Question:

I have a strange experience to share. Today in my meditation I felt like I was distanced from myself when I got carried away in my thoughts and the moment I came back to the breath I felt like that distance was gone. It is a strange kind of knowingness. Or am I now getting used to being in awareness?

Answer:

This is a just sankhara [impression]. Now let’s understand how this impression was formed.

Somewhere you heard that you are different from the body, that understanding created the 1st impression. Then you heard that people have out of body experiences, this deepened the initial first impression. Finally, this sankhara came up in your concentration practice to distract you with ‘thoughts’ masking them with this feeling that you are distanced from the body.

It is all the attack of Maara. As you go deeper, the attacks of Maara become stronger. Moving ahead on the spiritual path can also bring a hurdle – the danger of Yoga Maaya. One needs to be careful and tread lightly and easily.

While this experience of yours is a sign of progress, one must understand that it is just a milestone. One cannot get off the vehicle and hold onto the milestone, rejoicing that one has reached a milestone. Just like a good driver, acknowledges a milestone and moves on, it is our responsibility to avoid generating any Raaga with this achieved milestone and move on.

Congrats for getting there! At the same time, ignore it and dive deeper into your awareness research. Go deeper into the silence of your meditation. Be a spiritual scientist, who doesn’t stop at small little happy accidents like ‘out of body experiences’ and ‘attainment of various types of Samadhis’ instead keeps going till he hits the final destination where one goes BEYOND MIND & MATTER!

Yes, you are getting the hold of ‘Awareness’ but don’t get too happy about it. We must keep diving deeper to reach absolute silence beyond mind and matter. Keep chugging dear, I am right by your side!