The meditation most of us are familiar with involves a deep,
continuous thinking about something. But New Age meditation
does just the opposite. It involves ridding oneself of all
thoughts in order to still the mind by putting it in the
equivalent of pause or neutral. A comparison would be that
of turning a fast-moving stream into a still pond. When
meditation is employed by damming the free flow of thinking,
it holds back active thought and causes a shift in consciousness.
This condition is not to be confused with daydreaming, where
the mind dwells on a subject. New Age meditation works as
a holding mechanism until the mind becomes thoughtless,
empty and silent.
The two most common methods used to
induce this thoughtless state are breathing exercises, where
attention is focused on the breath, and a mantra, which
is a repeated word or phrase. The basic process is to focus
and maintain concentration without thinking about what you
are focusing on. Repetition on the focused object is what
triggers the blank mind.
Since mantras are central to New Age meditation, it is important
to understand a proper definition of the word. The translation
from Sanskrit is man, meaning to think, and tra,
meaning to be liberated from.14
Thus, the word literally means to escape from thought. By
repeating the mantra, either out loud or silently, the word
or phrase begins to lose any meaning it once had. The conscious
thinking process is gradually tuned out until an altered
state of consciousness is achieved.
But this silence is not the final objective; its attainment
is only a means to an end. What that end entails was aptly
described by English artist Vanora Goodhart after she embarked
on the practice of zen meditation. She recounted:
[A]
light began seeping through my closed eyelids, bright and
gentle at first, but growing more and more intense …
there was a great power and strength in this Light …
I felt I was being drawn upwards and in a great and wonderful
rush of power that rose eventually to a crescendo and bathed
me through and through with glorious burning, embracing
Light.15
Such
dynamic experiences as these are what New Age mysticism
is really all about - not just believing in some doctrine
or a faith that is supported by some creed but rather a
close personal contact with a powerful Presence. The renowned
occultist Dion Fortune acknowledged: "shifting the
consciousness is the key to all occult training."16
In other words, meditation is the gateway to the light Goodhart
experienced.
14.
Swami Rama, Freedom From the Bondage of Karma, Himalayan
Institute, 1977, p.66
15.
Louann Stah., A Most Surprising Song, Unity Books,
Unity Village, Missouri, 1992, pp.147-148
