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The Pschology of Enlightenment
absorbed the lessons of the beginning stages of meditation can truly appreciate the value of these seven centers.*
Today we naïvely believe we can put our money down and learn a little something about meditation. It is true that we may come away with a few new ideas about how to relax and how to relieve some of our tension; but will money unfold our consciousness or give us a deep experience of the meaning and purpose of life? No, of course not. That takes a lifetime of patient practice. We are too easily satisfied with too little. Mankind does not realize the magnitude of his inner energy, nor does he understand that there is a fathomless ocean of knowledge lying within.
Many of us have not yet discovered that inner Self which is real and permanent. This Self, this soul, is invisible What, then, do we see when we visualize in our meditation? We see that energy which is a manifestation of the invisible soul. Have you ever felt a cool breeze brush against your arm? You know that you are feeling the coolness of air although you cannot see it. Similarly, in meditation, through both your intuitive feeling and your inner vision, you will begin to experience that of which you have been unaware: the invisible soul.
Someone once said that in order to find joy in living, there must be something worth dying for. What did he mean by this? Here, dying means not the death of the physical body but the giving up or losing of a lesser thing in order to awaken to something greater. In other words, one must relinquish something of secondary importance before
* For a guide to beginning meditation, see: Chitrabhanu, Realize What You Are: The Fundamentals of Jain Meditation
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