Page 233 - Basic Writings of Sriramchandra

Reality at Dawn - Ways and Means
and the unwanted ideas will cease to trouble you. I often hear beginners complaining about the wandering of the mind during meditation. From the very first day they expect that during their practice at meditation the mind should remain at a standstill but when they find different ideas and thoughts haunting their mind they feel greatly perturbed. I must clear it to them that it is not the suspended condition of the mind we are striving for in our practice, but only the moulding of its multifarious activities. We do not want to stop its normal working but only to bring it to a regulated and disciplined state. If the activities of the mind are stopped from the very beginning, we probably do not stand in need of practising meditation at all. Meditation is the only process to achieve that end. Concentration is its natural result in due course. The proper method is to meditate all along remaining quite unmindful of the foreign ideas and thoughts coming to our mind during that time. Mental struggle to keep off the unwanted ideas often proves unsuccessful for it causes a strong reaction which is often impossible for man of ordinary capabilities to overcome and which is sometimes likely to result in serious mental disturbance or even insanity. It may be possible for those who by leading a life of celibacy have gained sufficient ojas (lustre) to cope successfully with the flow of thoughts and to withstand the effect of their reaction, but for ordinary man it is almost an impossibility. If instead of struggling to keep off ideas we only remain unmindful of them, very soon they will lose their effect and cease troubling us.
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