On meditation

Plenty of us has misunderstood the meditation.

They think the purpose of meditation is to achieve a state of mind that the deluded thoughts are successfully eliminated, but they don’t realize that it is also a very typical wrong concept. The purpose of meditation is to step into a clearer state of consciousness, to transform knowledge into wisdom and to eventually achieve the nonduality wisdom. If absence of deluded thoughts should be the final stage of meditation, a man in a vegetative state or in a daze, are those the true goals of each meditation?

Of course, we can pacify our thoughts temporarily through various meditative skills. But they are just means, not ends. Thoughts are waves in our mind lake, and we want the turbulence to subside because we want to see clearly what is inside, not just to feel calm. Reducing thoughts is simply a method of clearing our mind, to allow us to have the strength, to transform the minds into wisdom, and to manifest our own naked awareness within, which has never left. The goal is never to eliminate all thoughts, and this should be remembered by all of us all the time. All Dharma practice require correct concept, without which one cannot gain insights. Therefore, a practitioner should follow the right sequence of hearing the Dharma and meditating on it in order to cultivate ourselves  wisely.

Khenpo Jamyang