Meditation means learning to control our minds, thereby protecting our minds from domination by delusion and other afflictions. We may think, “Oh, I wish my mind were not dominated by ignorance and other afflictions.” But these afflictions are very powerful and very destructive; they operate despite our wishes. We have to work to develop effective countermeasures. We cannot buy such remedies from a store; even very sophisticated machines cannot produce them for us. They are obtained only through mental effort, training the mind in meditation.
— HH the Dalai Lama
Buddhist Quote for the day 
Yes. Right Effort is vital is seems to me. I seem to read a lot of teachings saying “thoughts will come into your mind during meditation, just accept them”. It is true, we make no judgements on our monkey mind, anfd allow the thoughts to float away. But it IS possible to achieve states of thoughtlessness, indeed the higher levels of meditation there is no possibility of thought. I would like to see more encouragement like this, that it is very possible to achieve a completely clear mind. Indeed “no-thought”is fundamental to zen teaching.
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