Question: I have read about different methods of clearing my mind of outside thoughts, but it seems that the harder I try, the more difficult it becomes. As I understand it, if you are meditating properly, light or knowledge will come from outside sources if your mind is completely clear. Is this true?

Sri Chinmoy: Light and knowledge do not come from outside sources. They come from within. You have been focusing your attention on a particular object, and this is concentration. Meditation is something else. When you meditate you focus on Infinity, on something very vast, deep, sublime. You do not see an object; you try to grow into an infinite expansion. In concentration you focus on something small, but in meditation you throw yourself into something very vast.

You say that it is extremely difficult for you to meditate. That is because you are trying to meditate inside your mind. The very nature of the mind is to welcome ideas — good, bad, divine, undivine. But the nature of the heart is to try to become one with the ultimate Goal. To clear the mind is very hard, it is true. So the best thing you can do is try to bring the heart forward and illumine the mind with the light of the heart. It is always advisable to meditate in the heart. The love and oneness of the heart and soul will unite you with Divinity. When you are well established in the heart, on the strength of your aspiration, then you can enter into the physical mind to transform it. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to deal with the mind and go beyond the mind. Throw all the possessions of the mind into the heart. When you do this consciously, the heart is able to bring the light from the soul into the mind, or the soul will consciously offer light to the mind. Then the mind can be transformed and illumined. Always try to throw the mind into the heart. Then your meditation can be meaningful and fruitful every day. Otherwise, you can meditate for years and years and have no satisfaction, because the mind will never stop disturbing you. So please meditate on the heart and try to identify yourself spontaneously with something vast, something sublime, inside you. Once your identification is strong it will be extremely easy for you to meditate.