When we engage in any new activity, we always want to know how we are progressing – are we doing everything correctly, can our technique be improved, are we getting satisfactory results?
Meditation is a subtle experience. There is no objective measurement or sign or proof that we are meditating well, or not. Especially in the beginning, this uncertainty about whether we are even heading in the right direction, and lack of concrete proofs of our progress, can be frustrating, even disheartening.
With meditation, it is essential to throw ourselves into it eagerly and utterly – and have no expectation of any result whatsoever. The fruits of our efforts will and must come – but will ripen in their own time, which we cannot force. Our only focus must be our regularity, punctuality and wholehearted application.
Don’t expect to attain a thoughtless mind, timeless bliss or universal oneness-love right away. Sri Chinmoy offers some simple, practical, down-to-earth advice on what we can look for:
“We can easily know whether we are meditating well or not just by the way we see and feel and think. Right after our meditation, if we have a good feeling for the world, then we know our meditation was good. If we see the world in a loving way in spite of its imperfections, if we can love the world even while seeing its teeming imperfections, then we know that our meditation was good. And if we have a dynamic feeling right after meditation, if we feel that we came into the world to do something, to become something, this indicates that we have done a good meditation.”
Goodwill, clarity and positivity: these are striking spiritual achievements. Hold on to them, maintain them throughout the day. Your meditation will grow from strength to strength.