Meditation - Geistige Entwicklung

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Meditation is inwardly directed attitude

"The governor interrupted a journey to pay his respects to the master. 'State business leaves me no time for long learned discourses,' he said: 'Could you sum up the essentials of religion for an active person like myself in a paragraph or two?'
'I will express it in a single word for the benefit of Your Highness.'
'Incredible! What is this extraordinary word?'
'Silence.'
'And by what way does one attain stillness?
'Meditation.'
'And what, may I ask, is meditation?'
'Silence,'" (de Mello 1986:11/12).

Whoever goes into silence or meditation should first purify himself: "We say again and again: First the purification! The consciousness must be pure and have only the desire or the will to do everything out of love for God and for the neighbor. For whoever radiates love in his perfection of being cannot be tempted by Lucifer, because Lucifer flees love. ... When in silence, in meditation, through the Higher Self within you, you establish the connection with God, your Father, that power flows through you which gives you knowledge, expansion of your consciousness and assistance in what you ask for, and success on the spiritual path 'home to the Father's house'. And if you devote yourselves completely to this silence and the connection in you is upright, you become the channel of omnipotence through you. This channel is thoughtless, wordless and soundless. It is the Godhead that works through this channel. And you are blessed afterwards with a feeling of bliss. You have then experienced something, something powerful, which is not of this world. This is a flowing through, a glowing through, a shining through from the divine world. This cannot be given by the Earth cannot give, only the divine world can give that" (Weidner 2008b:152/153).

"Whatever you perceive, whatever you utter - there is nothing that does not come from your own spirit. Understand that this cognition is empty of mind, that non-duality of cognition of mind and emptiness is wisdom. Meditation is the constant concentration on this wisdom, without any distraction. Through activities, merit and wisdom will increase as you become aware from the standpoint of this meditation that everything is like an illusion. Once you are under the influence of these Three, you will practice them even in dreams" (Wangyal 1973:33/34).

Man ... "must learn ... an inner solitude, wherever and with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to break through the things and to grasp his God in it and to be able to form this powerfully in an essential way into himself. Comparatively as one who wants to learn to write. ... so also man should be permeated by divine presence and be formed with the form of his beloved God and be essentialized in him, so that his being present shines for him without any effort, that moreover he gains bondlessness in all things and remains completely free in relation to things" (Eckehart 1979:61/62).

"The meditative man abandons the memories of the past and the anxieties of the future. He lives in the present. The noise that rages in his senses calms down, and man arises from himself" (Boros 1978:11).

"Although it was the Master's day of silence, a traveler asked him for a word of wisdom to guide him on his life's journey. The Master nodded graciously, took a sheet of paper, and wrote on it a single word: 'Awareness.' The visitor was taken aback. 'That's too short. Could you elaborate a little?' The master took the sheet back and wrote: 'Awareness, awareness, awareness'. 'But what do these words mean?' the stranger asked, perplexed. The master reached for the paper again and wrote, 'Awareness, awareness, awareness means CONSCIOUSNESS.'" (de Mello 1986:12).

According to Annemarie Schimmel (1975:98), the Christian division of mystical stages into via purgativa, via contemplativa, and via illuminativa corresponds somewhat to the Sufi division into sharīᶜa, ṭarīqa, and ḥaqīqa. The ṭarīqa is the path on which the mystic walks, and he emerges, as it were, from the sharīᶜa, that is, from divine law or ethics turned toward God. According to a saying attributed to the Prophet, sharīᶜa consists of my words, ṭarīqa is my actions, and ḥaqīqa is my inner state (cf. Schimmel 1975:99).

Thus they say in Turkey:
Sharīᶜa: Yours is yours, mine is mine.
Ṭarīqa: Yours is yours, mine is also yours.
Maᶜrifa (=ḥaqīqa): there is neither mine nor thine (cf. Schimmel 1975:99).

"According to Hui-neng, Zen is 'looking into one's own self-nature and not being moved by anything'" (Shibayama 1974:69).

"A disciple fell asleep and dreamed that he was in paradise. To his amazement, he also found his master and the other disciples there, all absorbed in meditation. 'This is what you get as a reward in paradise?' he cried. 'Exactly the same thing we did on earth!' He heard a voice: 'Fool! You think these meditators are in paradise? It is just the other way around - paradise is in them'" (de Mello 1986:20).

"If we are meditating at home and just happen to live on a busy street, we cannot stop the traffic just because we need peace and quiet. But we can stop our desires and accept the noise. There is silence even in the noise. We have to go into it and not expect anything from the outside, as Buddha did. We must accept the situation as it may be. As long as we do not put ourselves out of the situation, it will prove to be a means we can use" (Trungpa 1977:20/21).

"It takes some practice to develop mindfulness of the breath. The most important condition here is to pause, to become still. Then it is possible to perceive in our body the movement of the breath. Where do we feel the breath? In the chest, in the belly or in the area of the nose? Is the inhalation long or short? Is there a pause between inhalation and exhalation? If we have difficulty noticing our breath, we can place a hand lightly on our abdomen and feel the gentle movement under our hand. The important thing is not to control our breath, but to perceive it as it is. It is an expression of the life within us. We can simply notice our breath and smile lovingly at it. We are relaxed and let the breath happen and simply notice whether the breath is fast or slow, short or long, deep or shallow. Through our awareness, after a while the breath on itself becomes calmer and deeper" (Hanh 2004:23): "I breathe in and know that I am breathing in. I breathe out and know that I am breathing out" (Hanh 2004:24).

"During sitting meditation there is nothing to do, no one wants anything from you. Sitting meditation is an opportunity to just sit. Enjoy this precious time. You let go of all attachment to desires, plans, unfinished business, worries, and so on. You let go of all attachment, as well as all rejection, and you dwell in equanimity. You allow your mind to relax and return to its natural state" (Hanh 2004:25).

Meditative living means that "a person's heart and soul is fully present in everything he does ...: Being open; remaining young through creative presence; living without self-disguise and stubbornness, not judging people by standards of only external correctness; approaching what is yet to be discovered and outstanding" (Boros 1978:43).

It is quite simple: meditation or meditative attitude is the conscious awareness of what is. Mindfulness, awareness and looking inward are enough - everything else arises by itself.

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Download this text as pdf-file:  Text SD 16: Meditation.