8  Meditation TC  "8  Meditation" \l 1

Expansion of awareness is gained through meditation. It is through expansion of awareness that we find beauty even in the thorns which contribute to the wholeness of the rose.

Meditation does change the personality. It takes away the hardness that is there and brings that mellowness which love inspires. It teaches how to love, the meaning of love, and even how to become love. That is the basic change required in the human being of today.

If you have a jug of dirty water, put that jug under the tap and open the tap. As the clean water falls into the jug, the dirty water will be slowly cleared away leaving only clean water. By constantly doing our meditations we are doing the same thing—we are adding divine power to the mind and body. The positive energies being more powerful, push out the negative energies.

It is only when we dive within ourselves and find the actuality that is within that the outside universe ceases. It does not cease as far as the material components of it are concerned, but it ceases in our conceptions.

We meditate effortlessly—but our daily living must be filled with effort.

By meditation, or whatever spiritual practice that is allocated to you, you go beyond the realms of the mind, you go beyond the realms of the body, you go beyond the realms of the finest relativity, and you merge away into the Absolute, where experience does not need an external factor, where experience does not need an experiencer, where experience experiences itself. That is bliss. That is the love which Christ talks about—and it is not difficult to reach there.

The value of meditation lies in this, that not only the quality of one’s life, but also the quality of the environment is improved.

We are trying to open up consciousness in a more direct, quick way. We want to find the source of all happiness.

Meditation is not, and never could be a form of escape from reality. Drug taking is an escape from reality. Meditation is a way to make you face reality. The efforts of drug taking and meditation are directly opposite. One forms dependence, the other forms independence.

If you are a Christian, become a better Christian. If you are a Buddhist, become a better Buddhist. If you are a Jew, become a better Jew. Meditational practices have nothing to do with religion.

Our meditational practices are designed to bring about an integration of mind, body, and spirit so we can function as total beings. Then even the sex act can be elevated to such a degree that it becomes a meditation, a complete mergence.

A beautiful, pleasurable experience you have in meditation is only caused by diving to a certain level of the mind where the impressions of pleasurable experiences are stored. That is just being projected to the conscious level and you feel very pleasant.

Meditation and spiritual practices are a prevention, not a cure.

When a person goes into samahdi, if it is real meditation he will not be conscious of his mind or his body. At that moment the spirit exists within itself. The body breathes and the mind becomes a void. Because one has transcended the mind and the body, there is a gap. It is only when you come out of samahdi that you realize, “I have been in samahdi.” The experience of that samahdi is a joy, a blissful experience, an alertness of itself without the reflection . . . Pure Light.

The purpose of meditation is to experience truth. We don’t want to know about truth—for that you go to a university.

Universities only tell you about a thing, what a thing is. What we learn through meditation is to experience what truth is.

We do not need to analyze the mechanics of darkness, we switch on the light. That we do through meditation, where we reach to the deepest layer, the source of light, and bring forth the light to banish all the darkness that is in our lives.

When properly chosen by a spiritual master, a person’s mantra incorporates that moment when the individual soul parted from the universal soul and became individualized. That very action, that very motion, created a sound. So the mantra that is given to a person incorporates the very first impulse of an individual being since he was individuated, his present state of evolution, and the full range of that which he can attain.

Meditation gives the mind the quietude to push aside that whole universe which is the mind, and allow a greater force to come through. For this the heart, the core of one’s personality, is the vehicle or the entrance. This process starts at the level of the mind, which consciously makes the initial effort, which requires discipline, until the mind goes to a deeper level. That conscious mind must ignore the repositories of all the samskaras which are in the subsconscious, so as to create a direct path to the superconscious, the finest level of relativity, which is the truest reflection of the light. When this level is reached the reflection shines through to the conscious mind, and enlivens the conscious mind. When the conscious mind is enlivened by such reflection, it gradually draws the true light of the spirit to it. Then the conscious mind too can experience the unfolded spirit, which is forever unfolded at the finest superconscious level.

Things at their subtle levels are more powerful. As we go to the deeper recesses of the mind and gather greater force and power, we use this strength to overcome the conditioning of the mind.

When you stand by the seashore the sea seems so rough, with the waves high and turbulent; but in an airplane a mile or two up . . . the sea seems quiet. Like that, when we begin to expand our awareness through meditation practices our daily problems fall into perspective.

When a person does not have any experiences during meditation he must never feel that no progress is made . . . the progress is there.

Flashy experiences in meditation are not signposts. You are just awakening certain layers of the mind, which produce all the stars and colors. It could very easily be done with a mallet on the head!

Meditation is the easy way of cleaning oneself of samskaras, the impressions that have gathered in the ego itself.

Meditating is like performing an operation, using an anesthetic so that it doesn’t hurt to cleanse oneself. But if the operation was performed without using an anesthetic the cut would be very, very painful.

It is good that you experience the full range of thoughts and emotions during meditation. It is good in the sense that without suffering, you are dissolving the impressions instead of having to live out those experiences in practical daily life where they could become so, so painful.

You look at this flower now. After some months of proper meditation, if you see the same flower, it will assume a different quality for you. It will be a means of providing you with far greater joy, appreciation, and beauty than would have been perceived before. Therefore the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” There are many simple sayings and injunctions that we hear, of which we do not understand the true depth or the true worth.

Proper meditation creates that openess of heart through which you dive deep within; and in diving deep within, you develop and express greater and greater waves of love in the environment and in your home. Meditation makes life beautiful.

There are such divine forces at work through these practices that you awaken that which is dormant within you: you awaken the beauty. Most people live a life like a beautiful bud—but that bud has to be nourished and cared for, so that it will open up and fulfill its dharma.

Mediation awakens virtues and positive qualities in you that you need to come to realization.

The purpose of meditation is to bring about a harmony between mind, body, and spirit. The harmony already exists; all it requires is conscious recognition and experience. What do we mean by experiencing harmony? The answer is simple: to feel peace with yourself, so much so that all problems can come and yet you remain peaceful. It is like Kipling’s poem, “If”—everything can go all mad and haywire around you and yet you preserve your peace and tranquillity.

That is what meditation aims to do by a systematic process of taking your mind to the deeper layers inside. You automatically draw peace from the stillness within.

Though this only requires quieting the mind, that is not all that happens: by activating this inner resource in your daily life, you being living in compliance with the harmonious laws of nature. These harmonious laws are the truest reflection of the indescribable God.

Because you are bringing this inner resource, the inner energy, into your waking state of life, it then becomes a spontaneous process—You live God!

Whenever a person can exercise his totality in any action, then be sure to know that this is a form of meditation.

Most people don’t get answers because they do not still themselves sufficiently for the answer to come. Each of us is responsible for that. If I don’t get an answer to a problem, it is I, or something within me which is blocking the answer, and that is why I don’t get it.

Every act in life, every thought, every word and deed is nothing but a mantra.

If, through meditation, we have the way of contacting Divinity, then why should we contact disembodied beings? Disembodied beings—”on the other side,” as mediums would say—are not realized beings.

Everyone has the opportunity, through spiritual practices, to become the King. That is the true meaning of the daily prayer, “Thy Kingdom come.” Where must the Kingdom come to? Forget that which is around us. Let that Kingdom come to us inside here, and all that which is around us will look after itself. Find the Kingdom within, and the external kingdom is automatically found.

During the waking state of life meditation makes us face the mirror squarely and see our faults. It not only makes us see our faults, but meditation also gives us the strength to overcome those faults.

There is a direct line from the small, conscious mind, leading through the various layers of the subconscious and even past the superconscious, into the area where all knowledge exists. Through meditation we gain access to this pathway.

As one gains greater and greater energy from within through meditation, life becomes more joyous and peaceful because the dirt within oneself is being washed away and dissolved.

Through meditation we develop an openess of heart. We also develop an expansion of mind. Thus we become alert to the things that uplift our lives, bringing us Grace and greater happiness.

To find real bliss is not an external search; it is an internal search. That is why we meditate.

Modern psychology tries to probe and find causes, we do not. Why analyze the causes? There is a way whereby those energies can be brought forth to clear away the dirt.

In this room if there is a lot dirt lying around, are you going to analyze the dirt? Or are you going to bring the broom? Which is better? What is the sense of saying this is sawdust and this came from the wind blowing it in, and that the baby made a wee there? Just bring the broom and sweep it out. Take the direct line. You have this ability.

Through spiritual practices we are working with energies. We are activating energies, but activating grosser energies and very systematically leading those grosser energies to reach the subtler and subtler energies which are in the mind. For the mind has various strata—the conscious level, the subconscious level and the superconscious level.

Meditation not only gives you awareness . . .  it gives you knowingness.