Meditation

This is a writing from Swami Krishnananda

The Divine Life Society

A Guide to Meditation

(108 sentences on meditation taken from various writings by Swami Krishnananda)

1.

The object of meditation is the final choice that you make in this world.

2.

Each one of you has to choose your beloved object for meditation.

3.

The essential thought to be remembered in all meditations is that there should be no thought except that of the chosen object, or the ideal of meditation.

4.

Actually, every work done with a feeling of devotion is also a kind of meditation.

5.

By meditation, observation and reasoning one comes to realise that Existence is not space and space is not Existence.

6.

Brahman's all attributes mentioned in the Upanishads, positive as well as negative, may be brought together in a single group as aids to meditation.

7.

Brahman is the Absolute, and one cannot meditate on Brahman, because it is inclusive of even the meditator himself.

8.

Clear-sightedness, passionlessness, serenity, self-restraint, indifference to the world, fortitude, faith, collectedness of mind and yearning for liberation from bondage are the prerequisites of spiritual meditation.

9.

Contemplation on Existence-Consciousness-Bliss as the whole of Brahman, in Sattwa, is the highest form of meditation.

10.

Different symbols used in meditation give rise to different experiences corresponding to each.

11.

Desireless meditations's result is only ascent and no reverting to the mortal world.

12.

Desire ceases when you behold the Atman, and this beholding the Atman is called meditation.

13.

Dream is an unconscious occurrence. You have no control over it. But meditation is a conscious effort.

14.

Desire is the assertion of the personality. In meditation the personality is dissolved.

15.

Directly the Absolute is known through profound reflection and meditation.

16.

Externally meditation can be regarded as religion, internally it is concentration.

17.

The entire psychology of meditation is nothing but a setting right of errors in thought.

18.

Feel your identity with the Supreme Being in meditation. That is the essence of meditation.

19.

To love God is to serve him, to serve Him is to meditate on Him, to meditate on Him is to know Him, and to know Him is to realise Him.

20.

Great tenacity is called for in meditation.

21.

Highest effort consists in meditation on the Absolute.

22.

Hard to conceive is an endlessness of Being identified with the selfhood of beings. But that is what is the key to true meditation.

23.

The highest kind of meditation is Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.

24.

It will guide you only after you become one with it. For that, you have to meditate.

25.

If you can convince your deep feeling that whatever you see is inside that Supreme (including yourself and everybody) that is the meditation.

26.

It is your soul that is actually meditating on the soul of the object.

27.

Indestructible is the knowledge attained though meditation on the truths of the Vedanta.

28.

Indirect knowledge received by means of instruction from the preceptor requires to be deepened into experience by reflection and deep meditation.