Doing good things
We already talked about the ego and how meditation should have a positive effect on this ego by making our ‘false’ ego smaller. When our ‘false’ ego gets smaller, we tend to avoid doing things that are not good for us or others. If we feel good from ourselves we don’t want others to feel bad and we don’t need much anymore, since we already feel good. Someone that doesn’t feel good and thinks more money would solve this for example, would be more inclined to do something bad to get this money.
Socrates even teached that doing wrong is because of a lack of knowledge. The person doing wrong, thinks that changing the things around us will make us happy by itself. Socrates held the belief that no one knowingly chooses to do wrong. He argued that wrongdoing inevitably harms the person who commits it, and since people do not intentionally seek to harm themselves, any wrongful action must stem from ignorance.
So if doing wrong is because of ignorance then knowledge should result in trying to do good things. And thus when we meditate it should result in us becoming a better person. Therefore we can easily understand if our meditation is working or not. It should result in a bigger awareness and this should result in a positive change, also for the people around us. If this is not the case then we should evaluate what we are doing and make changes.