Ha! Surrender. No, don’t talk of that. We will observe. Let’s observe. No devotion, just observation.”

By entering this communion, by accepting the spirit, the meditator experiences a liberation/growth of spirit which is borne through the cycles of life and death and ressurection. What dies is our ego, our vanities and petty mindedness - They all die with Jesus on the cross. And it is through the ressurection that our new self, our better self, rises from the death of the old. Once we have passed through this, and understand how our poverty of soul is fertile ground for rebirth, we come to appreciate a certain richness in silence, something that transcends the constraints of language and description. Question: Acharya Ji, only sometimes do I consciously know that I really want liberation. How to increase one’s quality, so that this want is continuous? Re-birth is — the rotten old wine, in an apparently new bottle. And then, another cycle of effortfulness starts. The ego again says, “I will cause the effect.” What is the effect that it wants? Liberation. What is the effect that it wants? God. But how does it want to have that effect? This book makes clear the meaning and purpose of meditating so that we may embark on the journey with deeper understanding and commitment. Word into Silence is the first of eight sets of John Main’s collected talks. These talks were given in the 1970s in England as an introduction to meditation and a means of encouragement for those who had begun to meditate. They make clear the meaning and purpose of meditating so that we may embark on the journey with deeper understanding and commitment.

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Acharya Prashant: It does not want to surrender to that effect. It wants to cause that effect. In other words, the ego wants to cause God. Whereas God is the one, who is utterly uncaused, unborn.

In a practical twelve-step programme, John Main teaches how to be at peace with ourselves by stepping aside from the busyness of our daily lives and being still in the presence of God. In the stillness we discover our true selves and come to know God as 'the ground of our being'. The process of meditation is the opening of the eye of the heart. This is the deeper and more simple consciousness that allows us to know that we can love and be loved and that we are all in love. John Main OSBOcr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA19213 Openlibrary_edition You cannot think of anything, but liberation. All thoughts are thoughts of liberation in disguise. It is the limitation, and constraint in language, that only sometimes do you call liberation as ‘liberation’. At other times, you name the desire for liberation as a pizza, or money, or clothes, or relationships, or a book, or something else. The introduction to "Word into Silence" sets out a groundwork for Christian Meditation, offering examples and references from history spanning from the 4th Century Desert Fathers, to the mystic 14th Century work, "The Cloud of Unknowing" all the way to the 20th Century work "Saccidananda" by the Indian-based Benedictine Monk, Abhishiktananda. Delving into these works, John Main explains how we need to reject obsession with the self and find a calmness and clearness in a simple silence - In this context, simple does not mean easy. To stop our mental chatter and whirling thoughts, Main follows the example of the Desert Fathers and the "Cloud of Unknowing" in reciting a mantra as a central focus point for the duration of your meditations (which he recommends in 30 minute sessions, twice daily). Question: What is the real meaning of devotion in spirituality? How can devotion help one to reach the Truth? What is the path of devotion? How to prepare oneself for devotion? Which one is greater, observation or devotion? Such is, so deep, the egoistic darkness. It wants to cause Liberation. It wants to cause Godliness.

English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Danish English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Vietnamese Why would falseness ever become noticeable? Falseness becomes noticeable only when you are in love with Truth. Otherwise, falseness passes off. Otherwise, falseness is just everyday stuff — agreeable, acceptable. Those who are on the path of observation, very well know that all the blemishes show up. All the falseness, the biases, the inaccuracies, the prejudices, the attractions, the attachments, they are what is seen, right? Why must they become noticeable? The all-important aim in Christian meditation is to allow God s mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are...

Volume 31, Issue 1/2, 2019

Will you remember that? Without love and devotion, attention is just another tension. And there are so many who think that they will be able to be attentive, without being devoted. They end up turning very, very dry. Very dry. Word into Silence is the first of eight sets of John Main’s collected talks. This set of talks was given in the 1970s in England as an introduction to meditation and a means of encouragement for those who had begun to meditate. The desire for food and the desire for liberation are according to you, diverse things. And from that divergence, is arising your question. You are saying, only for let’s say an hour a day, am I consciously thinking of liberation. For the remaining twenty-three hours, I am thinking of miscellaneous things. A, B, C, D……and L is for Liberation. And the other twenty-five letters are all for various miscellaneous things in the world, that occupy and attract us. What is attention? Attending. Attending. Attending to whom? The Truth. That is also the only difference between focusing and observing. And also, it is the only difference between concentration and attention. In concentration, you want some little object, so you are pointing at it. And if you want a little object, you remain little, which means you remained secured, because little you already are.

Journey into Silence: Transformation Through Contemplation, Wonder, and Worship (Hebrew Word Study)

Why do you think that these eyes are constantly looking out at the world? What are they searching for? Have you never thought of this? On the wall, why must a certain spot catch your attention? It does, when you want the wall to be clean, and pristine, and white. And then that little blemish is observed. Truth cannot be observed, obviously.