If you have to commence your daily duties at a very early hour, and are
thus debarred from giving the early morning to systematic meditation, try
to give an hour at night, and should this, by the length and laboriousness
of your daily task be denied you, you need not despair, for you may turn
your thoughts upward in holy meditation in the intervals of your work, or
in those few idle minutes which you now waste in aimlessness; and should
your work be of that kind which becomes by practice automatic, you may
meditate while engaged upon it. That eminent Christian saint and
philosopher, Jacob Boehme, realized his vast knowledge of divine things
whilst working long hours as a shoemaker. In every life there is time to
think, and the busiest, the most laborious is not shut out from aspiration
and meditation.
Spiritual meditation and self-discipline are inseparable; you will,
therefore, commence to meditate upon yourself so as to try and understand
yourself, for, remember, the great object you will have in view will be the
complete removal of all your errors in order that you may realize Truth.
You will begin to question your motives, thoughts, and acts, comparing them
with your ideal, and endeavoring to look upon them with a calm and
impartial eye. In this manner you will be continually gaining more of that
mental and spiritual equilibrium without which men are but helpless straws
upon the ocean of life. If you are given to hatred or anger you will
meditate upon gentleness and forgiveness, so as to become acutely alive to
a sense of your harsh and foolish conduct. You will then begin to dwell in
thoughts of love, of gentleness, of abounding forgiveness; and as you
overcome the lower by the higher, there will gradually, silently steal into
your heart a knowledge of the divine Law of Love with an understanding of
its bearing upon all the intricacies of life and conduct. And in applying
this knowledge to your every thought, word, and act, you will grow more and
more gentle, more and more loving, more and more divine. And thus with
every error, every selfish desire, every human weakness; by the power of
meditation is it overcome, and as each sin, each error is thrust out, a
fuller and clearer measure of the Light of Truth illumines the pilgrim
soul.
Thus meditating, you will be ceaselessly fortifying yourself against your
only _real_ enemy, your selfish, perishable self, and will be establishing
yourself more and more firmly in the divine and imperishable self that is
inseparable from Truth. The direct outcome of your meditations will be a
calm, spiritual strength which will be your stay and resting-place in the
struggle of life. Great is the overcoming power of holy thought, and the
strength and knowledge gained in the hour of silent meditation will enrich
the soul with saving remembrance in the hour of strife, of sorrow, or of
temptation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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