method. And all methods, systems are static, crystallized and binding, leading to a fixed point and are repetitive, mechanical and habit-forming. And all habits, especially psychological ones are destructive and are the biggest hidrance to the understanding and experiencing of reality, from moment to moment.

Self-awareness and love are the basis and begining of meditation and beauty is the product and companion of it.

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Much of what I've written here has been said many times over by the eminent teacher, J. Krishnamurti in many of his books and public talks.

Krishnamurti’s works can be read online here.