Melissa: Dear Ram, I have some more questions about meditation and inquiry. I was just reading an email satsang at your site titled Ain’t No Cheese Down That Tunnel and one paragraph in particular struck me:

“The mistake is that instead of dismissing maya and the doer and the belief in action from the beginning you are told to accept maya (experience) and the doer and develop a technique that gives a bit of temporary peace. This is what Vedanta calls indirect knowledge. You temporarily experience an effect of the self, i.e. peace, which you have to keep trying to ‘get back’ as the vasanas rip off your attention.”

I see that I keep buying into this idea that there is a doer, I am it and that I need to accept and work with experience. In the past, since nothing in the world really satisfied me (and generally made me feel worse because I would overload myself with experience), meditation and the resulting peace was a good option and a welcome relief. Now, when I find myself suffering over something, my habit seems to be to turn to meditation again for peace. I want to meditate and I see value in it. I guess I am seeing that “just sitting” without inquiry simply leads to momentary peace until the next thing “comes up.” I don’t want to just dwell in blissful states of mind while nothing really changes. So the key might be to use the clear state of mind that often arises from sitting for inquiry?

Ram: Meditation is fine and inquiry is fine, but they do not work without karma yoga. You are very rajasic, like Arjuna, and you need karma yoga. You are still attached to the results of your actions. Rajas is too strong an energy to subdue with meditation and karma yoga. You have to break its back slowly by karma yoga.

Melissa: Is there any way to know if I am on the right track with the meditation and inquiry? What changes? I know I should not be attached to results, but I am curious about this.

Ram: I wrote what I wrote above before I read this. You understand the problem. It is attachment to results. This keeps the mind disturbed. The key words in your last sentence are “should not be.” They mean that you are attached to results. You cannot progress without accepting the fact that the results are not up to you. When you see it, meditation will work. Inquiry in your case should be figuring out and accepting the logic behind the karma yoga view.

Melissa: Also, I wonder if you could recommend any particular satsang DVDs from your website for me? Do you feel that this would be useful?

Ram: You have a good brain. Read the karma yoga section in my book. You obviously have not assimilated the logic. We have a Bhagavad Gita set that is the premier scripture on karma yoga. I recommend it.

~ Much love, Ram