What meditation is not

These days spirituality and meditation have become the buzz words. And most get into it to deal with life’s vicissitudes, to find solace and the balance to run the life. A few years ago, due to certain unfortunate events in my life, I turned towards meditation — with the hope to find a magic pill for all my problems. And guess, what? It was this attitude that made peace so elusive for me.

I used to think of meditation as a practice that I can use to control my mind. But after meditating intermittently for months, I realized that ironically, meditation is the opposite of control. It’s about being aware of the mind, while the mind goes on its trip, without trying to control or stopping it. I used to focus my mind on a certain activity, like breathing or listening to ambient sounds and if my mind wandered off, I would get disappointed feeling that I will never be able to master the art of meditation or rather peace.

Well, nothing in life comes easy. Soon after that, I spent a good amount of time in research. I went on a quest to understand this art of meditation. And after reading up and through personal experience, I understood that the nature of the mind is to wander, to be in a chaotic state, to be unfocused and hazy. The mind is like this little unruly and stubborn kid that cannot be threatened or coerced into discipline. So, what can you do about it?

Now, what you can do is, be just like a parent who has this incredible amount of patience towards their child, and in this case, the child is your mind. Be aware of your mind, which is like an impatient kid — watch it wander everywhere, but without being judgmental about it. Treat your mind like another person who is very close to you or someone who needs compassion and help.

In essence, the mind is like a freight train and if you try to stop it with force, you will get railroaded. Instead, step aside from the tracks and just watch the train pass.

You can do this throughout the day without sitting down in a place, occasionally watching where your mind goes, and then being aware that you are watching your mind. But sitting down in a place for a few minutes and patiently watching the mind will help with the practice. Catch your mind (do not stop it) if it causes drama in the form of anger, sadness, or fear. Osho once said, step aside when the mind throws a bait at you so that you do not get caught in its schemes.

To conclude, meditation is certainly not about controlling or pressuring your mind to not think or think about anything, but it is about watching your mind and maybe gently bringing it to focus.