Excerpt from What is Meditation?
“Meditation is necessary for the mind to be completely still. When the mind is completely still, it is in total order: there is not a single movement of wasting energy. That silence, that quietness, that complete tranquillity of the mind is not something put together by thought.
“You have been trying to bring about silence, quietness, peace of mind, and in that is control. You are trying to control thought, which is wandering all over the place – a segment of that thought tries to control the movements of other thoughts. In this control, you have never inquired into who the controller is. Who is the controller and the thing controlled? Do look at it. The controller is one of the fragments of thought which has broken itself up into different fragments.
“Then you sit quietly and want to meditate. What you call meditation, not what we are talking about. You sit quietly, and your thought wanders off. The controller brings thought back and tries to say, ‘Don’t go away. Remain. Be concentrated.’ Another thought comes up, and you think about something else, and again this battle goes on. You call this meditation, but it is a total waste of energy. Can the mind be free from all control? Give your heart to this, find out.”
Know Thyself 