In the beginning, meditation seems to be all our conscious effort. We decide to meditate, we sit down, we practise various techniques. Once we have got the ball rolling however, we need to step back and let the ball take its own course.
Meditation cannot be static. We strive ever to dive deeper – and feel we must “do” something to force the issue.
Yet, deep meditation is a self-driving car. Once we start the engine, we are no longer the driver.
Sri Chinmoy writes:
“When you meditate, please do not think of diving deeper. If the mind operates, then you will not be able to go deeper at all. When you feel that you are in a sublime meditation, you will see that the meditation itself has its own power. So you only have to try to surrender to the meditative power within you. At that time do not use your mind. If you are having a profound meditation, then there cannot be any intervention of the mind. The meditation that you are having is the result of the meditative power within you. Just allow this meditative power to play its role. This meditative power will always have a free access to the deeper reality within you.
“When you start meditation, the only thing you do is to make your mind calm and quiet, and then let the meditation do anything it wants to do. You do not act like a doer any more; your responsibility is over. When you have made your mind calm and quiet, your responsibility is totally over. Then you have to let the force, the divine force that is giving you the experience of a good meditation, do whatever else it wants to do in you and for you.”