Meditation Quotes

“Attaining It one becomes intoxicated, then silent, delighting in the Self“ (Narada Bhakti Sutras) The state of devotion to which this verse refers is not a simple love of God inspired by blind belief, but an inner transformation, the rebirth of the soul out of the womb of matter into the realm of pure Spirit. It is a spontaneous awakening to the ultimate state of Being, an ecstatic, expansive, dynamic, openended experience that fills the head with wisdom and the heart with love. Unlike „born again“ experiences, which quickly fade, leaving the devotee caught up in the limitations of the old life, the heart merges completely and permanently into the Self. (p. 96)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“The state of devotion to which this verse refers is not a simple love of God inspired by blind belief, but an inner transformation, the rebirth of the soul out of the womb of matter into the realm of pure Spirit. It is a spontaneous awakening to the ultimate state of Being, an ecstatic, expansive, dynamic, openended experience that fills the head with wisdom and the heart with love. Unlike „born again“ experiences, which quickly fade, leaving the devotee caught up in the limitations of the old life, the heart merges completely and permanently into the Self. (p. 96)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“A completely spiritual love, the devotee sees God, the innermost Self, as divinely beautiful and lovely, an Adonis or Aphrodite, to be loved with affections verging on the erotic. In this style of love, all conventions, reservations, hesitations and personal views are cast aside and an exclusive, potentially jealous, love cultivated. A gargantuan appetite, craving for the embrace of God, the experience of the Self, is evidenced, the need for spiritual experience replacing the need for physical gratification. Just as lovers locked in the throes of orgasm do not know inside or outside, or which body is which, the devotee in union with the Self sees no distinctions and experiences, only the sweetest bliss. (p. 91)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Try seeing your body and home as God‘s temple, regarding your spouse and children as God‘s own, considering every spoken word the name of the Lord and every duty as service of God. Bending, lying or kneeling should be considered prostration to God, walking as circumambulation of the deity, all lights as symbols of the Self, sleep as samadhi, rest as meditation and the act of eating as God eating God. In this manner every object and activity loses its secular character and becomes divine through devotional practice. (p. 86)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Loved unconditionally, the world starts loving back! The more love is practiced, the more it flows, like a mountain torrent in springtime, flushing away unforgiving thoughts and feelings. Slowly attention turns within, awakening the devotee to the unlimited power of Love. When our small loves find their infinite Source we are free and are no longer compelled to grovel at the feet of the world. (p. 84)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Food should be eaten fresh. Food is not only physical substance but shakti, or energy, a manifestation of Consciousness in living beings [...] finally, although rajas and tamas are desirable in moderate amounts, the state of mind in which food is gathered, prepared and consumed should be sattvic. Because food is given by God to sustain life, one eats with gratitude, not fear or desire. See the body as a temple or an instrument of the Divine and treat it with great love and respect. If the ultimate purpose of life is the realization of the Self and meditation the means to it, then one‘s relationship to food is important because it directly affects the quality of the mind. (pp. 72-74)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Food should be eaten fresh. Food is not only physical substance but shakti, or energy, a manifestation of Consciousness in living beings. (p. 72)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Spiritual practice doesn‘t attempt to correct the past or change our circumstances, but to change the way we see ourselves and the world. Directing attention to the highest in us cleanses subconscious sources of pain and minimizes the danger of building a suffering-based identity. If the ego is thought to be the self, its negativities will never be eliminated, because its very existence is a negativity based on a fundamental error. (p. 71)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Experience has demonstrated a direct connection between mental and emotional pain and predominance of rajas and tamas relative to sattva. Meditation and inquiry are only possible in a sattvic mind. Three buckets of water stand in front of a white wall. The sun reflects off the water, producing three reflected suns on the wall. A strong wind roiling the contents of the first bucket produces a dancing image of the sun. The second, filled with muddy water, produces a dull, dark spot. The third, containing clear and still water, generates an accurate reflection of the sun. If the purpose of meditation is Self-realization and the mind is the instrument through which the Self is known, it stands to reason that accurate identification of the Self depends on a clear still mind. When the subtle body is pure, the bliss of the Self uplifts the emotions and awakens subtle devotional feelings. When the subtle body is pure, the Self illumines the intellect, enhancing discrimination and inspiring brilliant thinking. Radiant health results when a sattvic subtle body channels the Self‘s healing energy to the body. (p. 69)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Meditation and inquiry are only possible in a sattvic mind. Three buckets of waters stand in front of a white wall. The sun reflects off the water, producing three reflected suns on the wall. A strong wind roiling the contents of the first buckets produces a dancing image of the sun. The second, filled with muddy water, produces a dull, dark spot. The third, containing clear and still water, generates an accurate reflection of the sun. If the purpose of meditation is Self-Realization and the mind is the instrument through which the Self is known, it stands to reason that accurate identification of the Self depends on a clear still mind.

When the subtle body is pure, the bliss of the Self uplifts the emotions and awakens subtle devotional feelings. When the subtle body is pure, the Self illumines the intellect, enhancing discrimination and inspiring brilliant thinking. Radiant health results when a sattvic subtle body channels the Self‘s healing energy to the body (p. 69)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Nothing purifies like the experience of the Self, which releases a flood of healing, cleansing, spiritual energy into the conscious and unconscious minds. Although most epiphanies wear off in a matter of hours, occasionally days, they produce powerful spiritual vasanas which can inspire practice and keep the mind focused on the goal. Practiced diligently, meditation techniques purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and feeling. Unhealthy thoughts cannot survive the penetrating light of awareness. (p. 66)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“This path‘s basic technique is the discrimination between the real and the unreal, the seer and the seen, the subject and the object, the ego and the Self, and is meant to be practiced both in the seat of meditation and in daily life. The meditator should continually strive to bring his or her thought life in line with the experience of the Self garnered in meditation and elsewhere. For example, if I think there is something wrong with me, that I am unworthy or impure, for example, I need to square this idea with the experience of myself in meditation as a whole and complete being.”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“If action yoga suggests a change in attitude toward action, knowledge yoga requires a change in the way we think. Ordinarily, because the intellect is Self-ignorant and under ego‘s passionate influence, its concepts cause suffering. To right the inner disharmony, knowledge yoga aims to detach intellect from ego and train it to identify with and think from the Self. „Thinking from the Self“ means that impersonal truth, not personal prejudice, becomes the center of one‘s thought life, the point from which thoughts originate and to which they return.

Self-ignorance manifests first as a confused and unrealistic thought life, then trickles down to disturb and delude the emotions, eventually contaminating in one‘s contact with the outer world. Because it eliminates incorrect, ignorance-born, ego-centered thoughts, reality-based knowledge produces a harmonious, clear and luminous subtle body, one suited to meditation. (p. 64)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“„If action yoga suggests a change in attitude toward action, knowledge yoga requires a change in the way we think. Ordinarily, because the intellect is Self-ignorant and under ego‘s passionate influence, its concepts cause suffering. To right the inner disharmony, knowledge yoga aims to detach intellect from ego and train it to identify with and think from the Self. „Thinking from the Self“ means that impersonal truth, not personal prejudice, becomes the center of one‘s thought life, the point from which thoughts originate and to which they return.

Self-ignorance manifests first as a confused and unrealistic thought life, then trickles down to disturb and delude the emotions, eventually contaminating in one‘s contact with the outer world. Because it eliminates incorrect, ignorance-born, ego-centered thoughts, reality-based knowledge produces a harmonious, clear and luminous subtle body, one suited to meditation. (p. 64)”
― James Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry Into the Self

“Insight meditation11 requires neither a blank mind, generating special imagery nor repeating a mantra, but trains the mind to dispassionately observe the phenomena constantly appearing on its luminous screen.”
― James B. Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry into the Self

“The Self is the ultimate authority and our only true support.”
― James B. Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry into the Self

“Happiness is the knowledge that one is more powerful than all the objects in the world and all the thoughts in one’s own mind.”
― James B. Swartz, Meditation: Inquiry into the Self