Although the mind searches unceasingly for ways to end its suffering, they say, it usually confines its search to the external world and thus finds only more misery. And even when we gain enough wisdom to look within, at first we encounter only scattered or uncontrollable thoughts, feelings, and daydreams. The sages agree that meditation is the path that leads to absolute reality, but that a scattered mind is sure to cause delays. Mantra, they tell us, is the vehicle by which the mind becomes one-pointed and inward and thus reaches the eternal silence that is the source of bliss.