By Rudra Shivananda
Too often I hear from sincere seekers that they are trying their best and putting in persistent effort but nothing seems to be happening with their meditation. It gets very boring and they are tempted to give up. Doubts arise that maybe the meditation is not right for them or maybe they are not right for the meditation. What’s up with this? Shouldn’t there be a way to know what’s happening with one’s meditation?
It is critical to remember that no matter what form of meditation we are doing, the goal is to remove the obstacles that have accumulated in our mental, emotional, energetic and physical bodies that prevent us from experiencing our true blissful nature. In the physical body, our nervous system has been wired from birth with stressful obstructions which need to be cleared away before we can regain our center. It is the same with our mental and emotional bodies. It is the reason that we seem to be overcome by mental and emotional blockages.
Remember that the practices of yoga are for cleansing the karmic blockages and so you know they are working when the thoughts and emotions arise during your meditation! These are the indications that something is being released. Unfortunately, we get hung up with what is being released and oftentimes, we try to fixate on that rather than maintaining our calm during this cleansing process. When you clean house, you don’t keep the garbage that is the result, and so you should not keep back the thoughts and emotions which are released during the meditation – they need to be let go of.
We are so used to projecting our minds outward that when we try to focus inward, we get confused and don’t understand what is going on. Instead of practicing, we start thinking about what we should be experiencing. One must understand that the mind is continuously in motion. When one is awake, the mind acts as a sensory computer monitoring the five inputs of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch and when one is asleep, the mind takes the memories and re-organizes them to provide dreams. Only when one reaches the state of dreamless sleep does one get a rest from the mind. In the same way, only after the cleansing of karmic blockages is achieved does the mind become restful and the soul can experience its natural Spirit nature.
Accept what is happening during meditation and try not to judge or expect something different – it is what it is – it is what is now. A lot is happening during your meditation. When one says that nothing is happening, it means that what is happening is not what we expect should be happening – this is a mental trap that keeps us from our happiness. When a lot of thoughts come, it is progress and when very little or no thoughts come, it is also progress.
Relax and let the process unfold. Persevere in your practice and eventually, you will experience the bliss of your true Self.