Meditations.-2.

About : 'Witness Attitude'
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How it works ?

First of all let us see what is the purpose of doing
'MEDITATION' ?
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It seems that the only purpose may be to have the best possible understanding of ourselves and the 'Life', we live. Understanding the Existence itself.
There is a world, which seems to be outside where-in we live our Life.
So, as a person in this world, my life and the world are two essentially inseparable components of the Greater, Whole Life.
This is, how we can start with, in our attempts to have an Understanding of the Life.
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Based on this premise,
A meditation can be of any one of the following kinds, -
#1. 'Method Oriented' :
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It may help those, who have 'purified' the 'senses'.
'Senses' includes the 'Mind' as well.
It may also help to those, who have not purified their 'senses'.
Then they have to first try to see, how 'senses' are conditioned due to various outside influences.
There is the 'Classical Way', and the one of 'Awareness'. It depends on one's temperament, sensitivity and sensibility also.
So, 'Attentiveness' is always the most helpful tool in practicing 'Meditation'.
If one doesn't believe in God', Guru, and or scriptures, then one has the only available tool far 'Meditation' is one's own 'Attentiveness'.
As a matter of Fact It is The Only Real Friend, the Most Authentic GOD, GURU, and the Guide, within oneself.
Then one can start afresh. Keenly 'observing' the Life. It is not an instant affair. One has to be very sincere and honest about one's Life. How one thinks, how one behaves, what desires, fears are there in the mind. No psychology or philosophy would help there. It would make the things even worse and for more complicated. This is the way for the skeptic.
And those, who seek guidance, they may also first 'understand' (if possible) intellectually that there is a 'Silent Witness' within their own Heart. They have to reach to an understanding that there is something "UNCHANGABLE" within the 'consciousness' which enables one to affirm one's 'identity' in the ever Changing 'phenomenon' that Life is. Once convinced they can move ahead.
Then they can connect this understanding to their 'practice'.
In a 'practice', one entertains the idea that one 'has' a mind, and one should control/train the mind. One then becomes a victim of the most vicious illusion. But if one continues the 'attentiveness' ultimately one may see this paradox. Then one can see for the first time, that a 'method' has its use only in 'purifying' the senses. Since in a 'method', the sense of 'doer-ship' prevails in the mind.
The mind exerts effort in training or controlling itself.
One tries to make the 'mind' centered, focused, disciplined.
A mind in this way may get more and more fragmented and complicated. It may look gratifying at the intellectual level, but it takes nowhere. We see that people do so many things at the same time. One can ride a bicycle, and chat with the friends at the same time.
That is, because first, one had 'learned' how to sustain a dynamic balance on a moving bicycle.
At that time, when one was 'practicing' the art of bicycle driving, one had to pay attention to the physical movements of one's body. At that moment, he could not think other things. Gradually, the body assimilated the way of balancing, and it became the part of 'habit'.
Or, we can compare, how a child learns to 'balance' itself, while trying to stand-up. After-wards, it learns to 'walk', and 'run'.
So the 'body' learns the 'habit', and it becomes natural for the body.
When we want to learn an altogether new thing, much more attentiveness is required. The mind can of course do several things at a time at the physical level. But when it comes to the things of 'mind-level', it harms the mind. Because 'consciousness' gets divided. 'Attention' gets divided. One can successfully do things of the quality that are similar in nature. When one tries to do different kinds of things at the same time, it becomes a 'habit'. Then mind becomes fragmented, and this split becomes a 'habit'. At 'purely physical level', it is very important and most useful also. But when it comes to the 'mental level', it is a big problem. Because, it makes the mind a 'machine'.
Only a machine can do a job in-attentively. So, we talk, walk, work, play, entertain ourselves, fight, love, pray, ... in a mechanical way. It requires no talent. The talent within us finds no new challenge.One may become very skillful about that.
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*2. Attention Oriented'.
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A meditation, which 'happens'. It is always, every moment 'new'. It has no path to walk upon.
It is 'being' attentive. When the 'attention' grows, the earlier 'splits' in the mind, viz. the controller and the controlled, 'thinker' and the 'thought', 'experiencer' and the 'experienced' etc. gradually cease, yet because of the past unmindful habits, one gets thrown into the old pattern, where one says :
O.K., I should not be angry, I should be fearless, polite, I should speak truth, ...

When I try to be more and more 'attentive', I find that 'thinking-activity' of the mind gradually lessens. When I am attentive, My thought-process becomes slower. It does not mean that the 'thinking-ability' would be lost. Here we are talking of attention, and thought is an obstruction to attention. Because thought is always a repetition . It has its uses, but only at the level of expressing ourselves and communicating with others.
So, 'Observing' Life from inside and from outside at the same moment is the essence of 'ATTENTION'.
When one continues this 'Observation' of Life, the center (the idea of a separate 'me', controlling and training the mind) within, gradually loses it's hold on one, and one attains the 'Essence' of Life.
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