Meditation Is Essential to Life ( 02 Jan 07 Tue)

To understand this whole problem of influence, the influence of experience, theinfluence of knowledge, of inward and outward motives - to find out what is true andwhat is false and to see the truth in the so-called false - all that requirestremendous insight, a deep inward comprehension of things as they are, does it not?This whole process is, surely, the way of meditation. Meditation is essential inlife, in our everyday existence, as beauty is essential. The perception of beauty,the sensitivity to things, to the ugly as well as to the beautiful, is essential -to see a beautiful tree, a lovely sky of an evening, to see the vast horizon wherethe clouds are gathering as the sun is setting. All this is necessary, theperception of beauty and the understanding of the way of meditation, because allthat is life, as is also your going to the office, the quarrels, miseries, theperpetual strain, anxiety, the deep fears, love, and starvation.

Now theunderstanding of this tot al process of existence - the influences, the sorrows, the daily strain, theauthoritative outlook, the political actions, and so on - all this is life, and theprocess of understanding it all, and freeing the mind, is meditation. If one reallycomprehends this life then there is always a meditative process, always a processof contemplation - but not about something. To be aware of this whole process ofexistence, to observe it, to dispassionately enter into it, and to be free of it,is meditation.