Sum, Ergo Cogito

Day 156: Although the works of Carlos Castaneda have been criticized by many as fabrications, there is certainly some element of fact in the material they contain. I speak particularly of his protagonist's frequent references to "shutting off the internal dialogue" as a requirement for true meditation.

Man is a thinker. His mind is filled with images and words, distractions to the goal of harmony. To illustrate what I mean, let's do a simple experiment which was put forth by one of my early teachers: don't think about a pink handkerchief. Can you get the pink handkerchief out of your mind? It keeps coming back like the bad penny as you try not to think about it because you persistently say to yourself, "I'm not supposed to think about that." Schooling in proper meditational techniques will allow you to put that obnoxious pink handkerchief away in a mental drawer.

I find that solitude, if perhaps not mandatory for success at meditation, is at least beneficial toward achieving the goal. The simpler the subject, the easier it is to experience it without the complication of verbal thought.