The inner reaches of introspection become the outer reaches of meditation, as the exploration moves beyond the subjective experience of the present-day personality, into the boundless oceans of the Mind, towards alignment with the universal and eternal.

Of that which is universal and eternal there is none greater than Love, for “there is no fear in love;  but perfect love casteth out fear”. The Love of the Absolute Beingness is at the very heart of the cosmos and the Source of all Creation. It is the same Love to which we owe our Source, and the same Love which lives in our hearts.

If, from time to time, one has the opportunity to spend a few days in the mountains or by the seashore, in meditation and contemplation, that is most renewing and advisable. We spend too little time in nature and far too little time in silence. It is good to escape the chaos every now and then,  but we have work to do.

Meditation, which utilizes both observation and concentration, entails contemplation and investigation of a subject.  

Meditation  is more passive (than exercises or visualization), as it involves reflection and introspection. The difference is not great and often an exercise will lead into a meditation.

Meditation is practiced in varying degrees. You cannot jump ahead but have to go slowly by mastering each step along the way.  The first field of work (let us call it the ‘microcosm”) concerns the cleansing of the present-day personality. This cleansing is ceaseless work and even so-called Masters must keep constant vigil against the emergence of egoism. Through study we set about to understand the nature of elementals. Remember, we teach that the sum total of all elementals which we create, assimilate and re-energize, compose our present-day personality.

We are fundamentally opposed to any system of exercise adopted by Westerners which create a division between the mundane and the Divine and a gulf between a meditative state and a normal waking state. It is not healthy, nor respectful, to annihilate either the natural world or the lower body belonging to it.

Question: I infer then that you feel uncomfortable with Systems which require meditation periods of several hours a day, and retreats that span months, even years.
Answer: Again such a thing might be appropriate in certain traditions, but we, as Christians, believe in service – not withdrawing from our fellow humans who may need our help. We stress engagement in the world, but not enslavement to it. For as Joshua said, You “are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”.

Question: What is an appropriate measure of meditation?
Answer: Let me put it this way. Say you have a seedling. You expose it to the sun, good soil and each day give it a  little water. It will grow in its course. But if you decide to put it in the hot midday sun, or water it to the point of  drowning its roots, it will surely shrivel up and die. By exercising too much there is a danger in over-meditating,  creating an extreme division between the periods of meditation and your normal waking state. We only encourage periods of fifteen minutes or so, two or three times a day.

I have seen many, too many, who have severely damaged their nervous systems through excessive meditation. We are in the world and must, dialectically, work with it.  

Exercise and meditation at higher levels mean exploring, attuning to, and eventually becoming unified (at-one-ment) with the Causes, Principles, Ideas, and Laws. Each Circle of  Possibility works according to the Divine forces of Total Love, Power and Wisdom. These most perfect forces of life are within our archangelic human form. Ecstasy, real ecstasy, is aligning ourselves with the Divine.