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Of all the day's activities, this non-activity, this retreat into meditation, must become the principal one. It ought to be the centre, with all the others circling round it.
4.4.1.1... Meditation is essential for every man because without it he lives at too great a radius from his divine centre to understand the best thing which life can offer him...
4.4.1.2,Spirituality is within. If one does not feel it, then one needs to search deeper, beneath the weaknesses, faults, passions, and desires of the ego. It is still there, but the search must be properly made. This is where help can be found, in the words of those who have already found it.
4.4.1.3The consciousness beyond the usual everyday consciousness can be reached only after a disciplined training of the mind. This suppresses its activity in thinking and banishes its extroverted worldliness of character.
4.4.1.5It comes to this, that what people try to find in many books is waiting for them within themselves, to be discovered by regularly practising the art of meditation.
4.4.1.6This idea, or belief, that we must go somewhere, meet someone, read something, to accomplish life's best fulfilment is the first and last mistake. In the end, as in the beginning, we have nothing else to do except obey the ancient command to LOOK WITHIN.
4.4.1.7The purely intellectual approach to the Overself can never replace the psychological experience of it. This latter is and must be supreme.
4.4.1.15It is a principle of philosophy that what you can know is limited by what you are. A deep man may know a deep truth but a shallow man, never. This indeed is one of its reasons for taking up the practice of meditation.
4.4.1.16If something awakens in him, a serious urge to unfold more of his spiritual nature, then the practice of meditation becomes one of the best ways to get into action.
4.4.1.22The consequences of putting the contents of his own mind under observation, of becoming fully aware of their nature, origin, and effect, are immeasurably important.
4.4.1.24With the sole object of calming and clearing the mind and concentrating its power, it is a good practice to sit in meditation for a while each day before beginning to study philosophy. This helps the studies.
4.4.1.25Prayer is a help, but some method that not only goes still deeper into the human heart but helps to silence the ego is also needed. This can be found through the practice of contemplation.
4.4.1.26To the work of reshaping character and extending consciousness, the practice of meditation is indispensable.
4.4.1.27Meditation is important in this Quest. It must be learnt. It helps to create a condition wherein the holy presence can be felt, where before there was nothing, and where the holy guidance can be given.
4.4.1.32Withdraw into the inner Stillness: what better thing can a man do? For it will point to the goal, give direction and support to finding it.
4.4.1.34… meditation is essential in order to develop sensitivity and intuition, which play important roles on this Quest.
4.4.1.35Both the necessity and justification of meditation lie in this, that man is so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he is never aware of the mind out of which they arise and in which they vanish. The process of stilling these thoughts, or advanced meditation, makes this awareness possible.
4.4.1.36So long as thoughts remain unmastered, this present and personal experience shuts us out from reality.
4.4.1.38Psychological methods are not less necessary than religious exercises. The thought-life of man is ordinarily a confused, a wandering, and a restless one. Meditation, practised in solitude and quietude, must be regularly inserted into it, first, to help improve its character, and second, to open a pathway towards conscious knowledge of the higher self.
4.4.1.44We have never learnt to keep our minds still as we sometimes keep our bodies still. It is by far the harder task but also the most rewarding one …
4.4.1.47,The Westerner must learn to end this endless restlessness, this daily impatience to be doing something, must practise faithfully and regularly “waiting on the Lord,” or meditation. Thus he will come less and less to rely on his own little resources, more and more on the Lord’s—that is, on his Overself’s—infinite wisdom, power, and grace.
4.4.1.55Meditation is no longer limited to a few Christian monasteries and Oriental ashrams but has spread among laymen around the world.
4.4.1.63… The importance given to meditation can be exaggerated. The work on oneself, on one’s character and tendencies, is also important. The study of the teachings is equally important. And so, out of all these approaches, there comes a ripening, a broad maturity which prepares the aspirant for recognition and full reception of the grace—should it come.
4.4.1.82,The following of these exercises is indispensable to train the mind, to create a habit which will make entry into the meditative mood as easy in the end as it is hard in the beginning.
4.4.1.98In the earlier history of Christianity, the place given to meditation was quite important and prominent.
4.4.1.99The practice of mental quiet was formerly confined to the monasteries and convents and kept from the knowledge of lay folk. When Miguel de Molinos tried to alter this state of affairs, he was sternly suppressed.
4.4.1.102… So far as religion consists of a sense of reverence for a higher power and an attempt to live a good life in accordance with the ethical injunctions of the great religious founders, it is a definite necessity for the mass of humanity …
4.4.1.120,There are different kinds of meditation. The elementary is concerned with holding certain thoughts firmly in the mind. The advanced is concerned with keeping all thoughts completely out of the mind. The highest is concerned with merging the mind blissfully in the Overself.
4.4.1.129The novice must be warned that certain ways of practising concentration, such as visualizing diagrams or repeating declarations, as well as emptying the mind to seek guidance, must not be confused with the true way of meditation. This has no other object than to surrender the ego to the Overself and uses no other method than prayerful aspiration, loving devotion, and mental quiet.
4.4.1.131What I call natural meditation, that which comes of itself by itself or which comes from the admiration of nature or of music, is not less valuable than any meditation of the yogi, and perhaps it is even better since there is no artificial effort to bring it about. The man feels his inner being gradually lapsing into this beautiful mood which seems to coalesce a feeling of hush, peace, knowledge, and benignity.
4.4.1.135Meditation rises to its proper level when the meditator thinks only of the relation or the aspiration between himself and the Overself, and it rises to its supreme level when he drops even such ideas and thinks of nothing save the Overself.
4.4.1.138This art of meditation is in the end a matter of reaching ever-greater depth within oneself, until one penetrates beneath the ego and enters pure being.
4.4.1.139… At the point where meditation becomes contemplation, thinking paralyses itself and brings about its own temporary death!
4.4.1.140,Meditation is not a one-sided but a two-sided affair. We begin to practise by being mentally active, but after getting well into it, we can continue only by being mentally passive.
4.4.1.144If meditation is to be mastered, two fundamental conditions must be remembered. The first is, ever and again bring attention back from its straying. The second is, ever probe with it deeper and deeper, until the still Void is entered. At the end let yourself become one with the Void.
4.4.1.145First, mind is held until its continual changes are stilled; second, it is then possible to switch its identification to the Overself.
4.4.1.146The first step is to capture thoughts and hold them by the power of will. The second step is to carry the attention inward, away from the five senses of physical experience.
4.4.1.147The art of meditation is accomplished in two progressive stages: first, mental concentration; second, mental relaxation. The first is positive, the second is passive.
4.4.1.148During meditation the basic aim is to free the mind from worldly concerns and personal desires, to present an empty, clean receptacle for the divine inpouring, if and when it is attracted by his preparedness for it.
4.4.1.152Meditation first collects our forces in a single channel and then directs them toward the Overself.
4.4.1.163It is a work of leading the attention more and more inward until it reaches to the plane beneath thoughts, where peaceful being alone holds and satisfies it.
4.4.1.164Symeon, Byzantine mystic, theologian, and saint who flourished near Constantinople nine hundred years ago, thus explains the foundation principle of meditation: “Sitting alone, withdrawn mentally from the world around, search into your innermost heart.”
4.4.1.171It is a means of severing attention from its ever-changing objects, and then enabling the freed mental force to study its own source.
4.4.1.172The divine essence is within us, not somewhere else. This shows us the correct direction in which to look for it. The attention, with the interest and desire which move it, must be withdrawn from outside things and beings.
4.4.1.173Meditation is inner work to attain the soul’s presence. It is sometimes quickly resultful, but more often goes on for a long time before that attainment is realized.
4.4.1.188Only when he becomes entirely engrossed in the one idea, unconscious of any other idea, can he be said to have achieved concentration, the first stage.
4.4.1.227The second phase will not come into being unless he ceases to try only to think about it and starts to feel for its presence, drawing the energy down to the heart from the head, and loving the presence as soon as it is felt. He will express this love by letting his face assume a happy pleasant smile.
4.4.1.228He begins to practise real meditation only when he begins to reach the silence of feelings and thoughts inside himself. Until then he is merely maneuvering around to attain this position.
4.4.1.229In these first two stages, the will must be used, for the attention must not only be driven along one line and kept there but must also penetrate deeper and deeper. It is only when the frontier of the third stage is reached that all this work ceases and that there is an abandonment of the use of the will, a total surrender of it, and effortless passive yielding to the Overself is alone needed.
4.4.1.247When meditation deepens into contemplation, the man penetrates the still centre of his being and there finds the best part of himself—the Overself.
4.4.1.262The meditation may serve a useful or helpful or constructive purpose, but it will not serve its highest purpose unless it transforms itself into contemplation--that is to say, unless it transforms itself from an effort-making activity to an effortless experience by taking him out of himself. His own will cannot do it but divine Grace can.
4.4.1.264The concentration on that Other is to be so complete that he can echo the words of Theresa Neumann: ”I am so completely alone with the dear saviour that I could not possibly have any time to think about myself.”
4.4.1.265The wandering of thoughts stopped and the consciousness held steady, the next phase is to turn it--if he has not already started with that idea--towards the diviner part of himself in aspiration, in devotion, and in love. As he continues this inward focusing, the willed effort becomes easier and easier until it seems no longer needed: at this point it is replaced by something deep within coming up to the surface and taking him OVER. He should remain perfectly still, passive, embraced.
4.4.1.274Meditation, if successful, accomplishes two main purposes: it draws the mind inward, releasing it from the physical imprisonment, and it elevates the mind to a heavenly state of union with the Overself.
4.4.1.312The practice of meditation finds its climax in an experience wherein the meditator experiences his true self and enjoys its pure love.
4.4.1.315The first onset of this grace in meditation is felt in the same way the onset of sleep is felt; it is hardly perceptible. At one moment it is not there at all, but at the next it has begun to manifest.
4.4.1.318He knows that it is only his own feebleness of concentration that stops him from entering his deeper self, that when he does succeed at rare moments in making the passage he enters a world of truth, reality, and selflessness. He knows that meditation, for a properly prepared mind, leads to no illusion and no sleep but to his own Overself.
4.4.1.327If one returns daily to the Centre of his being, keeps the access to it open by meditation, he withdraws more and more from the body's domination and the intellect's one-sidedness. That is to say, he becomes more and more himself, less and less limited by his instruments.
4.4.1.328If he can develop the facility to sustain his meditation and keep off distracting thoughts, he can gain a cooler vision in worldly matters and a clearer one in spiritual matters.
4.4.1.331Meditation proves its worth, shows its best value, and merges into contemplation, when it is deepest. For then thoughts cease to flutter, the ego is lulled, the world vanishes, and the burden of the flesh with it.
4.4.1.341To reflect upon That which we are will one day bring It into consciousness. To contemplate It by seeking the stillness in which It abides, will one day make It a palpable presence.
4.4.1.342The feeling of a sacred presence during meditation is important in every way. It provides a channel whereby Grace can be given, ideas communicated, and character uplifted.
4.4.1.348Just as a novel creates a diversion for the reader and changes his world for a time, so a successful period of meditation transfers consciousness to another zone.
4.4.1.356It becomes a communion between the human and the divine in us, an adventure in seeking and finding oneness with the Overself.
4.4.1.365One thing which he is likely to derive from the regular practice of meditation, when some proficiency is attained, is the sense of inner growth, a definite awareness that progress is being made.
4.4.1.375The quality of a meditative session is not to be measured by its timed length but by its effective contact with Reality.
4.4.1.385The practice was at first undertaken because of the benefit he hoped to get from it. But, with some proficiency, it is now continued also because of the pleasure it gives him.
4.4.1.386The lack of enjoyable result following the practice does not mean that it has been in vain. The belief that he is sitting in the presence of the Overself, if clung to despite the meditation's dryness, will one day bring him a Glimpse at least. But he must come to it faithfully each day.
4.4.1.391Once he is able to push the door open, he finds himself in a place where the light is heavenly, the peace indescribable, the feeling of divine support immeasurable.
4.4.1.394If the meditative act is used aright by the intellect, will, and imagination, it can become a means to an inspiration and an ecstasy beyond itself. It can be used as a stimulus to creative achievement in any field, including the spiritual and the artistic fields. It should be practised just before beginning to work. The technique is to hold on to the inspired attitude or the joyous feeling after meditation is completed and not to let it fade away. Then approach the work to be done and carry the attitude into it. It will be done with more power, more effectiveness, and especially more creativeness...
4.4.1.416,The improvement of character is both a necessary prelude to, and essential accompaniment of, any course in these practices of meditation. Without it, self-reproach for transgressions or weaknesses will penetrate the peace of the silent hour and disturb it.
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