The main character is what I call the mind....
This is a quote from the movie Waking life. Its absolutely true!! Its now a year since I have started meditating and even now my mind is not completely free of thoughts. But of course, there has been a marked improvement from what it was a year back. One thing I have come to realize is that persistence is extremely important. The goal of meditation is to take control of ones own mind. Now, one might think that it is easy or simple or whatever but an experiment to testify it is to concentrate on ones breath for 15 minutes. Just observe the breath coming in and going out through the nostril. If one can sit for 15 minutes without any thoughts and without losing focus of the breath then you are an excellent meditator.
When trying to concentrate on the breath, one will find that the mind wanders away like crazy. On close observation, one will realize that the mind wanders only in 2 directions namely past and future. The mind just wants to focus on anything but the present. This is not the normal tendency of the mind but rather has become a habit pattern of the mind. This habit pattern is what needs to the change from the past/future to the present. Again these thoughts are the feelings of desire or aversion that have been accumulated at the depth of the mind. Also, these thoughts begin to multiply until one realizes that he/she has to concetrate on the breath. One must understand that the thoughts multiply because the individual is reacting to those thoughts. This reaction has become the habit pattern of the mind. Rather than reacting to the thought, one must just accept the reality of the moment. For example, if a thought generates anger, then one must just accept the reality that he/she is angry at the present moment. Thats it.. do not react to the anger.. it will only multiply. By accepting the reality from moment to moment one will slowly but surely start changing the habit pattern of the mind. Eventually, all impurities from the depth of the mind will start emerging to the surface and the process of purification of the mind starts.
Another interesting point to note is that one does not react to the thought but rather to the sensation produced by the thought. Any thought will produce a sensation of joy, fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, pain etc. This may not be very apparent initially but an indication would be the flow of air during breathing. Any sensation will change the flow of air coming in and out through the nostrils. If one is able to detect the change in air flow, soon one will be able discover that a thought produces subtle sensations throughout the body and the attachment or aversion is towards this sensation rather than an individual or object. The key is to just observe, objectively :).
Hence, the main character is what I call the mind.....