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Meditation and Thought
In our daily life we usually live amidst a constant stream of thought. We are rapt in thoughts of the past and future, thoughts of ourselves and others.
In meditation the momentum of busy activity settles into stillness. The body and mind are relieved and relax. This happens naturally and without effort. In this letting go the stream of thought gives way to simple awareness: the feeling of the body against the floor, the sounds from the room and the street, the tension in the facial muscles, thoughts arising and passing away.
Meditation is a laboratory for becoming familiar with ourselves. It is an opportunity to observe ourselves in simplicity, going beyond the surface narrative of the thinking mind.
In "Think on These Things," J. Krishnamurti discusses meditation with a group of school children:
You know what space is. There is space in this room. The distance between here and your hostel, between the bridge and your home, between this bank of the river and the other — all that is space. Now, is there also space in your mind? Or is it so crowded that there is no space in it at all? If your mind has space, then in that space there is silence — and from that silence everything else comes, for then you can listen, you can pay attention without resistance. That is why it is very important to have space in the mind. If the mind is not overcrowded, not ceaselessly occupied, then it can listen to that dog barking, to the sound of a train crossing the distant bridge, and also be fully aware of what is being said by a person talking here. Then the mind is a living thing, it is not dead.
