The Meditation Void

The void, according to the song of Mahamudra from Tilopa to his disciple Naropa:

The void needs no reliance;

Mahamudra rests on naught.

Without making an effort

but remaining loose and natural,

one can break the yoke-

thus gaining liberation

if one sees naught when staring into space,

if with the mind one then observes the mind,

one destroys distinctions and reaches buddhahood.

The clouds that wander through the sky have no roots, no home;

neither do the distinctive thoughts floating through the mind.

Once the self-mind is seen, discrimination stops.

When in meditation comes a moment you reach silence of the mind, then our human/monkey mind tendency is to make explanations. A natural thing we do since the moment we are born; to try to explain the world around us. Just look at a baby’s eyes and you can see how they are wide open paying extraordinary attention trying to make sense of everything that surrounds him/her.

When in meditation, if we are lucky enough to reach that few seconds of pure concentration, our innate drive is to try to make sense of it, but here the predicament… it is unexplainable. It really does not need any explanation but the mere silent enjoyment of it, that is the issue with it, it does not need any argument for its reliance and recognition, because there is no sense that you can make out of it. Words would be too inert to explain it. Mahamudra, the state of perfect bliss, pretty much rests on nothing. On the very subtle naught of mind. The moment you make an effort, it is corrupted, it stops being, it is not natural anymore, hence only remaining loose and natural you can attain to it. Attaining to stop being the puppet of your mind, breaking the yoke, gaining the so-underestimated-liberation from the uncorrected views of the world. To observe the mind with one’s mind, it reminds me of something said by Krishnamurti: “Be attentively inattentive”.

In a small meditation I do after teaching yoga, when everybody is exhausted in savasana I suggest people to make of themselves as if they are in a movie theater looking at the movie of their thoughts, and to be careful not to jump into the screen and become the main character, unconsciously. Thoughts come and go, and negative thoughts as well as positive thoughts have a chemical reaction inside the body, something that makes us feel something, and for the good or for the bad, we always want to be feeling something. It can be quite addictive, but without a hint about it.

So thoughts during meditation can be treated as guests. Sometimes there are good guests that you want to have around, and sometimes you have bad guests that you don’t want around, nonetheless, you should only treat them as guests and have them go as they come. Disregarding their origin or cause, you wave them goodbye, this way you can destroy distinctions, and taste the oh-so-paradoxically-desired against the very purpose of it… the desire to reach Buddhahood.