Meditation is subjective communion with God. It is calming and stilling the mind in order to become aware of the underlying presence of God. Meditation establishes our life, mind, heart, and soul on the reality and qualities of God. Meditation is a prerequisite to God-realization. There are various techniques of meditation offered to anyone interested in the practice of meditation. For guidance in meditation, see the senior Swami.
Meditation is an essential part of the spiritual traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mystical Christianity, and Kabbalistic Judaism.
Divine Life Church of Baltimore, MD
Meditation (Kriya Yoga Style) and the Divine Life Church
Kriya Yoga is a meditation technique taught and practiced at the Divine Life Church of Baltimore, Maryland. It is a process of calming and stilling the mind in order to become aware of the underlying presence of God. Kriya establishes our life, mind, heart, and soul on the reality and qualities of God.
Kriya Yoga has been practiced by spiritual seekers and sages for thousands of years and was brought to the United States from India by Paramahansa Yogananda in the early 1900’s. Yogananda initiated Mahatma Gandhi and thousands of other seekers in Kriya during his lifetime.
Try meditation yourself.
For those who are interested in learning to meditate, Kriya Yoga is taught privately by Swami Shankarananda at the Divine Life Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Swami Shankarananda was initiated into Kriya by Swami Premananda, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. Click here for more information about this history and lineage.
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Kriya Yoga : A Meditation Technique
Sages of yore and those of today are of one voice in declaring that the benefits of meditation are real and life-transforming and can only be generated by steadfast, deliberate meditation for the purpose of gaining self-enlightenment and freedom from all bondage to suffering, self-delusion, and ignorance. There is no placebo that can simulate such powerful and life-transforming results.
A placebo dulls the senses and minds, whereas meditation takes the mind to deeper states of understanding, to the peace that passes all understanding, to the feeling of profound love and gratitude, to true compassion that wells up spontaneously from the depths of one’s inner being. What placebo has ever been able to offer similar results?
It is a reminder to all who would challenge the validity or value of meditation that, ye shall know them by their fruits. Can one live in peace without the realization of peace? Can one practice forgiveness without the realization of love? Is love an effect, or is love a cause? That which is made by man cannot bring into manifestation that which is made by God, or if you will, created through inspiration and as a result of spiritual connectedness.
Can joy be induced by an effect? If it were so, all humanity should by now be living in an exalted state of joy. An effect can never be the cause of what meditation yields in experience. Meditation is the kind of self-help that does not depend on anything external for its benefits.
The placebo may create the illusion of calmness and well-being; but what happens once the placebo is withdrawn? The calmness that it allegedly produces proves itself to be but a sham, without substance and sustenance.
Meditation is going to the well to draw deeply on the life-giving healing and loving influences that no dosage of placebos could even attempt to simulate or stimulate. If, however, anyone wants to insist that meditation is but a placebo effect, let him pursue meditation and discover that it has no negative side effects but leads to expanded self-awareness, loving kindness, and the state of well-being that brings with it ever new joy, inner strength, and fearlessness.
Since all the enlightened meditative beings have realized the same truth, are they all suffering from the placebo effect? If it be so, the meditator is most fortunate to be in their company, or if you will, to hang out with them.
Know this: The meditator has no need for placebos, for he has found the real jewel. Can one who recognizes the true diamond settle for a synthetic one?
Meditation: Is it a Placebo?
