index page index pageThose who have an inclination to seek the causes behind this life have awakened to the work or effort which has been passed on from previous generations. No one has seen electricity, yet it does exist. The evidence of its existence is clear from the effects which it produces. It is the same with consciousness. One difference in this analogy is that it is consciousness which enables seeing, thinking and contemplation of the deeper side of life.
It is the stream of the suns energy which causes winds, storms, typhoons and the like, in the atmosphere of the earth. Likewise it is the flow of consciousness which causes activity in the mind. Yet just as it is that the suns energy gives life to all creatures on the planet so it is that consciousness provides us all with the means to think and live. We all know that the condition of an unconscious person is close to the condition of a corpse.
It is the habit of this consciousness to become directed to the affairs of our life that causes our thoughts to go in that direction. This is quite a normal and established state of the mind. When a person wishes to turn the flow of consciousness inward to the Self, it is this habit, of the mind to go outward to the sense objects, which stands as an obstacle to that wish. Here is where the practise of meditation comes to our rescue.
Looking to the Self within has been likened to trying to focus on an image of the moon on the surface of a lake. When that surface is made rough and wavy then the image breaks up into many distorted parts and is difficult to see clearly. It is only when that surface is motionless that the image becomes single and clear. Only then is it possible to focus on that image. The habitual movement of our mind is the main obstacle to our inner focus.
This habit takes many years to change and requires the development of art. It is true artists who concentrate their minds on their physical work so that they are able to achieve good results in bringing their inner feelings into the world. So it is with meditation.
Those who wish to meditate have to become artists in that practise. This means that we have to give time and energy to constant daily practise morning and evening, so that over many years of endeavour we may be able to bring stillness to the mind. This is one of the most difficult human practises, most who have tried to do it have given up in despair.
Help with this perennial subject is available through contact with the Saraswati Society.
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