“Divine consciousness is omnipresent. In order to attune one's consciousness to it, it is necessary to first expand the mind by meditation on some aspect of God's infinite nature.

“Visualization is not realization; but visualization is an effective aid in deepening one's concentration, which is essential for the deep meditation that yields realization.”—Paramahansa Yogananda, excerpt from Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons

There are many meditation techniques taught in different schools. As I pointed out in the opening page of this Meditation series, I believe that most meditation techniques lead to the same inner peace experienced by all who practice sincerely.

Here are some of my favorite instructions and techniques for meditation.

Two of my favorite authors are C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant from the Theosophical Society's beginnings days. There are many Web sites with their works converted to E-Books in PDF format available for free. If you are interested, check out www.gutenberg.org/etext/16269 and thank the great people who have made all this available online for us!

 

C.W. Leadbeater

“In controlling the mind, first turn away the senses from outward sounds and sights, and become insensitive to the waves of thought and emotion from others. That is comparatively easy, but the next stage is very difficult, for when this is done there come up from within disturbances which spring from the uncontrolled activity of the mind.

“The meditation of many of our beginners consists mostly of a continuous struggle to come back to the point. Here comes in the advice given in The Voice of Silence. “The mind is the slayer of the real; let the disciple slay the slayer.” You must not of course destroy your mind, for you cannot get along without it, but you must dominate it; it is yours, not you.

“The best way to overcome its wandering is to use the will. It is often suggested that the pupil should help himself by making a shell round him; but after all shells are but crutches. Develop will, and you will be able to dispense with them. The astral body tries to impose itself upon you in the same way, and to make you believe that its desires are yours; but with that also we must deal in a precisely similar manner.

“There is no limit to the degree to which will may be developed. There are decided limitations to the extent to which the strength of the physical body can be increased, but there seem to be no limitations in the case of the will. Fortunately we can train it in the ordinary small things of daily life every day and all day long, and we can have no better practice than this.

“As a result of determined meditation, we begin to build into our bodies the higher kinds of matter. At this stage we often feel grand emotions, coming from the buddhic level and reflected in the astral body, and under their influence we may do fine work and show great self-sacrifice.

“But then is needed the development of the mental and causal bodies in order to steady and balance us; otherwise the grand emotions that have swayed us in the right direction may very readily become a little twisted and sway us along some other and less desirable lines. With feeling alone we never obtain perfect balance or steadiness. It is well that the high feelings should come, and the more powerfully they come the better, but that is not enough; wisdom and steadiness must also be acquired because we need directing power as well as motive force. The very meaning of buddhic is wisdom, and when that comes it swallows up all else.”