Diary Writing: Part II

So we don't want any information. All that we want is a recording of what you feel during meditation and the changes that you perceive in yourself afterwards -- during the day, or during a period of time, you know, during the week -- any time. For guidance, please refer to Master's Autobiography Volume-I. Nothing is superfluous, because you will find Master has very often written, "No change perceived." I asked Him also, I wrote to Him and said, "Why are you asking me to print this -- 'Nothing perceived.' No change perceived.' day after day?" You see, it seemed a waste of paper. But He wrote back and said, "It shows that I have been observing myself." And it's a very correct thing. Because very often we know there are changes in ourselves and we don't observe them. So it is the need to observe ourselves that is most important in maintaining the diary.

One idea of writing your diary is to write what you have felt and forget it. Now, unfortunately, you don't write, but you remember all the time! So you see, when we write and forget, the record is there. I can compare after two years. Like a man who drives up a mountain, looking only forward. And when he is right at the top, he can look down and see all those horrible, dangerous curves, and canyons, and crevices, and cliffs over which he came. If you had looked there then, you would have probably driven your car off the road yourself. "Aaah!" That finishes it!

From the Mission's Diary ….
A diary is not merely a book in which we write our thoughts and the day's activities. It is no doubt this too, but it is also a progressive record of one's spiritual develop-ment and evolution. The progressive nature becomes evident and perceptible to one who maintains the diary only when it is re-read after a year or so. When a person climbs up a mountain, one sees hardly anything of the road either above or below, because of the twists and turns that the road takes. But when one reaches a sufficient height one can look back and see the winding road on which one has come. In effect we gain perspective understanding and knowledge of our growth by maintaining the diary.

A diary must be to record authentic events and thoughts, undistorted by exaggeration and complete without suppression of valid material. In fact, it should be a candid and open record with nothing hidden and nothing omitted from the context. Such a record makes it easy for a person to look into himself with absolute candour, by which assessment of one's own condition becomes simple and easy, and one can also slowly begin to accept oneself as he is without feelings of shame and guilt. Simultaneously, one is able to take corrective action through the Grace of the Master and the method that is available to us.

A diary is therefore a very important personal document which can, if maintained properly and regularly, become a useful instrument in one's self-assessment, and therefore in one' evolution.

A further feature of the Diary is that the diary of abhyasis who progress well on the path can also become records for reference by other abhyasis, and thus help them on their path too. I, therefore, pray that all abhyasis gain the necessary wisdom to maintain the diary regularly and meticulously.