VBT – Meditation 73.5
In That Gap
IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER SUCH CLARITY.
But if it is not summer what will you do? If the sky is clouded, not clear, then close your eyes and just enter the inner sky. Just close your eyes, and if you see some thoughts, just see them as if they are floating clouds in the sky. Be aware of the background, the sky, and be indifferent to thoughts.
We are too much concerned with thoughts and never aware of the gaps. One thought passes, and before another enters there is a gap – in that gap the sky is there. Then, whenever there is no thought, what is there? The emptiness is there. So if the sky is clouded – it is not summer-time and the sky is not clear – close your eyes, focus your mind on the background, the inner sky in which thoughts come and go. Don’t pay much attention to thoughts; pay attention to the space in which they move.
For example, we are sitting in this room. I can look at this room in two ways. Either I can look at you, so that I am indifferent to the space you are in, the roominess, the room you are in – I look at you, I focus my mind on you who are here, and not on the room in which you are – or, I can change my focus: I can look into the room, and I become indifferent to you. You are there, but my emphasis, my focus, is on the room. Then the total perspective changes.
Just do this in the inner world. Look at the space. Thoughts are moving in it: be indifferent to them, don’t pay any attention to them. They are there; note it down that they are there, moving. The traffic is moving in the street. Look at the street and be indifferent to the traffic. Don’t look to see who is passing; just know that something is passing and be aware of the space in which it is passing. Then the summer sky happens within.
With that, it leads to clarity, because only when you have a very mature mind do you become aware that you are confused. Even to become aware that the mind is – confusion, a very developed mind is needed.
Those who are not aware that their mind is – confusion – are really not mature minds. They are childish, juvenile, still developing. Only a very mature mind can become aware of the quality of the mind, that is confusion. And when you have developed the mind, only then is meditation possible, because meditation is the opposite goal.
Meditation means no-mind. But how can you achieve a no-mind if you have not achieved a mind?
So achieve a mind just to lose it. And don’t think that if ultimately one has to reach the state of no- mind, then what is the use of achieving a mind? – Because if you don’t achieve a mind, the ultimate is not going to happen to you. It can happen only if the mind is there. So I am not against mind, I am not against intellect. Really, I am not against anything. I am for everything, because everything can be used to reach the opposite pole.
There is a polarity, and the opposite pole cannot be reached if the polarity is not there. A madman cannot meditate. Why? Because he has no mind. But this no-mind is not the no-mind of Buddha.
No-mind can have two dimensions: below mind and above mind. The above mind is also no-mind, and the below mind is also no-mind. You can fall down from the mind: the mind is not there, but it is not meditation. You have to go beyond mind, only then is the Buddha’s no-mind achieved. And always remember it, because they are so similar you can misunderstand the whole thing. They are so similar.
There is no need to wait for the summer, because our minds are such that they can find any excuse.
They will say, ‘Summer is not here, and even if it is summer, the sky is not clear.’
Tags: In That Gap
