“There is no difference
Between collecting and storing garbage
And identifying with the impure thoughts
Of the human mind.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In meditation, we are like a swan gliding gracefully across the lake’s placid façade: all blissful serenity, while below the surface, out of sight, its legs are pumping frantically to propel its forward momentum.
The real work, the heavy lifting of meditation, is done in secret, out of sight and out of mind, by a consortium of our higher self – our soul, our Guru and God.
We meditate to rid ourselves of the mind’s endlessly compounding and confounding convictions, conniptions, connivings and contrivings. The problem is we are so attached to these phantasms, that they have subsumed our very identity. Like a miser who will not let his treasures out of his sight, we obsess constantly over our worries, fears and vanities and won’t let them out of our awareness.
Meditation acts like a magic trick, where the magician’s sleight of hand, the distraction, is the peace, light and bliss of our meditation experience. We are entranced by the allure of this all-encompassing, all-fulfilling, all-nourishing state.
Enraptured, we fall into the embrace of meditation eagerly and gratefully.
While thus engaged, and distracted from our problems, our soul works behind the scenes in silence, to remove the garbage – the pride, insecurity, stress, doubt, error, trepidation and confusion of our mind.
Why then, do these same problems reappear, time and again?
We might as well ask why dust settles on surfaces recently cleaned, or rubbish accumulates in the bin. As long as we inhabit and identify with our minds, the garbage of ignorance will continue to accrue – and will always need removing.
Under the cover of meditation, our soul is ever eager for the task.