The Realization of Meditation

TODAY’S READING
507.1-507.4 & M1

I have experienced many types of meditation in my life. I started meditation practice in my late teens. It began when I spent a summer in southwestern Colorado living in a tent on an archeological site. I was one of two caretakers for the site that summer, we were there full time and the archeologists would drive in each day to dig.

We had a magnificent camp which included a space devoted to meditation practice.

The organizer of the camp was a Dharma Teacher—the Buddhist equivalent of a minister. My first foray into meditation was to be taught a technique by him. His branch of Buddhism was Pure Land Buddhism, less formal than Zen but with structured meditation practice all the same.

The technique he offered me was this: he would light a candle and from a seated lotus position we were instructed to fix our gaze on the candle flame. With our gaze fixed we were to attempt to count to ten. The caveat? If we had any thought come to mind during our attempt we would have to start back at the beginning. It took me weeks before I could get to the number two—and I never made it to ten.

It is this type of practice that is so deeply structured and focused on “clearing the mind of all thought” (which, by the way, I have come to believe is impossible) that turns many people off. I was not turned off. I liked the attempt and found great insight and calm through my practice.

I have since come to appreciate and prefer other methods of meditation. In particular I enjoy contemplative meditations. Contemplating a theme or idea—perhaps this is more active than many purists might suggest is the “right” way to meditate, but I don’t mind. At the end of the day who is meditation for? Is it for me or them? The answer seems obvious. So I will do what I enjoy and what I know works for me.

In the Science of Mind, today’s reading brings us to the first meditation. Also, because it is the beginning of the year long reading series we are assigned the instructions for meditation. There are two things in these instructions that I want to address.

The first is this, the purpose of these meditations is to induce “a greater realization of life.” This is prefaced with the idea that there is no occult power in these words. That’s an interesting word to use: occult. Never wanting to be one who assumes I know what a word means I decided to look up the word occult (because I instantly aligned it with something dark and dangerous). The word is defined as relating to magic, and the supernatural. Its etymological origin means, “to hide from view.” In this sense Ernest Holmes is absolutely spot on in reminding us that there is no magic at play here and that what we seek is completely open and available to us.

The other word to consider in this is the word, “realization.” He reiterates this concept inviting us to endeavor to “realize the meaning of the words,” in the meditations, and to continue the meditation until we “feel a sense of realization.”

This again informs us to bring to our mind the concept that what we are doing in this work it making real the concepts in our mind.

That’s the crux of Science of Mind. We can make real what is in our mind.

So enjoy the meditation offered in the book today (just a reminder that it is on page 507… the meditation titled, “Come, and Let Me Heal You”).

Just a word about the language used. Ernest Holmes was a writer of his time and used certain conventions that have fallen out of favor. First, he uses male gendered pronouns; this is not meant to be exclusive. I trust we can all look past this to the deeper meaning.

He also uses very dualistic language—that is, although he works very diligently in this book to bring us to the understanding that God and wo/man are one and the same, the language here still speaks through a lens of separation. As you work through this meditation, remind yourself that when it is written, “Come and I will heal you,” the reason we can be healed in our faith is because we are the “I” in that sentence. There is no separation, and the more we realize this the more effective we are in our healing work.