Please share a personal experience of mindfulness in meditation and how it has helped the community at large. It would greatly motivate me in my practice.
Thank you,
Joya
—Joya Kshama, Usa
Dear Joya,
I am grateful for having had nearly a lifetime of meditation practice, so recalling a single incident isn’t so much difficult as simply overwhelming. But first, let me say that for me mindfulness has two aspects: one, the more common one, is that of “watching one’s thoughts” or being, at least, self-aware. For many meditators, having this happen for parts or most of a sitting is a victory and constitutes a “good” meditation.
The second, however, is even more valuable in the long-run, which is awakening to the “higher” mind which, following the example of Paramhansa Yogananda, we call “superconsciousness.”
This latter state is the mindfulness to which I aspire in my daily meditations and goes far beyond merely being self-aware on the level of the day-to-day ego and its myriad thoughts and body consciousness.
What is superconsciousness? Well, like good art or happiness, it defies definition but everyone knows it when we “see” it. Superconsciousness could be, in its simpler forms, described as a state of deep, inner peace, when thoughts are at rest and a feeling of quiet but deep happiness settles upon one like a weightless waterfall. It goes much deeper than this, but this latter description suffices for our conversation here.
Why just this morning at the Community meditation I felt blessed by a deeply calm but vibrantly dynamic sense of Presence, thrilling every cell with vitality and joy. I believe that the Ananda Communities (there are nine around the world) owe their “success” (meaning the harmony and satisfaction residents enjoy) to this daily practice. I am compelled to add that this beatitude derives in no small measure to the grace and spiritual power of our guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, as transmitted to us especially through Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda.
I can honestly say I don’t know how people in this world live without this taste of the heaven within! Each time you go to sit to meditate, tell yourself that you are there to taste this perfect, inner peace. Strive always, if even for a few seconds or minutes, to achieve perfect stillness of heart and mind (and, of course body), wherein the quiet, calm serenity of peace, like a flower, appears in your heart and smiles within you.
Then you will know that you can be happy always, under all circumstances. That is freedom, and true freedom is joy!
Blessings, and joy to you!
Hriman
