Originally Posted by
Tom
Often I read that the process of learning to meditate is like a bucket of water. It is so automated to keep churning the water that the mud and gravel and sand keep mixing around and do not settle to the bottom. The water is never clear. You can't just tell someone to stop churning the water to let the water clear and the junk settle to the bottom. It is a lot easier to give that effort and energy a different outlet: a meditation technique. The energy from the churning gradually goes instead into the technique and the water begins to clear. I'd argue that this is the limit of the comparison, because in the mind the mud and gravel and sand are transformed into positive qualities while in the bucket of water there is always the potential that someone will be able to kick the bucket and stir it up again. When the water has cleared, and the tendency to keep stirring it is gone, it is necessary to drop the technique. At this point even the technique (because it is an artificial modification of the mind) must be dropped. Not before then. As long as the tendency to keep churning the water is there, the technique is needed. When the tendency is gone, the technique can be dropped. At this point it is finally meditation. The nice thing about binaurals is that if you find a brand that works for you they are like putting your bucket of muddy water into a centrifuge. The process is actually a lot rougher, and it is a good thing if you become irritated from time to time. The point is to clear the water, and a centrifuge is faster than waiting for gravity to do all the work on its own.
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