Guard the senses, and you will abolish delight in sensual things. Flee also mental fantasies of sensory pleasures and you will abolish pleasure-loving thoughts. When the mind is free of fantasies, and neither receives impressions nor suffers changes from sensual objects of pleasure or lustful thoughts, it abides in pure simplicity… Step out of everything sensory and abandon the law of the flesh – a man who (does so) attains a state where he walks in the spirit…
- St. Theoleptius, “A Word” ca. 1325

It is true that the mind is restless and difficult to control. But it can be conquered, Arjuna, through regular practice and detachment. Those who lack self-control will find it difficult to progress in meditation; but those who are self-controlled, striving earnestly through the right means, will attain the goal.
- Krishna, The Bhagavad Gita 6.35-36
 

As we are now, our mind is out of control. We think without restraint. We are a surging chaos of thoughts, emotions and sensations. This is the opposite of meditation.
To meditate, first the surging chaos within must be calmed. This is achieved through a universal and unavoidable method: directed attention.
As we are now, we do not consciously direct our flow of thoughts and feelings and actions; rather, we live always reacting to thoughts, feelings and sensations.
Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm. Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one's own well-directed mind.
- The Buddha Shakyamuni, from The Dhammapada

The mind which is a slave of the senses makes the soul disabled, just as the boat that the wind misleads upon the waters.
- Krishna, The Bhagavad Gita


The Buddha Shakyamuni said, “Our minds shape our lives. We become what we think.” From this we can see that life as we experience it now is a product of our own mind. Or in other words, what we have thought, felt and done has created the life that we are experiencing now. Therefore, if we change what we think, feel and do now, we can create better circumstances for our future.

We created the situations of our life, and we created this society. Our society, which is characterized by social chaos and widespread suffering and delusion, is a reflection of the collective mind of humanity.

Human beings suffer because of other human beings.

Human beings suffer because of their own minds.

We have created our own lives and yet we ignore that truth. Instead of recognizing the true nature of our experience of life, we keep running after intangible goals and certain types of sensations. “If I only won the lottery, if I only bought an island, if I only had a jet, or a boat, if only I was better looking or had another degree in something, then I’d be happy.” This basis for happiness is completely and patently false, and yet our entire society revolves around this way of perceiving life.

This way of perceiving life is directed by the craving for pleasurable sensations and the avoidance of unpleasant sensations.

We live believing we can fulfill all of our craving for sensations.
We exist believing we can avoid all unpleasant sensation.
Thus, we live in illusion, because the facts prove neither of these goals can ever be achieved. In short, we live hypnotized by fantasy.

We perceive life through fantasies: thus we do not perceive life. We perceive life the way we want it to be, not the way that it is. Thus we do not perceive life as it is, and we suffer because life never gives us what we expect.

We perceive ourselves through fantasy, thus we do not perceive ourselves.
We want to see ourselves as we want to be seen; we do not see ourselves as we are.
Thus, we live in ignorance of who we truly are, and we suffer because we are not what we want to be.

Learning how to meditate starts here. One can never ever learn how to meditate until one begins to break these circumstances and has the willingness to see oneself with true sincerity.

Authentic meditation can only begin when we have the courage and willpower to let go of our fantasies about ourselves and about life. True meditation will take us straight into seeing the objective truth about ourselves and about life; thus, if we are attached to our fantasies, we will not allow ourselves to see the truth, thus we can never meditate properly.


Meditation is learning how to transcend the mind, to access what’s called the consciousness. Consciousness is the light at the root of all light. It is beyond the mind, beyond emotion, beyond the “I”, “Me”, “Myself.”

There are many terms to describe the activity of the consciousness. Some people call it awareness, some call it attention, some call it presence, some call it watchfulness, or vigilance. We may think of most of these terms as representing "passive" states. We may think of "mindfulness" as a passive aloofness, like a monk just sitting there being "mindful" and making no contact with the world or the activity of the mind. But this type of "spiritualized escapism" does nothing to awaken the consciousness.  So, understanding the consciousness as Vigilance is much closer to its true nature: it is very active. So developing a correct understanding of consciousness will help one to deepen the experience of it.
 
The consciousness is the root of perception.

It is that part in us that perceives with absolute purity, without feelings, without thinking and without sensation.

It is the part of every person that is there before thought, before emotion, before sensation.

It is raw perception in a pure, unaltered form.

The consciousness is our direct connection with our own divinity.
Live from instant to instant, from moment to moment, without the painful weight of the past, without worrying about the future. Relax the mind. Empty it of all thoughts, desires, passions, etc. Surrender to your profound interior God; completely forget all worldliness.
- Samael Aun Weor


This is the root principle upon which every genuine meditation practice in the history of mankind is based. The terms might be different, and the means of description may vary, but the root principles are universal and unshakable. Thus we absolutely must know what the consciousness is and how to use it.

In order to meditate, in order to be on any spiritual path, no matter what you call it, you have to understand what the consciousness is, because that’s what we are trying to awaken.
The consciousness itself is an energy. It is an energy that one can experience only when it is activated. And it must be separated from the mind in order to be activated in a positive manner.

Every human being has within the seed of the soul, the tiny spark from which the vast beauty of the Illuminated Mind can sprout. In Zen they call this seed or spark the Buddhata; in Tibetan Buddhism they call it Tathagatagarbha. In Gnosis we have a simple name: the Essence. It is a small spark of light, but it only shines when we know how to use it. If we ignore it, it sleeps. The consciousness, the Essence, is the root of perception; in itself it is pure happiness, pure joy, pure compassion. It perceives all that enters through the windows of the senses without any preconcieved condemnation, no acceptance or rejection. However, because of our past mistakes the Essence is now mostly trapped inside of a desire-filled mind, thus we are conflicted, caught between the urge of the Essence to know God and to be free of materialism, and by the urges of the mind, the desires for sensation, for praise, for wealth, etc. "To be or not to be, that is the question..."

• If we perceive life through the free consciousness, the Essence, then we are fully present and actively

           observe all phenomena.

• If we perceive life through the intellectual mind, then we are distracted and passively observe all

           phenomena, because we are more concerned with satisfying the craving for sensations, be they mental,

           emotional or physical.
Until one really and truly knows one’s own mind and can govern it with awareness, even if very many explanations of reality are given, they remain nothing more than ink on paper or matters for debate among intellectuals, without the possibility of the birth of any understanding of the real meaning… It is necessary to maintain a continuous present awareness without becoming distracted… Because the continuation in the presence of the true State (of Awareness) is the essence of all the Paths, the root of all meditations, the conclusion of all spiritual practices, the juice of all esoteric methods, the heart of all ultimate teachings, it is necessary to seek to maintain a continuous presence without becoming distracted. What this means is: don’t follow the past, don’t anticipate the future, and don’t follow illusory thoughts that arise in the present; but turning within oneself, one should observe one’s own true condition and maintain the awareness of it just as it is, beyond conceptual limitations…
- Namkhai Norbu

The more the consciousness is activated positively, the more peace we have. This peace, the peace that arises naturally when the mind is stabilized, is the foundation for all true meditation practice. It is called Samatha, Calm Abiding, or Pratyahara. It can only be developed through powerful control over how we pay attention.
To achieve the stillness and silence of the mind, it is necessary to know how to live from instant to instant, to know how to take advantage of each moment…
- Samael Aun Weor

This is the development of one-pointed concentration. This is the establishment of the foundation to enter into meditation, but it is not meditation itself; real meditation only comes after we have established concentration, or in other words, a stabilized mind.
Though you may pretend you are doing a practice, you are not practicing at all if you do not know what is required to achieve single-pointed concentration. You must definitely achieve single-pointed concentration with the two features: great clarity together with some stability, and a tight image retention.
- Pabongka Rinpoche, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand

Consciousness is raised to a given plane by inhibiting the thoughts of the modes of consciousness of all the planes below it. This, of course, requires perfect concentration.
- Dion Fortune, The Training and Work of an Initiate, Ch. 13

Only from this stable inner peace one can gradually enter into the true comprehension of reality. With Calm Abiding we develop Vipassana (Insight), or in other words, Imagination. Imagination is a polarity: it can be positive or negative. It can be the penetrating power of the consciousness or the hypnotic power of the mind.
For the wise, to imagine is to see.
- Samael Aun Weor

It is necessary to learn by direct experience how to differentiate between the images that are received and the images that we consciously or unconsciously create or project. It is necessary to differentiate between our own images and the outer images that come to us. The imagination has two poles, one being a receptor and the other a projector. Receiving an image is one thing. Projecting an image created by our understanding is another thing. The contrary pole of the imagination is fantasy. The imagination is clairvoyance. Fantasy is the absurd images that are created by a mind filled with aberrations.
- Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose

With a stable mind and exact concentration, the student learns how to consciously direct imagination: this is the doorway to real comprehension, to the experience of Reality. Strong concentration combined with vivid imagination leads directly to Samadhi: the ecstatic experience of the free consciousness. As is well known in Tibet, Samadhi is composed of two factors: shamata (stabilized mind) and Vipassana (imagination).
Conscious imagination is the clear means through which the firmament is reflected , the mysteries of life and death, and of the Being. Mechanical imagination is different: it is formed by the debris of the memory, it is fantasy.
- Samael Aun Weor

Some wish to awaken their clairvoyance while disregarding imagination. If they disregard imagination, then they will fall into the same absurdity as those who wish to practice meditation without the sleepy state. These people fail to develop their internal powers. These people break the laws of nature and inevitably failure is the result.
- Samael Aun Weor from The Yellow Book


Samadhi is the ability to escape from the whole mechanism of the mind to taste the joy of the free consciousness. That’s why Samadhi is defined as "ecstasy," the common translation of that word. It isn’t ecstasy in terms of sensation or pleasure, like having a tremendous orgasm, which is a common association. It absolutely is not anything like that. Unfortunately, because we are so identified with the sensual mind, we may come to meditation believing that we will be able to access even greater heights of pleasurable sensation, and in fact many meditation instructors use this lie to attract students. Many instructors even believe it to be true, and spend their lives desperately seeking greater experiences of what they call Samadhi, but which are in fact various experiences of sensation. They become addicted to experiences that one can in fact have in meditation, but they are not Samadhi and they have nothing to do with liberation from suffering.


Samadhi is the experience of the simple pure joy of the consciousness which is very subtle. It is also very powerful and can be very overwhelming and completely absorbing, but it does not mean sensation in terms of physical sensations. We can experience all kinds of physical sensations in meditation, but these are not Samadhi.

Samadhi has many levels and forms. But to reach any of them, from the most subtle to the most powerful, one must be completely separated from desire for sensation.

It is there, free from the painful prison of the mind, that the liberated consciousness can comprehend itself; we can turn and face our own mind and examine it, seeing in stark objective reality the world of illusions we normally live within. To reach this experience is possible for anyone in the world, but only if the steps are followed with exactitude. The steps to reach this experience are available under many names in many traditions, and they are expressed in a synthesized form in the writings of Samael Aun Weor.


Therefore, meditation is a rich resource of profound inner development whose true fruit and benefit may only be realized by one who is disciplined, sincere, full of courage and great enthusiasm for the work on oneself.

Meditation is the means to arrive at true objective knowledge of oneself. This knowledge can only be achieved by escaping from the confines of the subjective mind.
Illumination is never achieved by developing mental power nor by deifying reasoning. On the contrary, it is attained by breaking any ties which attach us to the mind.
- Samael Aun Weor, from The Mystery of the Golden Blossom

The methods to achieve the true fulfillment of meditation are given throughout the works of Samael Aun Weor.
Those who wish to keep this discipline
Must guard their minds in perfect self-possession.
Without this guard upon the mind,
No discipline can ever be maintained.

To keep a guard again and yet again
Upon the state and actions of our minds and bodies –
This alone and only this defines
The sense of mental watchfulness.
- Shantideva, from The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 5:1, 108

Nowhere does is say anything else but this: if you hope to develop Insight, the training of wisdom, you must find Quietude, that of concentration. It says as well that if you wish to develop pure single-pointed mind, you must have the training of morality; and this is fine advice. Some brave souls claim they’ll keep a lot of different vows, but it’s oh so common to see them smash whatever pledges they’ve made. The way of the Holy is they strive to maintain their morality pure, exactly as they have agreed to do. Once you see the Truth in this, then use your Watchfulness, constantly check your thoughts, words and deeds, to stop any wrong to come. Recollect yourself, take the greatest care, have a sense of humility and consideration; use them on the horse of the senses when he mistakes the way. Use your strength to rein him in, for this is the state of mind that you can bring to focus and stay on any virtuous object, solidly, whatever you want, however you wish it to be; this is why they sing praises of morality as the way to reach one-pointedness of mind.
– Tsong Khapa

It is very rare to find people whose intelligence is in a state of stillness. Indeed, such a state is only to be found in those who through their whole manner of life strive… by guarding the intellect and by inner watchfulness… Watchfulness cleanses the consciousness and makes it lucid. Thus cleansed, it immediately shines out like a light that has been uncovered, banishing much darkness. Once this darkness has been banished through constant and genuine watchfulness, the consciousness then reveals things hidden from us.
- St. Philotheos of Sinai, from “Forty Texts on Watchfulness,” 9th or 10th century

It is quite impossible to find the Buddha anywhere other than in one’s own mind. A person who is ignorant of this may seek externally, but how is it possible to find oneself through seeking anywhere other than in oneself? Someone who seeks their own nature externally is like a fool who, giving a performance in the middle of a crowd, forgets who he is and then seeks everywhere else to find himself.
- Padmasambhava, “The Yoga of Knowing the Mind”
owing the Mind”