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Furthermore, the following must be understood: when you look at a gestalt image and focus on the portrait of the venerable lady, you are unable to see the second portrait. But if you continue to concentrate your attention on the photo of the old lady, focusing on it completely, a moment suddenly arrives when the focus shifts, the image of the old lady disappears, and the second image emerges.
Why does this happen? Because the mind cannot concentrate continuously for a long time. A change is necessary, otherwise it will fall asleep. There are only two possibilities. If you focus on one thing for a long time, the mind falls asleep. It cannot be fixed; it is in living motion. If you bore it, it falls asleep to avoid the stagnation of focusing. And then it continues to live in dreams.
This is meditation in the style of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It refreshes, brings peace, helps achieve physical health and mental balance, but it is not meditation. The same can be achieved through self-hypnosis. The Indian word "mantra" means "suggestion," nothing more.
To take this for meditation is to make a serious mistake. And if one takes this for meditation, one will never turn to the search for true meditation. This is where the harm of such practice and its propagandists lies. It is simply psychological self-intoxication.
Therefore, do not expel words using mantras. Simply be aware of the words, and your mind will automatically shift its focus to the intervals.
If you identify yourself with the words, your mind will jump from one word to another, and you will miss the interval. The next word presents a new interest. The mind continues to change. The focus shifts. But if you do not identify yourself with the words, but instead observe their procession detachedly, as a witness, then the focus shifts, and you become aware of the presence of intervals. It is as if you are standing on the street watching passers-by. One person has passed, and another has not yet arrived; the street is empty, there is no one—the interval. If you observe, you will know what an interval is.
And having learned what an interval is, you enter it, you fall into it. This is an abyss—one that gives peace, one that creates consciousness. To abide in the interval is meditation; it is transformation. Now language is not needed; you consciously leave it, you cast it aside. You experience silence, an infinite stillness. You are a part of it, you are one with it. You do not feel the abyss as something separate from yourself; you feel the abyss as yourself. You know, but from now on you are also the knowing. You observe the interval, but now the observer becomes the observed.
As for thoughts and words, you are the observer, and the words are the object of observation. But when there are no words, you become the interval, yet you are still aware that you exist. Between you and the interval, between consciousness and existence, there is no barrier. Only words are a barrier. Now you are in an existential situation. This is meditation—to be one with existence, to be fully within it and at the same time to be aware. This is a contradiction, a paradox. Now you have known the situation in which you were conscious and yet one with it.
Usually, when we perceive something, that thing becomes another object. If we identify ourselves with something, then it is no longer an object, another, but we are not aware of this (as in anger, in sex). We become one when we are unconscious.
Sex is so attractive because in it you become one for a moment. However, in that moment, you are unconscious. You strive for this unconscious state because you seek unity. But the more you strive for it, the more conscious you become. Then you stop experiencing the bliss of sex, because that bliss was the result of an unconscious state. In a moment of passion, one can stop being aware.
Your consciousness switched off. For a moment you were in the abyss, but without realizing it. However, the stronger you strive for this, the more it is lost. Finally, a moment comes when you are in sex, but the moment of loss of consciousness does not occur. The abyss is lost, the bliss is lost. Then the sexual act becomes foolishness, simple mechanical release. There is nothing spiritual in it.
We know only unconscious unity; we have never experienced conscious unity. Meditation is conscious unity. It is the other pole of sexuality. Sex is on one pole (unconscious unity), meditation is on the other (conscious unity). Sex is the lowest step of unity, and meditation is the summit, the highest peak of unity. The difference between them lies in the presence of consciousness.
But, of course, since there is a desire, it can be abused. And the East does this. One can supply and export gurus, which is what is done. But these gurus can only teach tricks. Understanding comes through life, in the process of living. Understanding cannot be transmitted. I cannot give you my understanding. I can speak of it, but I cannot give it. You will have to find it, and for that, you must go into life. You will make mistakes, suffer failures, you will have to go through many disappointments. But only through failures, mistakes, disappointments, only through meeting real life will you come to meditation. This is why I call meditation growth.
Furthermore, the following must be understood: when you look at a gestalt image and focus on the portrait of the venerable lady, you are unable to see the second portrait. But if you continue to concentrate your attention on the photo of the old lady, focusing on it completely, a moment suddenly arrives when the focus shifts, the image of the old lady disappears, and the second image emerges.
Why does this happen? Because the mind cannot concentrate continuously for a long time. A change is necessary, otherwise it will fall asleep. There are only two possibilities. If you focus on one thing for a long time, the mind falls asleep. It cannot be fixed; it is in living motion. If you bore it, it falls asleep to avoid the stagnation of focusing. And then it continues to live in dreams.
This is meditation in the style of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It refreshes, brings peace, helps achieve physical health and mental balance, but it is not meditation. The same can be achieved through self-hypnosis. The Indian word "mantra" means "suggestion," nothing more.
To take this for meditation is to make a serious mistake. And if one takes this for meditation, one will never turn to the search for true meditation. This is where the harm of such practice and its propagandists lies. It is simply psychological self-intoxication.
Therefore, do not expel words using mantras. Simply be aware of the words, and your mind will automatically shift its focus to the intervals.
If you identify yourself with the words, your mind will jump from one word to another, and you will miss the interval. The next word presents a new interest. The mind continues to change. The focus shifts. But if you do not identify yourself with the words, but instead observe their procession detachedly, as a witness, then the focus shifts, and you become aware of the presence of intervals. It is as if you are standing on the street watching passers-by. One person has passed, and another has not yet arrived; the street is empty, there is no one—the interval. If you observe, you will know what an interval is.
And having learned what an interval is, you enter it, you fall into it. This is an abyss—one that gives peace, one that creates consciousness. To abide in the interval is meditation; it is transformation. Now language is not needed; you consciously leave it, you cast it aside. You experience silence, an infinite stillness. You are a part of it, you are one with it. You do not feel the abyss as something separate from yourself; you feel the abyss as yourself. You know, but from now on you are also the knowing. You observe the interval, but now the observer becomes the observed.
As for thoughts and words, you are the observer, and the words are the object of observation. But when there are no words, you become the interval, yet you are still aware that you exist. Between you and the interval, between consciousness and existence, there is no barrier. Only words are a barrier. Now you are in an existential situation. This is meditation—to be one with existence, to be fully within it and at the same time to be aware. This is a contradiction, a paradox. Now you have known the situation in which you were conscious and yet one with it.
Usually, when we perceive something, that thing becomes another object. If we identify ourselves with something, then it is no longer an object, another, but we are not aware of this (as in anger, in sex). We become one when we are unconscious.
Sex is so attractive because in it you become one for a moment. However, in that moment, you are unconscious. You strive for this unconscious state because you seek unity. But the more you strive for it, the more conscious you become. Then you stop experiencing the bliss of sex, because that bliss was the result of an unconscious state. In a moment of passion, one can stop being aware.
Your consciousness switched off. For a moment you were in the abyss, but without realizing it. However, the stronger you strive for this, the more it is lost. Finally, a moment comes when you are in sex, but the moment of loss of consciousness does not occur. The abyss is lost, the bliss is lost. Then the sexual act becomes foolishness, simple mechanical release. There is nothing spiritual in it.
We know only unconscious unity; we have never experienced conscious unity. Meditation is conscious unity. It is the other pole of sexuality. Sex is on one pole (unconscious unity), meditation is on the other (conscious unity). Sex is the lowest step of unity, and meditation is the summit, the highest peak of unity. The difference between them lies in the presence of consciousness.
But, of course, since there is a desire, it can be abused. And the East does this. One can supply and export gurus, which is what is done. But these gurus can only teach tricks. Understanding comes through life, in the process of living. Understanding cannot be transmitted. I cannot give you my understanding. I can speak of it, but I cannot give it. You will have to find it, and for that, you must go into life. You will make mistakes, suffer failures, you will have to go through many disappointments. But only through failures, mistakes, disappointments, only through meeting real life will you come to meditation. This is why I call meditation growth.