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LET US SEARCH TRUTH OURSELVES
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The second stage of the search for truth is the utilization of breath and the mind in self-exertion. People often ask how to put a check on and control the mind which is absolutely fickle. The truth is that the mind is not lonely and does not work independently. It is being constantly fanned by other forces. If there is a strong wind, a flag mounted on a building will begin to flutter. You cannot stop the fluttering of the flag so long as the wind blows. If it snows, the air will become cold. You cannot make the air cool so long as the temperature is high.
There are two things to be considered in connection with the mind : (1) The working mind and (2) The empty mind. There are two states of the working mind :
1. Mind employed or engaged in the activity we are
doing. 2. The wayward mind which remains busy elsewhere
rather than in the activity we are doing.
In both these states the mind remains active. These two states come under the category of the working mind. There is another category in which the mind does not at all work. It remains empty. Like the empty mind the body can also be carried into a state in which it becomes immobilized. Both the mind and the body can be abandoned. In the state of abandonment they will not work and will become as good as dead.
A female practitioner told me that while she was engaged in breath perception, she felt only the vibrations and rhythm of breathing and the feeling of having a body completely disappeared. Sādhanā does produce such a kind of lightness in which we do not feel that we have a body. There is an anecdote about a Zen meditator. He was meditating. When his meditation reached a state of consummation, he felt himself absolutely light. Suddenly he got up and shouted, “Where is my body ? Will someone please search it out ? It so happens in meditation that the meditator becomes so light that he ceases to feel his body. Instead of feeling the body he begins to sense that a swarm of atoms is whirling all around
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