The Myth of Mind Clearing Meditation and the Reality of What You Already Are

It is a common sight in our world to see the seeker chasing after a specific state of quietude. We are told that if we sit long enough, if we breathe in a certain rhythm, or if we commit to a **mind clearing meditation**, we will eventually arrive at a destination called liberation. But we must ask: who is it that is going to arrive? And where exactly is this place that you are not already occupying? The separate self loves a project. It thrives on the idea of a journey because a journey implies a future where it might finally become perfected. Yet, the truth is far more direct and perhaps more unsettling to the seeker: there is no this moment because there is nowhere to go. When we speak of **mind clearing meditation**, it is helpful to be frank. Such a practice can certainly bring comfort. It can be a form of mental hygiene, a way to put the "mental kitchen" in order, as if we were tidying up a room to see the floor more clearly. It may even make the body-mind feel better in the moment, providing a sense of calm or a sharper focus. But let us not confuse a tidy room with the space that contains it. The absolute, the totality of what we are, does not require a clear mind to exist. The sun is shining even when the sky is thick with clouds. The clouds don't create the sun when they part; they simply stop obscuring the light that was already illuminating them. Even when you are distracted, even when the mind is a storm of noise, that is still the absolute expressing itself. We often live like someone searching for the donkey while they are already sitting on its back. We look for a "conscious presence" as if it were a hidden object to be found through effort. But who is seeking? If we look closely, we find there is no separate entity at the center of the experience. There is only a flow of thoughts, sensations, and perceptions. We give the name "mind" to this total collection of thoughts, but the mind has no substance of its own. It is a series of appearances. When the separate self tries to investigate its own origin, when it asks "who am I?", it often finds that it simply vanishes. This vanishing is not a loss; it is the falling away of an illusion. Liberation is not a prize for the "I." In fact, liberation is never *of* the separate self; it is always *from* the separate self. It is the realization that the one who wanted to be enlightened was never there to begin with. This is why we say that everything is already a perfect expression of the totality. The person who practices **mind clearing meditation** and the person who is completely distracted are both manifesting the same absolute. From the perspective of the whole, the silence and the noise are not two different things. They are like the silence that underlies a sound—the silence doesn't wait for the sound to stop; it is the very condition that allows the sound to be heard.