Paradigm Shift in Meditation

Meditation can be a struggle. Rather than admit defeat, we can choose to heed the advice of the saints and perhaps allow our mind to accept a paradigm shift in our approach to meditation. Maharaj Charan Singh offers the following guidance in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, regarding a disciple’s effort to meditate:

Whether you concentrate or not is immaterial, but you definitely should sit in meditation because we have to pass through so many phases before we are able to concentrate and enjoy that pull within, its bliss and peace within. You can’t straightaway concentrate by simran, but if we won’t start, then how will we ever concentrate? … Similarly, in meditation we have to pass through so many phases, and every phase is important for our spiritual development. So we have to continue. It is immaterial whether we are able to concentrate or whether we are able to hear the sound or see the light. Our efforts should continue.

The saints are well aware of our weaknesses, excuses, poor habits, ignorance, and the tricks the mind plays in an effort to hold us back from undertaking our meditation practice. Despite these hurdles, the saints constantly help us to overcome these obstacles of the mind and continually encourage us to keep trying.

Saints remind us that the soul and the mind are two different and opposing entities. Stilling the mind takes time and effort. We must heed the Masters’ instructions to sit in meditation even when the mind wanders and practise the art of stilling the body. Stilling the body is a significant achievement.

Hazur continues in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II:

To sit still is a great credit. When you learn to sit still, then you also have to learn to still your mind. The first problem is to still the body, as the body is always running out and doesn’t want to sit in one place for even twenty minutes. So first you get into the habit of stilling the body, and then you get into the habit of stilling the mind. This comes from meditation.

In the beginning meditation is a fight between the soul and the mind in order to be able to control the body. Control of the body is necessary to perform both worldly and spiritual duties. In attempting to subdue and control the mind, we can easily feel overwhelmed and outmatched in this struggle. Saints know the strength and wily tricks of the mind, advising us to fight first to take control of the body. To do this we need to train the body to sit motionless for the prescribed period in daily meditation without fail, preferably at the same place and time. Saints, knowing that we are likely to fail at first, tell us that we should not worry about failure. This encouragement helps us to better understand and accept failure. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Hazur advises us that:

Failure means I have done my best, I have given my time, I have lived the way of life while I have been trying to build my treasure. From every point of view I have been keeping myself clean, but I have not achieved anything within myself. So this is my failure. That effort will not be lost – that is what is meant by failure.

Ideally, meditation should help still the mind and keep it concentrated. But the mind seldom obeys and keeps wandering wantonly during meditation. Concentration is elusive and often appears futile.

So the first phase of our fight with the mind can be won by at least showing up for our daily meditation and sitting as still as we can – even if our mediation is only mechanical or quantitative. The next phase is trying to improve the quality of our meditation – as Hazur reminds us in Die to Live, “quality will come from quantity.” But even quantity requires perseverance and faith, putting us in a continuous and often difficult life-long fight with the mind. With the continual encouragement and guidance of the Master, we learn to appreciate that they accept all effort as progress rather than failure and humiliation.

Once we accept and execute this paradigm shift in meditation, it becomes easier to put our focus on effort rather than results, rather than creating an expectation and need for “success.” Our job is to give full time to meditation, regardless of whether the mind sits still or wanders out. Making this commitment, to still our body and steadfastly give our time, we are ready to tread the path of God-realization and prepare the soul to soar home.