Don’t become a prisoner of meditation practices

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Reads question) Mohit Sharma from the USA, “Pranam Acharya Ji, I am paying attention to what and how I do. I have observed four states of mind. Is it natural to observe this? Are these all the same or different? And by doing it, will I go closer to a better quality of attention or dhyana (meditation), or is it another trick of the mind? These are the four states that I have observed: The first state, thoughts keep arising and I get lost. Most of the time, these thoughts relate to fear and worries; the second state -I make a conscious decision to think about something, I am aware of the decision but then, the stuff of stage one intervenes and carries me away again; the third state — I sit silently doing pranayama and paying attention to the breath, thoughts keep arising in the background. I try to keep my attention to breath, I keep hearing sounds near me, but I still remain attentive; the fourth state — I am working on something and completely absorbed in it without any thoughts and don’t even realize anything happening around me, just completely absorbed in what I am doing.”

Mohit, when you are mentioning these four states, you are probably assuming a progression. The first state is when thoughts arise and take you away. It’s…