Q. During my meditation ‘what am I?’ I had a very scary experience. The crown of my head ached for days afterwards and I kept hearing an angry thought that ‘you are a dog!’ I am now afraid to continue practising because I could not control the voice. I thought I may have conjured up a demon that hates me. Can you offer comment or help?

A. There are some practitioners who go through similar phenomena to yours; some people have unusual experiences such as seeing terrible things and hearing strange sounds, whereas others have very wonderful and fantastic experiences during meditation. No matter how wonderful a voice you may hear, or how holy a scene you may see you should not be attracted by them. No matter how horrible a voice, or a figure may sound or appear, you should neither try to control nor be scared of them.

Just leave them alone and don’t be concerned with them. Instead, focus all your attention on your question and all the illusions will disappear by themselves. Ancient masters would say that even if one hundred Buddhas appear, we should not be attracted by them.  

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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