The Art of Meditation

Everybody in the world knows the word “God,” but there are few people in the world who know God. For most of us God has remained a word, a term, a power outside the self; God, Itself, has not become a living reality except to those few people who are known as mystics. Meditation leads us to an experience in which we know that there is a God. It leads us to a point where we are as convinced of the reality of God as we are of the fact that we are here reading this book. If all the newspapers in the United States carried headlines tonight saying that we were not in this place at this particular time, this announcement would not alter our knowledge of the fact that we are here. God is as much of a reality, as much of a presence, as much of a power, as much of an entity and individuality as we are, and God can be just as well known by us as we can know ourselves or one another.

WE KNOW GOD THROUGH EXPERIENCE

From the moment that we know God through experience, life changes for us, because there is a relaxation of our personal selfhood. A feeling arises of something other than ourselves operating in us, through us, and for us—something greater than ourselves. This has been the experience of all mystics. They have actually known God; they have felt God’s presence; and God has become an active power in their lives. There are not many of such people in the world. If there were but a few more who really knew God, perhaps those few might be enough to save the world. According to Scripture, ten righteous men have saved a city. The mystics’ conscious awareness of the presence and power of God is the product of experience: it is not mere conversation about God’s availability; it is not only an affirmation or a statement; it is not merely a platitude or a cliché; it is a living fact.

SO THE SEARCH BEGINS

So the search begins, and it begins in different ways. How it begins depends upon our background; it depends upon where we happen to be at any given moment and what is going on in our particular world around us. There have been people whose search began in orthodox churches and some of them have found the answer there. They have discovered the kingdom within themselves, but have continued working in the church as a form of service and sometimes as a form of gratitude. Some have found God through an intellectual approach, and a few have found a purely spiritual way. Others have come through teachings that are a combination of the intellectual and the spiritual. There are those who have come to the spiritual path through books, and there are those who have come through living teachers, while others have made contact with the spiritual saints and seers who have never died. To know the truth as so many words, quotations, passages, or theories is one thing; but it is an entirely different thing when, through meditation, the Word takes root in our consciousness and comes forth as spiritual fruitage. We are told that the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” It is really true that when the Spirit has been touched or when It has touched us, then the fruitage comes forth in the form of harmony, wholeness, completeness, and perfection. The purpose of this blog is to help you practice the art of meditation by which the Word takes root, so that they come into an actual awareness, an actual consciousness of living in the Spirit. Our object is to attain a measure of that mind which was in Christ Jesus, and then let It do with us what It will. It is to reach that consciousness in which Paul revealed, “I live yet not I, Christ liveth my life”; or “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” In other words, the activity of the Spirit comes alive in us, and It takes over: we are no longer good and we are no longer bad; we are no longer sick, but neither are we well. We are at a stage which transcends the pairs of opposites.

IN SPIRITUAL WISDOM

In spiritual wisdom there are no pairs of opposites. God is, and, therefore, there is no concern as to whether or not we can reach God, because there is nothing for which we need to reach God: the day is already beautiful; the fruit is already on the trees; the flowers are already blooming; the tides are flowing; the sun and the moon and the stars are in the heavens; harmony is. In this state of spiritual consciousness we come to that place where we rest and relax in the realization, “God’s in his heaven—all’s right, with the world!” As you turn within and Meditate-all’s right, with your world! In that realization, we withdraw from the struggle for the things of this earth.

There is an area of consciousness revealed in meditation through which we are instantly one with God and with all spiritual being and creation, and through which we find all forms of good instantly available. This area of consciousness has been described as a Sea of Spirit, the universal or divine Soul, the Father within. In achieving conscious contact with this Sea of Spirit or the Father within, we find divine Love pouring Itself into expression, so that we no longer live by personal effort alone, but by grace. Rather than seeking our good from persons or things, we tap this universal Soul and become beholders of Its activity, pouring forth as the ideas which become the human forms of good necessary to our present experience. It is only as we learn to look within to this Infinite Invisible that we begin to understand the nature of grace. Instead of seeking or desiring something already existing as form or effect, let us learn to turn within and let our good unfold from the divine Source, the Infinite Unseen. Let the business and professional man look to the Divine within; let the sick and the sinner seek healing and perfection from within. Let each one of us ever be alert, watching consciousness unfold as new and richer forms of good, experiencing the abundance of life—by grace.

To understand that Soul is the eternal storehouse of all good is to permit the activity of the Christ to function in our experience. Let us draw our good from the infinity of our own being, from the kingdom within. Touching that center, the Father reveals our heritage as “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” to all the heavenly riches. This is to live by grace, the gift of God. The children of God always live by grace. The secret of grace is contact with the Infinite Invisible, the universal center of being within us. This is the experience of the Christ. In mystical literature, this spiritual experience is called Illumination, Cosmic Consciousness, or Christ-Consciousness; in the New Testament, it is spoken of as being “born again,” or rebirth. Reading and studying inspirational literature and scripture, as well as frequent pondering and meditating on God and God’s creation, lead to actual communion with the Father, which brings to our consciousness this touch of the Christ. Keeping the mind stayed on God leads to an awareness; sometimes, there is even a voice, and we know that “he performeth the thing that is appointed for me to do.” Those who have attained this light have no further problems of existence, since now they are fed, clothed, and housed by the infinite fountain of life which we call the Christ. This moment of grace cannot be adequately described, since it appears in different ways to different people; but all who have received this light understand the experiences of the illumined of all ages. The activity of the Christ, resulting in a life by grace, is by no means limited to the past. Today, many men and women are experiencing the Christ and are living lives of beauty, health, harmony, and joy—by grace. With truth now available to all who can read, spiritual illumination is a possibility to every earnest seeker. “Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace.” The awareness of the Father within is the beginning of a life by grace.

FINDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD

To live by grace enables us to do greater things and to achieve better results in all our activities. This spiritual impulsion and divine guidance permit us to drop all concern for our personal welfare, or for that of our families or nation. Freedom from fear, danger, or lack comes only as the Comforter appears. The voice of Truth utters Itself within us, and It becomes the “peace be still” to every storm in our experience. It is as if there were a Presence always going before us to “make the crooked place straight,” to make the desert “blossom as the rose,” and to open the doors of opportunity, service, and welcome. As the activity of the Christ is manifested by greater and still greater deeds of spiritual power, our trust and faith grow by leaps and bounds. Secure in this inner conviction, the struggle against every form of discord ceases, and we live “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit”—by grace. A few people are born into the world with some measure of Christ-consciousness, but anyone with sufficient perseverance, application, and fidelity may develop and cultivate a Christ-awareness, that “mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” It does, however, require devotion, consecration, and a receptivity which recognizes and welcomes the Christ as It touches and awakens our Soul into newness of life. In the silence of our being the Christ speaks and we hear, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. . . . I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” This consciousness of God’s presence is developed by patience and perseverance, in quietness and stillness, and by abstaining from the use of mental power or physical might, so that the Spirit may function. “Be still, and know that I am God.” “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. . . .” By grace are you saved.

THE PURPOSE

The purpose of meditation is to attain divine grace. Once this grace has been attained in a measure, it takes over our experience and lives our life, performs those things which are given us to do, and makes the crooked places straight. We no longer live by bread alone, but by this inner grace. Satisfying relationships, abundant supply, successful business activity, and creative endeavor are the tangible effects of grace. First must come the inner grace before the things of this world can be added to us; but we can never receive the grace of God so long as we seek it for the purpose of demonstration, that is, seeking God in order to possess some person or thing, or to achieve some place. That is the reason meditation can never be used to demonstrate an automobile, more money, or a better position: meditation is for the purpose of realizing God. In meditation God is revealed as the life of individual being. God is the embodiment of all good. In achieving the experience of God, our good appears as whatever the need may be. We fail if we attempt to gain any thing separate and apart from God. God, Itself, is the good. Prayer or meditation for material things and persons cannot be answered by a God of Spirit. Such an objective defeats the purpose of meditation.

Scripture tells us that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. Who is the natural man but the human being, the prodigal son, still deep in material consciousness, praying that his materiality may be made a little better, a little richer, a little more, or a little less? We pray to be stouter or we pray to be thinner; we pray to have more money, seldom to have less, although that might be a very spiritual prayer. The point is that we pray for an improvement or an increase of that very materiality of which God has no knowledge, and such prayer is not answered. Very often our human desires, if fulfilled, would leave us unsatisfied, because as human beings we do not possess the wisdom to know the things of which we have need. It is the Father within who is all wisdom and all love.

SPIRIT MEDITATES WITHIN US

It is not really we who pray or meditate at all; the Spirit meditates within us, and we simply open our consciousness to let the Spirit reveal our need and its fulfillment. Therein is the secret. How different that is from doing mental work, declaring or affirming that this or that shall come to pass—and now, this minute. Rather, in going into meditation, our attitude should be that of the little Hebrew boy, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” That is the true attitude with which to enter into meditation—opening our consciousness to God and letting God fulfill Itself within us. Let God utter Its Word within our being—not our words, but the Word. We shall find that Word to be quick and sharp and powerful; it does not return unto us void. It does the work whereunto it is sent, but it must be the Word of God, not your desire or my desire. The true aspirant on the spiritual path has no desire other than the fulfillment of God, the realization of God, the experience of the Christ. How could there possibly be an unfufilled need if the Christ is operating in our consciousness?

The Christ must fulfill Itself. One desire alone is legitimate and that is the realization of this activity of the Christ in our consciousness. “The Father within me, he doeth the works.” The Father is within me and the Father is within you; then why is it that the works are not done? There is one thing needful, and that is our conscious realization of Omnipresence. The activity of God is within us, the presence of God, the power of God; but we have built up a state of consciousness consisting of layers and layers of material sense. We have not succeeded in breaking through these layers to reach the atmosphere and altitude of God within us and, until we do so, we shall fail in our meditation and miss the path to fulfillment.

Most of us come to the search for God with a purely material outlook on life: concerned that the heart beat so many times a minute, that the digestive and eliminative organs function in a prescribed way, that our supply consist of so many dollars; always believing that satisfaction can be found in the external world. Some believe that money will bring that satisfaction; some believe that fame is the answer; still others believe that fulfillment lies in good health. How often is it said: “If only this pain could be stopped, then I really could begin the search for God. I can’t do it while I am in such pain,” or “If only my rent were taken care of, then I could be at peace and would be able to search for God.” In other words, these people are implying that the realization of God is dependent upon some physical or financial condition. Evidence to the contrary is the fact that there are people with millions of dollars who have not discovered God; there are people in perfect health who have not known God; nor have they found either completeness, peace, or fulfillment. That is the state of consciousness of most of us as we come to the search for truth. Let us reverse the picture: Let us begin the search for God; and in finding God, see the pain disappear; watch the lack, the limitation, and the sin vanish.

As long as we are merely trying to exchange physical discord for physical harmony, we can have no conception of what the kingdom of God is, of spiritual riches, or of spiritual health. We must begin our meditation with the recognition that neither health nor wealth is the object of our search for God. Any desire for things or persons will prevent or delay our entrance into the spiritual kingdom, but the steadfast remembrance that the goal we are seeking is God-realization will open the way and make a highway for our God. In that realization, we find all things added unto us, or to be more accurate, we find all things included within us. We must realize that we have no objective other than the achievement of the kingdom of God, that we have no demonstration to make except the demonstration of our spiritual Selfhood; but that we must demonstrate: first of all, for our own development; and secondly, as a witness to the world that God is individual Selfhood, and that this state of being may be attained by all those who are ready to give up the world, not by removing themselves to some remote spot, but by giving up their desires for that which the world can give.

Goldsmith, Joel S.. The Art of Meditation . Acropolis Books, Inc.. Kindle Edition.