Jiddu Krishnamurti has a unique stance on meditation, one unlike any ‘systems’ you may have heard of ... his take on meditation is simple: Mechanical repetition is not meditation, meditation is what happens when the mind is empty.
There are those who disagree, it is said it's impossible to empty the mind, that the mind is always at work (hence therepetitions or mental activities we may use todistractthe mind), even that the mind is an organ like all others: You can't stop theheartat will, neither your lungs or kidneys ... it's the same with the mind, they say.
Sam Harris: "thoughts arise in themind, what else can they do ... we have no control over them".
Krishnamurti looks at meditation differently. Listen to this short interview.
I have been a meditator since 1987, for all but 35 years. My thoughts about meditation have changed fundamentally over the years. In the beginning - with Sant Mat and the Master - I meditated for two hours every morning, using the mantra I was given at initiation.
When I found Krishnamurti, many years ago, my habits changed. I slowly realised that there were not really any benefits in that traditional method I had learned. While it was good to sit and turn my attention inward ...
... I never felt more than that the method was preparing me for better things to come, that this was not the end of my search for equilibrium and inner peace.
Admittedly I have never engaged in other forms of formal meditation, like Transcendental Meditation (TM), Vipassana Meditation and the various meditation apps that are available. Once I had learned from Krishnamurti, they all seemed somewhat besides the point.
There is a dichotomy in in that little talk by K: On the one hand he says, "meditation means the most extraordinary demands, a great discipline ... the discipline that comes when you observe your thinking ... that is absolutely necessary ... watch what is happening around you, what is happening within yourself ..."
But then, "... you see, meditation is really a form of emptying the mind of everything known, otherwise you cannot know the unknown. To see anything totally new the mind must be empty ..."
So this is our work, we must reconcile this dichotomy ... myself, I see the first part of "observing the thinking" as a precursor to true meditation; I call it 'contemplation'; where I observe the world around me, where I contemplate these observations and make myself aware of what it means to contemplate, and be aware of: 'reality'. I have an essay, WHY I MEDITATE
Anyway, this is where my experiences have led me ... this is - in a nutshell - what I say in my various essays and blog posts about meditation:
Once a master was asked what meditation is: “It’s like this - when a past thought ceases and the future thought has not yet arisen, isn’t there a gap? Prolong it; that is meditation.”MEDITATION 1
"Meditation is a way of life. One is likely to meditate in a suitable setting, but one can engage in true meditation under all circumstances; special environments are not necessary."MEDITATION 2
I walk
I rest
How wonderful
a Zen meditation
"When you are not doing anything at all - bodily, mentally - when
all activity has ceased … that's what meditation is." Osho
See also MEDITATION 3 and ZEN and - for that matter - many more of the essays in my booken.light.en.ment