Specific Emotions After Meditation

[Webimpulse]

Namaste all,

I had a meditation session today that I felt was quite profound - I went very deep into it today! However, after I started to come out of it, a very specific feeling came to my mind. Curiously, this emotion was as if I was cheated or robbed of something...like something big was going to happen to me but at the last second it was taken.

I talked to one of my friends about it - he seemed to suggest that it might be some kind of spiritual residue coming to the surface, possibly from a previous lifetime. That seems like the most reasonable explanation. However, I want to hear what others might think.

I do apologize if I seem to be posting a lot of vague and/or stupid questions to this section of the forums...I'm still learning the ropes of meditation. So please forgive my pestering, if that is what I'm doing.

[JaiMaaDurga]

Namaste Webimpulse,

I will not pretend to any great wisdom regarding meditation-
but what you describe could be considered in the context of
the cunning and wily nature of ego, in the sense of "grasping" or
"chasing"; many who begin a practice of meditation do so with
the intent of settling the mind, to no longer find their thoughts
set whirling here and there by every passing breeze of emotion,
to draw closer to serenity and farther from reactivity...
yet as has been said before, one who says,
"I seek to be free of desire" is still expressing a desire!
In this way it can be said such a sword only guarantees the
asura's head will grow back immediately, in a manner of speaking.

Have you seen those animated films in which characters blithely
continue walking in a straight line off a cliff with nothing but
air beneath their feet, perfectly safe- until they look down, upon
which the laws of physics resume and they plummet swiftly to
the ground? While this may be a somewhat facile comparison,
that moment in meditation where the ego stirs and says,
"Oooh, I'm really accomplishing something!" is not too far away
from this.

In terms of my own practice, feelings of anticipation, of expectation, of
failure, of success, of gain or loss- these all have been
merely indicators that ego has jumped back in the driver's seat
again.. the more I am chasing or grasping for progress or success,
the farther away any hope for either becomes..

I speak only of that which was taught to me, and my own experience-
please do not take my words as presuming to know best for you,
or anyone else, they are only reflecting the path Devi has seen fit for my
feet thus far

JAI MATA DI

[Twilightdance]

I'm still learning the ropes of meditation.

But please do it under the guidance of a particular system, with deeper study and if possible under a real guide. Without referring to a particular system of meditation there is no telling what experiences mean or does not mean.

For example, if you are following a buddhist insight meditation theory and practice, the experience you describe means nothing and would probably get a cane from the teacher for even dwelling in it. But another system might provide you some explanation or even the usefulness of such experiences.