Along with the advice to not talk about it, it’s helpful to remember not to listen.
Obviously yes, when you’re working with a teacher and are looking for guidance and trying to figure out this spirituality stuff — at whatever stage of the path that you’re in — then listening to those who you feel have wisdom and experience worth sharing is the right thing to do.
But if you’re in a casual group setting where people are talking about their spiritual path, and the conversation turns to what people experience in meditation, well…. Don’t pay too much attention.
It’s fine and perhaps interesting and sometimes inspiring to hear what others say about their own meditations.
But what one person’s path manifests as in that person’s stream of experience is not translatable to anyone else on the planet!
It may be interesting, but that’s about it.
It’s also very tempting to elaborate on one flash of insight or awareness and build it up to be more than it was.
People are so often fixated on showing that they have accomplished something in their practice. It’s sometimes called spiritual egotism (this is just one way it manifests) and it’s good to watch for it.
Ever more important, though, is to recognize that what YOUR path will be is not what anyone else’s will look like.
It’s too easy to get hung up on what some other person has experienced or been blessed with, or the proclivities that they have to have fireworks-laden meditations — but perhaps those are simply not necessary for you. Perhaps your faith is so strong that you don’t need phenomena to reinforce your belief in the truth. Perhaps you already have conviction — or you simply have other skill sets or tendencies through which the power of meditation will come through, in a wholly different way than it does for anyone else, and quite possibly, a different way than you yourself would ever expect it.
Just like with the sleek images that many people present in social media, the edited instagram photos and the breathless stories of their fabulous vacations and the antics of their adorable kids, it’s common for people to do the same with their meditation. We all crave security and adoration and recognition from the world. It’s just how the human organism is wired. When we’re trying to slough off those tendencies of being “just” human, we can still get entrapped by them. Having others feel awe or admiration for my own advanced practice is a trap that I too am familiar with (how else could I write a post about it? 😉 ) and I can assure you, frequently those boasting of the intensity of their spiritual attainment are those with very little of it at all.
What your own practice will bring you will be BETTER THAN WHAT ANYONE ELSE HAS EVER EXPERIENCED.
I promise you this.
Because of that, don’t listen.
Don’t worry about what others have had. It doesn’t matter.
All that matters is getting on the mat and meditating, to see where Eternity will take you today.
And then, you can keep it tucked away inside you, a precious thing that you treasure, that only you know about.
Meditation is sacred, and your experiences are divine.
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