“Why Meditation Should Be Effortless”

“People are often surprised to hear that meditation should be effortless, that no striving or concentration is needed. I know I was. When I first became interested in meditation, I was repeatedly told that it took great mental discipline and many years of practice. Indian teachers had likened the mind to a wagonload of restless monkeys that needed to be tied down and kept quiet.

My experience seemed to confirm it, my mind was full of thoughts and try as I might I couldn’t keep them at bay. Like many others I naturally assumed that I was not trying hard enough; I needed greater mental discipline, not less.

Then I chanced upon Transcendental Meditation, its teacher the Maharishi of Beatles fame challenged the whole notion of trying to control the mind. The monkeys, he pointed out were wanting something- more, bananas perhaps. Give them what they want and they will settle down of their own accord.

The same, he suggested is true of the mind; it is restless because we are seeking something. What is it we are seeking? In the final analysis we all want to feel better, to be happier, more at peace, at ease and content. He argued that if we give the mind a taste of the inner contentment it is looking for, it will be attracted to it and begin to settle down by itself.

This made more sense to me then what I’d come across so far,. So I learned his practice. And it worked. I found my mind becoming quiet without any effort. Indeed as soon as I started trying to control the process, in the hope that I could somehow help my meditation along, it did not work so well.

I’m not suggesting this applies to every type of meditation, but when it comes to the basic skill of relaxing into a quieter state of conciousness, effort generally turns out to be counter broductive.”

From a post by Peter Russell ~ Author & Independent Teacher of TM (Transcendental Meditation)