by Adyashanti: One of the reasons I have people meditate is because I think of it as truth time. 
If you sit quietly for a period of time, eventually your denial starts to break down because it’s too painful to sit there and lie to yourself about what’s happening. During retreats, people often talk about a fear that they’ve always had or the rage they’re still in about something from 20 years ago. Just sitting in silence is enough to break people down. And that’s one of the reasons I teach inquiry and meditation.
If people think they’ve woken up to their true nature yet they can’t sit still without going crazy, then they aren’t half as awake as they think they are. Meditation is like an oven that forces the truth out. When you meditate without manipulating—something new to many meditators—then naturally there is a kind of unloading where the truth itself can arise spontaneously. You start to see and experience things you need to see and experience. Old experiences may arise that have been waiting for 30 years—not to be figured out or analyzed, but just to be experienced without going unconscious. Over time, as this natural unloading happens, people gain the energy they need to go even deeper.
