Meditation: The Oldest Form of Self Analysis

Whenever a person is experiencing trouble, physically or mentally, their first reaction is to try and find help from the outside world. They are seldom Aware, that the most Perfect and Divine Power that they can ever find, ALREADY LIES WITHIN THEM. Every time we practice Meditation, we open ourselves up to the Divine Source of Healing Power. Most people think of Meditation, as though it were something separate from our everyday life. But this is not the case. Concentrated Meditation can and does have a decisive Healing Effect over both the body and the mind. It is a method by which we can readily contact the Greatest Creative Force within us. We all make use of this Divine Force at one time or another – consciously or unconsciously. It is also a method by which we can learn to control the actions of the brain; to literally slow down the actions of thought and analyze it, to discover whether or not its influence upon us is either good or bad.

MEDIATAION IS THE OLDEST FORM OF SELF-ANALYSIS KNOWN TO MAN.

As you know, there are certain thoughts which we carry about every day, that are deep rooted in our memory and have a great effect and influence upon our lives. These memory impressions have imprinted themselves very firmly in our thoughts. It matters very little whether we have put them there ourselves, or whether they have been impressed upon our minds by involuntary means. They are there nevertheless, controlling and influencing everything that we do – like a monkey on our back. They will not be stilled, unless we CONSCIOUSLY subdue them and take control over the actions of our own brain. In Meditation, we are also able to replace unwanted thought, with Positive Ideas of a Greater Spiritual Value. When we do this, the same thing occurs. These newly planted thoughts also leave their impression upon our thoughts, and we find ourselves acting and responding in a manner of OUR OWN CHOOSING.

Meditation should not be looked upon as some kind of mysterious practice, which is performed only by those who are interested in strange practices of the Occult. The fact of the matter is, that everyone Meditates – Consciously or unconsciously. It is an action which is as natural as breathing, and no one is able to avoid Meditation, even on an involuntary basis. Whenever an individual centers their thoughts upon negative conditions, that too, is a form of Meditation. Those concentrated thoughts become the strongest impression upon the brain. It is as if we have surrounded the surface of the brain with negative impressions so thoroughly and completely, that nothing passing from the brain to the outside can get through, without first being affected by the negative barrier that we have set up. This is one example of involuntary Meditation, which can be quite negative.

There are other forms of involuntary Meditation, which can have the opposite effect. Whenever we allow our mind to be connected to something Beautiful and Restful for any length of time, it too, has an effect upon us and we feel refreshed. A physically exhausted person leaves the turmoil and hubbub of the city and comes in contact with the beauty of nature. They experience an effect which is equal to physical and mental renewal, simply by looking at the trees and landscape about them, and by observing the color and beauty of the flowers and birds. What has happened in a case such as this? Have they actually absorbed something from nature, like some mysterious medicine that is digested into the system? NO! They have taken nothing away from nature. Nature still stands intact, with all of its Beauty and Wonder. What has happened is that for a brief moment, they have lifted their thoughts away from the concentrated attention of the tired body. For a few brief moments, they have been able to flood the mind with the Positive Awareness of Nature’s Perfection and Beauty – and it has Restored and Renewed their Strength.

From Lesson 5 of Hatha Yoga, Way of Sadhana

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Finding and Creating Places of Divine Connection

"The Ancient People of the Americas were very extensive travelers. Wherever they went and wherever they stopped in their travels, they built Shrines and Places of Worship. They planted crops and located hidden sources of water. The dwelling area was usually surrounded on all sides, by places that marked the rising and the setting of the Sun and the four phases of the Moon. There were Teaching Areas apart from the living area. There were places for men and places for women to practice the functions of their particular sex. Sometimes Council Chambers were established in a cave or an isolated area, where the most important decisions of the tribe and the individual were arrived at and concluded.

There was always an area used to send Blessings upon the people of the tribe. This was an area on a high point of rock, or at a distance where the panorama of the whole village could be observed. These were called, BLESSING WAY POINTS. There were areas at the entrances to the village that were set aside as watching places for the protection of the people from hostile influences, which might otherwise approach unnoticed. There were also HEALING PLACES. Most of the places mentioned were not structures in the true sense of the word. They were more likely than not natural places, which were chosen for the specific function designated to them because of their natural appearance. Perhaps the Sun or the Moon shone upon that place in a particular manner. At other times, a place would be chosen because of its isolation or protective nature.

The HEALING PLACES were almost invariably chosen because of their shape and form, and the manner in which various forces of nature were focused there. Within every Healing Place there were three or four points of healing, where the natural rock formed a similar configuration as the four rocks that were described in the Practice of your last Lesson.

There was a difference however, in that the rocks in the HEALING PLACE were large and massive. Sometimes there were four rocks that formed an Energy Source at the point where the Powers met in the middle. At another place within the Healing Area, one might find three rocks with protrusions on them, forming a line of Power that created a triangle. Within the center of the Triangle of Power, was a NEUTRAL area in which no Power entered. The individual using this sort of configuration sat in the middle – in the NEUTRAL area. This was done so that the Power around them could draw all of the negative causing vibrations out of the body, pulling it from the center outward and drawing it into the Force that was moving about them. These particular areas were used for purging or purification. …"

From Lesson 2 of Kriya Yoga, Way of Sadhana

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Through Awareness and Gentleness is the Power of the Soul Achieved

… Let us now look closely at what this Principle means. We must first begin by understanding how we acquire Awareness and Knowledge. For it is only THROUGH AWARENESS, that any degree of Knowledge can be known. When we are born, we come into this world with the ordinary faculty of knowing. This includes a brain, which like a clean slate has never as yet had any written mark put upon it. We are also born with the POWER OF SIMPLE RECOGNITION. This simple recognition is the Instrument of Induction, which feeds into the brain all impressions from outside of our body. The very first things that enter the brain are not yet thoughts, but rather simple Awareness.

We have recently emerged from a place of darkness, and our first impression is light. We have spent nine months surrounded and protected in a world of liquids, and now for the first time we experience the pull of Earth’s gravity upon our little body. Our sense of touch and feeling is Awakened by the gentle hands upon us. We now experience warmth of a new kind, as we are first placed upon the mother’s breast. All of these initial experiences are simple Awareness. They are not thoughts based upon Knowledge, but enter into our brain through the FACULTIES OF KNOWING.

Very soon however, the process of building thoughts by association comes into play. We must remember that all knowledge is derived through experiences of signs, symbols and words. There must always be more than one of these, to give meaning to anything. Once we have heard two voices or two sounds, we begin to distinguish between the two and create our first simple ideas. We begin to recognize that softness and smoothness, means “mother”. When that which touches us is not so soft, but is more coarse and even smells slightly different, these sensations then become our first Awareness of “father”. As we begin to make simple associations, our brain in turn begins to function as a memory bank. It now begins to assist us in deciphering the differences between one experience and another.

Very soon after our introduction into life, we have progressed from our faculty of KNOWING, to the art of simple KNOWLEDGE. As time passes, we begin to decipher sounds into language and our eyes reveal to us the existence of objects beyond the reach of our tiny arms. We begin to establish an Awareness of time and space long before we learn to repeat what we have heard or touch what is out there beyond our reach. We are told by the brain that everything that there is to know, is outside of us and separate from us. Our brain has informed us wrongly.

Thus our first impressions of separateness from the Universe come into being. Even though our future impressions will lessen the power of the first impression of separateness, we nevertheless have great difficulty resolving that first experience into a greater experience. Even when we have grown old enough to speak and even after we have discovered that we have the power to touch things at great distances simply by walking to them, the half-truths which were fed to us by the brain are still never entirely resolved. Even when we take into our body, the water, food and air that we need to give us life and greater growth, the first impression of separateness is still present. The original damage has been done – and we spend years or even a lifetime breaking the bonds of those first half-truths, before we can set ourselves Free ...

From Lesson 6 of the Foundation Series

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