 106. Meditation |
Edgar Cayce and the A.R.E. institute state that:
Meditation, as recommended here, is not suggested as a substitute for prayer. Indeed prayer, as will be seen, can sometimes make meditation possible. What then is the difference between prayer and meditation? Many forms of prayer are familiar to the average person, such as petition, praise, thanksgiving, worship, and confession. Prayer is related to the action and the attitude of the individual. In prayer man may be said to seek a relationship with God. He talks to God. Meditation can be described as a process of being still. It is characterized by focus of attention and release of tension, followed by relaxation, receptivity, discovery. Meditation is the: attuning of the mental body and the physical body to their source. For you must learn to meditate, just as you learned to walk, to talk, to develop any of the physical attributes of your mind as compared to the relationships with facts, the attitudes, the conditions, the environs of your daily surroundings. Meditation is a process of stilling and focusing consciousness so that higher areas of the unconscious are unlocked. A man must dare to think of himself as related to God. He must dream of himself as something more than a product of his own material experiences in the earth. To achieve such a high purpose, this time for stillness must become a daily discipline for body and mind. The first view which man takes of himself from the vantage point of reflection is not pleasant. As the readings put it:
Ye find yourselves confused at times respecting from whence ye came and whither ye goethe. Ye find yourselves with bodies, with minds, not all beautiful, not all clean, not all pure in thine own sight or in thy neighbor's. And there are many who care more for outer appearances than that which prompts the heart in its activity or in its seeking.
One of the first painful rewards of meditation will be a better understanding of oneself and the gradual growth of a willingness to face oneself.
Through meditation the "inner self," "the higher self," "the over-soul," "the Divine within," is awakened and the energy and power from it pours into the stream of daily activity, providing guidance and a strengthening of the will to choose the "better way."
In preparing the body for meditation it should be recognized that the first step is the creation of a right attitude toward the body itself. This may be begun by becoming better acquainted with the body, its complexity, it's beauty, its magnificence. Even a brief study of any organ or function of the body will reveal that it is worthy of being called a "vehicle for the soul." The structure and adaptability of the hand; the composition and movement of the blood, the almost magical formation and operation of the eye, arouse in man a sense of awe and wonder. It is possible to catch a vision of the body as a miniature copy of the universe, and conceive of it as "the part of the soul" which shows in this third dimension. This attitude conceives of the body neither as an object for gratification and adoration nor as something on which to heap debasement and shame. Through meditation the body becomes not a prison from which to escape but rather an instrument through which the highest spiritual aspirations of the "real self" may be expressed. It is easy to lose sight of the purpose of mediation by paying too much attention to physical stimuli such as bathing, diet, breathing, posture. Trying this chant or than incense, keeping this diet or holding that posture, according to someone else's ideas, is not so good as first reaching a point of stillness and light and then choosing that way which seems right. Begin! Later changes in outer techniques can be made according to one's own needs. Cleansing of the body, for example, is a physical parallel to the mental purging which is far more important and more difficult. The readings put it this way:
What is thy God? Are thy ambitions only set in whether ye shall eat tomorrow, or as to wherewithal ye shall be clothed? Ye of little faith, ye of little hope, that allow such to become the paramount issues in thine own consciousness! Know ye not that ye are His? For ye are of His making! He hath willed that ye shall not perish, but hath left it with thee as to whither ye become aware of thy relationships with Him or not. In thine own house, in thine own body there are the means for the approach – through the desire first to know Him; putting that desire into activity by purging the body, the mind, of those things that ye know or even conceive of as being hindrances – not what someone else says! It isn't what you want someone else to give! As Moses gave of old, it isn't who will descend from heaven to bring you a message, nor who would come from over the seas, but lo, ye find Him within thine own heart, within thine own consciousness! If ye will meditate, open thy heart, thy mind! Let thy body and mind be channels that ye may do the things ye ask God to do for you! Thus ye come to know Him.
