The Path of Meditation Chapter No.10

[Pravin Kumar]

I'm trying to explain the meaning of contemplation. Contemplation means to reflect on whatever is happening around you. If death is happening right in front of you, then contemplate on whether it will happen to you too. If you see someone who is old, then contemplate on whether this will also happen to you.

Buddha's father tried in every way to prevent this kind of contemplation from happening in him -- I want you to do everything so that this contemplation will arise in you. The father did everything he could to prevent Buddha from thinking, but still it happened.

One day Buddha went out and saw an old man walking on the street. He asked his attendant, "What has happened to this man?  Do other people look like this too?'

The attendant said, "I cannot lie to you -- everyone has to become old like him one day."

Buddha immediately asked, "Me too?"

The attendant said, "My lord, I cannot lie to you, no one is excluded."

Buddha said, "Take me back to the palace. I now understand that I too can become old. If this is going to happen tomorrow, then there is nothing left."

This is what I call contemplation. But the atttendant said, "We are going to a youth festival, the whole village will be waiting for us. Let's go on."

They went a little further on and saw a funeral procession. Buddha asked, "What is this? What are these people doing? What are they carrying on their shoulders?"

The attendant was hesitant to answer. He said, "I should not tell you, but I cannot lie to you. This man has died, he has died and these people are taking him away."

Buddha asked, "What is it to die? For the first time he came to know that people die.

Buddha said, "Now I have no wish to go, take me back immediately. It is not this man who has died -- rather, I have died.

This is what I call contemplation. A man has succeeded in contemplation if he understands that what has happened to someone else can also happen to him one day. People who don't understand whatis happening all around them are blind, and in a way we are all blind. This is why I have told you the storyof the blind man who was caryying a snake in his hand.

So the first thing for you to do -- and it is very important -- is to observe all that is happening around you, and through this is an understanding will arise in you. Therefore the first, the most important thing for you to do, will be to observe everything around you. Through this observation a quest will arise in you, a question will arise, and this will in turn give rise to a thirst for a higher truth. I have suffered much pain. When that pain subsided, in its place I began to see the steps on the path. Now I want to take about the first step on this path.

I have come to understand that two things are necessary if you want to attain to the ultimate consciousness, to the divine, to your inner being. One is the circumference, the circumference of meditation. The other important thing is the center of meditation -- the circumference of meditation and the center of meditation; or you can call it the body of meditation and the soul of meditation. Today I will talk about the circumference of meditation, tomorrow I will talk about the soul or the center, and the day after tomorrow about the fruits of meditation, the center and the fruits of meditation. In other words, the foundation of meditation, meditation itself and the fulfillment of it.

The foundation of meditation involves only your periphery, and the periphery of your personality is the body. Hence the periphery of meditation involves only the body. So the first step towards meditation begins with your body. So remember, whatever negative feelings you may have about your body which other people may have imprinted on you, drop them. The body is just an instrument in the material as well as in the spiritual world.

The body is neither an enemy nor a friend, it is just an instrument you can use to do wrong or you can use to do good. Through it you can either get involved in the material life or you can get involved in the ultimate. The body is just an instrument. Don't hold any misconceptions about it. People usually believe that the body is antagonistic towards us, that is sinful, that it is our enemy and that it needs suppressed. I tell you that this is wrong -- the body is neither an enemy nor a friend; it is what you make it. That is why the body is so mysterious, so extraordinary.

In the world, whenever something wrong has happened it has happened through the body, and whenever something right has happened it has happened through the body. The body is only the means, the instrument you can use to do wrong or you can use to do good. Through it you can either get involved in the material life or you can get involved in the ultimate. The body is just an instrument. Don't hold any any misconceptions about it. People usually believe that the body is antagonistic towards us, that it is sinful, that it is our enemy and that it needs to be suppressed. I tell you that this is wrong -- the body is neither an enemy nor a friend; it is what you make it. That is why the body is so mysterious, so extraordinary.

In the world, whenever something wrong has happened it has happened through the body, and whenever something right has happened it has happened through the body. The body is only the means, the instrument.

So for meditation it is necessary to start with attention to the body, because you cannot proceed without first putting this instrument in order. If the body is not in the right condition you cannot proceed. So the first step is to purify the body; the purer the body, the easier it will be to go deeper inside.

What does purifying the body mean? The first meaning is that there should be no disturbance, no blocks, no complexes in the body, in the system of the body -- then the body is pure.

Try to understand how these complexes and blockages enter the body. If the body is without any blocks, if it doesn't have any disturbances and if there are no problems, no interferences, then the body is pure and helps you to go inside. But if you are very angry, if you get angry and you are not expressing it, the heat that this creates will accumulate in some part of your body and it will become a blockage. You must have seen how anger can lead to hysteria, how it can lead to illness. Recent experiments being done on the human body show that out of a hundred diseases, fifty of these are not of the body but of the mind. But the mental illnesses become disturbances in the body, and if there is a disturbance in the body, if the body is not healthy, then the body's whole system becomes rigid and impure.

All the different schools of spiritual discipline and the different religions have tried many incredible and revolutionary experiments to purify the body, and it will be good to understand these experiments. If you try these experiments, in a few days you will discover just how mysterious your body is. You body will not appear to be an enemy, it will be a temple where the divine resides. Then it will not be an enemy but a friend, and you will feel grateful to it. The body is not you. It is made of matter. You and your body are different from each other. Yet you can make tremendous use of it, and then you will feel gratitude towards it, you will feel indebted to it because it is so supportive.

Keeping the body free of blockages is the first step towads purifying the body. And there are many blockages in our bodies. For instance, a few days ago a man came and said to me, "For some days now I have been doing some meditations of a particular religion, and the mind has become very quiet."

I said to him, "I don't think your mind is quiet."

He said, "How can you say that?"

I replied, "Since you arrrived you have been jiggling both your legs about." He was sitting and jiggling his legs. I said, "It is not possible for the mind to be silent when the legs are jiggling about so much."

The agitation of the body comes from the agitation of the mind. When the movement of the mind slows down, the body too slows down. The bodies of Buddha and Mahavira would have appeared to be like the stone that their statues are made of; they would have appeared stone-like. It is not coincidental that their statues are made of stone. The reason for it is that they had started looking like stone, all movement inside them had stopped. That is, they moved only when necessary, otherwise they remained absolutely still.

When your legs jiggle, it is the energy created by your dissatisfaction which is not finding any outlet and you dissipate it by jiggling your legs. When a man is angry he gnashes his teeth and he clenches his fists - why? His eyes turn red -- why? Why the fists? Even when you are alone and angry at someone you will clench your fist. There is no one to hit, but the energy that is created by your anger has to be released somehow. The muscles in your hands become tense and so the energy is released.

These difficulties have been created by social conditioning. A man without conditioning has a purer body than yours. A wild man's body is purer that your bodies; it does not have any bloakcages because where you suppress your emotions, he expresses his emotions very easily and spontaneously.

[Erinrose]

Pravin Kumar,

Thank you for your post. I have over the years got used to the fact that after going through a particularly tough or sad time I often come across something that turns out to be very helpful.

I had a bad night last night, a dreadful pain in my side and sleep was very erratic. On awakening this morning I was very relieved to discover the pain had gone. Then I sat down here at my computer and yours was one of the first 'new posts' that I read. That's when I got one of my 'light bulb' moments.

I do meditation and relaxation for purposes of cutting down on anxieties and other discomforts of the mind. I think I'm rather lazy about it and have convinced myself that it is enough to 'just sit' and avoid thinking too much. After reading your post about the body and meditation, I suddenly felt like a silly child. How could I possibly expect to achieve what I would like to by 'just sitting'?!

My body hurts. I have cut down on my intake of food and drink in order to relieve the pain. Meditation and relaxation was, as I said, used to still the anxieties. I feel like I have been cheating myself, and taking the easy road. Your post has given me something to think about. I have become complacent in my efforts, I found a comfort zone and I stayed there. It is time for me to get back to the business of healing my 'whole-self' and not just my body.
Thank you for reminding me that I am more than this body, more than this anxious mind. I believe it is time for me to reach out and grasp the next rung on my metaphysical ladder.

[Pravin Kumar]

Dear Friend,

I post such good posts so that you all may benefit and your comment gives me inspiration to post more such post. I hope you benefit a lot.


Pravin Kumar