Click for audio: A Meditative Practice, Part 2
I want to continue with the subject of meditation because, while the practice may seem to be the most difficult aspect of the spiritual path, it is by far the most important. It’s important because it provides you with the path to a direct experience with God.
Here is an illustration I have used in the past. Imagine walking into a room with a number of tables. Behind each of these tables sits a psychic, an astrologer, a palm reader, a professor well-versed in all the world’s religions, a channeler, an Eastern yogi, an expert in crystals, an expert dream interpreter, and God. You are invited to pick one of these experts, sit at their table, and receive all the knowledge each has to offer. Which one would you choose?
Most of us have actually sat at all but one of these tables: God’s table. We go from one table to the next, spending both money and time gleaning what we can from each, but still feeling that something is missing. There is something in our training, in our thinking, that says we cannot sit at God’s table. We pray to God, but we do not take the time needed to actually experience God.
Madame Guyon wrote, “ … the bees can only draw the juice from the flowers by resting on them, not by flying around them.”
Because of our outer orientated thinking about God, our “flying” around the subject of God, our experience must be cultivated. As with the development of any skill, daily practice is required. The fruits of the practice never come quickly, but they will come. You are entitled to a first-hand experience with your God, that Creative Life Force that is the source and very essence of your being. This inner experience is the starting point for the quality of life you seek at all levels.