When one is on a journey, one will leave behind places one would not come back to. Our personality changes with meditation, you will notice new changes - big and small. It is important to take notice of what has changed. If you wake up a few minutes earlier than usual and feel fresh, get up, accept these precious gifts of meditation, dont resist the rewards of your hard work/realizations.
When one is on the journey, one will leave behind places one would not come back to.
One will find oneself in new places
or old-new places, changed places.
Same is with the internal journey, when you will peep in you won't find the same person, not anymore, as you progress on the path.
~more often this change/letting go happens, better it is. Try to learn to cope with new stuff, keep the mind young, curious, and not disappointed by change, even if it is annoying initially. A lot of my changes have been of letting go of expectations. Sometimes it is annoying to discover I no longer get pulled by the same stuff, that things dont appear that appealing and attractive anymore, I am many times taken by surprise at my different reactions to the 'same' things ... so I just have to take out time and reassemble priorities:)
If we have not felt changed, have not felt easier, have not not yet again fumbled to find a new balance within, then we haven not even begun meditation! Changes are like your earnings from meditation, if I had to strike a corollary.
Change is a sign of progress, one might be wise if one recognizes and lives the change, enables the change, towards better. Meditation leaves us lighter, we get rid of unreal preoccupations/burdens that one carried constantly earlier*. It is like trash kept in the room that one removes after a long while, initially you might miss it, but then its gone for good!
On the other side, you have to come back to same realities, you have to keep on with the supplies, keep the money flowing in if you are not a monk, and have a good comfortable dwelling, all this while introspecting/feeling 'nothingness' in places, in the body n in the mind.
For me, to discover a new facet of self is as regular as eating a meal. Every few hours ... worthwhile effort goes in the making:)
*As one becomes stronger in morality one becomes less fearful, and becomes more assured about the future. This is a natural change:)
Morality (five precepts) are like a safety net, if you wont cheat lie, deceit, misconduct, steal or take intoxicants - nothing to be scared of now...you have practiced Right Speech and have kept from harm, very well done!
