Meditation Summary

Read more about Meditation from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

What is Meditation?

Meditation means thinking on one subject in a concentrated way.

What is the Object of Meditation?

The object of meditation is to open to the Divine and grow through many progressive experiences into a higher consciousness in union with the Divine.

Meditation is one means of the approach to the Divine and a great way, but it cannot be called a short cut—for most it is a long and difficult though very high ascent. It can by no means be short unless it brings a descent and even then it is only a foundation that is quickly laid—afterwards meditation has to build laboriously a big superstructure on that foundation. It is very indispensable, but there is nothing of the short cut about it.

What is most important [in meditation] is the change of consciousness of which this feeling of oneness is a part.

It is not the length of the meditation that makes the difference [in making one vitally and physically strong]. It is a concentration of the will that is needed.

Dynamic Meditation

It is not meditation (thinking with the mind) but a concentration or turning of the consciousness that is important,—and that can happen in work, in writing, in any kind of action as well as in sitting down to contemplate.

It is a meditation that has the power of transforming one’s being. It is a meditation which makes you progress, as opposed to static meditation which is immobile and relatively inert, and which changes nothing in your consciousness or in your way of being. A dynamic meditation is a meditation of transformation. If one wants the meditation to be dynamic, one must have an aspiration for progress and the meditation must be done to help and fulfil this aspiration for progress. Then it becomes dynamic.

Meditation and Concentration

Meditation is choosing a subject or an idea and following its development or trying to understand what it means.

Meditation is a more relaxed movement, less tense than concentration.

In concentration proper there is not a series of thoughts, but the mind is silently fixed on one object, name, idea, place etc. Concentration is a more active state. You may concentrate mentally, you may concentrate vitally, psychically, physically, and you may concentrate integrally. Concentration or the capacity to gather oneself at one point is more difficult than meditation. One may gather together one portion of one’s being or consciousness or you may gather together the whole of your consciousness or even fragments of it, that is, the concentration may be partial, total or integral, and in each case the result will be different.

How to Meditate?

Prerequisites

The first imperative need is a state of perfect and absolute sincerity in all the consciousness. It is indispensable that one should not deceive oneself or deceive or be deceived by others.

The urge for meditation should come spontaneously from inside and not from any arbitrary decision of the mind.

Even if you are not apparently successful in your meditation, it is better to persist and to be more obstinate than the opposition of your lower nature.

The feeling of calm and comparative absence of disturbing thoughts. This means the growth of quietude of mind which is necessary for a fully effective meditation .

Where to Meditate?

Where you meditate best—that is to say, wherever you are most silent and calm.

Posture For Meditation

The sitting motionless posture is the natural posture for concentrated meditation—walking and standing are active conditions suited for the dispense of energy and the activity of the mind. It is only when one has gained the enduring rest and passivity of the consciousness that it is easy to concentrate and receive when walking or doing anything.

Methods

In order to concentrate and meditate one must do an exercise which I could call the "mental muscle-building" of concentration. One must really make an effort―as one makes a muscular effort, for instance, to lift a weight―if you want the concentration to be sincere and not artificial.

When one is trying to understand a problem which comes up, a psychological problem or a circumstantial one, and he sits down and looks at and sees all the possibilities, compares them, studies them, this is a form of meditation; and one does it spontaneously when the thing comes up. When one is facing a decision to be taken, for instance, and doesn't know which one to take, well, ordinarily one reflects, consults his reason, compares all the possibilities and makes his choice... more or less. Well, this is a form of meditation.

Read more about Meditation from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.