Q.
During meditation there was a lot of thoughts. But I was able to see them from aside. I was able to notice them pass but was not able to stop them. What is this?
A.
The greatest distractions and the most prominent ones are those that appear within the mind itself not outside it, not the sounds you hear, the lights, influence of the full moon or the poles of earth… but the stream of thoughts in your head. This seems an endless train of thoughts: one wagon passes, the second follows, then the third… but the good news is that there is space between one wagon and another, a gap. With regular practice of meditation this gap is felt clearer. In this gap you just are! Are what? Nothing! Just your own being!
Thoughts in meditation are not an enemy to fight with. Thoughts are a part of normal meditation. It never happens that you close your eyes and no thoughts are there. In meditation most of the times thoughts are passing and thoughts are an integral part of meditation. When stress is being released, when impressions of past actions and events are washed from the system, when you are being liberated from the loads of stress, accumulated vasanas leave in the form of thoughts. The role of meditation is to make you aware of the thought instead of being involved in it. Whenever you are aware of thoughts (of you not being the mind) you establish yourself in the state of the seer. The witness not the one engaged. This is ultimately your true nature: the seer. Yoga as defined by Patanjali is “the cessation of the fluctuations of mind, then the seer abides in his own nature”. You are the seer. When the fluctuations of mind are settled you abide in your true nature. Being the witness is the real freedom. You then cease to be inside the train of thought but rather you start watching it from aside. When you identify with thought you are imprisoned in a jail of thought. You cannot imagine your being outside thoughts, thoughtless. When you manage to watch your thoughts from aside, then you have started gaining back your freedom. Being the seer is not only on the meditation cushion. The time of practice is just an “in vitro” experiment. When you leave your cushion after being established in the experience the “in vivo” part comes. Meditation on the cushion or in your meditation seat is your preparatory stage. With time watching whatever is taking place in the mind and witnessing what is taking place outside you will bring you freedom. Most of your problems are just problems in the mind. Mind created stuff. Problems are real as long as you are involved. When you look at them from without they stop to exist as problems, they become regular events. The more you are involved the more you put emotional and mental investment, the more a problem gets “real”. Events themselves are just what they are… they have no value for you unless your mind allows them to have this control.
So in meditation we do not try to stop thoughts. Even the attempt to stop thoughts is just another mental effort, another thought. it is useless to wash mud with more mud.
