________________
THE DYNAMICS OF MEDITATION
You are sitting here, not going into the past. Live in the now, here. Allow the past to go before your eyes. This is mental meditation. It is churning. The time comes when you are clean. The period comes when you feel the flame and that outer covering has gone. It depends on your intensity, your steadiness, your calmness, your introspection.
When the butter is churned, you have to put it on the fire to clarify it. Fire is called tapa. In any life some kind of tapa, some austerity, penance, or a little suffering is involved. There is no growth without some kind of giving.
In tapa, you are purifying yourself, as gold is purified in fire. In the same way, our soul is purified by giving. And when this cleanliness comes, your soul becomes pure like ghee.
In the same way, you will know what you are. The inquiry meditation is kobum, “Who am I?" To erase negativity and outer layers we have the second mantram nahum, “I am not this.” And the third mantram in this meditation becomes sobum, “I am that." When you become clarified, you know sohum, your real Self, “I am I.”
This is the process of meditation, which gradually brings you to experience your Self. You may use these three mantras which are used by the Jains to investigate and reach the sohum state of bliss.
Meditation is used in order to reach your higher Self, that is its purpose. In meditation, you raise your lower self to the higher Self, and enjoy the state of sohum. This is the message and meaning of meditation.
