Philosophy • Meditation

Meditation: Being with Consciousness, Fully Awake

Meditation is not forcing silence. It is turning inward, observing the mind without following thoughts, and resting in consciousness—fully awake and alive.

How the Mind Is Enriched

Most of the time, we live outside.

Our attention is continuously engaged with the external world—people, objects, work, responsibilities, and endless interaction. When we are not engaged with the world, we are usually asleep.

Do we cut off from the external world and dwell inside while fully awake? Many of us do not even know this process. This inside dwelling is actually spending time with the mind while awake and is what we normally call meditation.

Meditation is the missing dimension in our lives.

We nourish the body every day with food, rest, and care. But do we nourish the mind with the same seriousness? The mind, which thinks, feels, reacts, and shapes our entire experience of life, is often left unattended.

Nourishing the Mind
Meditation is about nourishing and purifying the mind, like we nourish the body with food.

Meditation is the only activity in which we are directly in touch with the mind itself. In meditation, we are not interacting with the world, not performing roles, not pursuing outcomes. We are simply spending time with the mind, just observing it, and in the process, the thinking mind becomes silent.

In all other activities, we are only interacting with the outside world.
In meditation, we turn inward.

So, in meditation, the senses withdraw from the external world and attention is brought inward. The mind now turns upon itself, observing its own processes—the thoughts arising from its engagement with the world. Guided by intelligence, the mind learns not to follow these thoughts and gradually abandons them. As thoughts attenuate, the mind is no longer occupied with the world and comes into quiet contact with the Self—the conscious I. In this inward stillness, the mind rests in the presence of the Self, without interference or division.

What Meditation Really Is

Meditation is not forcing silence. It is not stopping thoughts. It is abandoning of the thoughts which the mind produces. It is not by effort; it is effortlessness.

Meditation is turning inward, observing the mind, and being with the consciousness, that alone remains when thoughts are unfollowed.

Observing Without Following

In meditation, what is required is not to follow a thought, but to observe the mind process. Let a thought arise. Do not pursue it. Do not resist it. Simply unfollow it.

Every thought arises in the mind and dissolves in the mind. Thoughts do not need to be removed. They dissolve naturally when attention is withdrawn from the thought.

What Is Consciousness?

Consciousness is that which makes you aware of yourself and aware of others. It is the presence which animates and activates everything. When you wake up from sleep, you say, “I slept.”

In sleep, when the mind is not functioning, it is consciousness alone that later reveals the fact that you slept. It is ever-present, changeless, and formless.

Between two thoughts, there is a gap. In that gap there is stillness—calm, awareness, and present in the moment. This stillness is not dullness. It is consciousness itself.

The Sleep Example

When you wake up after good sleep, you feel refreshed and calm. This is because during sleep you are not with thoughts. The thought-producing machine, the mind withdraws, but is not conscious and not aware.

In sleep, you are with calmness unconsciously. In meditation, you are with that same calmness while fully awake—conscious of consciousness itself.

It is said that only what is done mindfully can truly be said to be done. In sleep, one may move the limbs unconsciously, yet it cannot be said, “I moved my legs.” Whatever we do in sleep does not belong to us in the same way. Similarly, being with consciousness has meaning only when the activity is done consciously.

In Closing

Meditation is learning to dwell inside, just as effortlessly as we dwell outside. To observe the mind, to unfollow thoughts, and to rest in consciousness—this is meditation.

No force. No struggle. No technique.
Just being—fully awake and alive.