Is meditation difficult ? Yes and No - here is why

It seems difficult when we are not used to sit idle doing nothing physically. Away from phone, TV, book or news paper of any kind of distraction.

Inaction or “non doing” of any sort is meditation.

Here is what typically happens when one begins to meditate.

You sit one place, silent, close your eyes and start feeling your breath. Following will start drawing your attention. Some external sensory input - a noise, some smell, cold or hot breeze. These are perceptionary distractions - external input received through senses and filtered and colored through mind/memory. These may immediately lead to some old memory and your mind drags you there.

Second types of distraction is body sensations. These are not externally generated events but happening on or within your body. Most popular one is feeling of itching on some part of your skin. Urge to move bodily, adjust position, some slight pain in legs, hands or stomach or head.

Connected to these perceptions and sensations - mind brings loads associated memories and generates feelings and you are active in terms of thoughts.

Meditation in simple sense is JUST (I am saying just… to down play) being aware of sensations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings.

How can we do that? being aware or watching these? Eventual state to reach is “being” not doing anything. So you go from doing “watching” or “witnessing” to just being.

when you start watching - what is watching? who is watching? Watching is also a THOUGHT (interestingly). So watching is doing parallel execution of watching thought (let us call it as “watcher thread”) and other thoughts, perceptions, sensations etc (let us call them as “other doing thread”) - switching the attention back and forth between them. Similar to a computer processor running multiple threads of computing.

What can go wrong here? and what does go wrong is - watching/witness thread merges with “normal” or other thread of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and sensations”. So there is only one thread. Act of watching ceases. For many this may appear as failure of meditation. But it is not - sometime sooner, you realize that watching thread has ended and merged with “other doing thread”

This awareness that watching has ended is indeed success of the process of meditation. Goal of meditation is to be aware of “awareness” as much time as possible while the “other doing thread” keeps going.

So when you realize you lost the watching thread - start it again without any feeling of lost or failure etc. With love and smile start watching again. In a session of 1 to 5 mins of initial practice - you might lose watching thread about 50–80 times. Slowly this number starts reducing and your watching ability amidst all chaos that mind and body can bring.

Try … 

A dialogue with Self (Consciousness)

"Anything you say you are aware of... that's not consciousness" - Swami Sarvapriyanand

(if it were then the question arises - who is aware of that? other then consciousness itself)

Seeker: who are you? 

Consciousness: I am the one that knows everything - world of objects, thoughts, feelings, perceptions and bodily sensations. 

S: what are your limits?

C: I am limitless. Nothing exists that is knowable beyond my reach.

S: When did you start your life and when you will end?

C: I have no life and death. I am eternal and always present. Beyond time.

S: What are you made up of ? Constituents?

C: Nothing that you can recognize as such. But without me - nothing is knowable. I am in and through each and everything.

S: What is your location? where are you present? Are you in a living or non living organism? or In air? or in empty space?

C: I am everywhere - I need to be. Because whee I am not there there "knowing" is not possible. So I am omnipresent. Beyond Space

S: Anything impacts you? Changes you anytime?

C: None. Nothing can impact me. I am witness and knower of all things. I am Pure in a sense that nothing can corrupt me.

S:  Anyone else knows you ?

C:  Ref to your question on "what are your limits".  None except myself know me. I am self aware and there is none like me. Think about this way - if there is someone who is like me - exists  then the question will be who knows that person? That would be me ? Who else can it be.  I am the root of all knowing or experience

S: Are you same as mind?or Are you the mind?

C: I am like water to waves as to mind.  I am the stuff that mind is made up of. I am the material of the mind. Mind expresses as thoughts, feelings and perspectives etc. These are time dependent - come and go. Thoughts come and go. But I am always present. I am present in the void or emptiness between two thoughts. I am that void experienced in deep sleep where mind is not present.

Mind gets corrupted by memories, events and people. I am untouched by these.

S: Are you same as body? or Are you the brain?

C: I am the knower of the body. I am not a body or this body or that body as I am everywhere and limitless. Human body is limited in space and time. I am beyond space and time. 

S: Without body - Is knowing or experience possible?

C: Yes . For knowing or any experience - I am needed and I am available all the time.

S: Without mind - is knowing or experience possible?

C: Yes . For knowing or any experience - I am needed and I am available all the time.

S: Give me an example or analogy

C: I am like a LED screen - the image you see on this screen is nothing but screen itself in some modulation or some light units arranging in some specific way. You see - there is no independent image existing other than the screen. Screen is the image. I, the consciousness, arrange myself or project in a way to form physical objects - like human, trees, water other animals and also arrange myself as thoughts, perceptions, bodily feelings etc.  Essentially - I am the stuff everything is made of - I am that stuff.

S: What are your characteristics?

C: I cannot be pointed to  saying "this is consciousness".  because if it were possible to do that then there would be second (the other) - which cannot be out of my domain or which cannot be outside me.

I am not an object - I am subject of all experiences. Mind, for its convenience divides things as objects and subjects. Eventually all objects and subjects merge in me. This is still a duality - an unlighted duality.

When you consider thoughts, perceptions etc not as objects of consciousness but consciousness itself. This duality vanishes. Then the thing or object called mind cease to exist. Only thing that exists then is consciousness. 

Witness + objects is a useful intermediate state to non duality.