Can I tell you something?
I have experimented with a lot of different types of meditations, affirmations, and visualization techniques, and even though I can’t say with full confidence that I succeeded in all of them, I can certainly tell you that I have found an underlying current—a common thread.
They all have one thing in common: All the techniques or at least most of them are designed to bring light to the dark corners of your mind.
Let’s take, for example, your basement, attic, or a room that’s not frequently used. Let’s suppose this room is your mind. Now whether you practice a certain type of meditation, or affirmation, or a “guided meditation” so to speak, they all work on the same principle: getting things out in the open.
And it’s natural only because unless you bring out the content of your mind into the open, no healing or “completeness” is possible.
The point here is not to suppress or deny the negative content of your mind but to acknowledge it and let the healing take its own course.
Now, it seems quite logical that to heal your past wounds, you need to bring your emotional wounds to the surface of your conscious mind, and then do something to heal them. But, it doesn’t work that way. I have found that though acknowledging our feelings (negative or positive) seems to be the first step, it’s actually the first and the only step you need to take. Because the moment you see for yourself how you feel about a certain issue or challenge in your life, the entanglements start withering away.
Bringing Light to Your Mind is the First and the Last Step
I bet you must have watched a “vampire” movie. The moment a vampire comes out into the sun, it starts getting destroyed.
The protagonist doesn’t have to bring the vampire out into the sun and then do something else to kill it. The vampire coming out in the sun is the first and only step for it to die naturally.
And that’s exactly what you need to do with your mind.
As Osho explains in many of his discourses, we accumulate a lot of waste in our minds, (thanks to the centuries-long emotional suppression). And the only way to get free of all that crap is to take light into the dark corners of our minds. But it’s easier said than done.
Why It’s So Hard to See the Reality?
Now, the question is, why is it so hard to bring light to the darkness? Well, because doing anything out of our comfort zone makes us go “cuckoo,” to say the least. No matter how much garbage we have in the basements of our houses, it always feels awkward to take light in the filthy nooks and corners and witness what lies in there. Because that shatters our self-image that we are “clean” and organized. And so, seeing what is, is hard.
In fact, it’s nothing short of death. And who likes to die, anyway? Nobody.
So, What to Do?
Start small.
Just like you won’t go into your basement and throw everything out to overhaul it, likewise, you don’t need to “bring the light inside” in one go.
Take one step at a time. And be gentle with yourself.
When I first started meditating back in 1995, I went with full force. I did whatever I could to get rid of the suppressed emotions that were troubling me. And it was hard. Really hard. Later, I realized that forcing meditation to happen is not the answer. On the contrary, the solution is to let the meditation happen on its own with as little intervention or “support” from my side as possible.
Spiritual growth is unlike fast food. It takes its own sweet time. So, there’s no need to rush. In fact, rushing things when embarking on a spiritual journey is counterproductive. It’s like too much too soon. You’ll run around in circles and ultimately will not reach anywhere.