These 7 Lessons in Easy Meditation are derived from my book, Practical Mysticism. The book, of course, is able to get into much more detail and explore a greater range of subjects. This short course is designed to give you a simple approach to meditation that you can incorporate into your daily life right away and prepare you for deeper work in the future.
Meditation is the PRACTICE of concentrated and directed thinking. It is designed to develop and maintain a specific attitude of the mind – an attitude that permits you to contact GREATER INTELLIGENCE. The numerous benefits to mind, body and spirit derived from this practice are due to this developed attitude and the subsequent contacts obtained. Meditation is a way of learning to live naturally in FULL RAPPORT with oneself, sensitive to nature’s in-born resources and innate intelligence. It is a way of being in a state of awareness and control of the inner levels of your mind and deepest aspects of Universal Mind.
The Practice of Meditation
Meditation can be simple or complex depending on your own knowledge and your specific needs. Meditation is often accomplished by using one or more techniques to withdraw the five senses and the mind from its attention to the world outside oneself and to make contact with the inner mental world of one’s own mind.
- Meditation opens the mind to possibility
- It generates creativity
- It leads to the expansion of consciousness
- It relaxes and focuses the mind allowing more work to be performed with less effort
- It attunes the whole being to the rhythm of Universal Intelligence and puts the practitioner into full cooperation and harmony with Universal Purpose.
Types of Meditation
There are a number of books and programs that purport to teach meditation. Their value lies in what you as an individual can gain from them. Your own bias, temperament, attitude and spiritual inclination will hopefully guide you to the method most suitable for your needs. The 7 lessons presented here will provide you with an initial technique and a system that can carry you as far as you desire to go. There are other more advanced approaches, and certainly more unique approaches, you may choose to consider later.
Generally, there are four viewpoints from which meditation can be studied.
1 Success Centered – aiming at personal development for the enhancement of emotional, financial, career and relationship capacities.
2 Spirit Based – aiming at creating harmony between the soul and the Universal Life Force.
3 Yoga or Occult Based – aiming at generating directable energy through discipline and force of will.
4 Mystical – aiming at the soul’s union with Godhead.
Viewpoints 1 and 3 could be thought of as “CONTROL MEDITATION” where one tries to manipulate or expand different levels of the mind through thought control and re-programming. This is primarily the Western approach – acceptable for most of “Corporate America.” Viewpoints 2 and 4 can be described as “CONTACT MEDITATION” where one tries to access inner resources and the central reality. This is typically the Eastern approach – suitable for those interested in austere and secluded lifestyles. The best results, despite claims of various teachers, are obtained by working with a balance of all types. It is true that in some circumstances, while under the strict guidance of a teacher, the greatest efficiency of a system is gained by strict concentration on one path. However, there is a tendency to become one-sided, the sense of proportion is lacking and over all human-life values are lost. Individuals possess many levels of consciousness and the development of all levels in harmonious proportion seems vital for the enhancement of humanity toward perfection. The system offered here is in balance and intended to fit into any modern person’s life style. Effort is made in all areas for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual advancement. The goal is to be BOTH inwardly knowing and aware AND outwardly successful and positive.
Contact or Mystical Meditation helps generate a positive self-image. Through repeated experiences of the deep, innate spiritual nature of one’s mind, the innermost mysteries of life are revealed. Unraveling these mysteries and incorporating them into daily life further strengthens the ego and encourages even deeper explorations.
These explorations and the truths experienced through them create the psychological and philosophical foundation for the techniques of Control Meditation. Upon this foundation, the meditator can build the prosperity and satisfaction required for the material enjoyment of life according to the level of spiritual attainment the student has reached.
Feel free to read through all 7 lessons and then go back and start working on lesson 1. Spend as much time as necessary on each lesson before moving on to the next one. Take on the attitude that there is no hurry. You are developing a practice, one that may last your whole life. It is the ongoing process not the end result that you should be concerned with. Expect to put in about 3 or 4 months before you complete all 7 lessons.