Both this article and the following article deal with the subject of meditation

IN A RECENT issue of a well-known business paper, a front-page feature cited the marvels of transcendental meditation. This technique, known to mystics for thousands of years, was heralded as a new discovery by this paper, and the columnist who wrote the article gave all credit to a little-known Oriental practitioner of yoga art and several of his Occidental disciples. The fact that they also charge exorbitant fees for minimal instruction is not too important, except that it only serves to emphasize the commercial aspect of the writer’s source.

This incident only points up the fact of how dismally ignorant the general public is on the whole field of mysticism and mystical practices. Not only the Rosicrucians but countless other organizations and societies have employed the art of meditation for centuries. With it, they have discovered how to balance their lives between the mundane and the sublime, bring peace to the inner man, relieve tension, gain inspiration, and generally improve their lives.

The word meditation itself is no newcomer to the vocabulary. Meditation has been an accepted practice by religious, mystical, and cultural groups down through the ages. However, it was generally disregarded by the general population, and those who engaged in it were thought to be a little light in the head. Prayer was about the closest thing to meditation that the average man had had anything to do with insofar as communing with the inner self was concerned.

Only recently has the term meditation come to public attention again as a practice worth thinking and doing something about.

A few years ago it was almost a fad among high-school students across the United States to take time off from school and go to the seashore, the woods, or some quiet place to meditate. For the most part this meditation lacked direction. Why meditate? What would it accomplish? How did one go about meditating successfully? How long did you meditate? What did you meditate on?

Without answers to these questions, the fad soon died out and interest was lost. The meditation outings were mostly an opportunity to get away from the grind for a while, a chance to be alone where no one or nothing bothered you. But it solved no problems, provided no inspiration. Yet the fad accomplished one thing:

It brought the practice out into the open for a while, and all of a sudden it was not so queer if you were a person who, spent regular periods of the day in meditation.

In a more organized manner, Eastern religious sects are bringing the practice into fashion again. Swamis and yogis and priests of Oriental religions spark the imagination of our pragmatic society with dramatic presentations of the power of meditation. In the best circles and in the freedom cults, the term has been embellished with a nice-sounding adjective, transcendentalism, and thus transcendental meditation is the new way, the golden key, the open door to happiness and success. A businessman tries it and his tensions are gone. He greets each day with renewed vigor. A couple tries it and their marital difficulties fade into insignificance. A student tries it and his grades go up.

There is no follow-up story to these cases, of course. We do not know how long the effects last but we can assume from what we know of meditation that there is no magic in the practice; that sitting alone for a few moments in communion with the inner self is not going to work any miracles.

Meditation is a very simple procedure. It is communion with the inner self— with the Cosmic. From it a person gains inspiration, perhaps insights into what he must do. He is able to evaluate his past behavior and study others’ reaction to it. It is a learning experience as well as a release from any mental storm which may have occupied the mind. From one’s meditations, a person goes back to the same world somewhat more relaxed and reassesses his problems. The problems still require attention, work, and effort but, having taken time to think about them, they can be considered from new angles.

Transcendental meditation is simply transcending the impressions of one’s immediate world, being able to shut out the thoughts and concepts that normally bombard the mind and reach for inspiration above and beyond the mundane. Transcendental meditation is what the Rosicrucian Order teaches throughout the years of membership. Any meditation that is worthwhile is transcendental meditation. It raises you above the objective level of existence into the subjective plane where you are susceptible to Cosmic Illumination.

Still, for many people, transcendental meditation coming from an Oriental mystic has more appeal than when it comes from the pages of an objective and rational study program such as in the Rosicrucian lessons. Yet the process is the same, with possibly better and more lasting results from the latter.

To meditate is to close out the outside world. Try to shut out impressions of things around you or within you. Think of yourself as reaching out above and beyond yourself and your present environment. Reach into a formless state and rest. First, go over some puzzling or problematical situation which is uppermost in your mind these days. Review what you have done with regard to it— what others have done. Think it through again, searching for a solution. Acknowledge the good that has been done, the good that can still be done. Then meditate. Reach into the formless state and rest. Wait.