Mental culture through meditation is without rival in helping you achieve this sort of understanding and serene happiness. The Dhammapada is an ancient Buddhist text which anticipated Freud by thousands of years. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow.
Meditation is intended to purify the mind.
It cleanses the thought process of what can be called psychic irritants, things like greed, hatred and jealousy, things that keep you snarled up in emotional bondage. It brings the mind to a state of tranquility and awareness, a state of concentration and insight. In our society, we are great believers in education. We believe that knowledge makes a cultured person civilized. Civilization, however, polishes the person superficially.