The Meditation

Meditation is one of the most ancient and profound practices in human history. While many claim its benefits, few understand its true essence. Having explored spiritual philosophy for over three years, learning from masters like Osho and studying various philosophical traditions, I want to share a deeper understanding of what meditation truly means.

What Meditation Is NOT

Most people confuse meditation with breathing exercises. While breathing techniques can be helpful for health and serve as a starting point, they are not meditation itself. These practices, though beneficial, have no direct connection to spirituality as understood by great spiritual figures like Buddha, Mahavir, Osho, Marcus Aurelius, and other profound philosophers.

The True Meaning of Meditation

Meditation is observation, noticing, and finding repetitive patterns that lead to truth.

Our entire existence operates on repetitive cycles and patterns. These patterns continuously govern our lives, repeating endlessly. This is true not just for individual lives but for all of nature, as our lives are merely one corner of the vast natural order.

The spiritual figures we often worship—Buddha, Krishna, Osho, Mahavir, and many others—are not divine beings who met with God or discovered the algorithm of the universe. They are simply people who recognized the repetitive patterns of nature through deep observation. They understood truth through meditation.

Worshipping them brings no benefit. Instead, we should learn from them and strive to become like them, because we can. They were not creators of this universe; this universe is art operating by itself. The way they discovered truth was through meditation—the practice of observing and noticing the nature of nature.

The Foundation: Three Pillars

• Meditation is observing and noticing the nature of nature
• Truth is the understanding and knowing of its essence
• Living by that truth is spirituality
• The one who follows this path is a monk

How to Practice Meditation

There are many methods of meditation, but all serve the same purpose: observation and drawing conclusions. Let me share the approach I learned from my master, which aligns with other philosophical traditions.

Step 1: Learning to Observe

Begin with external observation because external information is tangible, while internal phenomena are intangible and harder to grasp initially.

The Gap Between Observer and Observed

The primary purpose is to find the gap between you and everything else—both externally and internally. In this gap, you discover your true self.

When I ask who you are, you might say "I am my body" or "I am my mind." But you are neither. In our philosophy, you are the observer, not the observed.

There are two categories:

1. The Observed: Everything you can watch externally and internally (cars, thoughts, feelings, people)

2. The Observer: The one who watches everything

You are not the car you observe—you agree with this. Similarly, you are not your thoughts or feelings, though this feels unconventional because thoughts and feelings are so intangible that you cannot easily observe them as separate from yourself.

The observer—that is you. In my philosophy, this observer is part of nature, not separate from it, but an extension of it. This is the deepest understanding; beyond this, there is nothing more.

A Practical Exercise

Try this exercise I practiced years ago:

Remember your entire life—all your memories from school, playing in gardens, sitting in your mother's lap, being punished by teachers. Recall your whole life up to this current moment.

Now open your eyes and see: everything has changed. You're now in your workplace, perhaps you have your own children, your parents may have passed away, there are no more teachers punishing you. Everything has changed.

But one thing hasn't changed—the observer. When your teacher punished you, who was watching? The observer. Now as you read this, who is watching? The same observer.

Your body has changed, your face has changed, circumstances have changed, but the observer remains the same. In the future, today will become yesterday, new moments will come and go, but this observer will remain constant.

This is a fundamental spiritual teaching: everything you can observe is naturally designed to change. Anything you can watch will change, but you cannot watch the observer—you can only experience it in the gap.

Finding the Gap

This meditation helps you find the gap between you and everything else. When you find this gap, you know that you are different—separate from all observed phenomena.

The Root of Suffering

The root of all suffering is the desire to hold onto things, but nature's essence is change. Because we're unaware of this gap from birth, our whole life becomes integrated without recognizing this separation. We must find this gap artificially through practice—this is why Buddha went to the forest, why Osho, Mahavir, and all spiritual seekers withdrew for deep practice.

Understanding Our Desire to Control Thoughts

Another mistake we make is trying to control our thoughts. We try to remove certain thoughts from our mind forever. People worry, "Why do some thoughts come again and again even when I don't want them?" But there's truth behind this: you don't need to remove your thoughts, and you don't need to have only "right" thoughts in your mind. There's no way to achieve this.

The solution is awareness—you need to live aware and learn the art of letting go. Our mind works on a response mechanism, meaning thoughts you give response to will pop up again and again. We try to remove thoughts that aren't favorable to us, but this isn't possible. You just need to ignore them, and meditation helps with this.

You don't need to control your mind—you need to understand your mind. From birth, we start consuming information, and when we become aware, we find some information isn't favorable to us, so we try to remove it. But the solution is ignorance (in the sense of not giving attention to unwanted thoughts).

We're continuously consuming lots of information because there's so much information in the world, and not every piece of information aligns with our preferences. You can't control this—you just need to ignore what doesn't serve you. When you walk on the road, you see lots of information that doesn't align with your preferences, but you can't demand that it be removed from the road. You simply ignore it. These unwanted pieces of information are like thoughts.

When people have bad accident memories or experiences they don't want, they start drinking alcohol to escape from them. But alcohol and other substances are just temporary solutions. Ignorance (not giving attention) is the real solution, because when you give unwanted thoughts response, they come again and again. Most people use alcohol and other things for this very reason.

This ability to ignore comes through meditation. Our mind lives in circulation—information rotates and comes to you again and again. That's the nature of mind. Your duty is to have a gatekeeper called Vivek, which knows what to ignore and what to focus on.

Practical Steps

1. External Observation: Sit in a quiet environment and notice everything around you—birds singing, air moving, how your body feels the season. Listen to everything, watch everything. You'll realize you're sitting in noise, but you are not the noise.

2. Internal Observation: Try to watch your thoughts and feelings. This is difficult initially, but with practice, you can observe where thoughts come from and notice the gap between you and your mental activity.

3. Understanding Control: You'll realize you cannot control anything around you—you cannot control birds to sing or change the environment. You can only control yourself.

People who don't notice this gap try to control everything, and this desire for control is the root cause of suffering. You want to control and hold onto everything, but you cannot. You can only control yourself.

The Illusion of Relationships

When you recognize this gap, you understand the autonomy of every living being. You cannot control anything or anyone. You'll realize that even your son is just in your network—he's not something created by God specifically for you. It's pure coincidence that you know each other.

Nothing is truly "yours." Relationships are not about blood but about mindset compatibility. If your mindset matches with your father, then you have a father-son relationship. If not, there's no real relationship. If your father is a terrorist, leave him. If you become a terrorist, your father should leave you.

Examples of Attachment and Control

Consider these scenarios that seem normal but are actually problematic:

- People still cry for their mother who passed away years ago because they don't understand this gap or the truth that everyone must eventually leave

- We want to control everything around us—our neighbors, our children's career choices, their marriage partners—but everyone has their own autonomy

- When giving advice to someone, they have the right to refuse, but we often give orders instead of advice, which creates suffering because orders imply control that we don't actually possess

A Real-Life Example

My grandfather's daughter left her husband of 12+ years to be with another person who had three children, abandoning her own two children. My grandparents and whole family were in distress, but I wasn't suffering. Why? Because I understand the truth.

Their suffering wasn't caused by the event itself—such events happen daily worldwide. They suffered because it was "their daughter" who did this. But this is foolish thinking. There is no "daughter" in absolute terms—we just know each other. The person they call daughter is one person among billions on Earth. If I don't suffer when strangers do similar things, why should I suffer when someone I "know" does the same?

I read about a father who shot himself because his daughter married her loved one instead of his choice. The reason for such extreme reactions is the desire to go against nature—this is arrogance, and arrogance is the cause of all suffering.

The Mine Radar Concept

The larger your "mine radar" (the scope of what you consider "yours"), the higher your suffering ratio. People write "my car" on their vehicles and suffer when accidents happen—not from financial loss but from attachment.

During financial crises, many people commit suicide. Aspirants commit suicide when they fail. The reason is attachment of the mind. Everything in this world consists of accomplishments—you accomplish everything, nothing is inherently yours.

The Story of Accomplishments

Look at a newborn baby—pure and completely unaware of the world. Can you imagine this same child committing suicide when failing, suffering when relatives do something unwanted, or killing someone over insults? No, but we all do these things as adults. We were once like that pure child. How much aware are we about truth now?

When someone among us becomes aware and awakened, we start worshiping them instead of trying to become like them. Worshiping aware people is like watching someone eat when you're hungry—watching won't fill your stomach. You need to eat, you have the right to eat, you can eat.

A Teaching Story

In ancient times, a rich merchant's servant came running to tell him their entire home had burned down—nothing was left, though the family was saved. It was evening, so the merchant closed his shop to go home, but the servant noticed he was walking at his usual slow pace.

The servant asked, "I told you about the fire, but you don't seem to care. You're still walking slowly."

The merchant replied, "You also told me nothing is left. If nothing is left, there's nothing to save. Why should I miss this amazing evening? Let's walk—everything is fine."

The servant was surprised at how low the merchant's "mine radar" was. The servant suffered more than the owner.

This teaches us to keep our mine radar low. Everything you can watch is not yours—you just accomplish it. This applies to thoughts and goals too. When you fail at something, you get depressed because of attachment, but even your thoughts are not yours—you just accomplish them.

The Philosophy of Rational Effort

The perfect concept comes from Mahavir: "Samyak Prayasa" (rational effort). You should only make rational efforts for everything. If it gets done, okay. If not, that's also okay.

People don't live by this philosophy. They're ready to commit murder for money (not rational), ready to eliminate competitors for success (not rational), become envious of others' victories (not rational), or throw acid on someone's face for rejecting a proposal—I hear stories of this type of crime, and it's definitely not rational.

All this stems from unawareness. The whole philosophy is: make only rational efforts. If it works, good. If not, that's also acceptable.

Why Everything is Accomplishment: The Science

Our entire nervous system is completely empty when we're born. We then accomplish different types of information through our senses. Nothing is inherited.

You call yourself Christian not because you inherently are, but because you were born in a Christian environment. Everything is just your accomplishments. The type of information you have determines the type of projection you make and the kind of life you live. Put a newborn baby in a Hindu family, and he becomes Hindu. It's all learning.

Part Two: Living by Truth

The first part of meditation helps us find the gap and break attachment with the mind. The second part involves living according to truth, because knowing "nothing is yours" doesn't mean abandoning the world—you still need to live this life.

Truth is the best processor for operating in life. Truth is the essence of nature—the nature of nature itself. If you live according to this, you won't suffer. If you go against it, you will.

The Story of Truth

A lady came to Buddha with her dead son, asking Buddha to bring him back to life. Buddha said it was impossible—death is natural. But she insisted, claiming she knew he could do it.

Understanding her limited cognitive ability, Buddha agreed but with one condition: "I can make your son alive only if you bring me grain from a family where no one has ever died."

She agreed and went to the village, knocking on many doors. Some had lost their father, others their husband, someone had lost their son the previous year. She searched the entire village but found no single home that hadn't lost someone.

She returned to Buddha empty-handed. When Buddha asked why she didn't bring grain, she said, "There's no single home that hasn't lost someone."

Buddha then taught her: "I told you death is natural and inevitable. Your suffering is optional."

The lady didn't know the truth, but Buddha did. So the lady suffered, but Buddha didn't. Buddha gained this truth through meditation—observing that people die every day, and this has been happening since the beginning of human history. This repetitive pattern is truth—not the algorithm of the universe, but observable patterns.

Truth is Editable

Truth is editable, meaning our understanding of life increases day by day. Something that felt like truth yesterday can be false today. This is why sticking rigidly to old ideas is the biggest unspirituality. Adaptability and openness are spiritual qualities.

Buddha was a simple man without science to verify everything. If something Buddha said feels irrational today, we should accept current understanding rather than stick to Buddha blindly, thinking "how can he be wrong?" He can be wrong because he was making conclusions based on his understanding. Today we have more understanding of life, and in the future, we'll understand even more.

Truth is not a fixed checklist—it's continuously in movement. We should never stop learning about life. I realized this when I stopped learning philosophy after gaining truth from my master, but then I understood this was wrong because our life understanding continuously changes, life itself is changing, and perhaps nature itself is continuously transforming and adding more.

How to Acquire Truth

You acquire truth through two methods:

1. Personal Observation: Observing by yourself

2. Learning from Others: Taking access to other people's observations and verifying them with your own understanding

When you read Buddha, Osho, Mahavir, Jesus, you gain truth insights. Always verify them with your own understanding. Never believe anything blindly—always live open and only accept things you can verify.

Truth is the same, but everybody sees it through their own perspective. That's why you find differences between different philosophies. Their ways are different, but truth is the same.

The way of knowing truth differs, and this is the reason Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu temples—because he thought there was only one way to know truth, and that was Islam. He demanded people accept Islam because he believed there was no other way, but this was irrational. Think of it this way: in India we say "X" for cat, but in a country that doesn't have cats, they might say "C" for clove. This doesn't mean they don't know the alphabet—it's just a different way of representing it.

The difference between Jesus and Buddha is not in the truth itself, but in their way of knowing and expressing it. We need to be aware of this. A true spiritual person respects every way of knowing truth—there is no small or big way, it's all about truth itself.

Try to go deep and understand the essence.

Part Three: Vivek (Discriminative Wisdom)

When you have truth, you need to develop Vivek—a skill that develops through meditation. Vivek is the ability to watch and choose according to truth. It means accepting the favorable and rejecting the unfavorable.

This sounds simple but is quite difficult because it's an internal process. Everything you have in your external reality is the result of your mind. The car you have today exists only because you thought about having a car yesterday. Everything in our reality results from our thoughts—our mind is the root of innovation, systems, lifestyles, everything.

Our whole approach is to find the best processor to operate in life. This is why we created democracy instead of monarchy—because monarchy felt wrong, and this happened because of our Vivek.

How Vivek Works

There are many thoughts in our mind, but not all are favorable to us. Vivek means the ability to put our attention on the right things, because where our attention goes, results happen. We must control our attention; if we don't, we operate randomly.

Think about when your teacher punished you—you might have had thoughts of retaliation, but what stopped you? Vivek. Without Vivek, you would have acted on those thoughts and gotten into trouble.

We have many thoughts—some favorable, some not. We need to put our attention selectively so we can operate according to truth, because not all information is good for human life.

The higher your ability to live in Vivek, the better your control over attention. Without Vivek, your attention operates randomly. This is why you can't stay focused—you decide to read a book but can't concentrate. Great people have focus because they're aware of their every thought and selectively place their attention.

When you opened this article, you also had thoughts about not reading it, but you ignored the "don't read" thought and chose to read. This happened through Vivek.

Developing Vivek

Vivek becomes automatic when you become aware of information, similar to how your mind learns not to touch fire after getting burned. Vivek isn't something you learn like the alphabet—it develops naturally when you become aware.

Vivek as a Gardener

Think of Vivek as a gardener who decides what should be focused on and what should not. Just like a gardener takes care of a garden, deciding what he wants to nurture and what he doesn't, Vivek manages the garden of your mind.

What's the difference between a garden and a forest? A forest is random, while a garden is structured. Similarly, someone who doesn't have Vivek operates randomly in life, while someone with developed Vivek lives in a structured way.

You don't need to be 100% perfect—it's all about resilience and maintaining a majority of goodness. A good gardener doesn't try to have 100% greenness in his garden because he knows dry leaves are also part of the natural cycle. He just focuses on maintaining the majority of green leaves. Similarly, we shouldn't try to be 100% focused or have perfect Vivek, but we should keep a majority of goodness.

This limitation happens because of timing. We can't afford 100% greenness because at the same time many leaves are going to dry—timing creates this rationality. Similarly, we can't maintain 100% focus because of timing constraints that also happen in our life. You decide to read 10 pages of a book, but at the same time, someone is beating a dog in the street, so you go to save the animal and your focus gets disrupted.

Perfection shouldn't be the goal—the goal should be a majority of goodness.

First, you need to continuously learn because when you learn, your mind becomes aware of things, making it easier to choose correctly and live focused. Most thieves likely aren't aware of the beauty of being a writer. I never chose to become a thief because I'm aware of the beauty of being a writer.

The process involves:

1. Continuously consuming information related to life to remain aware

2. Practicing meditation to notice patterns

3. Practicing putting attention repeatedly on the right things

Understanding the Unconscious

Living aware isn't sufficient—you need to understand the unconscious mind. Sometimes you can choose easily when you become aware (like not touching fire after being burned), but you know about the harmful side effects of drinking yet still drink. Why?

We have an unconscious built-in feature. Things we repeat again and again become automatic, so awareness alone isn't sufficient to break them. You need to break unconscious habits with awareness.

This is why you know books are good to read but still watch Netflix—because it has become unconscious. You need separate practice for breaking unconscious patterns.

The Science of Habits

To change habits:

1. Stop rewarding yourself for habits you want to leave

2. Start rewarding yourself for habits you want to develop

3. Make good habits obvious (keep books near you)

4. Remove triggers for bad habits (cancel Netflix subscription)

5. Be patient and start small

Final thought : The Secret of a Well-Lived Life

This completes the secret of a well-lived and prosperous life. You can achieve more if you can live focused. All great people are focused and control their attention.

Being focused is like having many drivers on the road—some waste their fuel going here and there, but you continuously move in the right direction and reach your destination first. Similarly, in life, if you can control your attention toward your goals, your whole energy goes in the right direction, and you succeed most of the time.

Resources are not usually the reason for our failure—lack of focus is. Master your attention, live by truth, maintain awareness, and practice rational effort. This is the path to both spiritual fulfillment and worldly success.

The journey from observation to truth to wise living is the essence of meditation. It's not about breathing exercises or mystical experiences—it's about seeing clearly, understanding deeply, and acting wisely. This is the way of the awakened ones, and this way is open to all who are willing to observe, learn, and grow.