Most of us do not meditate in order simply to have an enjoyable experience during meditation: we meditate to find and cultivate peace, happiness, love, patience, tolerance, compassion, wisdom and creativity that we might grow in these qualities and express them in our daily lives. We spend time in meditation in order to improve the quality of all the rest of our time we are not in meditation.

What we gain during our meditation is more valuable than anything money can buy, any knowledge, possession or prestige; inner peace, light, love and joy are our real treasures and as long as we have them, we can also share these treasures with others. Just as we safeguard and secure our material wealth and possessions, so it is essential that we value and protect our spiritual treasure, the bounty of our meditation, for it is vulnerable, and can all easily be lost in a moment.

The greatest threat to our meditation treasure comes from our own thoughts. Thoughts are as pervasive in our lives as the air we breath: just as we would never choose to breathe poisonous air, so we need to be careful, vigilant and wise in regard to the thoughts we allow ourselves to play with.

Thoughts can take us to heaven – and to hell. Thoughts can be positive, progressive, inspiring, helpful. Again, they can be catastrophically harmful. All negative thoughts destroy our happiness: thoughts of bitterness, greed, doubt, fear, jealousy, resentment, blame, insecurity, pride. While good thoughts will help us maintain and extend the feeling and benefits of our morning meditation, just one negative thought, like a dark cloud obscuring the sun, has the power to obliterate our meditation-wealth and ruin our day.

To control our thoughts is a simple choice.

(to be continued…)