OUR PERCEPTION OF THINGS OR…THE MAN WHO SAW AN ARTICHOKE

Years ago I spent six months on a course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Biarritz, France. It was one of the most interesting times I’ve spent with him because he was giving so freely of his knowledge and dealing with each course participant personally. We would meet with Maharishi after dinner every night in the opulent ballroom of the beachfront Hotel le Palais where he would explain the many things that would happen in our meditations that we did not understand.

Our daily routine was something called "rounding" where we would meditate for a time, then do a set of yoga asanas to wake the body up, and then another meditation, and then more asanas—like that, all day long, from morning until evening. We would take a midday break for a light vegetarian lunch followed by a walk for about an hour, usually along the beach. Then we’d file back to our rooms, dress in our simple cotton pants and tee shirts and continue rounding until dinnertime.

After dinner, we’d congregate in the ballroom where Maharishi would listen as we described our experiences in meditation. One by one, the course participants would step up to the microphone to share their experiences in meditation. One night I had come in late and was hunting for an empty seat just as a young man—we were mostly young men and women in our twenties—stepped hesitantly up to the microphone. He began to describe a image which recurred in his meditations. I don’t recall his exact words but I’ll never forget the word he used in his description because it sent Maharishi rolling into laughter. In his hardly audible voice, the young man told Maharishi that what kept appearing looked like… "the most beautiful artichoke in the world."

When Maharisi finally stopped laughing, he leaned forward into his own microphone and said, "this is very good—what you are seeing is a lotus flower!"

In Eastern religion, there are many stories of lotus blossoms appearing to the enlightened.