Meditation is Ancient
Meditation is the cornerstone of spiritual awakening, as it is a time of listening to one’s spiritual guidance. Meditation is when you sit quietly and silence the distractions of the physical world in order to hear a message from the spiritual realm. Meditation is a quieting of the mind-body system and an opening of the spiritual system. The purpose of meditation is to communicate with the Cosmic Consciousness or God.
Meditation is not as familiar to most people as prayer. Prayer is most often used to ask for something and to thank God for what we have received. We have all used prayer at some time in our lives, sometimes without being consciously aware of it. We have prayed to have someone we love healed, asked to have our burden of despair lifted, prayed for answers to our questions. Even a wish is a form of prayer, as it asks an unknown source for something; so everyone has prayed in one form or another. Almost everyone has thanked God for something, either out of heartfelt gratitude or from relief. One problem most people have with prayer is that they are often so busy asking that they forget to listen for the answer. This unwillingness to listen is one reason our prayers often seem to go unanswered. The answers are, in fact, given to us, and we only need to be quiet and listen to hear them. Too often, we behave like children asking “Why? Why?” and not listening to the answer the adult is attempting to give. Meditation is the time of listening. It is the time to hear the answers to our prayers and much more.
Throughout the ages, human beings have sought communication with God for various reasons, from despair over the chaos of the world, to the desire to rejoice in the beauty within and around us. A daily communication with God or meditation time allows us to have this spiritual interaction. People in most cultures set aside a time of quiet worship during their day. Native Americans traditionally have welcomed the sun and the new day with a morning meditation. Moslems heed their daily call to prayer. Christians have their daily devotionals. Buddhists meditate daily. An investigation into a variety of religions and cultures will reveal that most of them encourage daily meditation in some form. The human race long has recognized this essential need for communication with our Creator.
