Meditation is the subtlest of
human activities. Success is commensurate with the initial preparation and
subsequent equanimity of the mind. The mind and intellect have to be properly
tuned before they can be successfully employed in meditation. To ignore the
preliminary preparation and attempt meditation would prove to be futile, even
detrimental, for the unprepared practitioner. This caution is not intended to
turn one away from the practice of meditation. It is only meant to emphasize
that the necessary preparation has to be done to achieve success in meditation.
The first stage of preparation is
to withdraw the mind from its preoccupation with the enchantments of the world.
Due to worldly activities
throughout the day one’s mind become agitated and an agitated mind can never be
fit for meditation and an agitated mind seeking sense pleasures in the external
world has the following three fundamental imperfections:
(1) The quantity of thoughts
entertained by such a mind is excessive.
(2) The quality of its thoughts
is poor and degrading.
(3) The direction of the thoughts
is set towards the lower material values of life
These faults in the mind have to
be rectified if one desires to practice meditation effectively. The quantity of
thoughts must be reduced, the quality improved, and the direction changed to a
higher Ideal. If such reduction, improvement, and direction of thoughts are
achieved, an individual gains relative equanimity of the mind. An equanimous
state of mind is an essential prerequisite for the practice of meditation.
However, the general practitioners of religion do not realize how necessary
this preparation is and plunge directly into meditation only to reap
disappointment in spiritual evolution.
The spiritual discipline advised
for producing a reduction of the quantity of thoughts in the mind is the path
of action (karma-yoga). This discipline is directed to one’s physical
personality.
