Sometimes, Meditation could be as easy as ‘thinking’!

Practicing meditation can certainly be challenging. It’s not easy to practice it in the right way. And that’s why seekers take guidance from a Guru who makes them understand the right way to practice it. However, it is also true that sometimes meditation- the way it is- could be as easy as ‘thinking’.

This is because Meditation is not about pushing the mind to be absolutely calm. But, it’s a letting go of resistance to whatever seems unpleasant; this act of letting go can be learned.  And sometimes you can do the same effortlessly under the right guidance.

Here’s an interesting story showing the same.

The Monk and the confused King

Once an enlightened monk visited a famous kingdom and earned a great name for him among seekers. His fame made the emperor curious about him and he visited him.

When the king met him, the monk asked why he came to visit him leaving his luxurious palace.

The king replied, “I feel very disturbed these days; I am unable to sleep and eat properly. Due to my inner disturbance, I feel as if I am the poorest man in this world. I feel depressed all the time. Nothing interests me anymore. I possess all the comforts and power of the world, yet everything seems useless to me. I am easily irritable and I don’t like happy people around me. It seems I will collapse anytime.

I heard that you are an enlightened soul helping others achieve inner peace and happiness. Let me achieve that as well anyhow; kindly solve my problem.”

The monk heard him calmly and said, “It’s alright, I will help you. Visit my place tomorrow morning before sunrise. But there is a condition.”

“What?” The King Asked.

“Do not forget to bring your ‘disturbed mind’ with you because I will see it and rectify it. So, don’t come empty-handed,” said the monk.

Now the emperor thought the monk is joking because it’s natural wherever he will go his mind will follow.

The next morning, the king came to the monk, but still confused over the monk’s instruction on carrying the disturbed mind.

A New Dawn in the King’s Life

When he arrived, he saw the monk sitting in a meditative pose with a stick in his hand.

The monk said, “Give your disturbed mind to me. Let me set that right with this stick.”

Now the king thought the monk has gone mad.

He said, “The disturbance is in my mind, how to uproot it?”

The monk said, “Alright then, sit down calmly and first find out where your mind is and where the disturbance is situated. Present it before me- I will correct it instantly by hitting that with this stick.”

Perplexed by the monk’s bizarre condition, the king stood up to run away, but the monk commanded loudly, “DON’T RUN! Just sit down, close your eyes and find your mind and the thoughts emerging in it. And don’t move, sit calmly, I am sitting with a stick.”

Terrified! The king sat before the monk silently and tried to watch his mind.

He started thinking- What is disturbed: my mind; why the mind is disturbed: because thoughts are disturbed; why thoughts are disturbed: without any reason as I have everything; so why I am sad: because it’s my habit now; why I am habituated of feeling sad: because it has become my thought-process and now it’s my nature to feel sad, I become sad when I feel something is unpleasant and eventually nothing is making me happy.

Absorbed in his deep thoughts now the king started feeling calm slowly and realized the cure of his restlessness is within himself only. So he started moving deeper, studying his mind and emerging thoughts in it, and after some time, he became absolutely thoughtless.

Unknowingly, he started meditating and felt immense peace.

He sat in that meditative position for a while and reached his deepest level.

Now, to his utter surprise, everything about that early morning- sweet songs of birds, cool breeze, the rising sun, pleasant fragrance of the air, dew drops, a meditative soul’s company- felt beautiful and he started enjoying every moment of the fresh morning.

After sometimes, he started smiling and then laughing happily and after some more time he started crying in happiness. The king sat calmly in that position before the monk and uttered in his mind: there is no real peace in wealth, extended relationships, or big palaces; peace is with God who is seated within me.

He opened his eyes, stood up and said to the monk, “You didn’t teach me anything my Guru, but now I know how to think.”

Meditation is ‘Right-Thinking’

The monk said, “Yes, now you are thinking right. Keep this thought process like a stick in your hand and think this way every morning. You’ll attain peace & happiness naturally as your way of thinking is nothing but meditation.”

The king wept in happiness and returned to his palace cheerfully.

Thus, understand that meditation is nothing but a way of right thinking. Make a habit of thinking mindfully and get available to meditation- the unique way to calm, contentment and happiness.

When is your birth meaningful? ,  How to prepare for your inner journey?