On Meditation

By Gurani Anjali

Many of you are brought here by an inner voice saying there is much more to life than all the ordinary. Many of you have read books and have heard many comments on the topic of meditation, and so you are earnestly seeking this state of perfection. But we cannot come to meditation in the hopes that it will give us what we need or what we want. Meditation is a place that we must come to with an offering. Meditation is a very sacred place. It is a place to give, not a place to take. Meditation is place where we surrender. It is the giving of all we have, all that is most dear to us, most honorable, most sacred, most kind, most gentle. That is what we have to give away. You may ask the question, "Well, what is that?" According to your level of understanding, according to your intelligence, according to your will to be, you will come to know it.

You may approach meditation feeling you are going to get it all - and I hope that you do. But then again you may say "Okay, I didn't get it all, there's something missing. I didn't really catch it." That's fine. It is important to know that you didn't get it. Then what does one do? If you don't get it right away, then you have to seek understanding, and in seeking understanding, you have to humble yourself. There, too, it is required to give, to offer.

In meditation there is a lot of emptying that has to take place. A giving has to occur. "But what can I give?" someone may ask. "What can I give?" Keep on questioning like that. "What can I do? What can I do? What can I give? What can I give?" Erase from your mind the thought of "What am I going to get out of meditation?" Don't look for the taking. True meditation is a very wonderful offering - and one has to achieve the state of meditation. You have to work at it - with every breath that you take, with every action that you perform, with every word that you utter.

Meditation is not just sitting and feeling good. Meditation is a state that has to be achieved. It takes a long time to achieve that state. In this place called meditation one is elevated from what was to what is and is to be. When that state is achieved all your goings and your comings become meditation. All that you do becomes meditation. In that state of meditation there is no me, there is no you. There is no this or that.

Many books have been written on meditation. But meditation is a state one has to live in. From within and from without. Inside of you and outside of you. In all your comings and your goings. Everywhere you are. No matter who you are. In your eating, in your sleeping. Every place is a place of meditation. That state has to be achieved. Seek diligently your higher self. Seek earnestly. Don’t seek in order to feel wonderful. That thought, that idea must not be there even though you will feel wonderful. The mind must not seek that. You, the individual that is evolving, must not go towards grasping the state of feeling wonderful, even though it will occur. The seeker after truth must always seek the truth. Must find that which does not change and is ever-present. Find that which always is. Seek that. But in seeking, there cannot be grasping. There has to be a letting go – a surrender. A giving of all of you. Understanding begins with "I don’t know anything. I really don’t know anything. I’m ignorant. I’m ignorant of the reality of life. What is life? Who am I? What is all this I see? Where did it come from. Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?" Seek understanding. Churn the ocean of desire and see what’s in your heart. See what is in your heart, and in your mind. The place of meditation is a place where you sacrifice, where you give your love, where you give everything that you have. Give it all up to be free. Now what is it that I’m talking about? Your gold and silver? Your money in the bank? Your clothes? Your shoes, sweaters, handbags? Your relationships? No, no, no. That will all be taken away naturally; naturally, it will go. You can’t keep them. You know from experience how you’ve had coats, sweaters, and shoes, and how eventually there would be a hole in the pocket, or the lining gets stripped away, or the shoes get worn out. Everything that you have, goes away. But there are things that don’t go away that easily – like attitudes, prejudices, ignorance. I’m talking about things that money cannot buy. All that you cannot give away. They have to be given up. Prejudices, they must be given up. Differences, they must be given up. Thoughts, negative thoughts that must be erased, must be given up. Lying, cheating, stealing. Attitudes and activities that come from the past must be given up, must be discriminated away. It takes a lot to achieve meditation.

The state of meditation happens when one purifies the mind. When one harbors no ill thought, one is nearing the state of meditation. From the state of meditation one goes further, one goes to the state of samadhi (conscious awareness).

By Gurani Anjali

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