SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON MEDITATION

[Guest guest]

Salutations to Thakur, Guru, and Ma!

 

 

 

MEDITATION AND ITS METHODS

 

 

 

Disciple--"Mention is made in the scriptures of two kinds of meditation--one

having some object and the other objectless. What is meant by all that, and

which of the two is the higher one?"

 

 

 

Swamiji--"First, the practice of meditation has to proceed with some one object

before the mind. I used to concentrate my mind on some black point.

Ultimately, during those days, I could not see the point anymore, nor notice

that the point was before me at all--no wave of functioning would rise, as if it

were all an ocean without any breath of air. In that state I used to experience

glimpses of supersensuous truth. So I think the practice of meditation even

with some trifling external object leads to mental concentration. But it is true

that the mind very easily attains calmness when one practices meditation with

anything on which one's mind is most apt to settle down. This is the reason why

we have in this country [india] so much worship of the images of the gods and

goddesses. The real aim is to make the mind functionless, but this cannot be

got at unless one becomes absorbed in some object."

 

 

 

Satchitananda

 

Kathy

 

 

 

(MEDITATION AND ITS METHODS by Swami Chetanananda of the St. Louis Vedanta

Society.pp. 64-65. Swami Chetanananda edited this and compiled it from The

COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA . VI. 486-87)

 

 

 

Vivekananda--"Though the mind at first assumes the form of the object, yet later

on the consciousness of that object vanishes. Then only the experience of

pure-'ishness remains."

 

 

 

Harih Om Tat Sat