132 Veddnta- Sara, or Essence of the Veddnta. [_No. 158. 



The meditation without difference is to place upon the being without 

 duality the same act of the understanding, formed by the form of it 

 (that being) after having removed the differences between him who 

 knows, the object of knowledge, and knowledge itself. As water alone 

 appears by the disappearance of salt, which is formed by the form of 

 water ; so appears the being without duality alone by the disappearance 

 of the act of the mind, formed by the form of that being. Still it 

 must not be thought, that there is no distinction between this state 

 and sound sleep: for though in either the same absence of the act of the 

 understanding does occur, yet, from the existence and not existence 

 of that act in either state, the distinction between them is evident. 

 This meditation includes : refraining, religious refraining, sitting in a 

 peculiar posture, suppression of breath, coercion, internal fixing and 

 meditation. 



Refraining includes the following acts : refraining from injury, 

 regard for truth, abstaining from stealing, obedience to the spiritual 

 teacher, and not accepting (gifts.) 



Religious refraining includes purification, contentment, devotion, 

 reading (of the Vedas) and meditation on the Supreme Ruler. 



Sitting in a peculiar posture are the different modes of placing the 

 members of the body in a prescribed form, as in the form of a lotus, &c. 



Suppression of the breath is the peculiar mode of expiration and 

 inspiration, and of keeping the breath. 



Coercion is the refraining of the senses from their objects. 



Internal fixing is to fix without intermission the acts of the internal 

 senses upon that being. 



Meditation, is here the first one, which has the difference in itself. 



There are four obstacles to the perfect meditation without differ- 

 ence : viz. listlessness, absence of mind, passion, and propensity to 

 pleasure. 



Listlessness is the sleep of the mind, (caused) by not attending to 

 the being without duality. 



Absence of mind is attention to other things by not attending to 

 the being without duality. 



Passion is inadvertence to the being without duality, not from list- 

 lessness, or absence of mind, but from the act of the understanding, 

 being fettered by the desire of love, or other passions. 



