Do you know what happens to the mind that is unprepared, untrained, ignorant of its divine powers of pure self-reflection? It becomes afraid. Afraid to be alone. Afraid to be silent. Afraid to be calm. It is the greatest tragedy of life, because every person desires peace of mind. Every person craves self-composure and strength of calmness, yet few people know where they exist or how to find them. Few people are willing to devote even a few minutes of their day to find themselves in silence and solitude.
Yet we can free ourselves from the habits of worldliness and get into the peace of self-subjectivity in many beautiful, meditative, ways: For instance, some people enjoy absorbing themselves in the thought of being part of the all-pervasive beauty and peace of God. They walk alone, “losing themselves” in the company of God in nature, communing with the vastness of the heavens above them or answering the hypnotic invitation whispered from a woodland stream at their feet. Who wouldn’t be blessed by the subjective adoration? A love of the “inner life” includes finding in the quietness and loveliness of the world surrounding us a self-revealing subjective calm. This comprehensive mood of inspiration is a prerequisite for meditation. The habits of quietness, reverie and reverence for nature are of themselves important components of meditation.
Meditation is the only way to self-enlightenment and peace, but unless one truly understands his subjective life he will encounter great difficulties when he attempts meditating. Promised the bliss and spiritual attainments of meditation the novice initially elects it with enthusiasm. But what happens if he is subjectively unprepared is sadly predictable: He either becomes bored with meditation or restless. The reason? So long has his consciousness been dominated by and engrossed in the outer, sensory world that his uncultivated inner realm seems empty to him. Or worse, left unattended it has become cluttered. It is just as if one has been outside all day and returned home to find everything inside his home is in disarray. How discouraging! Entering our subjective abode that has been neglected and unattended day after day from morning til night, our mind would surely turn inward and feel,”I want out of this!” The novice, having initially chosen meditation with enthusiasm now rejects it summarily. His unexplored power of introspection is weak—too burdened by wordiness, and also too weak to withstand the demands of the world.
Steeped in worldliness, our values are totally distorted. Our would becomes trivial and puny, offering us precious little of life. How odd that the popular meaning of “sophisticated” is “worldly” and that the connotation, far from pejorative, is complementary! Without the dynamic richness of subjectivity how can the mighty faculty of mind become anything more than provincial and small, boring, dull and mediocre?
The most curious and the sad thing about the restless and distracted sense-bound mind is that it is lonely. It seems to be busy and occupied all the time, and yet, it is invariably and painfully lonely. The reason is understandable: Without a subjective life the true self remains veiled, unknown. Loneliness is separation from self.
The Mystic Cross
Swami Kamalananda