MEDITATION
Rev. Joseph Murphy, Ph.D.
Excerpt from:
THIS IS IT: The Art of
Metaphysical Demonstration
Church of Divine Science
Los Angeles, 3rd ed., 1948 Revised
The
discipline of looking inwardly is
Meditation. What we understand we do
naturally. What we do not understand we
force ourselves to do. Students so often
tell the teacher how hard they tried. The
very effort meant failure, for meditation
is always effortless. Tension, exertion
or force result in failure.
An excellent
way to still the mind is as follows:
imagine yourself on a mountain top,
looking into a lake. In the placid
surface you see the sky, the stars, the
moon and those things above the earth. If
the surface of the lake is disturbed, the
things seen are blurred and indistinct;
thus it is with you. You are not
“still”--not at peace--and
the answer to prayer comes only to the
man who dwells with all tranquility on
the joy of already having received that
for which he prayed.
Meditation
is the internalizing of consciousness. It
is the pilgrimage within. If an eight
year old child can operate the Law
successfully, we can. We first must
become as the little child. Half an hour
a day spent in meditation upon your
ideals, goals and ambitions will make you
a different person. In a few
month’s time the gentle, silent
acknowledgement comes that God is within
you, that the spirit of Almighty God is
now moving in your behalf and that which
you long to be, to possess or do is
already a fact of consciousness. Man
actualizes this state by feeling the
thrill of accomplishment; when he has
succeeded, he will no longer be worried,
anxious or apprehensive.
Moreover, he
will not ask anyone for advice, because
he will be under compulsion to do that
which is right. His subjective mind
compels him to take all the necessary
steps to the completion of his goal or
objective. After prayer, if a man is
still doubtful and begins to argue with
himself as to which course to pursue, it
means that he has not fixed the desired
state in consciousness; then let him go
back again and dwell in the reality of
it.
“Verily I say unto you, Among them
that are born of woman there hath not
risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding he that is least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than
he.” (Matt. 11:11). This means that
any man who prays successfully and
touches Reality by getting into the
proper mood or feeling is greater than
the wisest man. Most of us live life
looking outwardly. The wise learn to look
inwardly. The disciplines of looking
“inwardly” are termed
together, “Meditation.”
Detachment
is the key to meditation. That is, we
must sever ourselves completely from all
worldly beliefs and opinions, and focus
silently upon our ideal state. It is the
effortless-effort which causes us to flow
towards that which we realize without
conflict. Detachment does not mean that
we give up what few earthly possessions
we may have. It means that we must give
up possessiveness in ourselves, or
release the attachments that peculiarly
limit us to a human viewpoint in all
matters.
“Be
still and KNOW.” Stillness is not
only keeping quiet; it means that the
causes within the Self, by which the
inward life is rendered discordant, have
been removed. It indicates that there
must be no inner dissonance, but rather
when man goes within himself, he must
find perfect and abiding peace. Knowing
that God is within himself makes man live
in a world that is ever peaceful. The
lack of it makes him live in a series of
conditions which grieve him to the end.
He fusses about things which, if he saw
them differently, would not cause one
moment of unhappiness.
Everyday of
our life we should meditate on beauty,
love and peace. We should feel that these
qualities are being resurrected in us. As
we meditate daily on this inner beauty,
let us feel that we are Jesus the Christ,
the illumined man. Let us actually
conjure the mood that would be ours were
we actually doing his works and healing
the blind, the halt and the lame. As we
walk the earth, we must sustain this mood
or conviction that we are Jesus and those
qualities, which he portrayed, will be
resurrected within us. They were always
within us! This state of consciousness is
not born of woman. Jesus is born out
of the imagination of man and nowhere
else. It is the second birth or
spiritual awakening of man. The birth of
Jesus the Christ truly takes place in man
as he practices the disciplines and
meditates on the ideal state.
By moving
inward, the mystic finally finds the
Real. As he goes inward he realizes first
that this thing called the body is very
unreal, and this earth upon which we are
seated becomes unreal. The external life
becomes the dream; the internal life
awakens and moves further and further
inward. Finally it seems to merge, and
suddenly the meditating Self perceives
that, by going inward, it has found the
Universe. The suns, moon, stars and
planets are within. For the first time he
knows that planets are thoughts; that
suns and moons are thoughts; and also he
apprehends that his own consciousness is
the realization which sustains them all.
Temporarily in space are moving the
dreams of the Dreamer; worlds, suns,
moons and stars are the thoughts of the
Thinker. His eyes are closed; He is
meditating, and we are His meditation. It
is CONSCIOUSNESS meditating on the
mysteries of Itself!
This inward
journey ultimately leads man to the Real.
It leads man away from the sense of the
small “I” to the realization
of the eternal Self. The mystic’s
mind, through meditation, finds the
peace, the strength and fortitude for
further steps. The practice of the
discipline of meditation bestows beauty,
love, peace, grace and dignity upon every
impulse, every attitude and every
act.
In
conclusion, let us meditate on these
lines, written by the finger of God, the
Ancient of Days, which have come to us,
down through the ages--ever the Ageless
Wisdom:
“Of all existence I am the
source, the continuation and the end. I
am the germ, I am the growth, I am the
decay. All things and creatures I send
forth. I suppose them while they yet
stand without, and when the dream of
separation ends, I cause their return
unto myself. I am the Life, the Wheel
of the Law, and the Way that leadeth to
the Beyond. THERE IS NONE
ELSE.”
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