Sat discusses the simplicity and effectiveness of Stop Meditation.
Sat: Stop Meditation is life; without it life is chaotic! Stop means stop putting forth effort. Stop is effortless; it involves no sort of effort at all…none. If you just watch, you won’t even feel like you are doing anything. The only thing that you have to do is to bring your attention back down from the mind. The attention has only one responsibility and that is to shift back to the heart (the heart is not the physical heart but the center of our being).
Some of you think that you must constantly bring your attention back to the heart during Stop Meditation. That is because you are still involved with your mind. The attention doesn’t need to be pulled back. The attention must shift without any effort (meaning without being pulled); the attention must shift…the attention must shift…the attention must shift. The energy follows the attention, if it is on the mind the energy is also there, if it is on silence the energy becomes silent.
The Art of doing the Stop Meditation is both very hard and very simple. Why is it hard? Because you are fooled by the mind, and you think that some thoughts are permitted and some other thoughts are not. Mastery of this practice occurs once we ruthlessly keep our attention still. Our attention is still and as any type of thought comes, we watch it and it suddenly falls away. Instead of getting involved with each thought, we don’t get involved with any thought, that’s it!
But you should know that remembering to do Stop Meditation is one thing, and battling to do Stop Meditation is another altogether. What I mean by not putting forth effort is not struggling or battling. Struggling is when you tell yourself, “I didn’t Stop. Why didn’t I Stop? I will Stop now. Mind, Stop…, etc.” When your attention rises to mix with the thoughts and you again bring it back to the region of the heart, you are in the process of reminding yourself to “Be…Be.” There is no effort involved in doing this; it is just reminding yourself or waking yourself up. This is something that you can and must do. Remind yourself to do this until there is no longer any need for a reminder. Don’t shy away from repeating this over and over. Repetition is necessary as a reminder, but struggling to reach a certain point or obtain a goal is the wrong way.
When you are in the middle of practicing Stop Meditation, and you notice that your attention has turned to the mind or its activity, you must remind yourself not to go with the thoughts. As soon as you do this, your attention turns back towards the region of the heart. Your attention shifts with the sound of your voice. When you say “Stop,” your attention shifts, without asking you, “Where should I go?” It knows on its own that it must go down (to the region of the heart). This is a good reminder and should be repeated until it is no longer necessary to be repeated. On the other hand though, when you say, “I didn’t Stop,” or “What happened to me? Why can’t I Stop? I am such an idiot…” and so forth, these are worthless efforts that don’t go along with Stop Meditation. Instead of telling a mind that doesn’t want to Stop, “You must Stop right now”…Just Stop. Remembering and turning the attention back is a part of the practices, but battling and struggling is mental activity.
I have told you to “Be” while doing this meditation, and why is that? Until our attention gets used to staying in the region of the heart permanently and not leaving there, remembering to “Be” is very necessary. The only thing that we have control over is our attention; attention is the key that if turned towards the outer world or inner world of thoughts, we are imprisoned, but if we turn it towards the truth or the Self, the prison door opens. Through these practices, we know exactly what our attention is and where to guide it. Our attention can free us or imprison us, and until it gets used to staying in the region of the heart, the reminders must be constant and repeated.
From Sat’s book, "Silence of the Mind” (currently being translated from Farsi to English)