WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MEDITATION? ~Nisargadatta

QUESTIONER: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?

NISARGADATTA: 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.

Extract from the book ´I am That´

What about the witness? Is it real or unreal? ~ Nisargadatta

Questioner: What about the witness? Is it real or unreal?

Nisargadatta: It is both. The last remnant of illusion, the first touch of the real. To say: I am only the witness is both false and true: false because of the 'I am', true because of the witness. It is better to say: 'there is witnessing'. The moment you say: 'I am', the entire universe comes into being along with its creator.

Mind is the seed of Maya ~ Swami Sivananda

Extract from the book "Moksha Gita" of Swami Sivananda

11. "This mind which ever hankers after sensual objects is the seed of Maya. If the mind is annihilated Maya will vanish. You will attain the state of quiescence."

Brahma-Jnana will dawn in you. The seed of Maya is the mind which sends forth branches of its objectifying force through the channels of the organs of sensing. The mind hankers after the objects of the senses, including the intellect and the ego. The craving for objects is the effect of the desire of the individual consciousness to flow with the process of self-multiplication and self-preservation as laid in the scheme of the workings of Maya. 

The very meaning of phenomenal  existence is preservation of the egoistic individuality and reproducing oneself into manifold forms. The senses are projected by the mind of the individual in order to effect this process of Maya. The functions of the mind day and night are in accordance with Maya’s law of diversification and preservation of the diversified forms through attachment to such forms and further through an additional external urge to reproduce oneself and strive to maintain individual life. This whole mad process of the mind constitutes the life of man on earth. 

When these functions of the mind are inhibited through the force of conscious effort on the part of the discriminative consciousness, the play of phenomenal existence is stopped its further progress, and when the seed of the mind is burnt by spiritual knowledge, the tree of Samsara is cut off root and branch! 

The restlessness of the individual is caused by the projecting forth of mental forces for purposes of acquiring objects of sense. So long as the objects are not obtained there is the reign of agitation and irritation everywhere. 

There is only a temporary peace when the objects required are acquired, but the next moment the mind darts upon some other source of objective gratification and keeps the restlessness in continuity.

Perfect quiescence comes only when the functioning of the imaginative mind is restrained and put an end to through meditation and Self-Knowledge. 

Only Brahma-Jnana can dispel the mental ignorance completely. 

When true wisdom dawns the mind realises its nature of Self-sufficiency and turns back to the Atma or the Source of Consciousness and rests as one with it in peace.

This is the salvation of the individual, where the individual merges itself into the Infinite Consciousness and exists as the 

Absolute.

Is our mind our friend or our enemy? / Video ~ Atman Nityananda

Is our mind our friend or our enemy?