Experiments in a Search For God. Mark Thurston

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      It is certainly true that we want to have our physical bodies in the best possible balance if we intend to work with meditation, in order to avoid the possibility of imbalanced experiences. We also would not want to encourage a person with severe mental disturbances to meditate. But assuming that we are relatively normal individuals, are there things we should fear about meditation?

      As we begin to move in consciousness in meditation, we are likely to experience an expanded state of awareness. Often that expanded state offers us the chance to focus attention on long-forgotten events or very unusual images (sometimes fascinating, sometimes frightening). Our aim in meditation is to focus not on these things but upon the highest ideal that we have set.

      The readings suggest a prayer of protection that we can use at the beginning of meditation. The protection that we seek is from (1) influences outside ourselves that would keep us from our highest ideal (e.g., telepathic influences from others, confusing communications from disincarnates), and (2) contents of our own subconscious minds that might lead us astray. Effective use of this prayer depends upon feeling and experiencing that protective, guiding influence offered by the Christ as we say these words:

       Father, as I open myself to the unseen forces that surround the throne of Grace, Beauty and Might, I throw about myself the protection found in the thought of the Christ. (paraphrase of 262-3)

      Experiment: Use the prayer of protection given in the readings at the beginning of each meditation period. Make a special point of experiencing the inner meaning of the prayer as you use it and not just saying it by rote.

      “Two attitudes are essential: 1. A strong desire to seek truth. 2. A constant, consistent effort to move forward.”

      One of the fundamental principles in the readings and in the Bible concerning our spiritual search is “Seek and you shall find.” We cannot expect the pattern of wholeness written within our unconscious selves to emerge in full expression spontaneously. What is required is a strong desire coupled with the use of the will to bring about necessary changes. The definition from the readings of the Christ Consciousness emphasizes the necessity to apply the will if we would have this pattern awaken.

       Q-18. Should the Christ Consciousness be described as the awareness within each soul, imprinted in pattern on the mind and waiting to be awakened by the will, of the soul’s oneness with God?

       A-18. Correct. That’s the idea exactly!

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      The use of the will to bring about such an awakening cannot be a sporadic thing. Our desire to know the truth must include consistent, daily effort. The transformation of consciousness that comes from meditation is usually not a dramatic change but instead involves subtle shifts in awareness of ourselves and others. Like a newborn child, a new awareness is very delicate and requires frequent attention and nurturing if it is to survive and grow. In the words of The Secret of the Golden Flower:

      “Children, take heed! If for a day you do not practice meditation, this light streams out, who knows whither? If you only meditate for a quarter of an hour, by it you can do away with the ten thousand aeons and a thousand births. All methods end in quietness. This marvelous magic cannot be fathomed.”

      (Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower. p. 33)

      Not only should we keep a meditation period daily, there are good reasons to keep the same time each day. The mind can be quickly trained to make alterations in consciousness at the same time in a daily cycle. Our most frequent experience of this principle is with the alteration of consciousness from sleeping to waking up each morning. By using an alarm clock for as little as a week to awaken at the same time each morning, many people can train themselves to wake up at that time without an alarm (especially if they have the desire to do so). By keeping a regular meditation time we train the mind to make more effectively the transition from normal, waking consciousness to the awareness awakened in deep meditation.

      Experiment: Choose a specific time and place for meditation. Keep it each day.

      “… for as we do it unto the least of our brethren, we do it unto our Maker. These are not mere words—they can be experiences, if we seek to know Him.”

      One of the fundamental concepts in the readings is the unity of all life. We are each spiritual beings in the process of evolving in consciousness. We are all part of a fundamental oneness in which each part is valued.

      In time and space we have all built thought patterns and habits that are inconsistent with this law of unity. Consciously we are quick to recognize these patterns and habits. They are frequently the things in others that irritate us, or the things in ourselves for which we feel dislike or shame.

      Yet haven’t we all had the experience of seeing through someone’s bothersome characteristic because we loved the person? Love is often blind to the shortcomings of others. What we can awaken is a love that sees the purposefulness behind all that is, that sees the unity of life and appreciates the good (the God) in everyone. One reading says:

       Know the first principles: There is good in all that is alive.

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      The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung made a special point of emphasizing that it is often a part of ourselves that we find the most difficult to love and bring into this awareness of the wholeness.

      “In actual life it requires the greatest art to be simple, and so acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ—all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yea the very fiend himself—that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved—what then?”

      (Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 11, p. 339)

      Experiment: What people in your life do you think the least of? Write down the names. What parts of yourself do you think the least of? Write down those parts. Work each day on treating these people and these parts of yourself as you would treat God. Pray for these individuals and parts of yourself each day.

      “Meditation is the emptying of ourselves of all that hinders the Creative Forces from rising along the natural channels of our physical bodies …”

      “We put that desire [to know Him] into activity by purging our bodies and our minds of those things that we know, or even conceive of, as being hindrances.”

      One of the most important teachings about man’s effort to know God is found in the analogy of the temple or the tabernacle worship in the Old Testament. The readings indicate that the worship in the temple was merely an outer projection of an inner process. We can think of the outer court of the temple as corresponding to the conscious mind; the inner court (or holy place) to the subconscious mind; and the holy of holies (where God was met face to face) to the superconscious mind. The body is truly the temple where we can meet God.

      This analogy demonstrates an order of approach to the divine. We don’t leap directly into the superconscious when we meditate, any more than СКАЧАТЬ