Meditation and the Wandering Mind
One of the most common things I hear people say about meditation is, “I have tried many times to sit down and meditate, but I just can’t seem to get my mind to be quiet. No matter what I do it never works, my mind just wanders off onto many other things. I wish I could be like others who love meditation and get so much out of it. But I just can’t do it!”
If this is your problem, join the club, you are amongst the majority and this blog is written especially for you. If you are seasoned in the art of meditation, practice regularly, and enjoy meditation, then please post a comment that expands on what I have to offer here. Other points of view especially from those who are seasoned mediators would be really helpful to those who are reading this blog.
Have you ever noticed that masters refer to meditation as a practice? Meditation is a Practice! It is exercise for the mind, an exercise to gain control of the mind. For most people the mind goes wherever it will, without control of the owner. It is like the servant is ruling the master. You need to become the master of your mind; you need to direct the mind in where it is going.
The mind controls your feelings. Whatever you think of has a corresponding feeling…is it a good feeling or a bad one? Law of Attraction brings to us people, things and events that match our thoughts. At a much deeper level, at the level that you and I are God, we actually create all of manifest creation, all of the dimensions of life including the physical dimension.
The human brain is not the same thing as the mind, however the brain and all manifest form is created by the mind. You can think of the brain like a computer, it has an operator. Sure the brain can process thought, but the thought that is injected into the brain, the input of ideas and creativity, comes from the mind. And of course mind is created by God, for those who wish to insist that God is creating everything.
The ultimate goal of meditation is to move beyond the physical into the non-physical and into divine union with God. This requires shutting down the mind and the various sensory inputs. I have read accounts from more than one master who says that the reason so many people report spiritual experiences on heavy doses of drugs is that they are essentially breaking the mind, cracking it open, and revealing a glimpse of the dimensions beyond the physical. But unfortunately most people under the influence of drugs have no control of their minds which is the reason the experiences are so out of control and even harmful. And then there are others, take Ram Das for example, who had some control of his mind and came back from his drug trips with very enlightening wisdom to share with the world. A person may be able to hide his inner insanity, to some degree, while clean and sober, but while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he reveals the real chaotic state of his mind.
For most people, the goal of mediation should be to simply gain control of the mind in order to live a happy life. Do NOT worry about trying to still the mind completely. The reason I say that is because most people are satisfied to be in the physical world and enjoy physical things. Most people want things, perhaps wealth, perhaps fame, perhaps a hot lover, perhaps they want loving children and certainly physical comforts. Most people want life to run smooth and for changes to be under their control. Perhaps they would like to know God too, but they are content to wait until they die to discover heaven. There is nothing wrong with this. There is a reason we incarnate in the physical world, and that is to play in and experience what the physical world has to offer.
There is another type of person who is trying to perfect themselves, or pay off their karma, in order to escape the pain of physical life. (Now please do not get the idea that I am judging a person who thinks this way, or anyway for that matter. I am simply stating observations from my experience and NOT assigning a value to it.) My first efforts at meditation were highly motivated by this sort of thinking. This person may be trying to know God, but the reality of it is that they are still very much attached to the physical world and would be quite happy to be here if everything was going well in their life. They will certainly re-incarnate once again. Again for this sort of person, the goal of mediation should be to simply gain control of the mind in order to live a happy life.
Then there is the person who has done it all, or all that they really want to do, over many lifetimes. They have discovered that the external objects of the world hold little or no meaning for them. They have discovered that they can be happy anytime they wish. They can still enjoy things of the physical world, but they can also enjoy being without these things. They are no longer motivated by chasing these things; they are motivated by discovering who they really are and what their relationship to God is. This sort of person already has a great deal of control over their mind, they already understand the relationship between their thoughts and what those thoughts create and attract. The goal of mediation for this sort of person should be to still the mind in order to move beyond the physical while still having a physical body.
I want to stress that there is no right or wrong in being in any of these places in your eternal life. You are where you are, it is best to accept that and move through life content and happy to be who you are and where you are. It is all in divine perfection. Too many religious or spiritual people try to force a stage of practice or development on themselves or on another person that is not right for them and their place in their eternal life.
Also don’t take everything I am saying here as absolute truth. I am now discussing things that I have some experience with mixed in with some divinely inspired intuition and book knowledge based on the writings of masters far more advanced than I. Normally I like to teach from a safe place, from my own personal experience, but to do this topic justice I must go a little further out on a limb. I have reached some pretty deep states, but they were a gift from God and not a highly developed skill that I have. Those experiences were a prod to make me reach harder for a state of mind I previously doubted existed.
To be continued…
Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story
Popularity: 4% [?]





January 25th, 2008 at 3:02 am
[…] Continued from Meditation and the Wandering Mind… […]
April 4th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
[…] Meditation and the Wandering Mind is a blog about how to meditate. I bet a lot of people really don’t understand the purpose of meditation. Meditation helps a person gain control of their mind first and foremost. there are other purposes beyond that, but gaining control of the mind is the most important purpose of meditation. […]