Eight Signs of Progress in Meditation
Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?
I mentioned in one of my discourses and perhaps wrote in a book too that the word meditation in Tibetan means to familiarize oneself. When it comes to meditation, the contribution of Tibetan masters cannot be overstated; they combed religion out of meditation. In its purest form, they carefully eliminated, like weeds from grass, all the unearthly and unrealistic promises of rewards of intense meditation. And this is something I greatly appreciate. For, when we embark on the journey of meditation not expecting that we will fly or become tiny or levitate and all, our practice becomes pure and meaningful. Above all, it remains truthful and humble.
The other day, I was speaking to a wonderful life-coachee when he touched upon the subject of meditation. I have written on how to gauge your spiritual progress or the effects of meditation on you, but what about measuring your progress in meditation. In other words, if meditation was a skill (which it is), how would you know you are on the path to mastery? Well, let me share with you eight signs of progress in meditation based on my experience:
