How to cherish the meditative conditions bestowed each time?

” Maybe you will interact with her later on! Write down what you feel in meditation, and you can also write your dreams, the thoughts you have, the feelings you have towards yourself, towards family members, towards others, towards your Guide, towards God, the books that you read, the movies that you see… there are so many things.

Now, how do we observe and ‘read’ these inner states, which are also known as conditions? The first step is to create a conditions? The first step is to create a condition and then let itspeak to us.

Writing our experiences in a journal cultivates this ability, which is also the first step in retaining that condition.

Reading the inner condition is a relative thing. Imagine trying to read a foreign language that you don’t know – for example, Chinese, Tamil and Greek all look like Martian to me, as I am not used to the letters. At times I do not even know which language is written on paper, but it is enough to know that there is something written. So begin like that. Start with “Something is written.” Then start identifying the letters, then the words, then the sentences, and the subtle nuances. They come automatically when you begin somewhere.

To help with this, before meditating first scan your entire system from top to bottom and observe. Then, slowly, go into meditation. At the end, see if there is any difference between your condition before the meditation and afterwards. Then hold on to that difference in your mind.

You may not be able to give a name to it – like the state of Nirvana, or the state of detachment, or the state of sat-chit-anand – but during the day recall the way it felt. And if it is impressive, then even after one week you will remember, “Last Friday’s meditation was special; it was so beautiful.” So first get used to the experience and observe them. What happens later on? It is like giving somebody a mango when he doesn’t know its name. Knowing the name is important only he wants to ask for it to eat it again. But he will say, “I remember that fruit, it was so nice,” even if he has forgotten the name. When you have experiences, recollect and recapture now and then.

There are certain experiences of previous meditation sessions, I am unable to forget even today, because they were so impressive and mesmerizing. Was the meditation so important? No, it was the condition that changed me, that lifted me, that still haunts me. When you witness the difference in your state of mind and heart after such a meditation, then you will be able to hold on to it. It doesn’t matter what you call it.

Creating a meditative state

In every meditation, there is something unique that is bestowed upon us. This is how we receive spiritual nourishment or earn spiritual wealth. How do we then preserve the new condition that has been gifted to us?

(To be continued…)

This is the third part of the series ‘How to tame the tornado of thoughts in the mind’

Reprinted with permission by Kamlesh D Patel from Designing Destiny, 2019.