Once, many years ago (and in front of a large group of people) I asked Baba Hari Dass a question about meditation. I explained that there were times during meditation when images or sounds came up, much like dreaming, though more vivid. I asked Babaji if the images and sounds I experienced meant I was “on the right track”, ie, that I was “meditating right”.

He paused for a moment then wrote: “when images or sounds come to mind, let them pass ….go back to meditating” .

In other words, to borrow a phrase from Ecclesiastes, don’t chase the wind.

Sometimes things in life seem to go so well: we feel liked, we feel productive, we feel like we are “on the right track”. But then something changes. We feel unseen or unheard, we feel unproductive, we feel like we somehow got on the wrong track. Either end of the “right/wrong” spectrum has the power to stir our emotions and, like a pendulum swinging from one side to another, we chase what we think we see in an attempt to get what we think we want. What if we were not defined by what we thought we saw. What if, throughout both “good” and “bad” we tried to remain consistent; our practice remained consistent.

The idea here is to acknowledge the wind, to feel the wind … but not chase it.

When images and sounds come to mind, lets see them, lets acknowledge them, and then lets let them pass. Lets go back to our practice and see where that takes us.

om.