Acharya Mahaprajna
The Daily Rising Kashmir
It is for us to decide whether to be tossed in the ocean of empirical experience or rest in a state of transcendental calm
However, it should not be supposed that the artificial modifications can be stopped as soon as we sit down to meditate. We go on witnessing various kinds of processes even during meditation. It has been found that a state of meditation is in many respects similar to the state of complete rest or relaxation. The human body contains an acid known as leptic acid. Its secretion in a state of rest is very small. In the state of meditation it is still smaller. Its decrease after an eight hours' sleep is equal to its decrease after a twenty minutes' meditation. This acid is harmful for the body. Many other things happen during meditation. Mental processes do not completely stop during meditation. They continue even in a passionless state. The possessor of pure knowledge is also not beyond them.
We live in the gravitational field of the earth. If we could enter into a state of weightlessness even for a few moments, we would think that life has begun a new for us.
We have either good or evil thoughts or no thoughts at all in our minds. Similarly we do either good deeds or bad deeds or no deeds at all. Thoughts are mental processes. As processes they do not differ from each other. Both are waves. Generally we believe that physical objects have colour, form, sound, beat, etc. A scientist does not think in these terms. For him objects have neither color nor form nor sound nor heat. He thinks of the world in terms of time and energy. The world is a process of energy in time. Energy is the substance of which the entire universe is made. Therefore, thinking, whether we think good or bad thoughts, is a process of energy. If our purpose is to arrive at a state beyond these processes, the first thing we have to do is to rescue ourselves from bad processes and to swim with the good processes. Swimming with the bad processes takes us away from our goal, which is the obliteration of all activity.
Lesya meditation is the easiest means of swimming with the good current. You cannot turn your thoughts in the right direction without this meditation. Social relations are the breeding ground of all kinds of evils, more especially mental evils. They force us to react. We cannot get rid of the life of reactions without meditating on auspicious colorations.
Thoughts are produced either by internal tendencies by sounds prevailing in the sky. Material particles of sound enter into our mind and produce thoughts. Take, for example, a group of persons sitting together. There maybe good or bad men among them. The thoughts of the good men spread in the sky and influence the entire company. In the same way those of the bad men also influence the whole company. This influence is due to the force of thoughts. Material particles emerging from the mind spread in the sky. They strike the minds of other men and influence them. That is why it has been said that one should keep company with good men only.
The Acaranga says, "Don't keep company with bad men." To avoid the effects of bad thoughts we have to take precautions. The first is to subdue bad tendencies. Meditation purifies mental tendencies. The second is not to allow evil thoughts to arise in our minds. Meditation stops the rise of such thoughts. Meditation on the white color wards off evil thoughts, which enter into our minds from outside. Meditation on red and yellow colors stops evil thoughts, which rise from within the mind itself. Once we have shielded ourselves from external and internal sources of thoughts, our minds become the abode of good thoughts only, which are helpful to us in our spiritual pilgrimage.
Perceptive meditation on breath enables us to control it. Perceptive meditation on the body enables us to perceive the vibrations of the body and the perishable nature of them. This perception leads us to contemplative meditation on the transitory character of the world. Here begins the search for the immutable, which leads to the next stage of perceptive meditation on the centres of consciousness, which is a source of enlightenment.
There are two centres of the manifestation of the transcendental soul in our body, the brain and the centres of consciousness. It is through these centres that the soul sends forth the rays of its light on the outer world. The practitioner who meditates on the centres of consciousness comes face to face with the light of the soul. Once he has got a glimpse of this light, he will never go astray. Even a short experience of calm and a few moments of right perception will be enough to lead him to his goal. Let us know the real nature of things through contemplation. False perception results in ignorance, which goes on increasing by its own force and precludes our vision. It is through contemplation that we can destroy it.
It is for us to decide whether we would like to be tossed to and fro in the ocean of empirical experience or rest in a state of transcendental calm.