DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

128 DISCOURSESpoliceman tries to catch a thief, they both "meditate" upon eachother. The person who "falls in love" is "meditating" upon thebeloved; the man who is jealously watchful of his rival is"meditating" upon his rival; the man struck with grief at thebereavement of a friend is "meditating" upon the friend; and theperson who seeks revenge upon his enemy "meditates" upon hisenemy. The man lost in making himself presentable by suitableclothing is "meditating" upon himself as the body; and the personwho boasts of his intellectual or psychic attainments is"meditating" upon himself as the mind.All these are, in a way, forms of "meditation," but inspiritual discourses the term meditation is usually restricted tothose forms of meditation which tackle the problem of under-Spiritually importantmeditation is consciousof its aimstanding experience intensively andsystematically. In the above examples,meditation is a result of natural applicationof the mind to the objects with which it ispresented. In this application of the mind the subject is almostunconscious of the ultimate purpose of the process of meditation.In the spiritual field, however, meditation in the initial stages atleast is deliberate. During such meditation the subject is morespecifically conscious of the ultimate objective. Nevertheless, theforms of meditation characteristic of the spiritual field arecontinuous with those found throughout the world ofconsciousness, the spiritual forms of meditation springing intoexistence only when the other more general forms of meditationhave brought the person to a certain crisis or "blind alley." Thenhe is forced to choose his object of meditation in the light of somespiritual ideal and must also revise the manner of meditation towhich he may have become accustomed.