6. Meditation

We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little.

The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.

Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters.

Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious.

The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.

When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness.

We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two.

The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps.

By watching (guna) influence in you and on you, be aware of them in operation, watch their expressions in your thoughts, words and deeds, and gradually their grip on you will lessen and the clear light of sattva will emerge.

It is neither difficult, nor a protracted process; earnestness is the only condition of success.