minds – which, after all, are our most priceless possessions – should
care for them in the correct and proper way. This means train-
ing our minds with suitable meditation techniques. To use the car
comparison: it means examining the mind’s various component
parts to see if anything is defective or damaged; and then taking
it into the garage for a spiritual overhaul. This entails sitting in
meditation, examining the mental components, or sankhãras, that
make up our thoughts; then determining whether the thoughts
that surface are fundamentally good or harmful, adding fuel to the
fires of pain and suffering. Thus, an investigation is undertaken
to ascertain which thoughts have value and which are flawed.
Then we should turn our attention to the physical components;
that is, our bodies. Do our bodies keep improving with age or are
they deteriorating as time goes by – the old year inevitably turn-
ing into a new one, over and over again? Does the body continue
regenerating or does it inevitably wear down and grow older with
each successive day? Should we be complacent about this by fail-
ing to mentally prepare ourselves while there’s still time? Once
we are dead, it will be too late to act. This is what meditation is
all about: cautioning and instructing ourselves by examining our
shortcomings to determine what areas need improvement. When
we investigate constantly in this manner, either while sitting in
meditation or while going about our daily tasks, the mind will
remain calm and unperturbed. We will learn not to be arrogantly
overconfident about life, and thus avoid fueling the flames of dis-
content. And we will know how to exercise proper moderation in
our thoughts and deeds so that we don’t forget ourselves and get
caught up in things which may have disastrous consequences.
The benefits of meditation are too numerous to address, so
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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