A Million Thoughts by Om Swami

Author:Om Swami [Swami, Om]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184959451
Publisher: Black Lotus
Published: 2016-11-14T18:30:00+00:00

Observant Meditation

Once upon a time, some 2,500 years ago, there was a little girl agile as a monkey. She and her widower father would go around towns performing a difficult feat. The father would balance a 20 feet long bamboo pole on his forehead and the girl would climb up the pole in a heartbeat and stand on top of it on one foot. As soon as she would find her balance, the father would walk around with the girl poised steadily on top of the pole. Her father worried about his daughter’s safety every time they did this act.

“I’ve told you a million times,” he said to her, “that, you must keep an eye on me. I’m always watching you so I may balance the pole. You should watch me as well so we may avoid any accident. You are all I have, little one.”

“No, father, no,” she protested, “during the performance, you have to focus on your part and I’ll take care of mine. We must not distract ourselves by watching each other. Let’s both stay very stable, very alert and I’ll concentrate on what I must do. This is the only way we are going to pull off this feat every time.”

The father remained unconvinced so they approached Buddha. It didn’t take long for Buddha to conclude that the little girl was right. “If you learn to watch yourself,” Buddha declared, “there’s nothing and no one left to gaze at.”

In line with the six principles of meditation (no recollection, calculation, imagination, examination, construction and digression), observant meditation is about watching your thoughts in the most dispassionate manner possible.

Observant meditation is particularly useful to pacify your mind. Most other meditations I’ve detailed so far can usually only be done when your mind is at peace. It’s hard to concentrate or be mindful when you are angry. Observant meditation on the other hand can be done when your mind is agitated or you are stressed. It helps you in calming down.

Unlike other meditations, it does not directly improve your concentration or memory. It does not increase the power of your thought either, but with the calmness that it brings, you may end up being more productive at home and at work.

This meditation is also called witness meditation for you are simply playing the role of a witness while you meditate. The soul of this meditation is to simply watch your thoughts as if you are watching a movie on a screen, as if whatever comes to your mind is not something that happened to you but to a third person. You realize that when an actor dies on screen, he or she isn’t truly dead. In the same manner, you realize that all thoughts are empty, they are devoid of any true essence, and that you don’t have to react to those thoughts.

Due to our ego, we strongly identify ourselves with our bodies and individual existence. It makes us take things personally. If someone calls you an idiot, it’s

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