A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

Even though I have called it a stage, there is really no going beyond this stage. Intellectually, we may define an infinite number of stages. In all practicality though, stage four is the outcome of crossing the three stages successfully. It comes with great, persistent, prolonged, intelligent, alert, intense and correct practice. Please carefully note all the seven adjectives in the previous sentence. You miss on any of these and there is no hope. A stage four meditator can sit unmoving, like a rock, for as long as he wants.

At this stage you experience extraordinary absorption and understand the reality of things unknown and inconceivable by the ordinary mind. Buddha said, “The one who knows the reality of one thing knows the reality of everything.”

The fourth stage is enlightenment.

On your long drive to self-realization, think of this stage as a private property, a large villa, an exclusive chateau. It has a path, a road but it is no thoroughfare – a large gate and a high fence block noise, traffic, people and any unwanted visitors. You have your own garden, comfort and peace. Any visitor will either have taken prior appointment which means you are aware of their arrival beforehand or you will have the choice to let them in or not. A stage four meditator is an adept, a siddha. He can stay on a thought for as long as he so chooses. The awareness is so crystallized that he can decide which thought he wants to entertain and which one he wishes to let go. There are no surprises.

The energy of a stage four meditator has a calming effect on everyone who comes in contact, even if briefly. You develop a natural stillness of the gaze.

Having said that, meditation is not salt. Just rigorous practice of meditation is not a substitute of the virtues a meditator must cultivate. It is not possible to reach the fourth stage without developing a selfless concern for the greater good. A degree of selflessness is paramount to rise above petty emotions. A sense of ego and selfishness is generally the seed behind all undesirable feelings.

Negative emotions adversely affect the quality of your practice. They pull you back. As you progress and reach this stage a sense of dispassion arises naturally. You enjoy everything people around you do but you no longer cling onto anything or anyone – negative or positive. A meditator at this stage has fully realized the truth that everything springs from a thought and if they can drop the thought at the moment of its emergence, no undesirable emotion or action will manifest.

Frankly, if you are still reading this book then you have a very high chance of discovering yourself through the path of meditation. I congratulate you in all honesty. To me it means that meditation to you is not merely a self-help method but something more. If you have made it this far, you are now ready to understand the intricacies of meditation beginning with the six primary principles of meditation. Let’s get on with it.

Six Principles of Meditation

Two good friends, Ron and John, were sitting in a restaurant waiting for their order to be served. A few tables across, a girl came and took her seat.

Some five minutes later, Ron said to John, “I think that girl really likes me.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, she’s been looking at me for the past five minutes and smiling constantly.”

John burst out laughing and clapped. “That’s nothing, man,” he said. “The first time I saw you, I kept laughing for an hour!”

I’ve carefully chosen this joke because it covers the six primary principles of meditation.

Some 1000 years ago in India, there lived a great meditator Tilopada, or Tilopa as referred in numerous Tibetan texts. Tilopa was born in a royal family in Bengal. Much like the Buddha, the Gautama, he too renounced his kingdom and went on to crystallize the essence of meditation for serious practitioners. His teachers were a range of illustrious Buddhist scholars, most notably Nagarjuna. Tilopa called his system of meditation Mahamudra – the royal seal or the wisdom of emptiness. He orally transmitted this system of meditation to his chief disciple and successor Naropad, more commonly known as Naropa, another phenomenal Indian scholar. After Naropa had mastered Mahamudra, Tilopa gave him six golden prohibitions – a summary of the entire system in six words.

The original Sanskrit instruction is no longer extant, but translated in English, his advice is short and worth its weight in gold.

Before I spell out the six principles, I would like to share with you a little story that underpins the golden rule of meditation.