Why do we meditate?
We meditate to live in the consciousness of God, to enlighten our life with the spirit of God. That is our goal. This soul within us is God. Therefore, it is through our own soul that we will come to know God. All meditation begins with the soul, not with the senses.
A person without the awareness of his soul is like an empty mansion. The structure seems cold—without character or charm—without that vitality by which it is companionable. Buddha felt that without self-knowledge a man is only a corpse, a shell of his existence: “The only dead are the ignorant,” he said.
Mere thinking that this embodied soul of ours will somehow go on forever in time does not make us immortal. The consciousness of immortality is the attainment of a realization of power, of being, of love and of will that is beyond the senses and beyond the mind. To be conscious of the soul’s pure existence free of birth and death, pain and pleasure and ignorance, is to realize immortality.
Such self-awareness is rare, but it has been achieved by human beings who lived on this earth with normal responsibilities. Their master gave them such indomitable strength and fearlessness that others around them were astonished and held them in awe.
How does the mind become self-enlightened? How does this faculty of mind become pure? How does it become serene and balanced?
Aspiring for loftiness and calmness of mind, some people propose to leave the world of mundane distractions and human obligations. They believe that forswearing responsibilities in the material world will help to free their minds from attachments and finite desires. They seek a solitary life or retreat hoping to thereby enlighten their minds. One doesn’t necessarily advance spiritually that way. Merely to distance the body from the rush and push of worldly responsibilities isn’t going to calm or illumine the mind.
How would the mind be able to concentrate any better in seclusion? The old thoughts and habits that we created in the mind would follow us even to the most glorious mountaintop. When most people try to separate themselves from worldly habits and duties they dwell mainly on the memories of people and on desires and thoughts from worldly pastimes, even though their body may be in solitude.
We must learn to master the mind with strength and skill the way an archer does his bow: The archer (our soul) possesses all the necessary power, but in order to send the arrow (ascending pure consciousness) soaring, he must practice skillfully holding the bow (i.e., the mind) steady, at a distance. He can then withdraw the string (the mind’s subjective power) in close to himself, and launch the arrow to its target.
Swami Kamalananda
The Mystic Cross