"Silence, Prayer, Meditation and Contemplation blend into each other harmoniously." –Flower A. Newhouse

Finding Your True North

The Armor of Spiritual Life - Lesson 8

Meditation Is the Breastplate of Our Spiritual Armor, Part III

The Gift of Meditation

Meditation covers a large aspect of consciousness. As the glimpse of Reality comes, it is in truth as if we were given by the Very Presence a radiant jewel, a jewel that we have not inspected before. Meditation is observing that jewel of spiritual quality, virtue, or ideal with greater gratitude. We see all the loveliness and we evaluate it more adequately. Away far in the background of our mind is functioning the thing that we absorbed from concentration. For meditation includes the ability to discriminate, but in a higher key.

We meditate upon the reality of Christ governing the inner dimensions of existence. His qualities are idealized and regarded individually with an intention of emulation.

I believe in the Lord Christ, the Lord who is telepathically aware of every devotee who loves Him. I believe that the great Transcendent One, from His place in the cosmos or from wherever He functions, is momently in attunement with everyone who speaks His Name and aspires to His development.

As we meditate and pray, let us not forget that He is the Living One, the Pattern, and the transcendent Archetype whose way each of us must follow!

What qualities do you feel coming from the Lord Christ when you tune into Him? When Flower says that our Lord Christ is the transcendent Archetype for us to follow, describe what that means for you.

Contact with Transforming Power

Beauty, Health, Productiveness, and Enlightenment receive our deepest respect. Whatsoever we think upon in our hearts we become. Meditation affords us contact with those vibrant archetypes of moral and objective achievement we must appreciate. Its highest benefit is its creative influence, its transforming power.

Day after day, as we link ourselves with these archetypes, we notice in our bodies, feelings, thoughts, and in our individualities the beginning expression of these glorious traits. Without them on the Inner, without some access to them through idealism, reverence, and utilization, we could never manifest them. This is one of the reasons why meditation plays such an important role in our spiritual endeavors.

All things which are a part of evolving life have their counterparts upon the subjective planes of being, and we contact and touch these counterparts when we meditate. Later their image is produced in tangible form in our outer circumstances. Without contact with the Inner Reality, the outer objectivity could not manifest.

In trainer Muldoon’s gymnasium were murals of strong athletes. Pupils were instructed to idealize the physiques of these heroes as possible attainments in their own growth. As they became more proficient in the art of idealization, they began to embody the strength and vigor of these characters that were pictured on the wall.

Write down three names of spiritual heroes to you. What qualities and ideals did they emanate in their lifetime that speak to you?

Getting Ourselves Ready to Achieve the Ideal

Many persons mistake the urge toward preparation for the call to action. It is an easy mistake to make; therefore we must take steps to get ready for the ideal, to let it envelop, embody, and transform us.

As we meditate thoughts come to mind which portray us in the future. These ideals are asking to be born in us.

In meditation, we are given a scene of our future. Every one of us should write an autobiography of the next ten years of our lives, describing how we want to grow, how we want to change, what we want to look like, the friends we want to know, and the happier, radiant homes we want to achieve. This is not material motivation if we realize that Spirit is generous and that we are to grow into the government, the greater abilities, and the greater expanded use of everything which God has given us of Good.

The famous fresco painter, de Chavannes, would meditate for days while staring at an unpainted surface. As soon as he inwardly completed his vision-ideal, his archetype, he would proceed to paint. His contact with the spiritual counterpart of his ideal was as much a part of this painter’s technique as the final execution of his artistic skills.

Try to detect the changes of your own mind. Try to improve your methods of approach to God. Know that there is one quality that brings enlightenment, one attitude that lifts one toward illumination. It is reverence.

What new understanding do you have now of reverence after all your practicing? How does this relate to your understanding of mysticism? Where do you want to be spiritually in ten years?

Click to Listen to Flower

Ideas for Practice

Practice one of the meditations that Flower suggested in her audio clip.

1. The Theme of Christ: His Meaning to Us and the World, His Purpose
2. The Theme of the Holy Ones: Angels, Perfected Souls and Saints of Life (many lighthouses in God's kingdom)

M16 Find the card entitled Increasing Creative Reception (M16). Practice this wonderful meditation that focuses our attention on the light and beauty of God.

M13 Find the card entitled Devotional Meditation (M13). Practice this form of meditation that aims at awakening our higher selves and bring us under the influence of the higher realms. It offers suggestions to use during step three of Flower's Outline for Meditation. 1. Silence 2. Concentration 3. Meditation 4. Contemplation

Walk with remembrance of the skies, the powers and draughts of eternity which circulate our temporal world.

Questions and Answers

Questions and answers with Flower A. Newhouse (excerpted from Here Are Your Answers, Volumes I, II and III)

Why does visioning the ideal in meditation bring it into reality?

A dream or ideal we cherish is like a seed that is planted in the invisible field of Divine Activity. In the outer world, a planted seed needs watering and watching. Eventually, the ground around it needs weeding. All this watchfulness adds to the vigor and perfection of the fruit. On the plane of thought, we "water" our seed ideas through daily meditations concerning their growth. An idea that is neglected dies, just as surely as does a sensitive young plant that receives no care. A seed is such a small thing, but it can become a tree and a forest. An ideal may seem humble enough; but is can mold our character and inspire our action until it becomes a veritable masterpiece of self-conquest, industry, or attainment.