Meditation

Meditation cleanses the mind of all obstructions and opens the door to Ultimate Reality that lies within. The various techniques of meditation all have in common the restricting of the body and sense stimuli, controlling the mind’s wandering thoughts and feelings, and finally attaining a pure state of stillness where the true Self-nature can reveal itself.

While most of our scriptural sources on meditation describe its practice in the Eastern religion, meditation is also widespread in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Mystics, monastics, Sufis and Kabbalists all developed meditative techniques to raise practitioners to a higher state of communion with the Spirit of God. Silent meditation is often employed as preparation for prayer, as a time of quiet when the mind is calmed and clarified and its spiritual senses heightened before communing with God. Father Moon values meditation in this context. He sometimes calls it “prayer,” but what he means is a meditative, stilling technique that is an element of effective prayer.

The topic of meditation is vast, and one can practice it for a lifetime without getting to the end of it. Some aspects presented here include: quieting one’s thoughts, focusing on the breath, developing intense concentration, the discipline of “mindfulness” of one’s body, feelings, and thoughts, visualization of a divine image, and the shamanistic quest for a supernatural vision.