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This is really a question that I am posting to highlight the importance of meditating. I have wondered about its use in relation to our connection to God. I feel that one's spiritual life is incomplete without meditation. Do you meditate every day? Does it truly bring you closer to God? Blessings, Jai
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I think I have to go back to the Ocean analogy to try and convey how I see this relationship. If you are the "Drop" of ocean within the "Ocean" then you spend your entire lifetime existing as the Drop through the perspective of "I am the Drop" surrounded by all these other drops, and you believe that the greater part of all that exists (All that is) is something called the Ocean. It never occurs to you that you are actually the Ocean because you can only experience one drops worth of it. But now someone comes along and says to you "do this and you will find the ocean". If you imagine yourself separate from the Ocean, then you will have ideas where you are going somewhere to "meet" this Ocean that is somewhere beyond your reach or beyond your worthiness because you are still just a drop. The only way for you to find the Ocean and your relationship to it is to discover that you are it and at the same time you are the drop. Here's where the consciousness comes in. You use your consciousness to exist as the drop within the perspective of the drop. Or to put it another way Conscious focus is the program code that maintains the "I am the Drop" As long as you are searching for the Ocean as a drop within it by "Conscious Effort" you will be the drop looking for the ocean. Why? because the Ocean is focusing down to "You" at your point of reference as "ME" with the assistance of Consciousness. Searching automatically creates the separation. The experience of searching can be manifested only this way. You can't find what you are looking for in the conventional concept of "looking" because only the drop can "look" and the drop cannot find itself by looking. Looking makes you "more" the drop. You have to relax the looking down... down... down to just "being" Thinking won't let you "be" Thinking is the analysis of what inspired you between the last thought and the next thought. You were "being" between the last thought and the next thought. The process of catching yourself between the last thought and the next thought is MEDITATION. Between the last though that the drop had and the next thought the drop will have it was inspired for a brief moment by the Ocean, as the Ocean, from the perspective of I AM. I love this answer! Very very well-put!
(05 Mar '11, 14:43)
Pat W
the traveller you are not the ocean but just a drop in it! yes you are connected with it swimming in it but the ocean it is not you! that ocean is golden light the grace of god!
(25 Jun '11, 00:43)
white tiger
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Got to say Jai my answer is no,it doesnt bring us any closer to Source. Were part of God,we live literally inside his being and He in turn lives in the very moleculkes of our bodies. He is in fact the molecules of our bodies because He created matter out of Himself. We simply cannot get any closer to God.Jesus said that when you gave anyone a cup of water in His name you did it to God. He meant this literally.Your God,or at least a small aspect of Him HOWEVER meditation,time spent reading and digesting information and directing our focus do give us a greater feeling of being one with Source. I do these things not to get closer to God but rather to increase my own awareness of who and what i am,and what i already have. So in a way my no answer is also a yes answer. Graham Yes similar to my answer I just posted, I agree.
(07 Mar '11, 07:51)
Wade Casaldi
well monty by doing what you do you are all ready on the path to cross the narrow gate and be closer to god.Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.http://bible.cc/matthew/7-13.htm
(09 Dec '11, 02:13)
white tiger
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Meditation for me brings me to a place of stillness where that egoic mind chatter subsides and I can access the higher part of my being that is connected to God ( Universe, All that is ) or that creative power from which we all originate. Going into this stillness, on a daily basis, has allowed me to know myself more fully. It has expanded my awareness so that I am beginning to realize who I am and how I interact with the world around me. This in turn allows me to understand others and see the connection between each and everyone - that makes me feel closer to God. |
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I would say closer to our true self. I think that we are just on the cusp of discovering some really deep things about ourselves and meditation just brings those levels in tune. Just a thought. and since our true self is a spark of the eternal flame meditation does open our consciouness to It
(27 Feb '11, 11:19)
fred
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Praying, fasting, meditating, clearing and quieting the mind is a very unique way of getting close to our oneness, and spiritual journey to connect with God daily in our life! yes it is vee!samadhi is union with god and the goal of meditation!
(25 Jun '11, 00:48)
white tiger
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One of the reasons I checked out Abraham Hicks is because they do not mention god. I am meditating to be in alignment with the energy of my source. Not god's source. PRetty bold statement. Welcome to Inward Quest.
(05 Mar '11, 01:39)
you
Esther said she did not find satisfaction in going to church. She knew there was something else. In all their books they say YOU are the creator of your own experience not god. I just wanted to find out if I was breathing properly. I cannot believe some of the things I am reading that people are saying. I am trying very hard to stay positive.
(05 Mar '11, 04:52)
lander
I have read her stuff as well, and watched her movies, I even recommend two, The Secret (originally she spoke and you could tell was in her channel voice) and The Secret Behind the Secret. With all that said you don't believe in God but you choose to believe in a group of other worldly beings that Ester Hicks channels that call themselves Abraham? Jesus came to teach us who we truly are as powerful co-creators.
(09 Mar '11, 15:44)
Wade Casaldi
I don't see any difference between God and Source other than a name. I started meditating to quiet my mind long enough to allow divine inspiration to enter my consciousness. I also use some of the time to focus my thoughts on gratitude and what/who I love, which I feel helps raise my vibration and start out the day in a positive mindset. I like to think this also reinforces my connection with Source/God.
(09 Mar '11, 22:07)
Earthlygoddess
samadhi mean union with god it is the achivement of meditation or the goal if you prefer!
(25 Jun '11, 00:46)
white tiger
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Getting close to God is not something that we can do--God must first desire that we get close. Salvation is not through man but through God alone. Keeping oneself quiet, joyful, kind--these positive qualities bring us closer to God as this is how He wants us to act--we will be ready for Him when He comes. Fasting is also essential. is it not your choice?"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.http://bible.cc/matthew/7-13.htm
(09 Dec '11, 02:01)
white tiger
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Closer to God in metaphor for awareness of God, as we meditate we become more aware that we and God are one, it opens that communication with God. We pray to God but we need as well meditate to hear God in our thought, being guided as to what to do that would be best. It brings awareness of scripture as well, when we read scripture and meditate on it we get enlightened. We see a little more, awaken a little more each and every time to what IS. |
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yes it does once you clear the veil of the mind (Dhyana) you are pure mind and hearth everything is in balence only awareness remain at that moment you can achive union with god (samadhi) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi meditation. Generally, interiorized concentration with the objective of perceiving God. True meditation, dhyana, is conscious realization of God through intuitive perception. It is achieved only after the devotee has attained that fixed concentration whereby he disconnects his attention from the senses and is completely undisturbed by sensory impressions from the outer world. Dhyana is the seventh step of Patanjali’s Eightfold Path of Yoga, the eighth step being samadhi, communion, oneness with God. Patanjali. Renowned exponent of yoga, a sage of ancient times, whose Yoga Sutras outline the principles of the yogic path, dividing it into eight steps: (1) moral proscriptions (yama), (2) right observances (niyama), (3) meditation posture (asana), (4) life-force control (pranayama), (5) interiorization of the mind (pratyahara), (6) concentration (dharana), (7) meditation (dhyana), (8) union with God (samadhi). samadhi. The highest step on the Eightfold Path of Yoga, as outlined by the sage Patanjali (q.v.). Samadhi is attained when the meditator, the process of meditation (by which the mind is withdrawn from the senses by interiorization), and the object of meditation (God) become One. Paramahansa Yogananda has explained that “in the initial states of God-communion (savikalpa samadhi) the devotee’s consciousness merges in the Cosmic Spirit; his life force is withdrawn from the body, which appears ‘dead,’ or motionless and rigid. The yogi is fully aware of his bodily condition of suspended animation. As he progresses to higher spiritual states (nirvikalpa samadhi), however, he communes with God without bodily fixation; and in his ordinary waking consciousness, even in the midst of exacting worldly duties.” Both states are characterized by oneness with the ever new bliss of Spirit, but the nirvikalpa state is experienced by only the most highly advanced masters. mahasamadhi.Sanskrit maha, “great,” samadhi. The last meditation, or conscious communion with God, during which a perfected master merges himself in the cosmic Aum and casts off the physical body. A master invariably knows beforehand the time God has appointed for him to leave his bodily residence. |
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i have put it as favorite because it is a very important question!
@Jaianniah How do you define meditation? Meditation can be expressed as painting or other activity.
jai, meditation ought to bring one closer to actual sef, yet for some reflection does the same. it may not be the mantra, the flame of the candle or the sound, but the realization of another aspect of the self