Although I was advised that the meditative experience may not result in “bells and whistles” I still felt somewhat discouraged when, after 5 weeks of continuous practice using a Personal Mantra, to me, nothing had happened. I wrote to my Spiritual Teacher about it and he asked me to relate anything that I considered unusual that occurred during my meditation sessions.

I take this opportunity to share with you these experiences to encourage you to pay closer attention to what you are experiencing when meditating and share the outcome with your Spiritual Teacher. Otherwise, like me, you may assume that nothing is happening and this could dampen your desire for the spiritual path.

I usually will sit quietly for about 10 – 15 minutes after each meditative session. One morning, during this relaxed time I felt thirsty; fortunately for me I had a bottle of water close by so I raised it to my head and took a nice long drink. To my surprise, the water tasted sweet and not like water at all, in fact, it was like nothing I had ever tasted before and the thought that came to me then was, this is what divine elixir tastes like. I then laughed at this thought and said to myself that I was imagining what had just happened and dismissed the event.

During another meditation session, I saw a large circle which was jet black on the inside and had the consistency of velvet with a bright light around the rim of the circle like the corona during an eclipse. I was aware of being at the bottom edge of the circle with my head just peeking in, almost like when one is peeping through a window. As my head entered the circle, I was struck by how silent inside the circle was and to me I heard the sound of silence. I remember saying to myself, this is what silence sounds like. Just as I had that thought, the image disappeared and my eyes opened. Again, I dismissed it, as I assumed that it was my overactive imagination at work.

It is only upon my Teacher explaining the significance of these experiences that I realized that I was not stuck as I thought and should be encouraged to go on and not to dismiss my experiences as just being an overactive imagination.