For Thomas

and

Phoebenale

*

Meditation is a natural state of mind.

It is purely a mental activity.

The main goal in meditation is to establish contact with the Divine within - the awakening of the Divine Consciousness within. The main point in meditation is for the activated life-force to do its purification work.

Meditation is not a practice which one can grasp and become proficient overnight.

You have made a beginning in meditation the very first instance that you close your eyes to make contact with the Divine within.

Once you have learned to turn inward to make contact with the Divine within, you become the beholder of Its activity and expression so that you can draw your good from the Divine within.

As people awaken generally, more and more are viewing meditation scientifically rather than as a mysterious exercise practised by so-called mystics.

Do not be discouraged even if you seem to be making no progress in the early stage of meditation. With practice and perseverance, you can progress and may even master the art of meditation in due course.

Regardless of how many years you have been practising meditation, you will find that it is a wonderful, personal, on-going adventure with unlimited possibilities.

Meditation is not thinking about something as many people misunderstand.

It is a process of seeking Truth, of understanding ourselves better and of turning all our emotions into the calmness of meditation.

To do this we need to go very deeply into meditation, graduating from an infantile to advanced stage.

In the early stage of meditation, we strive to achieve stillness and calmness and to be very quiet and relaxed, and perhaps follow simple instructions in the form of guided meditation.

But as we refine our meditation, we begin to realize that meditation is more than just relaxing and observing and dealing with our feelings, thoughts, emotions or experiences. We realize that it is a process of seeking the truth of things.

Some people apply intense concentration when beginning meditation, others may use visualization or the chanting of mantras or other practices to help them to develop stillness and concentration.

Meditation is a process which heightens specific forms of sensitivity. In meditation we go inwards.

To go inward in meditation is to go to the source of our being, to go into the pure state.

In meditation we still our mind to bring about an inner awareness and a oneness with a powerful, harmonious Force which we can recognise as quite apart from ourselves and our environment.

It must be made absolutely clear that at no stage is meditation a means of escaping this world. Instead, it is an experience we go through to contact our own Inner Being - the Divine within.

The minute we relax our body and mind completely, deeply and spontaneously, meditation commences. And when we let go and relax fully, and enter into the silence within our inner mind, we are engaging in the process called meditation.

When we listen to the inner silence within us we simply remain silent without any expectation, without anxiety about the outcome, without trying to grasp or interpret anything.

When we enter into the silence of the inner mind, we enter into a vast openness; we enter into a silence that is not the absence of sound. Neither is the silence free from distraction. This silence is the presence of the awareness of the mind.

Meditation is not emptying your head.

It is concentrating yourself in a contemplation of the Divine. If you persist, the quality of life will change for the better.

You will feel peace, an inner calm, an unchanging force and a certitude within yourself.

When meditation deepens, it will move naturally into a level where one can experience its state of reality.

Concentration is a more active state.

Concentration is the capacity to focus one's attention at one point.

It is more difficult than meditation.

One can concentrate while meditating but this is a mental function and not a spiritual one.

If you have the capacity to concentrate, your meditation will be easier but one can meditate without concentrating. Many follow a series of ideas in their meditation. This is meditation, not concentration.

Thus, in meditation one can be involved in many things, whereas in concentration, one always gathers oneself at one point.

Hence meditation is a more relaxed action and therefore less tense than concentration.

The method of gazing at an object or at a point is a very popular one used in total concentration while meditation is a particular partial concentration of thought.

In ancient times, as well as today, people everywhere had and have their particular kind of meditation.

The details of the practice may vary or differ but the basis of meditation is similar. It always involves a special mode of mental activity and concentration.

When one is able to meditate properly, one does not fix one's mind on anything, since there is nothing to focus on.