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Once we have shielded our minds from external and internal sources of evil thoughts, it becomes the home of good thoughts
We go on witnessing various kinds of processes even during meditation. It has been found that a state of meditation is in many respects similar to the state of complete rest or relaxation. The human body contains an acid known as leptic acid. Its secretion in a state of rest is very small. In the state of meditation it is still smaller. Its decrease after an eight hours’ sleep is equal to its decrease after a twenty minutes’ meditation. This acid is harmful for the body. Many other things happen during meditation. Mental processes do not completely stop during meditation. They continue even in avitaraga (passionless) state. The kevali jinani (possessor of pure knowledge) is also not beyond them.
Gautama asked Bhagavana Mahavira, “Can a kevala jinani put his hand twice on the same thing”? Mahavira replied, “No, he cannot.” Gautama again asked, “How is it not so?” Mahavira answered, “Gautama, the body is often changing. It is not constant. The kevali has a body, and therefore, he cannot put his hand twice on the same space.
Space points go on shifting.” Thus even a possessor of pure and absolute knowledge is not beyond physical and mental processes. When the practitioner arrives at a state known as sailesi, which happens in the last or fourteenth stage of spiritual (meditational) progress, he enters into a state, which is beyond mental and physical process. This state is nearest to the state of emancipation. In this state, the soul becomes free from all kinds of artificial modifications and becomes motionless.
Lesya meditation is the easiest means of swimming with the good current. You cannot turn your thoughts in the right direction without this meditation. Social relations are the breeding ground of all kinds of evils, more especially mental evils. They force us to react. We cannot get rid of the life of reactions without meditating on auspicious colourations (lesya). There are three auspicious lesya called taijasa (deep red), padma (pink) and sukla (white). We can change our mentality by meditating on these lesyas. With the change of mentality these colours also begin to change. The outer world then begins to influence the inner world and vice versa.
Don’t keep company with bad men. To avoid the effects of bad thoughts we have to take precautions. The first is to subdue bad tendencies. Meditation of taijasa and padma lesyas purifies mental tendencies. The second is not to allow evil thoughts to arise in our minds. Meditation on the sukla lesya stops the rise of such thoughts. Once we have shielded ourselves from external and internal sources of evil thoughts, our minds become the abode of good thoughts.