A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

The words had magical effect on him. He decided to not lose hope. He realized that things could not stay like this forever, that it was temporary. And temporary it surely was as the following three years saw heavy rains and bumper crop. He bounced back. Wealth and honour came back in his life. He was overjoyed. His guru was back too. He promptly made arrangements to see his master with all kinds offerings.

Prostrating before the guru, he said, “With your grace, I’m so happy. Business has never been this good. To tell you the truth, I’m over the moon.”

“Do you have the bhojapatra with you?” the guru asked calmly. “Open it and read again what it says.”

He obeyed and the words on it reminded him that even this phase was temporary. Just like the bad times, even this would pass. From joy and excitement, his state of mind shifted to bliss and peace.

“This is eternal wisdom, my son,” the master added. “Stay even. It’s all cyclical.”

During meditation, emotions can be like gentle breeze sometimes; they uplift your mood and you meditate better. Sometimes though, the same emotions can be like tornadoes, ripping through your resolve and disturbing your equipoise.

They may come to you positively or negatively, in the form of lust or loathing, wonderful moments of the past or terrible fears of the future. Either ways, they pull you off-track, distract you and spoil your concentration.

There is a simple way of overcoming emotional hurdles during your meditation. When you find it difficult to focus due to positive or negative emotions, stop your meditation, remain seated in your posture and do deep breathing for a few minutes. Further, to overcome distractions on account of positive emotions, visualize a neutral image (like a stone, pebble or a ball of your favourite colour) or focus on your breath. Just become aware that you are overwhelmed with positive emotions presently. Let them pass. To cross the hurdles posed by negative emotions during your meditation, think of bright light, visualize an image that makes you happy. For example, a sunrise or sunset by the ocean, a form of your chosen deity, or simply blue sky, anything that makes you feel light basically.

Don’t worry about not being able to meditate, don’t worry about the diversion. Simply calm yourself down, get your equipoise back before you resume your meditation.

Emotional hurdles, however, are not the primary hurdles in meditation. Most of the time, you’ll find that the quality of your meditation is affected not on account of overwhelming emotions but something completely different. I call them mental blocks or hurdles. And they are of four types: restlessness, dullness, stray thoughts and random images.

Restlessness

As you sit down to meditate, after a few seconds, stray thoughts from all directions start to hit you. As you continue to try and build your concentration, you experience a certain degree of restlessness. It almost feels the more you try to stay away from your thoughts, the stronger they seem to come and get you making you restless. It is normal.

Restlessness can be in the form of anxiety, resentment, excitement or sensual stimuli. It is normal for all beginners, intermediate and advanced meditators; only the adepts are spared, that too by the sheer virtue of their practice and experience. The difference between an adept and an aspirant is that the former is aware of the restlessness as soon as it arises and promptly uses the mental application to pacify his mind, whereas an aspirant allows such mental restlessness to overpower him destabilizing his otherwise settled mind.

When you experience restlessness, and as it builds up, during your meditation, you may feel the uncontrollable urge to move, shift, talk, or even end your session. Thoughts in the form of emotions, experiences and plans linked to past or future may make you anxious, excited or aroused. A lingering thought over some right or wrong action may cause resentment.

While following the six principles of meditation, during the practice of meditation, especially concentrative meditation, it’s absolutely critical that you don’t pursue your thoughts or engage in recollection of any nature. You must not engage in any cognitive activity of examining right or wrong, good or bad and so forth. Simply remember that thoughts are just thoughts, they are devoid of any essence or meaning on their own. You should simply drop any thought that comes to your mind without reacting to it. Remind yourself to not be impatient when you feel restless. Just focus on your object of meditation by shifting your attention and persist patiently. It is okay to stop your meditation for a few minutes while you pacify your mind.

Restless Mind – A Grumpy Toddler