Many people think meditation is like some instant product, just add water (or just sit down) and the process works magically, dropping the meditator into a thoughtless world of bliss, stillness and shining lights! Not only do people this this, but they suppose they are doing something wrong or that their mantra is defective when the instant stillness doesn’t happen in the first week, and consequently many people discontinue the practice simply because they don’t not know what to expect.
So what does happen in the first weeks of meditation? “The mind is like a mad monkey stung by a scorpion”, said the great yogi Ramakrsna, and all of us who start meditating and try concentrating on a mantra know this to be true. Especially in the beginning, the mind is unruly. As you sit down so many thoughts arise in your mind. You get your mantra going and then you drift off thinking of something else. Sounds and noise from without sidetrack your internal concentration. Also your body won’t stay still, and you finally get up thinking that nothing has happened.
But it has. By constantly bring your mind back to your mantra you are building your capacity to hold your mind steady in the future. Much as a athlete in training, the body acquires great physical strength and, so too, the struggling meditator is developing mental strength and the capacity to concentrate. It is concentration which we are practicing in the beginning stages and it is after a time that we will come to the stage when we can truly fix our mind on the object of concentration, and hold it there…then we will be performing true meditation.
Another puzzling experience for the new meditator is that the mind appears more unsteady after commencing meditation. More thoughts than usual may come to the mind. And this is often taken to mean that the process is not being done correctly. Here, just the opposite is true. The function of the mantra is to internally work on our minds by cleaning out all the distortions and impression which our past actions (Karma/samskara) has registered upon our subconscious. Thus, the repetition of the mantra acts to revive memories and thought of what has come before. It’s like cleaning or building a house; in the middle of the process it may look messier than the beginning but its part of the necessary process to making making /cleaning a house. Likewise with our minds. Gradually the mind becomes clearer and clearer.
How long does it take? It’s hard to say exactly, it varies from person to person and one of the golden rules of meditation is never compare yourself with other meditators because everyone is different. But what is true, regardless of what you expereince in mediation but being regular progress will be made.
Often your friends will notice before your do the positive changes the meditation brings. They may comment on how you seem calmer, less stressed these days. More philosophical about life’s events. Generally more positive. Sooner or later you will notice the positive changes too, providing you are regular with doing the meditation. An athlete never gets fit by only training when he feel like it, similarly a meditator never get mentally “fit” by only meditating when he or she feels like it. Practice makes perfection and so being strict about regular practice is what will guarantee result.
Meditation 