/lit/ - Literature

Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher
states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of
meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to ever sub-
tler levels, without losing one’s grip on the levels left behind. In a
way it is like having death under control. One begins with the
lowest levels: social circumstances, customs and habits; physi-
cal surroundings, the posture and the breathing of the body; the
senses, their sensations and perceptions; the mind, its thoughts
and feelings; until the entire mechanism of personality is
grasped and firmly held. The final stage of meditation is
reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the ‘I
am-so-and-so’, beyond ‘so-I-am’, beyond ‘I-am-the-witness-
only’, beyond ‘there-is’, beyond all ideas into the imper-
sonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when
you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation.