some thoughts on englightenment

There's something about meditating that is really good for me, maybe because I am such a type-A personality. It's one of the few things that helps me to calm down and focus.

I first meditated about 15 years ago, when my roommate's Indian dad hosted a "how to" session with us in our Ann Arbor living room. It wasn't until years later that I started to read about it and consequently meditated for a year or two, but somehow got away from it. Lately I've started to think that it's a really good way for me to deal with my crazy life in India.

I happened to be telling my friend Mahender that I should start again, and as a favor he ended up taking me to his friend's flat, where about 50 of us hosted and meditated with Guru Mohan, who was in town from Dubai. After having lost his daughter in a car accident, Mohan divorced and gave up his big-time corporate job to do what he's doing now: guide people spiritually.

I was somewhat distracted when we began but after a half hour I felt mentally focused and lucid. In the middle of the session I could feel him wandering about the room, but in front of me Mohan stopped and pressed his thumb against my forehead and between my eyes (here known as the third eye, or where your mind receives its enlightenment). Afterwards, someone asked him, Guru Master, why did you touch my third eye?

He told us that he acknowledged those of us who had the strongest energy during the session; those students were the ones who were most connected to him. Mohan said that he could almost see a flickering light there on our foreheads. For me, I thought: what an amazing way to teach and a powerful experience...to be connected to students like that, on such a personal level, despite that most of us sitting in on that session were strangers. Mohan said that it was a good session and that we would feel the effects of our focused energy over the next few days.

If that is the case, I look forward to some clarity and calming effects in my mind depite being surrounded by chaos (the city itself and my own mental preparation to return to my homeland ...a country from which I've been absent for the past six out of seven years.