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One of the greatest desires of God is to give comfort to mankind. The eternal Spirit ever seeks to provide opportunity for a marvelous expansion of consciousness out of the very life experiences of each individual.
It is well known by students of psychology, philosophy, and religion that human nature tends to vacillate; but the many factors involved in mankind's vacillations are not so well known. History cites endless cases of individuals who have changed their minds at the most crucial hour, when nations and even whole continents might have been saved by the staying power of a handful who knew better but did not do better. It is sad but true that human emotion is easily swayed by the shifting sands of mortal opinion.
The great value of meditation upon the higher realms of the Spirit is that communion with the higher conveys grace to the soul and opens the heart to receive God's love. When the individual cherishes God's grace and his love, he provides the means whereby a divine stability, an inspired constancy, may be effectively established within his soul. There is no substitute, then, for the Divine Mediator, the Divine Comforter, or for those sacred moments when the individual communes with the Higher Self.
Meditation is a form of satsanga1 which conveys great and lingering blessings to the seeker. We have full compassion for the aspirant, but we know that the Lords of Karma from time to time must assist each one on the spiritual path in balancing the debts to life which he has accumulated. This he must do by the fullest use of life's opportunities - which are indeed heaven-sent - although the process may seem painful at times.
Wise is the man who midst the pangs of adversity will recognize that the hand of God is everywhere, speaking through the humblest of persons or the seemingly unimportant matter which may engage his consciousness. If men and women in their meditations will hold the thought that the Most High is constantly working out the salvation of individual men and women by pointing to the beautiful behind the surface appearance of the ugly, by revealing the perfect form behind the nebulous and formless concept, they will discover the key to lasting happiness through the efficient use of the immaculate concept.
Meditation is a time set apart from the mortal drift, from vacuums of thought and vapid ideas which have made unfortunate impact upon the consciousness. Meditation is a time when life can convey the highest good, the summum bonum of reality, to the communicant. Why do men and women, devotees of the greatest classical music, span with the fingers of their minds and imaginations the ritual of infinite harmonies expressing through the symphonies and fugues of earthly composers and their orchestrations? Is it not because without definition there cannot be conveyed a higher order of harmony to the consciousness?
Meditation ought not to be prescribed by the meditator. He may choose a subject of the higher order upon which to reflect; but he should always permit the hand of God to lead him in thought, that the meditations of his heart and mind may be directed exclusively by his Holy Christ Self and mighty God Presence, I AM.
Among the dangers in meditation which many have faced is the altogether human penchant for the psychic (because it is so readily available) and the wish to find a unique teacher in the higher realms or perhaps a "spirit guide" who will convey some exclusive concept which one can then parade before his fellowmen.
If the aspirant for higher meditation will only understand that the childlike simplicity and trust of the seeker enables him to contact the reality of the living God, he will cease to be led by the curious elements of his own lower nature into the byways of ego-centered ventures that can never reward him with the spiritual bliss that his soul craves. For even as God's love flows to all in equal measure, he does convey a specific motif of exquisite and unique beauty to each monad according to his infinite purposes.
Each snowflake falling from the sky manifests its own fluffy radiance of cryptographic imprint, of geometric perfection, of unique hope, and of the grace of God's beauty. How much more, then, can the soul that is receptive to the Eternal Fount, to the pressure of the flow of Cosmic Identity, remit its darkness by transmutation into pure light?
No fear should enter the consciousness of the aspirant who would commune with God; for was it not spoken of old, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord"?2 The meaning of this phrase is that in man's rising from the plains of consciousness unto the summit heights, no evil can befall him nor any plague come nigh his dwelling as long as the purity and grace of the Spirit of God and of communication with him is maintained.3 For in the Presence of God, in his holy mountain, man enjoys total immunity from the world and the full protection of the light. The purpose of meditation, then, is to keep him centered in that Presence.
Error intrudes through the ego and through the rebellion of the astral marauders, children of darkness, "wandering stars to whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever."4 Only when men come to the light can the light give them their freedom, and the forever referred to here is as long as men remain bound by darkness. The tenure can vary from a moment to aeons in the case of some recalcitrant identities. Some men have lost their souls and become "castaways" through missed opportunities and the failure to recognize the perspective of reality for themselves.5
We wait with bated breath the magnificent God-expression of the soul who brings himself to God in meditation, prepared to accept the enthralling but subtle beauty of God-reality which exists all around him. The consciousness must be prepared in order to meditate properly; therefore, in this series we are attempting to convey to the sincere disciple of the heavenly light some realization of the natural order of things.
Meditation upon God, communion with God, is not an unnatural state; it is the naturalness of cosmic law which supersedes all lesser manifestation and remains permanent when all else expresses the quality of inherent change. The immutability of divine law and the fervor of the soul in application to express the perfection of the Deity generate a white-hot heat. This pulsation of the sacred fire waxes stronger and stronger as the soul, taking measure of its past experiences in the realm of form, contemplates for the first time, and then many times thereafter, the meaning of transcendent reality.
What man is, what man has been (what he is expressing and what he has expressed in the past) is not that which man in reality is and what he will become (what he can express and what he will express in the future, namely God). Hope is given new impetus as new possibilities are brought to mind. It is not that the old order was fashioned in utter misery or with changing purpose. It is that the eternal order of universal purpose is best served by the straightforward movement that involves itself in the synthesis of the whole man. To move forward in the realm of divine capacities without making full use of conveyed graces is to deprive the soul of its most wonderful contemplative and meditative opportunities.
Life is expansive. The nature of God is to heal the imperfections of mortal expression - to render them immortal - to change the fashion of the old by the outworking of the Infinite within the finite.
I AM, for your greatest opportunity, your humble mentor in the infinite wisdom,