Page 216 - Three Truths and Trillion Doubts

Common Meditational States of Mind Bliss
More on Absorption
1. I have absorption without consciousness
Absorption is good but we should be aware. The Sakshi has to be there otherwise it is to be concluded that we got into tamasic ananda. There is nothing of course you can do about that. Cleaning is the only solution that we have.
Service and Sacrifice
The commitment to serve in the area of handicapped children/persons requires a high degree of empathy and what the Vedic seers have said MAITRI which Lord Buddha expressed as Karuna. For that we require to grow in consciousness.
This leads to the main point why we meditate. Ordinarily so far as a person lives at the base level of animal, namely, attending to food, shelter and progeny one thinks that life is only the body and its needs. No one will deny needs or drives and urges. But human beings have an extra faculty of mind and also awareness of consciousness. Mind and Body are derivates from our Mother (called Sriya (Lakshmi), Bhuma, Ammavaru, Ranganayaki etc.) which in philosophy is called Prakrti. But 206