Meditation: Slowing Down Our Thoughts

In this three minute clip, Easwaran explains how by slowing down our thoughts in meditation we can come to experience peace, security, and joy.
TRANSCRIPT
And as your mind becomes more secure, you will find that thoughts move slowly. That's what meditation will gradually lead to. After many, many years, you begin to see your thoughts, which in former times you could not see because they moved so rapidly, so fast. And as you begin to see your thoughts moving slowly, thoughts of anger, thoughts of fear, thoughts of greed - because it is the negative thoughts that travel faster and faster.
This is the dynamics of Hindu and Buddhist psychology. They are not thinking in terms of are you good or bad here, they say slow down your thoughts. As long as your thoughts are going faster and faster you cannot control them, they will control you. As your thoughts begin to go slower and slower, you will recognize them. You will be able to regulate them. And you will be able to change lanes.
When anger has woven his way from the fast lane to the slow lane, it becomes compassion. Anger is power, and to transfer anger to the slow lane requires a great deal of skill, a great deal of skill to avoid collisions. So, instead of being ruled by your thoughts, now you become ruler of your thoughts, which is what Raja Yoga means. That's why meditation is called Raja Yoga. Anybody who is master of his or her thoughts is a king, is a queen.
So, as far as the body is concerned, great vigor comes to it, great energy, and as the mind gets slower and slower, it consumes less and less [skt] prana, [/skt] less and less gas. And I am testifying to you from personal experience that I don't have to keep my mind thinking all the time. When it is not necessary, it doesn't think. And when you are able to do that, then you realize what the meaning Om shanti, shanti, shanti means. There is such peace in my mind at that time, as a Catholic mystic says, if you squeeze my nail, peace will come out of it. This is permanent joy. This is the peace that passeth all understanding. And once you taste that, you realize what your real need is.