CONFUSION AND ITS MEDITATION

This is nothing abnormal. It happens to most people quite often. The reason why you are feeling bad about this is because you are more sensitive as compared to most other people.
Depending upon their sensitivity and emotional reactions to situations human beings in any population are of basically 5 types:

• E: Extremely insensitive: 2% people
• D: Less than moderate - Quite insensitive: 15% people
• C: Moderately sensitive: 66% people
• B: More than moderate - Quite sensitive: 15% people
• A: Extremely sensitive: 2% people

.  E  .        D     .         C       .    B     .  A

---

  2%       15%          66%       15%   2%

E people

They are grossly insensitive about their own as well as other people’s feelings. They are used to suppressing and denying their own heartfelt soft and tender feelings. They are like the cold-hearted Alexander, Genghis Khan, Hitler, dictators, serial murderers, rapists, etc.

D people

They are not so stone hearted. But their sensitivity is less than the average human being’s sensitivity. They are quite selfish and can manipulate people or hurt them easily for their own narrow gains. 
With their own twisted logic they justify their actions to themselves and others without feeling any remorse. Pimps of prostitutes, exploiters of child labor, gangsters, dons, habitual wife-beaters, pedophiles, etc. fall in this category.

C people

They are the normal average ‘common man’. They are moderately sensitive to their own and others’ soft feelings. They feel love, compassion and gratitude to a good extent. They often go out of their way to help others.
They love, fight, argue, win and lose like most other average human beings. Yet they can easily suppress and deny inconvenient truths. 
A typical example will be of a middle class ambitious professional who is totally insensitive to the sea of human degradation and misery all around him in a metro like Mumbai. He is also insensitive to his wife’s needs for his time and attention. His only focus is more and more career progress.

B people

They are more than average sensitive to human feelings. They are quite aware of their own feelings and also feel for others’ happiness. They very often go out of the way for uplifting the lives of other human beings. Best examples are the social and ecology activists, motivational trainers, spiritual organizations, etc.

A people

They are very rare. They are highly sensitive to the soft human emotions. They understand others’ suffering very empathically.
Even small fluctuations get noticed by them. Most often they are into meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices. They easily gravitate towards social and ecology work.

• You feel confused because you are more sensitive, that’s all. Alternatively, you also feel moody and confused if you have been leading a highly stressful life.
• You need to manage your stress and tensions more effectively. Your disturbance will settle down by itself very soon.
• There is nothing especially wrong with your mind as such. Human mind itself is a confused instrument!
  Human M.I.N.D. has 4 definite characteristics:
  M – Monkey thoughts
  Monkeys keep on jumping from this tree to that tree. They just cannot sit still for some period. They just cannot remain peaceful.
  Same way your mind is a crowd of monkeys. These monkeys cannot remain stationary on any one thought. They keep on jumping from thoughts to thoughts. What do you feel? Do you agree?
  These monkeys are always quarreling with each other. That’s the reason why most of the thoughts are contradictory to other thoughts. 
  For example, your one mind wants to go to your friend’s birthday party. But another mind tells you that the next day you have your exams and you must not waste any time. So you are divided because your mind is a house divided. 
  Your one mind wants to reduce weight and commits to get up early morning every day for the walking and yoga. But when the time comes to get up early another mind within you wants to sleep for just another half hour. Again the same contradiction!
  • Just be sensitive enough to watch closely. You’ll find that there is a huge amount of inner conflict taking place within your mind at any given time because of such mutually antagonistic thoughts.
  Such inner conflicts suck your energy right since morning every day. This makes you feel foul and cranky. Then you can be upset easily by anybody on very petty issues.
  • The tragedy starts unfolding when you start finding scapegoats for your own mind’s energy-sucking games. You start finding faults with other human beings. You blame them for your mind’s troubles.
  But the same game is played by other people too. You find fault with them; in return they find fault with you. A football game starts – you kick…they kick…you kick…they kick… and the silly game of arguments and counter-arguments goes on day everyday.
  Do you see the reality? No one is actually troubling anybody. It’s your mind which is playing this dirty game of bitterness and self-destructionbecause like monkeys it just cannot remain peaceful………
  I – Incomplete, Insecure, Inadequate and Inferior
  In the same instant your mind can either see the top or the bottom. Same way it can see the left but not the right. 
  If it sees the right then it loses the view of the left. If it sees you going from point A to point B, then it cannot see you coming towards point B from point A in the same moment.
  • Thus, your mind inherently cannot see the whole reality at any given time. So it always feels incomplete and hence insecure. This further leads to feeling of inadequacy and inferiority with in you.
  It’s like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. This insecurity and incompleteness is a part and parcel of your life in every moment. The instrument of mind itself is designed by the Creator like this. 
  But you blame other people or some circumstances for your anguish. You feel that they are making you feel insecure or inferior. 
  Then you expect that other people will provide you that security and completeness. However, they too are equally insecure and incomplete. They are expecting the same thing from you! It’s like a beggar begging from another beggar! 
  As long as you fulfill each others’ expectations to some degree at least, your relationships remain very loving and friendly.
  • But for most of the deep expectations both the parties feel cheated and let down. You cannot fulfill their expectations and they fail to come up to your expectations. These unfulfilled expectations then lead to frustrations and inter-personal conflicts.
  Like a father keeps on expecting that his bright son should get 90% marks in science. But the son’s mind has dreams of his own. He is more interested in music. Result is the inevitable conflict.
  Similarly, the growing up teenage daughter wants to go to parties now. But the parents are worried about any misadventure. Plus, they have to consider ‘What will people say?’
  There are going to be huge clashes now for the coming decade.
  • Such silly games are happening all over the world. The problem is not the people but the human mind itself!………
  N – Never fulfilled
  • Human mind can never feel fulfilled. It is its inherent manufacturing defect.
  It will always focus more on ‘glass is half-empty’ or what is missing or what is wrong or what is not being given. It just cannot feel contented with its countless blessings and beautiful things already present.
  As a result, you feel that your hardships in meeting others’ demands with ever-rising worries are not being appreciated by other people. Exactly the same feeling they are having for you!
  • Nothing has changed really because the human mind’s focus on the negative has not changed………
  D – Divided, Doubtful
  • Your mind oscillates between various extremes. Whatever it does it questions its own self after some time. Hence it is always dividedbetween this and that, to be or not to be.
  It just does not trust itself. Therefore, it does not trust others too. This is not bad by itself. In fact, in life it is good to be cautious. But it is bad to be overcautious.
  This divided nature of human mind causes you to feel confused and moody. So you can see where the problem lies. It’s not you dear, it’s the human mind………
  So what is the remedy?
  It lies in meditation. In our personal experience of training and counseling thousands of people one fact emerges very, very clearly.
  And this is that there are so many techniques of dealing with your peculiar problem, but meditation is the master key which will surely change the quality of your life. It will settle down your confusing and depressing emotions very fast.

What is meditation?

In any given moment your body and mind experience certain thoughts, feelings, sounds or sensations. These are the ways you perceive thisIntelligent Universe through your senses. That is your reality, your truth because that is what you have actually felt and perceived in that particular moment.
Meditation is the art of watching and witnessing The Truth as it unfolds on your body in each and every moment. 
It is Present Moment Awareness or PMA. It means simply becoming aware of the reality in your body in every present moment in a neutral gear without any labeling of "good" or "bad"………

What are the benefits of meditation?

In today's highly competitive and fast-paced world meditation is the easiest and simplest answer to your daily worries, tensions and stress.

• First of all, the noise of your chatterbox mind stops. You start experiencing deeper and deeper levels of heavenly silence within yourself.
• Automatically you find that the outside circumstances have not changed, but you have changed. Your daily problems start melting away by themselves. You start getting intuitively through your sixth sense very simple and easy answers to your complex problems from The Highest Intelligence within yourself.
• Your natural immunity to diseases goes up and your physical health definitely shows a remarkable upswing.
At an emotional level, you become a very calm person who has learnt to master his emotions and remain cool in all situations.
• Your memory and concentration improves dramatically. That shall automatically reflect in greater marks and better grades for students and much higher efficiency and productivity for working people.
• Your thoughts become more crystal clear. Thus, your decision taking ability sharpens greatly.
• As you start experiencing the inner peace and bliss, your relationships at home and workplace become very fulfilling and satisfying.

We could go on and on like this but it's all our experience, it's our truth. Unless you practice meditation yourself it shall all remain "a borrowed theory" for you.
Mere intellectual understanding of meditation has no meaning for your transformation unless you start practicing meditation today itself. Without that you will not "know" what we are saying. Plus, you have to be consistent and persistent. And just patiently wait for the results.
Please make your beginning today itself………

Which is the best meditation?

There are 112 different techniques of meditation. All of them give the same results finally. 
Neither of them is superior or inferior. You can practice any one of these 112 techniques according to your personal temperament and preference. 
However, the ‘ATM - Any Time Meditation’ is one of the simplest and easiest meditations to practise and gives very fast results. As the name says, it can be practised

• At any time
• At any place
• By any body
• For any length of time
• For as many times in a day as you desire
• Without any chance of doing it ‘wrong’
• Absolutely without any side-effects………

How to do ‘ATM – Any Time Meditation’?

The 3 most easy and basic points to remember in ‘ATM - Any Time Meditation’ are 3 W's of being a ‘Witness’: ’Willing’, ‘Watch’ and ‘Without judgment’.
Choose a time and silent place with no tv, phone or noise to disturb you. Sit in any comfortable posture with eyes closed. No particular asana is important. Just sitting comfortably according to your body’s needs is absolutely OK. 
Now be willing to be totally open and effortless. Be willing to receive any input through any of your senses in every moment. Be willing to embark on an entirely new journey of your life.
Simply watch every feeling, sensation, thought or your breathing in every particular moment in a neutral gear. You can start by watching yourbreath going in, going out…… going in, going out…… Or you can start watching the various sounds coming in your ears. Or you can start watching your feelings as they come and go to be replaced by some different feelings. Similarly, you can watch your thoughts as they come from somewhere and go somewhere. 
Watch anything in any random sequence, but no judgment of ‘wanted’ / ‘unwanted’ or ‘postive’ / ‘negative’. This passive awareness of every present moment is the most important point of ‘ATM - Any Time Meditation’.........

How to deal with my mind during ‘ATM – Any Time Meditation’?

Your mind runs here and there like a monkey with various thoughts and feelings. Let this monkey mind run any where. Let all thoughts or feelings of every kind come – whether negative or positive does not make any difference.

• At this point don't curse yourself for being silly or being attached to your thoughts. Just gently start the meditation and watch the breathing, sounds, feelings, sensations or thoughts once again.
• And pleeeeeeese don’t try to change your negative thoughts into positive. Be totally neutral. Just witness in every particular moment whatever is happening in your body in any region without any judgment or without any good or bad label.

It’s like you are sitting passively on the side a busy road and are watching the various vehicles pass you by in any direction without any interference from your side. No appreciation, as well as no condemnation of any vehicle, any person. Just a ‘choiceless awareness’ of whatever is happening in every particular moment – not choosing between any thing good or bad – but letting every thing happen on its accord in its own way………

Is meditation same as concentration?

• No, not at all. Please understand that meditation is not, I repeat, not concentration of mind.

In concentration you are basically trying to focus your awareness on one particular thought, feeling or sensation to the exclusion of all the other remaining Truth--i.e. 1 % inclusion and 99% exclusion.
Concentration is, therefore, anti-meditation! Yes, your act of concentration in reality is the opposite of meditation and takes you away from real meditation. 
The actual meditation is being totally aware and watching without any judgement or exclusion The Whole Truth unfolding on your own body. While concentration means trying to divide The One Complete Whole Truth unfolding in your body into favourable and unfavourable parts. 
This act of division itself is so silly! That's why all people who try to concentrate on one particular thing find after sometime that it becomes an uphill struggle to meditate.
Soon the ‘action of concentrating' becomes more important than ‘awareness’ of The Truth itself. Instead of giving you inner peace and tranquility, this struggle later leads you more and more into inner turmoil and chaos.

• Your concentration will automatically improve as a by-product of meditation. But concentration as such is not meditation.
• It’s like your shadow. The shadow belongs to you, but you are not your shadow. Similarly, your concentration improves definitely and greatly as a result of meditation. But meditation is not concentration………

How to deal with discomfort and distractions during ‘ATM - Any Time Meditation’?

Simply watch and be aware of all vague aches and pains during Any Time Meditation. They are just a ‘happening’ in that particular moment. 
Since meditation is all about being in the present moment, you just be aware of them in each and every moment.
They are all temporary. Spontaneously they came and spontaneously they will disappear. Rest assured. 

• You may change your posture any number of times or do any itching anywhere without feeling bad about it. Do any thing in any moment but do with awareness, that’s all. Then that distraction itself becomes a part of ‘ATM - Any Time Meditation’!

Isn’t it so easy and beautiful? ………

I have been trying meditation, but I am just not regular. What to do?

You may be finding some difficulties in your meditation practice. Does not matter really. All the problems will vanish gradually. There is no perfection and no final destination in meditation. You only have to do it. Doing itself is the reward. That's all.
Many years ago like you we were also irregular initially. But as the time passed it all became more and more regular spontaneously. The same will happen to you also.
Just remember that each and every day that you do meditation is important in your inner journey. Nothing ever goes waste. It’s just like a new plant sprouting under your tender loving care.
It all adds up gradually over a span of time. Very soon you have a thick foliage with beautiful flowers.
So even if you had stopped for some time in between it does not matter really in the long term. Just start once again today