Meditation Tip

Filed under: Meditation

Patanjali states that yoga is the stilling of the changes in citta, which we usually and fairly acceptably translate as “mind”. The first step in meditation is therefore not to make thought occupy itself with any particular image. It is to stop thinking or at least stop what we have hitherto described to ourselves as thinking.

Meditation is not a technique for processing ourselves into some kind of advantage. People who represent it as a technique and want to teach us how to do it may sometimes help to rid an individual of some personal illusion or inhibition, much as a clinical psychologist may do; but , beyond that, we must ourselves be aware of what we are doing and not just be guided by an image in somebody else’s mind.

From Some Thoughts on Meditation
by Hugh Shearman