Nisargadatta Maharaj on Meditation

It has nothing to do with effort. Just turn away, look between the thoughts, rather than at the thoughts. When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet, you just find your way between. When you fight, you invite a fight. But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance. When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it.

The Contemplation of ‘I am’ by Nisargadatta Maharaj
Questioner: When asked about the means of self-realization, you invariably stress the importance of the mind dwelling on the ‘I am’. Where is the causal factor?  Why should this particular thought result in  self-realization? How does the contemplation of ‘I am’ affect me?

Maharaj: The very fact of observation alters the observer and the observed. After all, what prevents the insight into one’s true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only. When you follow my advice and try to keep the mind on the notion of ‘I am’ only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable; yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness.
I Am That, The Acorn Press, Pg.271-272


Maharaj: For meditation you should sit with identification with the knowledge "I am" only and have confirmed to yourself that you are not the body.  You must dwell only in that knowledge "I am"--not merely the words "I am."  The design of your body does not signify your identification.  And also, the name which is given to you or to the body is not your correct identity.  The name which is imposed on you, or the name which you have heard about you--you have accepted that name as yourself.  Similarly, since you have seen your body, you think you are the body.  So you have to give up both these identities.  And the indwelling knowledge that you are, without words, that itself you are.  In that identity, you must stabilize yourself.  And then, whatever doubts you have, will be cleared by that very knowledge, and everything will be opened up in you. 

Question: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?
Maharaj: We know the outer world of sensations and actions. But of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. Incidentally, practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious release energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.
I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears.

The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness)
http://nisargadatta.net/

When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself  to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

As Nisargadatta says: "All paths lead to unreality". In the clear and present nature of your own being - there is a total openness - is it being ignored? - Is it something fearful? - Is it so threatening? - Do we engage ever so willingly with anything but THAT openness? - just to avoid the absolute naked 'truth' of it. - All of our endeavors, all of our labors are in vain and we suffer unnecessarily - all because we believe in something that does not actually exist.

'Who' is it happening to? Anyone who has ‘personal’ investments in a future time, in believing that they will acquire some special state at some future moment, is simply ignoring what is clearly obvious right now.

Anyone who teaches methods and practices about such fictional ‘attainments’ is clearly ignoring what is clearly obvious right now. - They imagine that they are doing great service for their companions and that story is an indulgence in a fabrication. – Such is the nature of appearances. – We believe in ‘the appearance’ and ‘the story’ and we ignore our true nature. The idea of being present is just an idea and any story woven around that idea is a fantasy. – The FACT of Being – Being presence-awareness – Awareness of presence is not an idea or a concept. – It is wordless and silent. - That is understanding beyond the realms of duality, good, bad, “I have got it’ and ‘I have lost it’.

In the clear and obvious ‘present evidence’ of THIS timeless Being-ness, right here, right now, all manner of concepts and ideas come and go. – In seeing them for what they are, there is a complete knowing that they can never truly ‘transport’ you away from ‘presence’. – ‘Who’ is it that believes that they leave this presence or that they are dislodged from ‘presence-awareness’? – Who?

You may reply – “It is me”. – Well, what is that ‘me’? - Is that what you truly are?

The ‘me’ is only a thought and a story. - How can a fictional character attain anything, no matter how elaborate the practices are?

In nature nothing is at stand-still, everything pulsates, appears and disappears. Heart, breath, digestion, sleep and waking—birth and death everything comes and goes in waves. Rhythm, periodicity, harmonious alternation of extremes is the rule. No use rebelling against the very pattern of life. If you seek the Immutable, go beyond experience. When I say: remember 'I am' all the time, I mean: 'come back to it repeatedly'. No particular thought can be mind's natural state, only silence. Not the idea of silence, but silence itself. When the mind is in its natural state, it reverts to silence spontaneously after every experience or, rather, every experience happens against the background of silence.

Now, what you have learnt here becomes the seed. You may forget it—apparently. But it will live and in due season sprout and grow and bring forth flowers and fruits. All will happen by itself. You need not do anything, only don't prevent it.