Volume 9, Issue 6, page 5

Meditation Is Step to "Knowing SeIf"
Many False Ideas, and Excuses, Cause
Seekers to Avoid "Going Into Silences"
By ROY EUGENE DAVIS
EW PERSONS know how to meditate.

They get by with the idea that idle
day-dreaming is meditation. Or that
holding a few good thoughts is meditation. Meditation means to contemplate the ultimate Reality to the
exclusion of everything else and as
the law is: That which we contemplate, we become -- if we contemplate
properly, we will identify with the
Universal Power and be magnetized by
the Cosmic Life Current. Being thus magnetized, and centered in the One Life, the
only life there is, we find a sense of
rightness and fulfillment becomes our nature. We do not meditate to get things;
we meditate to attain complete self-realization. When we have attained self-realization, and we realize our omnipresence,
then we have no lacks or wants for we see
the One Life, which we have realized, has
become the world and all it contains. Like
pieces of ice floating in the ocean, so the
"material" objects float in the ocean of
Cosmic Consciousness. You don't "need" the
things you are.

The big questions in meditating are: "How
do I go about meditating? How shall I practice?
How shall I sit? What will I do with the mental activity?"
To be successful in practice you should be
as regular as possible, at least in the beginning. Regularity in practice will keep the
current of feeling and inspiration flowing.
Once you get into the stream, then you can
follow your own intuitive guidance. We are not
trying to please a higher intelligence with our
meditation. The practice is only so that we
learn to quiet ourselves in order that we can
become more aware. It is not a matter of building a state of consciousness, but it is a matter of getting direct insight. This is possible
when the body is relaxed and the conscious
mind activity is quieted.

The place fo r meditation should be quiet
and afford you the chance to spend an hour or
more undisturbed. This can be any room in the
house. It is not necessary to have a special
place set aside. It really does not matter if
you change places from time to time. Some people believe that it is helpful to have a special place to meditate in order to "Build up
the vibrations". We are really concerned with
gaining intuitive insight and to do this we
must eventually rise above the need for "vibrations" of any kind. I feel that a special place
and too much ritual gets in the way of the
creative experience in meditation. You will
have to follow your own feelings on this, however, for our outer pattern changes to agree
with the inner realization.

It is helpful to practice once a day at
least, and twice a day if possible. Good times
to practice are at night before retiring, as
this will clear the subconscious and bring refreshing sleep, and in the morning before starting out on the day's activity. To meditate at
night enables you to free yourself of the cares
of the day and this way you live one day at a
time, without accumulating the strain over a
period of time. The mystics are fond of saying
that regular practice at this time enables one
to build the habit, so that when the great sleep
comes, at transition, the automatic reaction
will be to go into meditation and continue on
in the experience of consciousness.

When you practice in the morning you get
ready for the day and orientate yourself with
basic principles. You then find that your day
will be fuller and richer. Many ideas will
come to you after you have meditated, and these
ideas will help you in a practical sense. After awhile you may feel the urge to "be aware"
at different times of the day. Then you will
learn to be aware all the time. When you reach
this stage you are consciously awake in spirit
at all times, regardless of what you are doing
as a person .

Short meditation periods are helpful in the
beginning, then extend the time. After a few
weeks, you may find that you enter the silence
easily and the time factor is no longer a problem. This denotes real progress. Learn to sit
entranced in the silence, and when you do this ,
let the concepts of time and space melt as you
merge into the Light.

Because of the publication of offbeat material and the lectures by unrealized people, we
find many students enter the practice of meditation with fear in their hearts. They have
heard stories of possession, or of someone
leaving the body, or of the mind being disturbed. These stories are the results of immature reasoning and indicate a lack of experience in this field. It is surprising how many
people are willing to rely upon hearsay evidence on the subject of meditation. I suppose
it is because they subconsciously welcome any
excuse to avoid meditation. I f we meditate
properly we may find a change taking place in
our thinking and feeling and tho we consciously
desire this, we subconsciously are afraid of
it. The average person's resistance to change
is quite strong.

The ideal position for meditation is an upright posture, the body arranged in a comfortable chair, the spine erect and the neck in
line with the spine. The back should be away
from the chair. The body should be balanced
and relaxed. The hands can relax on the thighs
or on the lap. Sometimes people find that if
they rest the hands on the thighs, with the
palms upturned, it is easy to sit erect without strain. Try it and see if it suits you.
Find a posture that will enable you to sit
without strain for a long time. If the back
rests against the chair, it will tend to bring
on a body awareness. Of course, in long meditation periods, we can relax in any way.

OCTOBER, 1962 The ABERREE 5