Waking Up Continuously

There's nothing magical about meditation; it is simply mental hygiene. The mind requires housekeeping. Over the course of our busy daily lives, we accumulate a lot of noise and rubbish in the mind. Meditation is just an opportunity to identity all these dark spots and cleanse them of their impurities.

We are not very good in managing the mind because we have no real awareness of its existence. We talk and perform bodily actions in reaction to our environment. We do things, we feel, we desire, we satiate ourselves. Where is the mind in this picture?

By not being aware of the mind, we allow ourselves to be shaped by our environment. We miss the gap between stimulus and response. We are but automatons, driven by desires. 

When we have awareness of the mind, we know what is involved in the dialogue with the external world. And after a while, we see that, this distinction between internal and external is quite false. We are just a part of the flux of nature. Our egoic existence is nothing but a small localized center of perturbation. 

By understanding the flow of nature, we see why pain and pleasure arises. We begin to understand how certain mental stances shape this universal flow. We are not the creators of these forces; merely conduits of their flow. If we understand the wind and the waters well, we can harness their energy, or at least not impede their flow.

Through meditation we observe this interplay of energy and understand how through conscious effort we are able to let them find its optimal course. If you are walking against the wind, you can adjust your body and walking stance so that you can move forward with the least amount of resistance. 

We as creatures who have consciousness, have a duty to explore its inner workings. To be conscious that we are conscious brings us to the next level of consciousness. Meditation is this great adventure of exploration into the terra incognita of the mind. 

What will we find there? It depends on the individual. We have spent our entire lives being lost in our thoughts. To meditate is to wake up to this slavery to thoughts an see them as what they are--waves of the mind.

To wake up is to be aware that you are aware and what prevents you from realizing this. This awareness arises in small glimpses initially. But after a while, it becomes a part of your normal way of perceiving the world. 

So be aware. Rise above your thoughts and see them for what they are--a mere dream. But how do you know this new awareness itself is not a dream? We don't. The key is simply to continue waking up.