Meditation
The attachments of this world represent an immense barrier for a human soul striving to come in nearness to God. Instead of looking up toward the light, worldly attachments cause a person to look down toward the earth. They see the clouds instead of the sun.
Some live life only by and for the physical world, forgetting entirely the spiritual side of their being. When they die, they will realise they can take nothing with them, and will leave this world as empty as they came, like a plant that never grew.
Others recognise the spiritual, but when they sit down to pray and reflect and call out toward God, their mind is a whirlwind of thoughts and a confusion of feelings that has no space for the Spirit of God to dwell. They intend to pray, but instead their prayer is drowned out by thoughts of the events of the day, difficulties at work, anger at friends and colleagues, the children fighting upstairs, the episode of Eastenders just about to start, bills about to come through the post... an unending list of distractions that intrude and interrupt the pure and sacred attention to God. A person needs to become in spirit as a crystal pure and clear.
Meditation is about transforming the whirlwind and confusion of spirit caused by attachment to the chances and changes of the material world, into a state of spiritual attentiveness that gazes undistracted toward the perfections of the divine.
A person engaging in true meditation will discover a transformation, from a being that tramples the heavens with earthly feet, to one the walks the earth with celestial feet.
There are two types of meditation that are particularly helpful. The first is purity and attention to God in a state of stillness, and the other is purity and attention to God in a state of motion. You need to be able to ascend in both - to be focussed with purity upon God both in stillness and in motion.
Purity in a state of stillness, is also about seeing God in concepts. One way of practising this, is to find a space of sacredness during the day, and repeat at least a hundred times, either aloud or in your mind, the highest and most beautiful name of God you know; you will come to feel what is right, and it only takes at most 20 minutes.
At first, being Westerners with our analytical minds, this repetition will be resented, annoying, stupid. We like things to race around and flash from one thing to another like a fast-paced action movie, and will dismiss out of hand the suggestion of just repeating a single word a hundred times each day. In trying it out, it may feel like this for some days, weeks, months, or even years - such is the wish for the mind to create unrest and turbulence; it may kick and shout. But if it endures, it will learn to give way, as it begins to experience the extraordinary spiritual fruits that result. A person striking a flint getting nowhere for months, may look foolish to those around, an object of ridicule to those who think they are something in the world; but in time a spark will appear, and a fire become lit, and then shall arise such a raging blaze of light and heat that none can ever put out.
For you see, it's about enkindling a blindingly bright pure light of attraction within your spirit to the Spirit. The mind can race all around the universe in pursuit of God, but it is the heart, in stillness, that will find God comes to it, for it is only in purity that the spirit can find any union with the Spirit.
Through such a meditation, the single repeated name of God will build up in power, meaning and feeling over the days, the weeks and over the years, and will become as a sun illumining all the words and concepts within you. All you will think and do will be for God, and God will be your whole existence.
The second type of meditation that is helpful, is purity in a state of motion.
One way of practising this, is to find a space and time of sacredness during the day, and say a prayer you find particularly beautiful or powerful. It must be the same prayer each time. Once again, the western mind may prefer a different prayer each time for variety, but it is like a piece of music: a person who knows a piece of music off by heart, will be able to put 100% of their spirit and feeling into the music, whereas someone who performs a different piece every time will only be able to give it less of their spirit, as a substantial part of their flow is distracted by the mechanics of the music.
The idea of such a prayer, is to rise above the syllables, sounds and forms, so that it becomes a pure vehicle for the spirit, and this is most readily achieved by sticking to a single prayer.
Not all prayers are equal; the one that is best, may be rugged and the least enticing when said ordinarily in passing.
In practising these things in consort with a few other things, one's whole spirit can be transformed.
Many cultures have found one other thing singularly effective in making a transition from the distractions of this world into a state of sacredness and prayer, and that is to wash one's face with water. The thoughts and distractions a person is experiencing during the day, readily spill turbulently into the period of prayer, unless a means of transition is provided that absolutely closes the door upon the mundane part of the day, and begins a new state of freshness in which to pray in - washing the face can be immensely effective, and increases in effectiveness each time.