The recognition of duality in human nature produces, eventually, the intention to bridge the gap between the personality and soul, for the soul ever seeks conscious union with its personality expression.
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| A painting I was doing while meditating. |
While aspiration may provide the motive, the real work of bridge building is carried out on the mental level, based on the ability to control the mind through the discipline of regular meditation.
Meditation establishes relationship between soul and personality. It is a cooperative relationship, leading ultimately to soul-personality fusion.
The work is based on the simple premise that energy
follows and conforms itself to
thought. Correct use of the power of the
mind will achieve any purpose, good or not so good. Occult meditation involves
a focused mind, the capacity to visualize, an ability to build thought forms
and to use the creative imagination, plus an accurate grasp of the soul's
intent.
This type of meditation enhances the quality of
life. It creates a lighted way of relationship and communication between the
subjective realm of the soul and its objective expression. the personality. As
the personality adapts and surrenders to the dominance of the soul as the real
Self, it is in turn redeemed by soul light and energy and all aspects of life
on the physical plane are irradiated and uplifted.
Excerpt from the Lucis Trust on Meditation.
The first step towards this unfoldment is concentration, or the ability
to hold the mind steadily and unwaveringly upon that which the aspirant
chooses. This first step is one of the most difficult stages in the
meditation process and involves constant unremitting ability to keep
bringing the mind back to that "object" upon which the aspirant has
chosen to concentrate. The stages in concentration are themselves well
marked and can be stated as follows:
- The choice of some "object" upon which to concentrate.
- The withdrawing of the mind-consciousness from the periphery of the
body, so that the avenues of outer perception and contact (the five
senses) are stilled, and the consciousness is no longer outgoing.
- The centering of the consciousness and its steadying within the head at a point midway between the eyebrows.
- The application of the mind, or the paying of close attention to the object chosen for concentration.
- The visualization of that object, imaginative perception of it and logical reasoning about it.
- The extension of the mental concepts which have been formed from the
specific and particular to the general and the universal or cosmic.
- An attempt to arrive at that which lies back of the form considered, or to reach the idea which is responsible for the form.
This process gradually steps up the consciousness and enables the
aspirant to arrive at the life side of manifestation instead of the form
side. It begins however with the form or "object." Objects upon which
to concentrate are of four kinds:
- External objects, such as images of the deity, pictures or forms in nature.
- Internal objects, such as the centers in the etheric body.
- Qualities, such as the various virtues, with the intent to awaken
desire for these virtues and thus to build them into the content of the
personal life.
- Mental concepts or those ideas which embody the ideals lying back of
all animated forms. These may take the form of symbols or of words.
It is the realization of the necessity for "objects" in concentration
that originated the demand for images, sacred sculptures and pictures.
All these objects entail the use of the lower concrete mind and this is
the necessary preliminary stage. Their use brings the mind into a
controlled condition so that the aspirant can make it do whatever he or
she chooses.
The four types of objects mentioned above carry the aspirant gradually
inwards, enabling the transfer of consciousness to be made from the
physical plane into the etheric realm, from thence into the world of
desire or of the emotions, and so into the world of mental ideas and
concepts.
This process, which is carried on within the brain, brings the entire
lower nature into a state of one- pointed coherent attention, leading to
a concentration of all the mental faculties. The mind then is no longer
scattering, unsteady and outgoing, but is fully "fixed in
attention."... This clear, one-pointed, still perception of an object,
without any other object or thought entering into one's consciousness is
most difficult of achievement, and when it can be done for the space of
twelve seconds, true concentration is being achieved....
Meditation is but the extension of concentration and grows out of the
facility one achieves in "fixing the mind" at will on any particular
object. It falls under the same rules and conditions as concentration
and the only distinction between the two is in the time element.
The Need for Care in Meditation:
THOUGHT FOLLOWS ENERGY
The fundamental law governing all meditation work is the ancient one
formulated by the seers in India centuries ago, that "energy follows
thought". From the realm of ideas (or of soul knowledge) energy pours
through; ...it seeps little by little into the dense minds of men and
women, and to it can be traced all the forward movements of the present
time, all organization of general welfare and of group betterment; all
religious concepts and all outer knowledge of the Causes which produce
objectivity....
Every form, whether it be the form of a sewing machine, of a social
order or of a solar system, can be posited as the materialization of the
thought of some thinker, or of some group of thinkers. It is a form of
creative work...and all the work has been concentrated with energy of
some type or another. The student of meditation must, therefore,
remember that he is always working with energies, and that these varying
energies will have a definite effect upon the form nature.
It will be apparent, therefore, that those who are learning to meditate must endeavor to do two things:
First: They must learn to "bring through" into the mind and then
interpret correctly what...has been seen and contacted, and later
transmit it correctly and accurately to the attentive and impressionable
brain.
Second: They must learn the nature of the energies...contacted and train
themselves to utilize them correctly. A practical illustration of this
can be given here. We are swept by anger or irritation. Instinctively we
begin to shout. Why? Emotional energy has us in its grip. By learning
to control the energy of the spoken word we begin to master that
particular type of emotional energy.
In these two ideas of right interpretation and right transmission, and
of right use of energy, the whole story of the meditation work is summed
up. It becomes apparent also what is the problem confronting the
student, and why all wise teachers of the technique of meditation urge
upon their pupils the need of care and slow procedure.
(
From Intellect to Intuition, pp. 240-42)
My take on
this : I meditate by standing still and just looking at one thing and
clear my mind. That is what I call a real short meditation. A long
meditation for me is painting.
While doing dot paintings I find that I concentrate on the
dot. I think of nothing but putting another dot in paint. After a
little while this becomes like I have left the room and my arm is painting but
my mind is in the heavens
I see visions and hear messages in myriads while in this place. My
partner says I have a far away look in my eye and I seem to leave for a couple
of hours. I find this fascinating to hear these reports of me.
The sea floor has risen hundreds of meters under the ocean (sea floor) these
are the after thoughts I don't entertain while painting. I prefer to
allow the messages to come with out me entertaining. Letting them just
flow naturally like a river does. Sometimes it twists and turns and
spirals like water rushing to an ocean. Rushing like lovers in the
night who have been separated for a time. I love that analogy.
The other meditation I like to do is with the dawning sun. I look
directly into the sun and clear my mind of everything and concentrate on only
the light and I do this for around a minute. I have been doing this for
sometime and I don't recommend that others do this for this long first up if
attempting this.
Build up from ten seconds to nine minutes. I only stay a minute doing
this as being barefoot on the earth where I live elicits the visit of many
biting midgee's and they itch like crazy. So we stay one minute doing
this knowing the energy input coming into my body via the Pineal Gland and the
Sunshine and the action of it going through my eyes and settling in my
brain. I swear I see the suns ejections when I look at it like
this. There is most definitely another colour surrounding the sun.
This is where the Star Water is / the ice crystals around the sun.
Sometimes a rainbow around the sun is these ice crystals illuminated and
it is possible to see this in the form of a rainbow. It is technically
called a Sun Dog.
