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    Meditation vs Psychotherapy. Techniques vs pure observation

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    Meditation vs Psychotherapy. Techniques vs pure observation

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    39 views8 pages

    R. P. Kaushik - Understanding Meditation

    Uploaded by

    helabz
    Meditation vs Psychotherapy. Techniques vs pure observation

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 8
    UNDERSTANDING MEDITATION Look at the structure of the mind, both conscious as well as uunconscious—in other words, what we call the psychic field. The ‘whole ofthis mind, whether conscious or unconscious, is limited and conditioned. But once you open up tit, it gives you a sense of expansion, a sense of release; you encounter new energies— powers, siddhis, miracles—which give you a sense of great Achievement and fulfillment. Yet whatever is satisfying may not recessarily be true, and whatever is trae may not be satistying, ‘Truth cannot be measured by the yardstick of satisfaction. ‘Those minds which seek satisfaction generally get stuck in one layer or the other of the psychic field. Those who are not scck- ing satisfaction, but are enquiring about truth—who want 10 know what is what, or who want to investigate the nature of sorrow oF the human problem—those are the people who are likely to go to the highest imit possible, For others ts nota question of enlightenment or total fee: dom, tsa question of choosing the prison. IF you have to be a prisoner, then make it a beter prison. Decorate your prison ‘ooms with paintings, have windows, venilitors, good doors, Carpet and things lke that. In that cate the enquiry s entirely on different line; tis search for pleasure. Most people who want to discover God, who talk of love of God, already have some ‘concept, some image of God, and they are only seking the most ying image. A mind which is seeking the most satisfying. probably find it but chat is the end, chat is the limit. (Only via direct enquiry is there the possibilty that one may not iget stuck in these images and projections. The result may be Dutwardly the sime. The state which comes out of total ident ‘ation with an image or a person oF a guru may be identical in ‘outward appearance to the state that comes out of pure and ‘Simple enquiry. Is very dificult to differentiate between what is true and what is false at that time, because the distinction between true and false disappears after a point. The only way to jdge whether your experiences, our understanding and your realization are true or false ist see whether you ae in harmony with yourself, whether you have stopped reacting. How you re- Tate to the world whether you are in peace and harmony with your environment—is the only possible criterion that we can hhave with respect to enlightenment. There is no way to know ‘what is realy happening inside anyone; there can only be ages. There is no particlar, Fixed pattern which an enlightened mind will follow. For such a mind there are no more patterns Teft. Ie only acts in the light ofits harmony, in the light ofits ‘understanding, Such a mind is nota violent mind, nota destruc tive mind. The quality of love which lows without a center isthe ‘only visible sign of this enlightenment. ‘When you proceed in earch of God and devotion and things like that, if you are simple and honest, then perhaps with that humility you can go very far, You can find satisfaction or happi- ‘ness in your life, you might even be abe to transmit that spark of humility and simplicity to other minds if you are realy living that ife. But when you pursue these images—even the image of ‘God—and start identifying yourself with them, you may appear to be free but in the last analysis there is always an element of nbalance. You can talk of brotherhood, you can talk of love, you can talk of virtue, you can talk of goodness, you can talk of Everything but if you are a Cristian and someone talks against the Bible or Chris, then you cannot tolerate it. If you are a Hindu and somebody talks against the Vedas or the Gita or Krishna you may not be able to tolerate it. Your love for that person may disappear. We once visited some friends in a com- ‘mune who were living by principles of common brotherhood and unity in the love of God. And during a discussion, one friend said that the brotherhood of man was only relevant be- ‘cause of the existence of God if there were no God there would bbe no brotherhood of man. I said that in that case, people who ddo not believe in God cannot be brothers, s0 it becomes mean- ingless. With such definitions, you can have crusades, you can hhave religious wars, you can destroy humanity. ‘That is against true spiritual or religious spirit If this error i to end, then the only direct route to realty is through enquiry Only when the whole of the conscious and the unconscious fr the attachment to the material as well as the psychic world comes to an end—out of a tremendous amount of discontent and dissatisfaction with whatever is—only then is there a possi- bility of opening to a perception of truth, ‘The question may be asked, is this realization instantaneous or does it take time? Do you have to go through the various psychic layers tep by step? To my mind, when this realization comes, is always instantaneous. Perception of truth is always timeless Whenever you see truth itis always timeless, But before this perception comes, there is groping in the dark, You can call t ‘ovement, you can cal it going through the psychic realm stage by stage. Is nota true movement, for itcan revert back at any time; there ate no well-marked, well-defined milestones in the psyche. The highest point can become the lowest point in a econd, with alittle touch ofthe ego. The ego can play so many Gifferent roles, can deceive you so easly. The movement in the psyche, the movement in the unconscious or peychic Field, is Feally no movement at all. We should not confuse ourselves by thinking that when we are going through the peychic field we are realy making some spiritual progress. We are just moving through the intricacies ofthe phenomenal world, and not seeing is, but there are some wo the psychic fel, et things we are not seing. So when we go ‘us not go with the idea or assumption that we can go step by step land some day realize truth, You will never realize ruth in that ‘way. All that we can say is that in our humility, in our lack of understanding we just proceed according to the best of our understanding, the best of our knowledge. With that humility, with that understanding of our limitation, psychological time comes to an end. Then we are always ready forthe final flash. I. is important not to projector create psychological time—not 10 sy that you will proceed and get realization in two months, or toro years, or twelve years I may happen, bur if you put it asa condition, i will never happen. Ifyou say with all humility that this is what 1 know-—I am just proceeding-then you are always n the verge ofthat realization; you are always knocking on that ‘door. That is the only sprit in which to proceed. If someone teaches you a system or method, or talks of enlightening you after sx years or twelve years as a result of spiritual practices, it isa big trap; i is not possible ‘Now another question arises: can the realization ofthis truth, ‘ofthis energy beyond the mind, take place directly, or must one ko through the psyehic field? To my mind, once the mind starts becoming sensitive, you are always going through these various layers ofthe prychic Feld, whether you know itor not. Whoever thas this final fash has already prepared himself, knowingly or “unknowingly, by Becoming familiar with the psychic field. This preparation is sometimes so swift that you are not aware of Enything except forthe Final flash, But if you have not resolved the hidden complexes of the unconscious or the psychic field, ceven the highest fash of enlightenment will not stay—the ‘niomentum of the unconscious wil pull you back down again, I is posible that thie spiritual illumination may take place frst, you may have to go through the psychic Feld, knowingly or Unknowingly, and then stumble upon this realization, Whichever way it happens, chere is no clearly demarcated jour: ney, People have invented a journey from A to Z that docs not xis. This divine spitit is under no law, under no dictation. ‘What happens in one individual case might not happen in| another case-—it might be an entirely different story. The im portant thing for each one of us is to recognize our limitation, the imitation ofthe intellect and ofall the methods and systems ‘which come out ofthe intellect. When you see that limitation, ‘your intellectual barrier comes to naught, and once it disap” pears, you are always face to face with reality. The flash can happen anytime, ‘Soisit necesary to become familiar wth the various layers of| the psychic field, tobe aware of the subtleties oF paranormal aspects of the human mind, or ean you just brush it aside? To ‘my mind, when you know the limitation of the psychic fel, that the best time to understand it and even to master those subtleties—not in order to wield power, but in order for the human personality to grow, to flower. Asascientist, you are very interested in finding out what isthe limit of human personality, and to what extent it can grow and develop—but you would not bo interested in acquiring psychic powers in order to become a spirital human being. That way is destructive. Iti one of the ‘most diffiealtdiseiplnes to have power and noc use it. Without lunderstanding that the whole power game ofthe paychic field is 4 trap, and that power cannot be used without confit, the ex ploration and mastery of these forces is fraught with danger. But even if you do not uy to master them or explore them, the psychic field may open up spontaneously. If you have come to this understanding or enlightenment or flash, then as the body and mind become more and more sensitive, these subtleties start ‘opening up spontaneously, in their own way. There is nothing 10 run away from in the peychic field and there is nothing to cing to, Tis part of you. You cannot avoid itor run away From it a5 you cannot run away from your hands or your feet. With that Integrated outlook we are bes fitted to approach this moment of light and truth and understanding. “The only need is to be aware of whatever i happening. Sim- ple awareness will open all the doors. Become aware of one single facet of ie, one single moment of life, and the initiation hateun, the journey has begun It sounds bike avery sal thing but becuse we are not watching our Bves, we run after teachers and books to learn thelr lessons. We do ot look a our own ie "When we lok at an object, we blink so many time in one rminae, but yet we are never aware of inking, ony of seeing We think we se continuous. Even when you ae ooking con- Tiuousy the rays ight are not stimulating your bran cell oF Fetna continuo, but in Tapid succession, producing what {ppent to be one single image In the same way look at Your kn though process When you think, are you thinking con tinuously or discontinuously? It is discontinuous, what i this fap. what this interval between two thoughts? If you can just Fr atention to this gap, this isthe beginning it you can Einlcrtand one single phenomenon of He, thatthe begin- ting. that is ination ‘ihc is this gap? Does something cae le behind this though? It isa queon of enlarging this gap. When you start teatching your mind, what doc this meditation do? Meditation Sows down the thought process—not mediation on some man- aor fixed point of image, but just simple awareness of your thought proces jst looking with care and attention at yoursl, A pont mind. The pry Woking, the very obseraton, slows Town the sped of though, and enlarges the gap between two thoughts Once you start fecoming aware of these various layers fof the mind and this gap or alence Between eo thoughts and Sou le this sence operste, chen always there. The silence roms: expands an covers the whole mind “Truth i simple, so very simple, providing you are honest and serious aboot i But ki one of the mon difficult and Complicated things i your search fs for pleasure, not for cath It your search for pleasure, then methods, ems, and disc Pines become imperative. Then you must rest, you must fore I-coece your mind to produte certain resis certain aims. But if you simply want to understand and see what life i, then. you can begin with yourself, your instrument of perception, Your own mind. You cannot understand anything outside with: ‘out understanding yourself. There willbe difficulty understand- ing external things, a you cannot see into them directly. But within yourself, your own mind is available 10 you to Took at, If you stare watching it, it starts revealing its mysteries. It is no longer mysterious if you start looking ati Here one thing is very important, and I want to emphasize this point: when you start thi meditation or mind-watching, do rot make it a mechanical habit. Do not cultivate awareness as advocated by some methods and systems. Cultivation of this habit is fixing yourself up in a different dimension, level be: yond which you cannot go, for you become mechanical ag Life is not mechanical. We ae interested notin the achievement of some hypothetical state of nirvana or enlightenment, but only in understanding and enquiring into the nature of mind, the nature of love, the nature of the world. Therefore you cannot approach meditation mechanically: you need real interest, real ‘are, affection, and seriousness. When you want to understand someone and you do not love that person, you cannot under: stand him. The same is true with your own mind. Ifyou have an idea of your mind as mechanical and you say, “am going to watch my mechanical mind,” you stop watching. So begin the exploration wo find out what 1 is—what is mechanical bout it and what is not. Find out if there is something in it ‘which is not mechanical ‘When you start watching with care and affection, only then does the mind start revealing its mysteries, Everything—every person, every abject, every plant, every tree—wil reveal it mys- tery, if you look ait wth love and affection. Butif you look with suspicion, and enquire like a policeman, hen nothing will reveal these secrets; even the mind will conceal its secret. You willbe a ‘mystery to yourself. The only important thing in this question of ‘enquiry is your attitude of humility and love and affection, When you start watching your mind you may find suppres ed mater much fith and dit coming ou. Bo not rum aay ffom tit you. Whether use oF not is aways there- Becuse you have never scent before, you have Beni im ages about yourself Those image ae going tbe shattered. 1 takes an incredible amount of courage aa energy to look at Yourself s you are—vithout mass, wiout images Here again Unis love and affection i necessary. You have t ook at youre Ss you arenot ss what you would like yourself tobe ora what Jou think you are. When the mind sare opening welt p all The dead material sats coming ou, and you have no option, no ‘hoie but to look Then the mind starts cleaning elf washing iself because there ie no more resistance left This accumula thon isthe product of restance—pushing aside something you ‘donot like and putting wha you lke inthe shop window. Be- Cause you have been living hat tightly bound resistance (0 life, you have mutilated and truncated yoursll- Once you tar looking at youre a you realy are then the whole of hie tarts Opening ts mysteries fo you, All of your suppressed material is funburdened, and you do not need paychiatrse or gurus any longer: When you develop this sent, Hes your gr. Yo perception is your instrument, the only tool avalable. And sor- fow is your watchman, sorrow i your guard, because if you do ‘ot lok you wl fel sorrow. You look at something not becuse you wll become an enlightened Buddha, but becuse otherwise Jou will ave to fel sorzow. I you walk on the road Dindfolded, Jou il fal off the cif, o burt yourself on a rock, Sots that Urgency of life which makes you Took, not a mouvaion to gain something. You have to kok you want to walk onthe road of life, With this equipment you are ready #9 move, and share the Joys and beatic af He “Any quealons? Questoner: ‘Thee i prado. 1 seem easy to hide fom loking at elf and judging mpl feing the nega of that judgment. But you say that i resistance, and just Bring mindful, allowing that cwucfidmes to operate i relly the easier path Dr:_It is the easier path when you sce that by judgment and criticism you are only suppressing the dirt and keeping i al inside. Its just like a surgical operation—it may be painful, but ‘once you know that this partis gangrenous and dea it has to be hopped off. You can no longer say, "It is my leg, Lam going to save it” Its a question of seeing the need. Once you sce the need of it, the urgency of it, looking s very simple. No one can ‘enlighten another unless that urgency is there in the seeker, You cannot stimulate or persuade people to have this enquiry, you ‘cannot bribe them into it, you cannot motivate them to look at Me. That intensity has to come from within. Then someone might help you, initiate you or open you up. But i you do not have that intensity, no one can create it Its that intensity, che suffering, the sorrow, the pain which compels you. It may be difficult, but once you know there is no other way, you have 10 do it, you have to go that way. So I would lke to hide myself, 1 ‘would not like to look at myself as Lam; I want to be a nic, beautiful person, a great person, a generous person. I want © cherish the images that I have, The breaking oF those images s painful, bt once I sce that these images are cancerous, and are ‘ating a the roots of my life energy, then there is no other way but to look and see them. That urgency makes me see—it is simple. So whether its simple or dificult depends on you, your lurgency, your intensity. If you have the intensity, nothing is difficult IF you do not have the intensity, then i is the hardest thing to look at yourself TT you look at me siting here and talking, you can invent an image from my position, my sitting here and my talking. But if you really look at me, watch me, and see me, all images will disappear. Then you will find out that Iam you. The division between you and me exists because you do not look at me, you only listen to my words and interpret them. Allimages come —it is the nature of mind to create those images—but once you go ‘deeper, the images have no meaning. The images are coming from a very superfial layer of the mind. In day-to-day life you ‘cannot avoid those images—your whole language is based on Symbols and images. But can you have that quality of innocence Uehich ean look behind those images and not be caught in them? ‘That is the only intensity needed, ‘You cannot destroy those images, they will alvays remain Suppose I have some pictures of Shiva, Krishna, or Jesus in my room If get enlightened and start seeing that images are use fess. and only ensnare you and befog wsion, do you think throw away those pictures? I donot tow them away, but I start giving them their proper value, tha sal. T do not bow before {them anymote, but they are sill there. The mind i very tricky. Itcan throw away those pictures and say, “Well, 1 am free of ‘those images.” yet its still caught in them, because images di turb the mind by either presence or absence. Many religions hhave come into existence as iconoclastic systems which destroy alldols, yet they worship an iol in one form or another. No-one {ver questions how your can worship a formless god. In order to ‘rorship something, even the formes, you must imagine some orm—even a big space. The human mind thinks that it can ‘create even the formless, it thinks that it ean imagine the form= less. The formless is unimaginable. A mind which professes to ‘worship the formless thinks that itis better than one who wor~ Ships idols, yet both are idolatrous. ‘The moment the mind sees the true nature of an image, ti no longer caught init. An jmage can be a beautifal symbol. You do not hate it any more, you do not fight i A mind which isin reaction against a symbol iseaught in it A religious mind, a spiritual mind, a free, uncon- ditioned mind does not hate anything Questoner: Can one ive and workin any circumstances? Ihave often tuondered, Becaute some ofthe boos T have read say o stay with your te, with our motherinLas, wth our horrible obit our aif ho ates you. ust to watch, that ic enaugh 1 lak tome asi you must often ‘do more than stay and wath. Dr: The question isnot whether you should run away or not, but why are you running away and where are you running? In the beginning, to initiate this movement of enquiry, you may hhave to withdraw from too disturbing an environment for a hile—for an hour, fora day, for two days, for ten days—it does hot matter how long. You may sit ouside, go to the seashore, 0 the riverbank, oF ito the woods, and start seeing something. “Then with tha spirit of enquiry, you earry that insight with you, into the rest of your life. Soto initiate the movement a tempor” ary withdrawal may be necessary; but if ths withelrawal becomes 4 permanent feature, then you are running away from one con- ditioning into another conditioning, from one prison into nother. That you have to see. There may come a point when you can leave your job, eave your wife, even leave your chil {ren, but when? When staying with them does not ereatea prob- lem. ‘The last freedom is freedom from environment. Do not ‘run away from this social environment. Change in physical env- ‘ronment may be understandable for health reasons; the climate Df a place may not suit you, the weather may not suit you. But to 0 t0 a different social environment because you do not like a {Certain type of people in your vicinity is destructive. You are ‘only choosing a different escape a different conditioning, a dif- ferent prison, That must not be done. I is so easy to withdraw into the woods of to a mountain top where there are very few challenges, or where you can reduce the challenges to the mninimurn, In that simple environment, you can live easl Primitive man did not have those problems, even people in primitive societies today do not have so many problems. But the ‘Gvilized man of today cannot afford to be primitive, he cannot igo back to the woods. He has to meet the challenge on a differ- tnt level today, he cannot run anywhere. Whereis there to run? ‘Wherever he goes, he caries his head with him, hisconditioning with him. And something is wrong inside this computer, the problem is not with the environment outside. Every computer thinks there is something wrong in the environment, but the environment consists ofthis collection of computers. The out side is wrong when Lam not clear. When Tam clear, the outside ‘does not disturb me. That disturbance which is coming from outside isa challenge to my computer, and when I shut of that challenge, I block myself. Questioner: Ina city like Deli or Bombay, after awhile I start going ray no matter how much I watch Iestarts diving me mad and theres tno place 1 gon! cannot get exercise, there isa di, there area lat of people. These things make me really tense and T have lol up mages fo ‘late to people Dr: Did you ever question why you become tense? Whenever you put up images to relate to people, fear cannot end. One Image must be frightened of another image, because there is no relationship between images. You are not dealing directly with life. If you are not identifying with anything there i no prob- lem; the problem comes from identification, Quester: The problem is I cannot be myn. lot of thee paces. eal a srain in acting differen from the wy In. Dr: That s intelligence, Sir, that is intelligence, My intelligence tells me that when I go to New York, I should speak English, ‘would not go to an Indian village and speak English In India 1 ‘wear a lungi: in the West I wear pants. These clothes would make me very uncomfortable in New York, because 1 think ‘everyone would look at me sa specimen, asan object. And why should I want to look different from other human beings? The trouble comes when this lung becomes a symbol of my en- lightenment and my freedom, and Ieannot give it up, as much as cannot give up my skin, Then I am creating trouble. fa man speaks a different language, Learn how to talk his language. In Sonepat, a small place near Delhi where I was staying last year, some foreigners were coming and staying with tme,and the police used to look very suspiciously at us. One came tnd asked what the foreigners were doing there, Inthe begin- hing I said, “They come and sit, and they eat and drink and Sleep and cook their food, that is all” He said, “They could do that as well in New York. Why should they come to Sonepat to do that?” And I got the hin that the policeman was wondering whether it was a drug-smuggling racket, or some CIA-financed projeat of espionage. He could not see that to lve simply and sit Firmply and eat simply ia very great thing. He could not under: Stand it 50 I said, "They come for meditation, and they come to Jearn about life and truth and God from me.” Then he was satisfied, When he asked who they were, I said “They are my disciples” So I have to talk to that man in his language, other ‘vise he will not understand, I must learn to see the person to Wrhom Lam talking, to whom Lam relating. 1 must learn to see his limitations, Once I see his Kimitatons, there is no problem. CQuesiomers Fonder if ou could sy something about he relationship betwren meditation and other therapeutic practes-for example, primal ‘eran therapy, or Freudian anastialpchotherapy, There ave all sorts (of diffrent says people develop, and mediation seems ta be one way (Other says are qt diferent, tke geting down onthe flor and seeam- ing abou something that happened when you were ten yeas old Dr: When you are dealing with these small compartments oF Fragments, you are only looking at one aspect of life. These various techniques of therapy afe aimed not at transforming your psyche, but at making you Bit into a social machinery: Questioner; But yu might get some snderstanding of our behavior in Terms of experiences that happened to yo hen sou were younger ‘might become free Dr. will approach ta diferent way. When you look at your suppressed material, or at some tauma which took pace tthe age of five or ten, you may sce and to that extent you are free But your way of He and looking at things hs not changed: you are il ving Iie of resitance. At evry moment You are Craig he sconce spn mata S cer You must bein constant sate of therapy, or you must find a Way of Ute tht different. ek no so mucha qucsion of “hoosng between ome therapy ad meditation, tira question fof new way of loking at hinge. Tomy minds someting ike scream therapy i just 8 may of ticking your neurosis Temay five you perspective: may unlock a certain part af your dosed foe tio re inthe att of cong do alte emo mount of seream therapy is gong to help you. You wll a close the door again. ne ees foe Quetinr: B Twanderf ts rapy ds hing hat me cannot possibly do, 7 sidcteeeacreeraet r:_Tam saying that meditation can give a different perspec- tive, so that there ino need for these things Some people Tet inthe Sates stopped seeing thee paychintrae afters few meet. ings with me. Once they started wecing themscves, they did not need outside help any longer. When you ae in these therapies You tend to use prychologtal terms; you start thinking of our Self in certain pychologkal symbole’ And then you think that, You understand yourself Allthat you have understood of your- Selfs that you area narcisitic person, o you have an Oeeipus Complex, or you have gu complex or inferioriy” complex Bu what is it—what fa inferiority complex? You never go the oot oft you jus wop short w+ pata pnt, You tame ‘you categorize o label yours, ad you think you have une derstood yourselt. Beyond the labeling You donot see, but You are ery happy now that you think you know yoursll To know Yours as name may be useful On the practi, mechanical level on the technical level-—but that i not what you are. Ifyou start seeing what you are, you almost certainly undergo Changeschanges after changes, layers after layers, lke pieces ‘ofan onion peeking off, And what you are left with is your own, pure essence, which no therapy of system can reveal. Because in ach therapy you ate acing. You are the analyzer, and you are analyzing yourself Questioner: Well, that is not the way itis, When I get down om the flor land I om screaming, {am not onalyeing anything, am screaming. Dr: But the question is, what happens now that you have screamed? You have suppressed your Scream forthe last twenty years, and now that you scream, what happens? Questioner: Well, a ahoe unch of behavior tat is founded on that suppres, a whale bunch of energy is liberated. Dr: And now if I say you are a damn fool, and you go into a rage of reaction, then what happens? No, no, please see what happens tothe mind, Iam putting a practical question, Tam not joking with you, [am not criticizing you. What happens to you then, what happens to the anger? When youare confronted with fan actual life situation like this, how do you cope with it? Ifyou hhave not dealt with this energy of anger, its going to come back fgain the next time in a different way. When youare confronted ‘wih this energy of anger, can you understand what this angers, ‘what this energy is and how to deal with iin such a way that it will not pose a problem inthe Future? That is the only question. ‘Otherwise you wll have to go through scream therapy again and ‘again. When I tlk of meditation, T mean being s0 vulnerable find sensitive and open to everything, that everything flows through you and leaves you unscathed, unscarred, It is a ques: tion of dealing with these different energies from day to day, from moment to moment—it is not a question of one single therapy. Unless you are totally aware of your life processes—

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