Subtitles
the art of meditation is a way of 00:00:00
the art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality 00:00:04
and the reason for it is that most 00:00:11
civilized people are out of touch with 00:00:14
reality because they confuse the world 00:00:18
as it is with the world as they think 00:00:23
about it and talk about it 00:00:25
and describe it for on the one hand 00:00:30
there is the real world and on the other 00:00:35
a whole system of symbols about that 00:00:38
world which we have in our minds these 00:00:43
are very very useful symbols all 00:00:45
civilization depends on them but like 00:00:49
all good things they have their 00:00:51
disadvantages and the principal 00:00:54
disadvantage of symbols is that we 00:00:56
confuse them with reality just as we 00:00:59
confuse money with actual wealth 00:01:03
and our names about ourselves our ideas 00:01:08
of ourselves our images of ourselves 00:01:11
with ourselves now of course reality 00:01:16
from a philosopher's point of view is a 00:01:19
dangerous word a philosopher will ask me 00:01:23
what do I mean by reality am i talking 00:01:27
about the physical world of nature or am 00:01:32
I talking about a spiritual world or 00:01:35
what and to that I have a very simple 00:01:39
answer when we talk about the material 00:01:42
world that is actually a philosophical 00:01:46
concept so in the same way if I say that 00:01:50
reality is spiritual that's also a 00:01:53
philosophical concept and reality itself 00:01:56
is not a concept reality is 00:01:56
[Music] and we won't give it a name 00:02:06
now it's amazing what doesn't exist in the real world for example in the real 00:02:14
world there aren't any things nor are 00:02:24
there any events that doesn't mean to 00:02:27
say that the real world is a perfectly 00:02:30
featureless blank it means that it is a 00:02:35
marvelous system of Wiggles in which we 00:02:40
describe events in the same way as we 00:02:44
would project images on a Rorschach blot 00:02:47
or pick out particular groups of stars 00:02:51
in the sky and call them constellations 00:02:55
as if they were separate groups of stars 00:02:57
well their groups of stars in the mind's 00:02:59
eye in our system of concepts they are 00:03:03
not out there as constellations already 00:03:09
grouped in the sky so in the same way 00:03:14
the difference between myself and all 00:03:17
the rest of the universe is nothing more 00:03:20
than an idea it is not a real difference 00:03:25
and meditation is the way in which we 00:03:28
come to feel our basic inseparability 00:03:32
from the whole universe and what that 00:03:37
requires is that we shut up that is to 00:03:44
say that we become interior ly silent 00:03:46
and cease from the interminable chatter 00:03:51
that goes on inside our skulls because 00:03:55
you see most of us think compulsively 00:03:58
all the time that is to say we talk to 00:04:01
ourselves and I remember when I was a 00:04:04
boy we had a common saying talking to 00:04:07
yourself as the first sign of madness 00:04:10
now obviously if I talk all the time 00:04:15
I don't hear what anyone else has to say 00:04:19
and so in exactly the same way if I 00:04:24
think all the time that is to say if I 00:04:26
talk to myself all the time I don't have 00:04:29
anything to think about except thoughts 00:04:31
and therefore I'm living entirely in the 00:04:34
world of symbols and I'm never in 00:04:38
relationship with reality all right now 00:04:42
that's the first basic reason for 00:04:45
meditation but there is another sense 00:04:48
and this is going to be a little bit 00:04:49
more difficult to understand why we 00:04:51
could say that meditation doesn't have a 00:04:54
reason or doesn't have a purpose and in 00:04:58
this respect it's unlike almost all 00:05:01
other things that we do except perhaps 00:05:04
making music and dancing because when we 00:05:08
make music we don't do it in order to 00:05:14
reach a certain point such as the end of 00:05:16
the composition if that were the purpose 00:05:20
of music to get to the end of the piece 00:05:22
then obviously the fastest players would 00:05:25
be the best 00:05:27
and so likewise when we are dancing we 00:05:30
are not aiming to arrive at a particular 00:05:32
place on the floor as we would be if we 00:05:35
were taking a journey when we danced the 00:05:39
journey itself is the point when we play 00:05:44
music the playing itself is the point 00:05:48
and exactly the same thing is true in 00:05:50
meditation meditation is the discovery 00:05:55
that the point of life is always arrived 00:05:59
at in the immediate moment and therefore 00:06:03
if you meditate for an hour Terrier 00:06:07
motive that is to say to improve your 00:06:10
mind to improve your character to be 00:06:13
more efficient in life you've got your 00:06:15
eye on the future and you are not 00:06:17
meditating because the future is a 00:06:23
concept it doesn't exist as the proverb 00:06:28
says tomorrow never comes there is no 00:06:32
such thing as tomorrow there never will 00:06:34
be because time is always now and that's 00:06:40
one of the things we discover when we 00:06:41
stop talking to ourselves and stop 00:06:44
thinking we find there is only a present 00:06:48
only an eternal now so it's funny then 00:06:54
isn't it that one meditates for no 00:06:56
reason at all except we could say for 00:06:59
the enjoyment of it and here I would 00:07:01
interpose the essential principle that 00:07:06
meditation is supposed to be fun it's 00:07:10
not something you do as a grim duty 00:07:13
the trouble with religion as we know it 00:07:16
is that it is so mixed up with grim 00:07:20
duties we do it because it's good for 00:07:23
you it's the kind of self punishment 00:07:25
well meditation when correctly done has 00:07:28
nothing to do with all that it's a kind 00:07:31
of digging the present it's the kind of 00:07:33
grooving with the eternal now 00:07:36
and brings us into a state of peace 00:07:43
where we can understand that the point 00:07:47
of life the place where it's at is 00:07:51
simply here and now 00:07:51