I have been doing Buddhist meditation for more than 20 years now with some degree of persistence and sincerity at least. So it has taken a very long time to turn the corner and master what is really important.
To analyze why it has taken me so long: I was just slow on the uptake. That was caused by my doing a lot of reading but not contemplating or reflecting about the spiritual concepts related to meditation.
Hinduism makes it a point to mention Sravana, Manana as well as Nididhyasana. The need for contemplation and reflection is spelled out which was not done in Buddhist books. I suppose they just took it for granted that I would do a certain amount of thinking and reflecting. I didn’t.
Another factor is related to the above. Since I didn’t reflect I didn’t experiment with the applicability of the spiritual concepts in my meditation practice. So this is another thing I would advocate if you want to make rapid progress in meditation. Play around with the main spiritual concepts and see if you can experience what the concepts are talking about when you are doing your meditation. See if you can apply the concepts when you are meditating.
Also I was attending to the minor points relating to technique and not focusing on what was really important.
Not all of my slow progress is surprising of course. I simply did not have a guru for so many years. Reinventing the wheel takes time.
Anyway I turned the corner today. And the concept that enabled me to do that is that of being a sakshi or witness while meditating.
This should make you laugh. It has taken me more than 25 years to be a sakshi. I have already dealt with why I was such a slow learner. Now I want to talk about how I applied the concept that lead to the breakthrough:
I tried to be the witness. I just tried to experience a gap or a distance between the witness (me) and what I was experiencing (the mind, the breath, the physical sensations, sounds and so forth). In addition I observed without reacting (another basic technique) and practiced letting go.
And I was able to experience the Body Mind Sense complex as separate from myself.
A breakthrough.
Being a witness is stressed in:
- Vipassana where awareness and equanimity is stressed.
- Osho’s teachings
- Swami Sarvapriyananda’s Advaita Vedanta teaching
So there you have it. I am not as slow and stupid as that. I didn’t have a guru and it takes time to reinvent the wheel.
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