What Meditation Really Is by Sogyal Rinpoche

Meditation has many stages or levels, but the true purpose and highest goal of meditation is: to awaken in us the sky-like nature of mind, and to introduce us to that which we really are, our unchanging pure awareness, which underlies the whole of life and death.

Generally, we spend our lives distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. We are fragmented into so many different aspects that we no longer know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.

Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home.

Through meditation our mind begins to settle, and as it does, something extraordinary takes place: all the fragmented aspects of ourselves come home, and we become whole. Negativity and aggression, pain, suffering, and frustration are actually defused. We experience a feeling of peace, space, and freedom, and out of this settling comes a profound stillness.

As we progress further and come into touch with our true nature, it disarms and dissolves our ordinary thoughts and emotions. As this happens, tremendous love and compassion begin to shine through us, just like the sun with all its warmth. We find we are not only in touch with ourselves, but completely in touch with others also. As our tendency to grasp evaporates, the conflict, the suffering, and the pain of fragmenting and fighting with ourselves dissolve. We find ourselves content simply to be, spacious, open, awake and at ease.