My Views on Meditation

To be sure, meditation is a very useful activity for the mind where the mind is kept on a leash as it were. And, just like exercise is to the body, meditation is to the mind. Doubtless, meditation bestows many benefits like calming down your nerves, reducing your anxiety, eliminating depression to a large extent, lowering your BP, and whatnot. But, I am extremely skeptical about what value meditation has for understanding the Truth. Perhaps very little to none.

When meditation is done as an activity, one has to constantly keep the mind in check as it indulges in its natural tendency to stray outwards. And, what happens during the rest of the day when you are not meditating? The same old activity of the mind.

As long as one’s intellect has not understood the Truth, one’s mind cannot quieten down except mechanically during meditation if you are used to doing meditation. Once you have understood the Truth intellectually without any doubt, that is, your Sravana (hearing of the truth) and Manana (reflecting on the truth heard to find, clarify and eliminate any doubts about the veracity of the truth heard) are completed, the mind automatically quietens down without any need for mediation, very organically and naturally without the need for any leash on the mind. This quietening of the mind is a permanent feature and not limited to a few hours like in those who do meditation.

Thus, when the mind is quietened down, there may still be the residue of the past momentum of the habitual tendencies and longings lurking in the mind. These naturally get attenuated as the mind that has completed Manana cannot but help do Nididhyasana (dwelling of the mind on the Truth understood through Manana). And, Nididhyasana eliminates all the obstacles in the mind to the dawn of the understanding of the Truth.

Thus, Truth is not something to be experienced through meditation or any other such practices, but something to be understood.