Positive thinking: Essence of Meditation

To know is the first step towards transformation. To know and not to act on what we know is equal to not knowing. So action is the next step.

To deeply reflect and see the hidden meaning is mananam — reflection. To be at peace with what is and to be a witness to it is meditation.

If one is not at peace with what is, then one is in conflict with it. This creates sorrow. In life, one has to learn to be in harmony and not in conflict. Sorrow exists when one expect things that are momentary in nature to be permanent. This illusion leads to sorrow.

An emperor visited India. He met a monk and asked how he could live eternally. The monk said that by drinking water from a particular water body in the Himalayas, the emperor could become eternal.

The emperor went in search for the water body and found it. However, when he was about to drink the water, a crow on the tree cautioned, “Don’t be stupid like me. I drank water from here, and now I am permanently a crow.”

God or existence in its infinite wisdom made impermanence not as misery but as a flow of change. To be with change and letting go of the addiction to be permanent is meditative living.

All that is needed is to raise the level of awareness and see the truth in what is.

What do you mean by raising the level of awareness?
The body is constantly changing. See the beauty in change. See the newness in change.
See the surprise in change. Don’t resist change, but learn to be in harmony with change.
Enjoy the change. But don’t cling to change. Drop the myth that things are static.

See that the mind is also nothing but thoughts. Thoughts are like clouds. You are just like the sky, which is a witness. Thoughts come and go but you don’t come and go, you are just an onlooker.

This witness is the essence of meditation.

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