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From Intellect to Intuition - Chapter Five - Stages in Meditation
"First, see that thy outward senses are properly controlled... Now turn to the inward senses or noble powers of the soul, lower and higher. Take the lower powers first. These are intermediate between the higher powers and the outward senses. They are excited by the outward senses; what the eye sees, what the ear hears, they offer forthwith to desire. This offers it again, in the ordinary course, to the second power, called judgment, which considers it and once more passes it on to the third power, reckoning or reason..." "A man, moreover, must have a mind at ease... the body should be rested from bodily labor, not only of the hands but of the tongue as well and all five senses. The soul keeps clear best in the quiet, but in jaded body is oft overpowered by inertia. Then by strenuous effort we travail in divine love for intellectual vision, till, clearing a way through recollected senses, we rise past our own mind to the wonderful wisdom of God... Man rising to the summit of his mind is exalted God." - Pfeiffer, Franz, Meister Eckhart, pages 279, 47. Through the agency of the mind as a directed instrument, the soul can manipulate the impulses or thought currents. These forces pour into the field of [112] experience of the Thinker and he must learn to direct them consciously and to work with them, so as to produce the desired result. The fifth factor reminds us that a certain stage of evolutionary development must be reached before true meditation becomes possible; certain work must be done and certain refinements in our instrument made, before a man can safely and wisely meditate. All men are not equipped to meditate with hope of complete success. This need in no way discourage any student. A beginning can always be made and a sound foundation laid. The control of the mental processes can be begun, and brought to a high point of achievement, making it possible for the soul to have an apparatus of thought ready to its use. Reacting to the three parts of the meditation, but reacting in a unified manner the physical or form nature has been studied, the quality animating it and the motive or cause of the manifestation of the form has been considered. At the same time there has been an ever deeper concentration, and a more intense meditation. The attention has sunk inward increasingly, and outer things have been steadily negated; this has not been accomplished through a passive attitude, but through one of a most keen and vital interest. The meditation has been positive in its method and has not led to a negative or trance condition. The mind has been busy all the time, but busy in one direction. Finally, there comes the stage which is called [113] bliss, or identification. The consciousness is no longer focused in the intellect but becomes identified with the object of the meditation work. This we will consider later. We have, therefore, the four stages briefly summarized as follows and constituting what is called "meditation with seed:" Meditation on the nature of a particular form. Meditation upon the quality of a particular form. Meditation upon the purpose of a particular form. Meditation upon the life animating a particular form. All forms are symbols of an indwelling life, and it is through meditation with seed that we arrive at the life aspect.
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