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Chapter One - The Experience Of Meditation
Friends. Without the seed of divinity within us, no human being would exist. Because of the divinity within us, we move, think, love, give and receive. Do not be misled by what you see in the world around you, the passing show with its violence, commercialism, greed for possessions, lust for power. We are incarnations of the Life Energy of the Cosmos, evolving as we, here and now, transform ourselves. For this transformation which is Self-realization, we need meditation. In meditation, we enter, we experience, we prepare to express our divinity. This seed of divinity within each of us is the Creative Force, but each of us must contact it. Each of us must commit himself to living as a source of love and of light. There are many forms of meditation. Often the start of meditation is concentration on a point of light, or a word, or a mantra, or a phrase, or all idea, or an image. However, concentration is not meditation. Concentration can take us to the threshold, but we must go beyond.
Meditation takes us beyond mind, beyond words beyond ego. In meditation, the confirming shell of the ego is split. When the shell of the ego is cast off the core which is within, which is your true Self your spirit, your soul shines forth with dazzling brilliance. When will the ego shatter? When you enter deep within yourself; when you reach the core of your being. The kernel of the coconut, its sweet milk, can be had only when you break its outer shell ego is the shell; within it is the nucleus, the essence of your real Self. Self love belongs to the ego love of all living beings, to the nucleus. The ego aims to get what is coming to me"; the nucleus aims to give all that it can to the world. The ego is a facade-become-prison. When we shed it, the essence, or nucleus emerges in freedom, offering itself and contributing to the bounty of the universe.
We glide into meditation. We cannot force thoughts from our minds, or force bliss to come. It is as though we are seated on the balcony of our apartment, or on the porch of our house, and see people passing in the street. We let the many strangers pass. If a friend appears, we invite him to join us. Now we are not even aware of strangers in
the street, as we concentrate on communicating with our friend. Then, finally, we become silent. Communing with our friend in the silence, we find we are communing with the Infinite.
First, let us concentrate on the concept of the seed, and then glide into meditation.... The glory of the earth includes almost limitless varieties of plants and trees, all of which start from tiny seeds. We share this richness of diversity, this divinity in many forms, each individually unique. The seed is nourished by the dark earth which is broken up by earthworms, watered by rain, warmed by the sun, cooled by the gentle touch of the night. The seed splits its shell, and a form of life emerges which begins to expand and actualize its potential. Now go to the law behind the maturation of the seed. There is a benign harmony in the cycle of its flowering and bearing fruit and its decay---Only to grow again. The interrelatedness of seed and sun and earthworms, of birds that eat the superfluous seeds, of people who eat the fruit, and of all that lives on the earth is the interrelatedness of one with all. Without this inter-relatedness, this harmony of the whole, we would not be here. We not only eat the fruit of the tree, we rest in its shade and we also enjoy its beauty, which completes the tree.
Two thousand and five hundred years ago, Mahavir said, Since you receive so much more than any other form of life, it is inevitable that you should want to give more." We not only have senses that open the whole expanse of the universe to us, but we also
