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The next stage of the program deals with the conscious mind. You must
learn to concentrate. In one sense, everyone knows how to concentrate
on subjects with which they are familiar and which have constituted
their fields of interest. ... We all know how to concentrate. What
we do not know is how to use the same technique on an unfamiliar
subject. Concentration is nothing more than becoming engrossed in a
particular subject.
As long as you are giving it your full attention, you are
concentrating on it.
Now, we know that first we must learn to relax. Then we must also do
some concentrative work on a specific subject,--God. When we
concentrate our thoughts on God, we call it prayer, or meditation.
Meditation is to the soul what food is to the body. The tragic thing
is that so few people have realized this, but in the past quarter of
the century, more and more people have learned it. We should spend
about ten or fifteen minutes each day with God.
What is meant by meditation? You take an idea,--any idea that
happens to interest you, but NOT your problems. That is the rub,
because we love to dwell on our problems.
You start with a positive idea,--such as what you think God is.
Think what God means to you, and then think what you mean of God. Do
not forget that you are "a special enterprise on the part of God."
Think it through in those terms. Nobody uses exactly the same words.
It might happen, because it happens to many people,--that in spite
of your loquaciousness with your fellow man, you find yourself
tongue-tied now. It is an odd sidelight on our habit patterns, but a
very real one. If you find this to be the case in your instance,
release your shyness with the realization that God loves you, with a
far greater and deeper love than that of your parents, your husband,
or wife, your children or your dearest friend. He knows you, not
only as you should be, but as you are. He cares for you. Your
welfare is dear to the heart of Being.
I am inevitably asked, "How do you do it?" My own form usually runs
in this manner: "God is the only Presence." "God is the only Power."
Then I begin to think about what this really means to me. They are
beautiful ideas, but unless they have some meaning for me, they will
not do anything for me or to me. The Presence is that which gives me
life. I AM. The Power is the Law which sustains the universe and
everything in it. I AM a child of God,--and so are you. My
birthright,--and your birthright--is to learn how to use that law to
create my life in accordance with what it should be.
...
Spend ten or fifteen minutes of each day on it. People often say, "I
just can't find the necessary time." Can you get the time to draw a
breath? Can you get the time to go to your business? Can you get
the time to have a social life? Of course you can. There is a wise
statement from an unknown source: "We always find the time to do the
things we want to do." Do you think in the final analysis, that
there is anything really more important than this,--the welfare of
your body and your soul? ...
There are various ways of meditation. There is what we call the
"free" meditation, which is touched on in the above paragraphs. This
is some times a bit difficult for the beginner. He has not learned
to control his thinking sufficiently to hold his thought on one idea.
Then too, he sometimes finds himself stumped for ideas. It is
equally good to take up some book that gives you a spiritual lift.
There are many excellent metaphysical books which have been written
with just this in mind.
...
In the beginning it is wiser to set aside the same time daily until
you get into the habit of it. The subconscious mind thrives on what
we call the "habit pattern." Once it gets to the point where it
knows that a certain time of the day is the meditation period, it
will not give you any peace until you observe that time in that way.
A short trial period will convince you that this is so.
From chapter 6 of How To Find Your Real Self by Mildred Mann, 1952