(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
In the New Webster’s Dictionary
(2002), meditation is described as the “act of meditating; serious
contemplation” and “to dwell on anything in thought.” This definition
is limited and does not begin to describe the practice that we will
study in this course. You could say that this definition describes
meditation in a purely mental sense. This is a portion of meditation,
but not the whole. So what is meditation? How is it practiced? Why
should we meditate?
In How To Meditate (1974), by Lawrence Le Shan,
the author describes a conversation had at a conference attended by a
group of scientists who practice meditation on a daily basis. They were
discussing different approaches to meditation, when the author brought
up the question of why they meditated. Various members of the group
posed several different answers but nothing really rang true, until one
of the men in the group said, “It’s like coming home.” After a moment
of silence, they all began to nod their heads, and agreed that this was
the most true answer they could think of.
Meditation is the vehicle we can use to go "home," to visit the place
where we originated, before the illusion of separation solidified in
our consciousness. Does this mean we are escaping from our present
reality? What are the benefits of reawakening to this central field of
consciousness?
In her book Meditation, author Wendy Momen recounts
a story which takes place in 1913 at the Friend’s Meeting House at St.
Martins Lane, London. Abdu’l-Baha, the son of the founder of The Baha’i
faith, is speaking of meditation and how it can benefit individuals and
society. He recalls in the following quote:
“A
society formed in Persia about 1000 years ago…who gathered together for
silent communion with the almighty. By meditating, and turning their
faces to the Source Of Light… all the divine problems were solved. When
faced with a decision to be made… [the group] would come together in
silence and, freeing their minds from everything else, they would sit
and reflect. Before long the answers to the problem would be revealed
to them. Many abstruse divine questions were solved by this
illumination, including such age-old mysteries as the reality of the
spirit of man and life after death as well as the scientific questions
of the day and even the essential nature of divinity. Called The
Followers Of The Inner Light, these people attained to a superlative
degree of power and were entirely freed from blind dogmas and
imitations.”
So what did this group find, in
this process of coming together in meditation? How was it that in
silence these people found answers to the deepest questions of their
hearts?
In A Master Guide To Meditation And Spiritual Growth, (1999), author Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, says:
“There
are no secrets or mysteries about spiritual growth. It is the natural
process of soul¾or Self-illumination―when conditions are suitable for
it to occur. At our core, behind the finest layers of thoughts and
emotions, we are forever established in God. Before the beginning of
time we existed as individualized units of pure consciousness,
reflections of thoughts. When the universe no longer prevails, we will
continue to abide in God.”
Davis goes
on to say, “If we are not yet conscious of our essential, spiritual
condition and our relationship with the Infinite, our need is to learn
how to be awake.”
So, if at our center, we can
find God, our Higher Self, the One Mind, Great Spirit, Eternal
Consciousness, or whatever name for Divinity we choose, what is the
path inward? How do we find the trailhead that leads to our own
Realization of Divine Self? How is it that we “wake up?”
There are many different paths we can travel to bring ourselves into
the realization of “home,” and awaken our consciousness to its true
nature. Taking a look at the history of meditation, we can see how
people have always attempted this journey.