Dear Friend:
Many spiritually oriented individuals and groups today are exploring the ways of Meditation, and you will find that each of these individuals or groups emphasizes distinct aspects and experiences in their meditations. In the overall, all this is good and beneficent for humanity and the planet. It is an indication that human beings are taking more responsibility with their thought and feeling life and that a bridge with the inner and spiritual realities is being consciously created.
All the many ways of Meditation can easily be summed up in two basic approaches:
- The mystical way
- The soul way
In the mystical way of meditation, the individual or group focuses mainly on aspiration and feeling in order to contact the subtle realms of existence. This way of meditation leads to inner experiences of many kinds through which the individual or group may, for example, contact disembodied entities, see visions, hear voices, experience other places, receive messages, etc.
Regardless of the experience, the main common factor found in the mystical way of meditation is that the experience is always colored by strong feelings or emotions. Thus, a point to keep in mind with this way of meditation is that one is coloring and filtering through one’s emotions, feelings and aspirations the contacted subtle realms. For this reason, one needs to be careful as to the validity and accuracy of what one is experiencing.
There are not defined criteria to evaluate the experiences of mystical meditations because they are neither “good” nor “bad” in themselves. The measure to evaluate them is: “How do they affect us?” In other words, the only tool that one may use to know if a certain way of meditation is benefiting oneself and those around is to look at how these inner experiences are affecting one’s life. Are they empowering us to become more balanced, intelligent and loving in life? Are they expanding our freedom to become a more integral human being? Are they assisting to develop within us the sense of oneness and community with all our fellow humans and the other kingdoms of the Earth? Thus, the answers to these questions will tell if a way of meditation one is using is truly beneficial for oneself at this point in time.
The soul way of meditation is a more advanced approach to contact the subtle realms of existence. It is not based on aspiration or emotions but on the most refined activities of the mind. It presupposes a disciplined and cultivated mental life characterized by the absence of prejudices and by a mind that sees and embraces with its scope the universal aspects of things and events.
Thus, the soul way of meditation has nothing to do with astral or psychic phenomena. The experience is completely void of any form aspect, and there is not contact with disembodied entities, no messages, no sounds and no visions. The experience of soul meditation is also void of any personal connotation. Instead, the experience takes place in the realm of pure Consciousness and of the Universal Self where a knowing of divine principles, divine patterns and divine cycles occurs. These realizations have no reference to any specific human being or group or nation, and they have no reference to any situation, place or locality at all. They are, instead, universal in their connotation and application.
Of course, the Perfect Intelligence which governs everything in the Cosmos also governs the experience of soul meditation, and we will contact only those levels of Consciousness and of the Universal Self for which one is karmically ready. It is in this way that we become aware of the Divine Plan, of its principles, patterns and cycles of manifestation. This is a level of meditation that takes place in the higher realms of Mind and of intuitive perception, the realms of the so-called Abstract Mind and of the Intuition.
After the experience of soul meditation has taken place, we “descend” to the level of the concrete mind, and through the wise use of applied energy we begin a mental creative process to adapt the contacted principles and patterns to the present cycle that humanity is experiencing. Even at this point we do not seek to accommodate our creative endeavor to a specific group of people or to a situation or to a place. We are still working in the realm of the Plan, adapting and adjusting it to the needs of the time. Once this creative work is completed, we proceed to bring it to the plane of desire and to the plane of physical manifestation. It is in these two planes where the need may appear for limiting the creative endeavor to a group of people or to a situation or to a locality. However, because of the nature of these two planes, we will not be able to do it alone and we will need to seek for the wise cooperation of those who resonate with the divine principles and patterns which we have contacted and worked with.
Be aware! This awareness of aspects of the Divine Plan and this creative endeavor do not take place in one meditation or in a few of them. The process through which we gain “altitude” in consciousness and creative skills is a slow one. It is a work of past incarnations and of many years of detachment from oneself and from one’s personal concerns. It is a work of years of continuous efforts to serve in Love the needs of others as life presents the needs and not as one thinks they should be served — a very different thing, my fellow traveler. It is a work of years of control of one’s mental thought process and mind tendencies. It is a work of many years of study of oneself and of identifying which tendencies in oneself are soul qualities and which ones are just personal attractions rooted in the human part of us. Slowly but surely, through this process of discipline, service, meditation and study we gain the necessary “altitude” in consciousness to contact the universal levels of the Plan and to interpret rightly that which is contacted.
This last point is worthy to be considered carefully because success in meditation is not just a matter of contacting higher levels of being but also a matter of having the inner resources and inner training to interpret rightly that which is contacted. Thus, a harmonious and peaceful feeling nature, a universal, unprejudiced and cultivated mind, and a daily rhythm of living that is balanced and nourishing to all the levels of our being are the resources necessary for the soul way of meditation.
May the Blessings of the Great Host of Light surround your being and life conditions.
In Light and Love,
