Meditation.
Remembering/Concentration
on God.
The meditative state is the highest state of existence. (...) The animal has its happiness in the senses, man in his intellect, and the god in spiritual contemplation. It is only to the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world really becomes beautiful. (...) Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.195.
Meditation is that special form of concentration in which the attention has been liberated by scientific yoga techniques, from the restlessness of the body-conscious state and is focused unfalteringly on God. Meditation is the concentrated flow of one's attention and consciousness toward communion and oneness with God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.6 (footnote).
:Meditation is a twofold discipline that has a twofold function. First it is supposed to give you sufficient control over your mind and memory and will to enable you to recollect yourself and withdraw from exterior things and the business and activities and thoughts and concerns of temporal existence, and second - this is the real end of meditation - it teaches you how to become aware of the presence of God; and most of all it aims at bringing you to a state of almost constant loving attention to God, and dependence on Him. The real purpose of meditation is this: to teach a man how to work himself free of created things and temporal concerns, in which he finds only confusion and sorrow, and enter into a conscious and loving contact with God in which he is disposed to receive from God the help he knows he needs so badly, and to pay to God the praise and honour and thanksgiving and love which it has now become his joy to give. Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. PP. 217-218.
And commemorate your Lord within yourself, publicly, secretly, and quietly, day and night. Quran 7:205
Unceasing prayer consists in an unceasing invocation of the name of God. Whether talking, sitting, walking, making something, eating or occupied in some other way, one should at all times and in every place call upon the name of God, according to the command of Scripture: Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Kallistos, Byzantine spiritual writer, 14-15th Century.
Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy Spirit - the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection and meditation. Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries... This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God. Abdu'l-Baha
Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, engage your body in My service, and surrender unto Me. Completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me. Gita 9:34
Surely in remembrance of God are all hearts comforted. (...) Remember Me, then, and I will remember you. Quran, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.298.
The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night, until the end of life. Theophane the Recluse, 19th Century.
(...) In this way, the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme. Gita 5:21
For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Prtha, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death. Gita 12:6-7
Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt. Gita 12:8
Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend. Gita 18:65
God's remembrance is a powerful weapon. Just as iron alone can cut iron, similarly, remove your worldly desires and evils with the help of God's remembrance. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 50.
Do not get upset over worldly ups and downs as these are transient and will pass away. Meditate on the Lord with patience and full faith in the grace. It will bestow upon you physical as well as spiritual gains, Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 68.
How can the Pure, Divine Lord dwell in an impure, passionate heart? If you wish to meet the Lord, absorb yourself in His remembrance, so deeply that you may completely forget everything else. As long as you remember even a trivial thing, the Lord shall not take His Abode in your heart. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 287.
Selfless service and meditation upon the Lord should be your prime duty. In fact you should make this as the mainstay of your life and without which you feel you cannot live. Be indifferent to honour or dishonour. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 333.
All hindrances shall be instantly removed if you concentrate on the Lord, before commencement of any task. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 364.
Do not waste your time. Always engage yourself in meditation and devotion. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 741.
One who meditates upon the Lord is saved from committing evil deeds. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 769.
The key to success is that before commencing any task, abandon all desires and concentrate steadfast on the Lord. Then your task shall surely be accomplished and no hindrance shall come your way. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 936.
Even if you are surrounded by contrary situations and you find no way out, seek the protection of the Lord. Do not lose your patience but hear the inner voice and act. No harm will come to you. Outwardly, it may appear that you are incurring loss but in the end you will benefit immensely. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 937.
The devotee who remembers the Lord wholeheartedly is never forgotten by Him even for a moment. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1050.
Live in the world but do not let the world to occupy your mind. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1057.
Entrust all your burdens and cares unto the Lord, because a burdened mind cannot engross itself in meditation. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1474.
Keep an eye on each breath of yours all the time. Not a single breath should go waste without remembering the Lord. (...) Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1489.
Whenever we forget Lord's remembrance or the Word, we are engulfed with sorrows. To extricate from these sorrows, turn your attention towards the Lord immediately. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1617.
Do not waste your time. Each and every breath is priceless. Let not a moment be wasted without service and meditation. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1661.
If you are in trouble, remember the Lord and you will be rid of that trouble in no time. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1798.
Those who concentrate and meditate on the Lord with a one-pointed mind are looked after by Him for their living and well-being. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1919.
Unless you eradicate your outward desires, you shall not be able to concentrate on the Lord. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1971.
Only when you meditate on the Lord every moment of your life, will you be able to remember Him at the time of death. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 2098.
(...) The best meditation is to do your duty. To obey orders is real yoga. Teachings of Babaji, P.69.
Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God, and that all besides is but folly and vanity.(...). Let us renounce, let us generously renounce, for the love of Him, all that is not Himself; He deserves infinitely more. Let us think of Him perpetually. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, P.53, 54.
By turning off the ordinary flow of thoughts, which reinforces one's habitual way of looking at the world, one's world begins to change. Thomas Keating, Finding Grace at the Centre, P.25.
Any form of meditation or prayer that transcends thinking sets off the dynamic of interior purification. This dynamic is a kind of divine psychotherapy. The experience facilitates the coming to consciousness of one's motivation and evil tendencies, and sometimes enables the organism to release deep rooted tension in the form of thoughts. (...) Thomas Keating, Finding Grace at the Centre, P.31.
"Sometimes, meditation is nothing but an unsuccessful struggle turn ourselves to God, to seek His Face by faith. Any number
of things beyond our control may make it morally impossible for one to meditate
effectively. In that case, faith and good will are sufficient. If one has made
a really sincere and honest effort to turn himself to God and cannot seem to
get his wits together at all, then the attempt will have to count as a
meditation. This means that God, in His mercy, accepts our unsuccessful efforts
in the place of a real meditation. Sometimes it happens that this interior
helplessness is a sign of real progress in the interior life - for it makes us
depend more completely and peacefully on the mercy of God." Merton,
Thomas. Thoughts In Solitude. P. 50.
Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn <ghorn@uswest.com>
Writers like John of the Cross tell us that one act of pure love achieves more than all the exterior works in the whole world. And, of course, we have tended to dismiss all this as pious hyperbole. But now some scientists are beginning to say things like that. Some scientists are open to the hypothesis that in meditation a life-force is released which is more significant than nuclear energy. The energy that science looks to is not, of course, the whole story. Bioplasmic energy and passive energy (about which I shall speak in a later chapter) may be a basis for the even higher energy of faith and love that no instrument can measure. Johnston, William. Silent Music. P.91
Meditation is a twofold discipline that has a twofold function. First it is
supposed to give you sufficient control over your mind and memory and will to
enable you to recollect yourself and withdraw
from exterior things and the business and activities and thoughts and concerns
of temporal existence, and second - this is the real end of meditation - it
teaches you how to become aware of the presence of God; and most of all
it aims at bringing you to a state of almost constant loving attention to
God, and dependence on Him. The real purpose of meditation is this: to teach a
man how to work himself free of created things and temporal concerns, in which
he finds only confusion and sorrow, and enter into a conscious and loving
contact with God in which he is disposed to receive from God the help he knows
he needs so badly, and to pay to God the praise and honour and thanksgiving and
love which it has now become his joy to give. Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. PP.
217-218.
Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
For if meditation aims above all at establishing in your soul a vital contact of love with the living God, then as long is it only produces images and ideas and affections that you can understand, feel and appreciate, it is not yet doing its full quota of work. But when it gets beyond the level of your understanding and your imagination, it is really bringing you close to God, for it introduces you into the darkness where you can no longer think of Him, and are consequently forced to reach out for Him by blind faith and hope and love. Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. PP. 218-219. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
What is Christian Meditation?.........I resisted the idea of meditation at first because of the misguided notion that it might somehow be unchristian. But a thorough study of related scripture and inspirational literature, coupled with prayerful meditation in Christ's words, have shown me that I had nothing to fear. Whatever meditation may be to people of other religions, I discovered that, for me, the Composer, Conductor, and Musicians of that inner symphony were, in truth, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Helleberg, Marilyn Morgan. A Guide to Christian Meditation. PP.1-2
Real Christian living is stunted and frustrated if it remains content with the bare externals of worship, with "saying prayers" and "going to church," with fulfilling one's external duties and merely being respectable. The real purpose of prayer (in the fully personal sense as well as in the Christian assembly) is the deepening of personal realization in love, the awareness of God (even if sometimes this awareness may amount to a negative factor, a seeming "absence"). The real purpose of meditation - or at least that which recommends itself as most relevant for modern man - is the exploration and discovery of new dimensions in freedom, illumination and love, in deepening our awareness of our life in Christ. Merton, Thomas. Contemplation in a World of Action. P. 160. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
(...) Results showed that from the physiological and metabolic standpoint meditation is deeply restful, more so than the ordinary relaxation found through lounging in a chair. In this latter situation there remains considerable muscle tension which is relaxed in time of meditation. Meditation, the researchers claimed, is a form of relaxation quite as natural to man as sleep or rest. Concretely they showed that after a few minutes of meditation the breathing slowed down, oxygen consumption was reduced, carbon-dioxide elimination declined. Blood-pressure also dropped and the heart beat more slowly. Skin resistance to electricity was measured by means of electrodes taped to the hands. It is well known that in a state of anxiety skin resistance to electricity drops (and on this principle the lie detector works) but in meditation skin resistance was shown to increase fivefold. Moreover lactate concentration in the blood declined, again showing a lowering of anxiety. Brainwaves registered high-amplitude alpha as in Zen; and all in all the claim of the researchers that meditation is deeply restful seemed to have ample foundation. One more extremely significant point was the number of meditators who claimed to have abandoned drug-abuse after starting meditation." Johnston, William. Silent Music: The Science of Meditation. P. 108-109. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
Forgetfulness of self is remembrance of God. Abu-Yazid Al-Bastami, (died ca.874), a Sufi mystic, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.323.
But greater than activity, devotion, or reason, is meditation. To meditate truly is to concentrate solely on Spirit. (...). It is the highest form of activity that man can perform, and it is the most balanced way to find God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.7.
Churchgoing is good, but daily meditation is better still. Do both (...). Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.20.
In order to be a yogi and still keep pace with the modern world, it is necessary to meditate at home, to discipline oneself, and to perform all duties with the attitude that they are a service to God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.20.
The true practice of religion is to sit still in meditation and talk to God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.51.
Have God first. Have God now. (...) Whenever you have a moment, sit down and meditate. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.131.
Ever strive to establish the divine consciousness in your children by teaching them to meditate, that they be not tempted to play with the fire of delusive counterfeit joys. Sacred bliss is never-ending, but the pleasures that come from alcohol and drugs are short-lasting and ultimately bring misery.Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.161.
Meditation is arousing the memory of your real Self and forgetting what you imagine you are. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.197.
When I started meditating, I could not imagine that I would ever find such a joy in it. But as time went on, the more I meditated, the greater became my peace and bliss. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.197.
By the grace of the Master, we cut asunder our attachments with the world and forget its troubles and miseries. Daily, through the practice of meditation, we die. We die to live, to enjoy the eternal bliss and peace of our True Home, and live forever. Maharaj Charan Singh. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.147.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. Psalms 116:15. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.147.
It is well known that the love of the Holy One, praised be He, cannot become fixed in a person's heart unless he meditates on it constantly - and he must withdraw from everything else in the world. Moses Maimonides, a Jewish mystic. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.148.
Meditation is a real prayer to the Father. That is a real knocking at the door of the Father, to forgive us whatever may be standing between us and the Father. Maharaj Charan Singh. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.230.
Meditation is not an activity done in the isolation of an ivory tower followed by a daily life encrusted with wordly priorities; it means living a life saturated with love, with the light of God. Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.231.
The ordinary man's mind is scattered on different objects, and at the time of meditation, too, the mind is at first apt to wander. Let any desire whatever arise in the mind; sit calmly and watch what sorts of ideas are coming. By continuing to watch in that way, the mind becomes calm and there are no thought-waves in it. These waves represent the thought-activity of the mind. Those things that you have previously thought about too deeply have transformed themselves into a subconscious current, and therefore they come up in the mind in meditation. (...) Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.195.
Meditation is an effort to bring light and to bring joy and to bring silence and to bring blissfulness, and out of this beautiful world of meditation it is impossible for you to do anything wrong. Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.124.
Meditation is nothing but withdrawing all the barriers - thoughts, emotions, sentiments - that create a wall between you and existence. Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.178.
You cannot do meditation, you can only be in meditation. It is not a question of doing something, it is a question of being. It is not an act but a state. Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.183.
A man of massive meditation is like a man looking at death. Looking at death as at a bull's eye. He watches before he crosses the tracks. Richard Eberhart, quote in: Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, P.215.
Right meditation (...) refers to stilling the mind, so that it's less inclined to operate restlessly and, in doing so, generate suffering. It's a settling process that traditionally is broken into four successive stages: the letting go of desires; the attaining of peaceful, inner calm (also called "one-pointedness" of mind); the refining of this still cognitive frame of mind into one of pure awareness and well-being; and finally, the achieving of a state of simple wakefulness and equanimity. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.94-5.
Essentially, meditation in Buddhism involves "stilling" oneself physically, mentally, and emotionally. The underlying assumption is that our normal, agitated lives, with their myriads of distraction, attachments, and changes, keep us from experiencing who we really are. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.119.
In meditation, we enter into the possibility of enlightenment - or, (...) into the very act of enlightenment. We can realize the fundamental truth of our emptiness as individual selves and of our oneness with the universe. (...) It is the kind of discipline that, over time, can reduce one's chaotic mind-chatter and make one alert. focused, aware, internally well balanced, and capable of staying in the present moment. From a Buddhist perspective, however, these psychological benefits are by-products of the main purpose, which is to free the mind to realize the truth. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.119.
The brother, not understanding what was said, asked the Elder: 'What is inward meditation, father?' The Elder replied: 'Keep watch in your heart; and with watchfulness say in your mind with awe and trembling: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me." Abba Philimon (VI-VII Century C.E.), quoted in: (1981). The Philokalia. Vol. II., P.347.
I fear that we Christian ministers
are going to have much for which to answer. We have a tremendous rich and full
heritage but we do not enter it ourselves and do not allow others to enter. If
our people have to go to Hindu and Zen masters to learn meditation, it is our
fault. We neither practice nor teach as we ought. (…) Pennington, Basil.
(1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos.
P.151.
(…) Bring your self into focus, become aware of your existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself (…) Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.5
We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.13.
Deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and the false and renunciation of the false is meditation. There are many kinds of meditation to begin with, but they all merge finally into one. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.52.
Meditation will help you to find your bonds, loosen them, untie them, and cast your moorings. When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share. The rest will be done for you. (…) By the same power that brought you so far, that prompted your heart to desire truth and your mind to seek it. It is the same power that keeps you alive. You may call it Life or the Supreme. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.54.
Last updated: 2013/05/25
See the related subjects: Contemplation, Enlightenment, Joy, Mind, Mystical Union, Prayer