“Don’t be discouraged.
As almost every good thought
Had a bad past,
Even so, every bad thought
Can have a good future.”

– Sri Chinmoy

The most potent disinfectant and protection from thoughts, is the experience of thoughtless meditation. Here is a chicken and egg: to meditate, we need to clear away thoughts; to clear away thoughts, we need to meditate.

To improve our ability to clear thoughts along with our capacity to meditate, we throw ourselves into both practises concurrently. They go hand in hand.

Who would give up a sumptuous meal in return for a dry cracker, swap a tropical paradise for a cold prison cell, or trade their Porsche for a square-wheeled wooden push cart?

When we are immersed in the beauty, clarity, purity, wonder, liberating vastness and timeless radiance of meditation, the challenge of ridding ourselves of thoughts no longer arises. In pure meditation, we would as soon engage with thoughts as we would snuggle in a nest of scorpions. Thoughts are anathema to pure meditation: redundant, powerless, empty husks, they dissolve in peace, disappear in light, evaporate in bliss.

We cannot attain a perfect score in ten pin bowls without knocking down all the pins: the pins themselves play a crucial role in our success, by their very obstinacy.

Unless thoughts are present, they cannot be challenged; and unless challenged, cannot be overcome; until overcome, we can never attain pure meditation – let alone self-mastery, our nature’s perfection and the fulfilment of our potential – not to mention liberation, enlightenment, satisfaction and God-realisation.

The presence of thoughts spurs us to transcend and rise beyond them. Use thoughts as your incentive and aspiration-fuel. Challenge them now and always. Accept each thought as a blessing, for beyond thought-barrier, all our goals beckon – known, unknown and unknowable.