Meditating is not an activity, a choice or a will to be applied to our own life to improve our condition, to find ways to be happy or other esoteric reasons. Meditation begins where any desire to change ends, where the intellect surrenders; where there is no way to get to that silence through efforts.
When our whole world has quietly suspended, it will come unexpected. This is the ground for comparison : our life, the personal development of our everyday existence. This requires commitment and honesty. Everything in our lives passes through the mind and the body, so if these tools work fine, living has its decency otherwise it drags with it the quality of the past.It's therefore necessary to check how we work.Thinking, our favourite tool, runs non-stop, day and night, and never stops even when we need to relax. Even if we try to stop it, we can not.
This rises some considerations: first of all, we are not masters of our thinking. It has a life independent from our will.
So where is the freedom of thought? It is also a tool with limited capacity; so why do we always use it as an absolute?
And what will it answer to those questions which the mind can not answer? We can infer that thinking is not "ours" because we do not have the mastery, which has a limited range, and that there is another form of intelligence that can answer to what remains suspended.
The Observation
In fact is we know very little about ourselves and this personal knowledge is also very poor. A knowledge that binds us, does not help us. For example, I know I'm jealous, but jealousy doesn't become manageable, or if I know I'm unsure it does not change my insecurity etc. While if I know maths, physics etc. I can answer the related questions. We see that the mind suits the scientific and cultural field, but not the human one. We can't handle the events and happenings of the human life with the usual tool. We need a different intelligence. We begin to observe ourselves.We take a break in the day, which is not a luxury, but a necessity to function better and we make ourselves comfortable, quiet in a cosy corner of our house. Learning to stay with ourselves should be simple yet we find we are nervous, depressed, uncomfortable, and we can not rest relaxed. Now you have to understand that you can not intervene with the will to calm down, or with analysis of any types, which feed only the thoughts; only the acceptance of our state allows us to live with ourselves. Here we have the first action different from the usual. We do not trying to make the effort to change or improve.
To change would move only the problem, while with gentleness, without judging, we start to become familiar with our experiences. It's the confidence that makes them acceptable peacefully. Observe with detachment and serenity all the materials that come to consciousness. Do not fight with what you dislike and do not favour what you like.
The daily life
Every day life doesn't depend on fate, bad luck or fortune. It is a reflection of how we are, the faithful portrait of the way we are (speaking of the quality of the past ), any attempt to change it will be essentially useless if you do not change yourself. You are the carrier of yourself and you can't do otherwise.Start to mirror in your relationships, in the way you manage your things, or their lack. You will see that all your relationships and movements tend to consider the advantages and disadvantages and that your actions do not have any noble reason. The honest self-observation takes you to an incompleteness that carries difficulties and problems. The lack of attention and knowledge that we have of ourselves, is inevitable.
The nature of the mind
The point here is not to know that there is also a positive, beautiful side, the point is to be honest and look at things as they are. As we look through the mind and its filters, we never see things as they are, but interpret them through our rules, our mindset, that always have to do with convenience.And this is a mistake, because by altering the facts, we alter the possibility to respond appropriately. We must therefore look at things and at ourselves for who we are, in the moment in which we live.
The problem is that the mind is a tool and is not able to grasp this. Being a recording, essentially a storage of memories, it always looks in the archives tracks that help it to recognise facts. And so the present slips away.
Besides the functional and mechanical (names, dates, scientific knowledge) memories, it accumulates a large amount of data, broken memories, incomplete materials, residues that fill its capacity to such an extent as to reduce more and more the space to learn and listen.
This saturation of content affects our behaviour, distorts it and uses them improperly, effectively creating our own destiny and our own structure. The person is the result of these distorted materials.
There is no personal entity, and the human being is not the master of his thought, the master of "his own body". This personal structure, created by distortion, generates over time because it does not live in the present and projects over time its hopes and expectations or fears.
Relax
In this confusion, everything is tiring and difficult, and you have to find the way to put it in order yourself. The nervous system is under stress, the head does not stand still, the body is stressed beyond measure and often poorly fed, it becomes difficult to live.It is urgent to stop, get off this carousel, and give the mind and body the proper rest, a healthy relaxation, and a healthy diet.
You don't have time, you do know that life is as you are, not vice versa. If you are interested in living in a human way, cut out the deadwood and use that time to put yourself back together.
Learn to be calm and accept your feelings honestly, you will see that what is seen with honesty will no longer have the strength to affect you.