Is Meditation about being Thoughtless?

 

Photo Credit: Saybrook University

Is Meditation about being Thoughtless?

There are several meditation practitioners who tell you that meditation is all about being thoughtless. One becomes free of thoughts only on reaching the Agya or Brow Chakra. Here too, this happens only when your Agya chakra is cleansed and it becomes pure. The real journey in meditation happens from this point onwards. In Samarpan Meditation, His Holiness Shivkrupanand says that the thoughtless state is the first step for going into meditation, whereas others tell you that thoughtlessness itself is meditation!

From experience I can definitely say that becoming thoughtless is just the beginning, the real journey starts thereafter. Going into deep meditation can happen only when the monkey mind is quiet. The journey from the Agya chakra to Sahastrar or Crown chakra – that is into Akash or Space happens only when the mind is absolutely still. It is from this point onwards that other dimensions start opening up, you enter into a void, a dark tunnel which is very benign and friendly. This tunnel appears never-ending and you keep journeying down that tunnel. Like the saying goes there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I experienced this light only once; it was like a thousand suns were shining inside my brain – it was so bright that I got out of meditation with a start thinking I may go blind with the glare! Again, I have not reached this state again as the expectation remains deep within me that this will happen, just like the Brahmanaad experience. But, with the passage of time I am sure, nay I am confident that my Master will ensure that I get this experience again. Whatever spiritual experiences I have got are only because of the Master, total surrender at His lotus feet.

So, for all those of you who feel that the journey stops on achieving a thoughtless state, let me tell you that this is just the beginning. The journey from this point onwards is more profound as you start becoming empty from within. The emptiness is not just of the mind, it is the cleansing of layers of dust which have accumulated on your soul, the more the layers get cleaned the deeper you go, the quieter you become, the purer you become till you reach a state of void yourself. Now there is no difference - you have become the void, you have reached the state which is the actual meditative state. In this state there is nothing, just akash – never ending space, filled with quiet, peace, bliss and indescribable joy.