Whether the brain can be quiet

Good morning everyone,

Here is today's quote:

Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all its activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, “I would like to have marvellous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet” will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but it is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise.

Meditations, p 4

The idea here is simply that self-awareness creates stillness. It puts an end to the movement of the mind that establishes duality. The awareness is the transformation. It does lead anywhere, to the fulfillment of any desire for the mind to be wonderfully quiet or anything. When the self is observed there is no room in consciousness for the other, the not me. The attention is directed towards the activity that creates and maintains the me. It is right upon it, upon the me, rather than just to the not me. Then there is no force.

Best wishes

Robert