It is important to remember that the goal of Vedic Meditation is not to transcend thought in every 20 minute meditation session.
Vedic Meditation is a practice which systematically de-excites the mind. However, we may not experience pure silence in every meditation session.
As we de-excite the mind in meditation, the body follows and we experience a profound state of rest. This causes the body to unwind stress. As the body releases stress during meditation, the mind can become active with thoughts and we may even experience emotions or body sensations. Those experiences are the after effect or by-product of the body “unstressing”, detoxing and healing. When there is more stress in the body, there are more opportunities for stress to be released. During the early days of meditation, when the body is still holding a lifetime backlog of stress, only very little de-excitation is needed in order to trigger its release. As we clear out that backlog through regular daily practice, the trend is toward more sustained periods of depth in meditation.
Meditation is a process, not an outcome. The process during the 20 minutes session is to effortlessly favour the mantra whenever we remember to do so. If we follow this instruction then we have meditated, whether we transcend or not.
The outcome of meditation is how it enhances our activity and life when we come out of meditation.
The wonderful benefits that come from meditating twice every day, such as:
- greater physical energy
- greater mental clarity
- feeling happy for no reason
- being calm in demanding situations
- having adaptive responses to changes of expectations
are some of the outcomes of meditation.
Therefore, when we meditate it is best not to have any expectation of any particular result during the 20 minute session. We can look for the results after meditation in our daily activity.
Ultimately, the perfect prescription is simply to keep regular with our practice, and take the whole experience as it comes, without judgement or concern.
With love,
Limor