16. The meaning of meditation – Spirituelle Lebensführung

A meaningful turning to the divine has nothing to do with what people usually practise and call prayer.

Their image of God is based on a God who does not do everything for his children that he could actually do and who does not know what they need, but who can be swayed. The means are incantations, sermons, pleas, rosaries, supplications, begging, countless Our Fathers, songs, incessant repetition of mantras. In a word, it is an incessant stream of speech.

On the other hand, there is the interactive form of meditation, which – coming from the Eastern tradition – has now gained a foothold in the West. Medieval mystical-contemplative exercises (e.g. Theresa of Avila or the Cloud author) were stifled by the Inquisition at the time with the accusation of “inappropriate ways of praying”.

Through its silent phase, meditation aims at communion with the divine soul within, it is about dialogue with it, about the perceptible (!) experience of its presence.

Conventional prayer Meditation
hearing — speak
publicly — hidden in a quiet chamber
wanting — thanking
Satisfaction of desires — handing over the desires to the soul
Wanting to have — leaving everything to him
Duality: I here, God somewhere there — polarity: God in me, I his expression
monodirectional — dialogue
urge — wait
Doubt in omnipotence — Trust in omnipotence
Perspective of the ego — Perspective of the soul
Awareness of lack — wareness of abundance
uninhibited stream of thoughts — Emptying of thoughts
Dominance of the activity of the mind — Allowing the activity of the soul

Seen in this way, there is a worldly and a spiritual view of prayer. The worldly one predominantly wants something worldly. The spiritual one strives above all to be touched by the divine being within, with the truth of life; it affirms something that is already within us, but whose access or effectiveness was buried, and it waits devotedly for the signal from the soul. Everyone knows from experience that the fulfilment of material desires sometimes ends well and sometimes badly. Very few realise that it is always dictated by self-preservation. Wish fulfilment only works if the pattern of self-preservation is abandoned and contact with the soul is sought instead. The soul then takes over our wishes and fulfils them, provided they are compatible with the overall good.

The more advanced the spiritual path, the more the awareness of needs diminishes. Need means denial of the perfection of creation. What is denied is “full sufficiency”, life without lack and in abundance, which has already been potentially present within us for a long time. It is merely waiting to be activated through recognition.

Mephisto calls himself the “spirit that always denies”. He is the embodiment of the lower soul, this drive and need structure in humans that strives to remedy deficiencies and does not realise that it is through this striving in the sense of “wanting to fight for itself” that it creates these deficiencies in the first place. This is why day-to-day life consists of countless differences between target and actual values. (This even applies to people who live in total luxury, albeit reduced in their case. This is why they also have less chance of finding the spiritual path. A rich person does not need God). The ego constantly wants to achieve goals or is constantly on the hunt for the fulfilment of its desires instead of making contact with its soul. In this way, the ego denies the actual spiritual identity of the human being. However, if he were to “strive” for this and succeed in doing so, everything necessary would be added. This is not only written in Matthew 6, but is the tangible experience of all those who have successfully “sought”. The target/actual value difference would then be increasingly cancelled out. The inner guidance not only provides everything that is necessary for life and continues to bring fulfilment – even without being asked – but also what is necessary for the realisation of the increasingly prominent missions for the overall good.

The purpose of conventional prayer is that God may bring about something in the interests of the person praying. It is ego-led. The sages have taught us that God has long known what we need, even before we know it ourselves. Praying for worldly things such as daily bread is therefore pointless. It is like asking the sun to shine from under a parasol. Above all, the countless attempts over the past millennia to beg God for an end to hunger, war, hardship and misery have never been answered. People have made animal and human sacrifices, practised incantation rituals, paid bribes such as indulgences, made endless donations in an attempt to make a deal, etc., but to no avail. They did it to realise their ego goals and couldn’t see that it wasn’t working. Meditation is a completely different matter. The search for contact with the inner voice has a certain purpose, but certainly not the one that everyday people attribute to it. As I said, they have self-preservation desires that they want to fulfil.

“You must not cry out to God,
the wellspring is within you;
If you do not stop the outlet,
it flows for and for.”
(Angelus Silesius: Cherubinischer Wandermann I, 55)

The purpose of the spiritual search for contact with the soul is the cancellation of the separation from it, because it is precisely this separation that is the source of all evil and suffering. The consequence of reconnection is that it advises and guides us unscathed and successfully through the ups and downs of everyday life down to the last detail. The soul thus demonstrates its physical effectiveness in the here and now by preserving, healing, protecting, providing and guiding. Christianity calls the instance of this transition of the invisible power into the visible material dimension, this transformation, the “Holy Spirit”. Once contact has been made, the soul may, for example, recommend that the prescribed dose of medication be drastically increased or decreased in order to maximise its effectiveness. It leads recognisably – through a kind of inner urging – towards certain decisions or, in the opposite case, puts the brakes on impending wrong decisions, for example when buying a used car. If you cultivate your inner listening, you will gain invaluable decision-making aids. It can guide you to the right decision before making important decisions (vaccinating children, choosing a doctor, buying a flat, moving house, career moves). Then you live a life according to the principle “Thy will be done!”

For a moment, the soul blocks my steering wheel movement to overtake to the left when an overtaking car is in my blind spot. It causes me to visit a website where the product I have been looking for for a long time can finally be found, perhaps at a special price. It provides advice on online distance shopping, e.g. for clothing, and helps with food purchases to avoid the disadvantages of pesticides, for example, and to make the best choice. She can do all this and more if I manage to refine my ‘gut feeling’ by turning to her with confidence and asking for guidance. Homer symbolises this in the Odyssey by mentioning the “invocation of the muse” in the very first line of the epic and later constantly consulting with the goddess. This is a demonstration of trust and not begging for material benefits. The entire life before this was characterised by the principle “My will be done!”

Conventional prayer is an awareness of lack
“Give us this day our daily bread!” He has always done nothing else. However, we still often do not receive it because we – unconsciously – do everything possible to prevent receiving it: The first is that we clothe our lack in prayer and beg for a solution to the problem. However, an awareness of lack creates lack, which is why such prayers are counterproductive and a disregard for creation, which is “very good” (Gen. 1).

Of course, there are situations in which even those who are guided by the soul are in earthly need. And of course they turn to their inner guidance. But they do not present their problem as a problem (= lack). They are aware of their inner radiant being – as omnipotence – (which means that we are soul) and express their gratitude based on their spiritual experience that they live from this inner voice. They know that there is actually nothing to ask for, because those who have a connection back to the soul have everything anyway, even materially. But often the soul not only wants us to surrender our will to it, but also to direct it by asking for advice or guidance (“What should I do now?”) or by asking for spiritual progress. Meditators express the confidence that the solution will be revealed to them, ask “Show me the way!” and wait. In some cases, the answer comes promptly.

I am travelling home from Budapest to Hamburg. My taxi from the railway station to Ferihegy airport gets caught in an unexpected and, according to the taxi driver, unusual traffic jam. It takes over an hour longer, even though the driver makes the wildest diversions manoeuvres. Because of this complication, he only charges me half the amount shown on the taximeter. But I still only have one euro left. But as I have the ticket and my car keys, I don’t need any more for Hamburg. I arrive five minutes after boarding has finished and the gate is closed. I show my passport and ticket, quickly check in my suitcase and hear: “The aircraft has gone!” As this can’t be true, I run to the baggage carousel opposite. I hear the same thing there. The employee makes a phone call and confirms that, unusually, the plane has left a little early. Desperation tries to take hold of me. I have no money, no credit card or anything similar, and there were no mobile phones at the time. I have no money for a hotel, not even for the bus to the consulate, which is closed on Saturday evening anyway.
I now ward off all negative thoughts, turn inwards and ask for guidance. Then there is a moment of calm and silence. Without my mind being clear about what I should do, my steps lead me once again to the check-in desk. The employee listens to my story again, scrutinises me from top to bottom, looks at her monitor and sits there for a minute. Suddenly she stands up and says: “What I’m doing now is not authorised. I’ll give you a seat on the plane to Hamburg tomorrow evening for the same departure time.” She issues me a ticket, I spend the night on the airport benches, wait through the next day and fly to Hamburg in the evening on a full plane, arriving home exhausted but happy after a long car journey.

A major factor in prayers remaining unheard is that we ensure that the quiet voice of the soul is drowned out and not heard by constantly producing thoughts, words and sounds. This blocks the channel through which it becomes effective. We need to be guided by the gentle voice from within and not by external thoughts, opinions, teachings and interpretations. The more thinking is quietened, the more the soul’s thinking becomes effective. As long as thoughts are allowed to run riot, there is neither true meditation nor connection with the soul.

Other factors that prevent contact with the inner guidance are desires (except those with spiritual content; see below) and the belief that earthly persons or conditions have power.

As far as desires are concerned, they are almost automatically associated with “I” and “mine” and clearly indicate their ego character. There are countless examples of this when it comes to building a house, choosing a partner, taking out a loan, having children, career goals, etc. Nobody knows what the truth is, nobody knows what is right and best for everyone involved. Only when the mind is successfully excluded can this truth unfold. This is why Robert Browning writes in Paracelsus that the channel must be opened so that the “imprisoned splendour” can be set free.

In contrast to material requests, those for spiritual goals, i.e. requests for guidance, enlightenment, counselling, etc. are obvious, practicable and effective. It is no coincidence that Homer introduces the Odyssey with the “invocation of the muse”. Even in critical situations, appeals such as “Don’t let me down now!” are, despite some contradictions, anything but impractical, provide stability and are successful.

As far as interaction with the soul is concerned, the focus is on silence in addition to spiritual considerations. It is the stilling of thoughts by stopping the constant drumbeat of thoughts. This is what the Eastern tradition shows us. Then our divine core provides us with solutions in the form of flashes of inspiration, inspirations, ideas, etc. They come when necessary and, above all, on request. In this respect, silence is not the goal, but the foundation or prerequisite for the inflow of soul power. In contrast to Eastern traditions, silence has been less well known in the West until the recent past. However, it is not a haphazard or meaningless silence, but a purposeful listening that we initiate with the request “Speak!” (see the invocation above) and thus create a suitable framework or expectation. In this way, we express that we are interested in being contacted, advised and guided by our soul. In Islamic fairy tales, Aladdin has to rub the lamp every time for the spirit to appear.

One way to prevent interaction with the soul is, as I said, to beg for things, for material improvement. If the vessel of consciousness is already full of hopes, plans and wishes, nothing more can enter it in terms of fulfilment:

In Eastern Zen wisdom, there is the story of the professor who seeks instruction from a Zen master. The master offers tea and pours the tea cup full for the seeker, pouring more and more into the already full cup. When the professor exclaims in horror that the cup is already full, the master replies that this is a symbol of the disciple’s consciousness: a consciousness already filled with knowledge and prejudices can no longer absorb truths.

Incidentally, Jesus never asked God to do anything materially for anyone. Rather, he said: “Rise, take up your bed and walk!” He was also expressing the fact that he would not have healed the paralysed man, but that his own change of consciousness in relation to the powerlessness of the evil brought about the healing.

In this respect, all the prayers in places of worship lead us astray. They violate Jesus’ teaching in every respect – by praying in public instead of going into the closet individually, closing the door behind them and turning to God in secret (Mt 6:6).

They are noisy and thus drown out the “still, small voice” (1 Kgs 19:12).
They are also both flawed and predominantly materially orientated,
instead of focussing on spiritual goals, on “seeking.”
They contain misleading emphases such as “Thy will be done!” with the
emphasis on the last syllable instead of the first.
And they consist of rattling off pre-formulated set pieces instead of
individually addressing the very personal situation of the person praying.

It is fundamentally overlooked that it is not God as the central power who fulfils our wishes, but our own consciousness, which is divine (Christian: Son of God) and which is realised. As we are generally unaware of our own divine identity with the associated fullness of power above good and evil, we have relinquished this co-creatorship, thus distancing ourselves from our destiny-forming power and even charging our concerns with lack. In the best-case scenario, this leads to non-response and non-fulfilment. The US-American transcendental philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about this:

“What kind of prayers do men allow themselves? … Every prayer that demands any special advantage … is blasphemous.
True prayer is the contemplation of the things of this life from the highest point of view. It is the Spirit of God who proclaims that his work is good. Prayer as a means of attaining some private end is meanness and theft.” (Essays, Part 1, Chapter 3)

Awareness of fullness in meditation
The fact that their prayers are not answered does not stop people from trying again and again. People pray to a God:

(a) who has no idea what his children might need,
(b) who, in their opinion, is withholding something from them,
(c) who does not do everything for his children that he could do,
(d) who can be persuaded,
(e) whom they want to persuade through prayer to give them what they want after all,
(f) who distributes his gifts to some but not to others when asked.

This kind of prayer turns the Creator into a kind of Father Christmas. They are characterised by lack instead of recognising the abundance of this world. They express a sense of lack through wanting, wishing and pleading. In this way, they prevent the spirit of God and its fullness from penetrating to the supplicants. This was demonstrated by the Buddha: He had searched in vain for a long time and only found enlightenment when he had thrown off all concepts of desire and started meditating. This is also illustrated by the following context:

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, …
and … all things shall be added unto you.”

The kingdom of God refers to our divine consciousness. Its divine sonship expresses the relationship of the sunbeam to the sun. This sonship is not the sun, but its expression. It warms earthly life with its warmth and illuminates it with its light. It penetrates the categories of good and evil, recognizes the only good behind the evil surface and contains no deficiency. This is noticeable, among other things, in the renunciation of revenge and in constant forgiveness, especially towards enemies. If all good things do not fall to us, then the pursuit of divine consciousness was not too far off.

Because we have always been provided with everything we need and more, not just the bare essentials! This can easily be seen from the fact that the earth is so incredibly rich in resources that it can easily provide for far more than the current seven billion people with its fresh water supplies, wood, mineral resources, fish and livestock stocks and fertile soil. So how can it be that we are stuck in existential problems of acute hunger, malnutrition, climate catastrophe, nuclear threat, crime, flight and war?

“I have come that they may have life and full sufficiency.”

The reason is that this High I, which is in every human being, must be recognised by them in order for full sufficiency to unfold. Everyone knows this who has taken the risk of not caring for their material sufficiency first, but has first sought and found access to their High Ego (although they were only brought to this by hard blows of fate). Moreover, despite occasional dramatic shortages, he maintained the certainty that the leafless fruit tree would guarantee full sufficiency in due course. But who goes through their daily life, confidently and humbly aware of their likeness (Gen. 1:27) at every step?

Recognising is like using a lamp. Without a connection to electricity, it does not light up, so you can pray as much as you like. The connection is characterised by the fact that we have called upon the “muse”, have therefore received the contact and have surrendered our will to divine guidance. We then no longer chase after our goals ourselves, but wait and let what the soul has intended for us in relation to our longing come to us. What is your will?

How do you find the dialogue?
How does this finding of the dialogue, the direct wire to the soul, work? After a plane crash in the early 2000s, the funeral service for the German victims was broadcast. The clergyman in the pulpit introduced the sermon with the words that we all knew how unspeakably difficult it was to live with a God who would not speak to us. That’s a statement that makes it hard not to fall out of your TV chair.

Our inner voice speaks to us all the time. It expresses itself as an inner feeling of urging us in a certain direction or inhibiting a decision in another direction. It expresses itself as part of our dreams, often the ones that repeat themselves. It expresses itself as a happy “coincidence”, as an inexplicable rescue “bordering on a miracle” or as a premonition. It manifests itself as signs that cannot be overlooked, for example when everything you touch fails or as intolerance when you eat food that is harmful to you. It manifests itself as an illness that shows you that you have deviated from the course of your soul. It also expresses itself as a conscience and a gut feeling. An example from Jewish wisdom is Job: he did not speak about God, but with him, and God answered (!), as he does today with everyone who persistently “knocks” on his own initiative. (Only in rare cases has this happened without seeking and knocking, as with Johanna, see below) First and foremost, however, our inner spiritual guidance expresses itself as a dialogue partner in all conceivable situations of everyday life, even if this dialogue is predominantly one-sided and mostly takes place as a response impulse to our earthly material and above all spiritual questions.

Finding the dialogue with the inner voice goes through meditation. Christian wisdom puts it like this: “… knock and it shall be opened unto you!”
The Islamic Sufi mystic Rumi chooses a flowery expression: “Milk cannot flow if you do not suck it.” (Mesnevi I, 2388).
The Indian-Arab-Persian story of “Aladdin and the magic lamp” speaks of rubbing this lamp to activate the jinn and thus a higher power.
The Buddha expresses this in the Dhammapada as follows: “Without contemplation, there is no wisdom.” (25, 372)
The Hindu wisdom of the Gita states: “He who boldly walks the path inwards soon reaches the realm of the deity.” (V, 6)
Lao Tse writes in the Tao Te King: “He who closes his eyes becomes aware of the invisible.” (14)
Even Goethe, not really a mystic, forges the following verse in his poem “Legacy”: “Turn inwards at once, you will find the centre within.”

We consciously and gratefully accept the offer to knock by responding through meditation. By retreating into a quiet refuge and closing our eyes, we turn away from the outside world as far as possible; this first affects the outer frame, then the body sensation and finally the world of thoughts. You endeavour to create the greatest possible distance between consciousness – which is something completely different from thinking – and unwanted and uninvited thoughts. This is not easy, because we were never brought up – nor were our ancestors – to stop fear, anger, vengefulness, worry and all other negative thoughts.

This is very different in the Eastern tradition. Hinduism and Buddhism have developed a variety of methods for fading out thought activity in order to achieve silence. Because only in this state does the language of the soul come through properly and consciously. The thought attacks of fear, worry and anger come from “below”, from the programme of self-preservation. Intuition comes from “above”; however, it only flows in in silence and invocation. The barrage of thoughts has the seductive function of distracting us from the path to the soul and binding us to the contexts and laws of the material world of the valley of tears. This is symbolised by the story of the Prodigal Son, who wants to find his happiness “outside” (like Parzival) and leaves the inner “court of the father”. In Homer’s Odyssey, it is the “suitors” who want to conquer Penelope – our soul. The separation between me and the soul is reduced through the silence or emptiness of thought, and I establish more and more unity with it.

Immersion takes place under the main aspect of listening. One communicates, so to speak, with the ears (directed inwards) and not with the mouth. Then one day the spirit will speak to us. Then you can feel its presence physically (!) (see below). Meditation is the only way to seize the opportunity for dialogue with the soul, to open up contact and make it permanent.

For those who have found the dialogue, it is very direct and binding. The inner voice responds immediately as in a conversation between people, but rarely with human sentences and explanations, but mostly with a strikingly deep inhalation to requests that can be answered – in binary terms – with yes or no. It only responds in the case of yes. It only reacts in the case of yes. It knows no. It can also express itself through a feeling of urgency, an inner image, a tingling sensation in the palms of the hands or other physical forms. It also acts on its own initiative, which is always perceived by the “old” person as “coincidence”, “luck”, “like a miracle”, “a whole squadron of guardian angels” (someone who flew out of Stalingrad at the last moment), etc.

As the dialogue develops, the spiritual seeker encounters the following two phenomena during meditation:

1) Once, at some point, he will have to realise that his intuitions from within become contradictory and at times even absurd. From this moment on, he must realise that there is not just one, but two instances on the spiritual side, or that a second one has intervened to create confusion. This is a phenomenon that the Bhagavad Gita hints at in two verses:

“The knower honours the gods, the clinging one serves the demons, the fool serves the lowest spirits, …” (XVII,4)
“Neither on earth nor in the world of the gods (!) is there any existence that is completely free from the freedom of characteristics.” (XVIII, 40)

Through hatred, worry and fear-mongering, these demons and the lowest ghosts promote the belief in multiplicity, which appears to be the only real thing in the visible world, but is deceptive because it hides the unity behind it. This deception through drive and instinct is that the bodies and their lives (!) are separate from each other. This consciousness is oriented exclusively towards matter, towards forms and bodies. It is the consciousness of animals. Added to this are false knowledge and mental immobility. (XVIII, 20-22)

He must then develop methods to distinguish between the two sources. This phenomenon was already described and analysed in the Middle Ages under the heading “discernment of spirits”, for example by Heinrich von Friemar: Der Traktat über die Unterscheidung der Geister. These and other sources refer to the many passages in the New Testament, such as “Do not believe every spirit …” (1 John 4:1).

2) The aspirant has the experience of waking up at irregular intervals in the middle of the night. Because this happens more and more often, the question of the reason arises: it is a call of the soul. It calls for a nightly meditation that is not intended to affect him, but to benefit another person or circumstance.

The prerequisite for achieving dialogue, i.e. for being “opened up”, is first of all to decide to take the step into meditation in the first place, to “seek the kingdom of God”. The next point is just as crucial: you have to be prepared to remain persistent and unwavering in regular meditation until something happens. It’s not enough to just think in terms of months. It’s like drilling a tunnel through a mountain massif. It takes an infinitely long time, but then the breakthrough comes. You can’t become sluggish and fall back into the daily routine. The main excuse is: “No time!” Seriousness is tested. The Nazarene emphasises this requirement to stay on task in Matthew (25:13).

It is then important to set up the meditation as a dialogue from the outset. This means that the phase of silence (see below) cannot simply be a period of quiet thought, but is understood as conscious listening. This phase is initiated by a spiritual request, namely that of “invoking the muse”, i.e. we ask the soul for dialogue. This is symbolised in the Arabian fairy tale by Aladdin rubbing the lamp he has discovered so that the spirit appears. This procedure corresponds to the “striving” for spiritual awareness as described in Matthew chapter 6 or as William Penn calls it “the inner preparation of the heart”. Above all, the silence is not ended when you no longer feel like it or think you can get out now. Rather, in the passive silence phase, you wait for a feeling to signal your release and only then do you end it. That is the crucial point. You don’t decide for yourself, but leave the decision to your inner voice: “Thy will be done!” Of course, it is clear that this view of spiritual dialogue is a slap in the face of the ego, which always wants to be self-determined and independent.

In 1570, the mystic Valentin Weigel expressed the importance of silence, the highest form of meditation, as follows:

“God gives us beforehand what we ask
and gives us beforehand, …
God commands us to love,
we are to love him and our neighbour, …
He himself also wants to inspire love in us,
if only we could be silent …”
(Church or house postilion. Gospel on the Sunday of Misericordias Domini)

Here Weigel mentions charity, supplication and silence as elements of meditation. The religious systems of the West essentially only recognise material supplication, whereas in the original Eastern scriptures, silence is a central component of striving for access to the divine, precisely through meditation.

“Those who practise yoga sit down
in silent seclusion
alone, master of his thoughts,
nothing earthly, only God in mind. …
… then tame the crowd of senses
the determined mind from within.”
(Bhagavad Gita VI; 10, 24)

The practice of meditation
Before starting the actual meditation, you first withdraw your attention from the body through progressive muscle relaxation or similar and then from your thoughts and feelings (mind). The decisive instrument for mental control is the observation of thoughts. You learn to let them run more and more into the void, i.e. not to occupy yourself with them or even to allow their constant repetition. Without conscious observation, they do what they want – when the cat is away from home, so to speak – and this always ends badly for the individual. Emptiness of thought is the prerequisite for the unfolding of the soul force (spirit). At this moment, you learn that thinking and consciousness are two different things: You have freed yourself from the rattling of thoughts and are still awake and fully conscious. Through the loss of body sensation and then the loss of thought activity, we leave the horizontal consciousness and enter the vertical spiritual dimension of the inner sun.

Contemplations only have a place in the first active phase of meditation. They serve to contemplate certain wisdoms without judgement and to illuminate them from all sides in the context of one’s own life situation in word form, e.g: “Let my grace be sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9). This leads to a state of calm in which the onslaught of the usual drumbeat of thoughts subsides. An important way to ward off the barrage is to mentally move to a higher level: For example, imagine your own soul with its omnipotence as an aura around your own body contour. Furthermore, the wisdom sentences and the thoughts associated with them serve to prevent elements of lack from entering consciousness. This is why you usually consider spiritual content in this phase. When it comes to people, they are seen as souls and not as external human beings. The second part of the active phase contains questions about current problem solving and allows for specific questions: “What should I do?” This is followed by the transition to passive silence mode. Silence is the most important part of prayer or meditation:

Silence quiets the human mind, so the mind of the soul becomes
effective.
Silence is a demonstration of trust in the inner guidance.
Silence is allowing the power of the soul to enter and make its way free.
free.
Silence is the counterpart to volition and therefore to the ego.
Silence prevents identification with thoughts.
Silence is the alternative to thinking and talking about the divine.
Silence distances us from the judgement that something is bad.
Silence detaches us from the problem and leads us to the truth of “full sufficiency”.
Silence leads us to find our own identity and oneness (Ps 46:10).
Silence leads to the realisation that the problem is not mine, but that of the soul.
Silence deepens the realisation that “The Father in me does the works.”
Silence thus enables communication with the divine essence.

In the active phase of meditation, one does not illuminate the problem as such, but as far as possible in a completely neutral way as a mere given. This is not easy, because Mephisto brings out the heavy artillery in the form of threatening thoughts. To counter this, it helps to realise the divine identity with omnipotence within. Every time you panic, you immediately go into your own identity as the Son of God within. You do not ask for a solution to the problem or for any other desirable material state. That would be deficiency consciousness, and meditatively deepening it would only make things worse. Rather, the only meaningful request is to receive the truth from within. Because the spiritual truth deep within a person is the key to solving this and, in any case, all problems – which only exist in order to rediscover the truth of life. However, when it comes to urgent matters, it is important to ask for guidance: “What should I do?” or even better, “What is Your will?”

It would often be counterproductive to ask questions such as “Who did this?” That would mean wanting to exploit the inner god yourself. It would then serve as a spiritual telescope for the ego, so to speak. However, it is perfectly fine and above all successful to find out how you should behave or whether you should proceed in such and such a way. A typical example: I have the choice between three cars when buying a car and I can’t decide because I don’t fully understand the multitude of individual aspects and the significance of the various advantages and disadvantages. Assuming a stable spiritual dialogue that has proven itself through many years of experience, I knock on the door and receive the right answer, also because it is successful in terms of the future, which is not possible on earth.

Without an act of fundamental forgiveness, we would not need to continue meditating or even begin in the first place. As long as hatred and resentment still smoulder inside, the necessary prerequisite for deep spiritual understanding is not yet present. We must realise that it is not the person in question who has caused us harm, but the self-preservation programme within them. This allows us to develop the necessary distance and understanding of why people “don’t know what they are doing.” However, as forgiveness is the result rather than the prerequisite of meditation, we inevitably have to live with such a contradiction for a while.

As long as we do not yet have the dialogue or an unmistakable gut feeling, we must inevitably act according to reason, pushing back the self-centred aspect and considering the overall good as best we can. Because if the sun has shone for me, it is still not just for me. After all, the sun doesn’t just shine on the narrow boundaries of my garden and doesn’t stop at the garden fence. Everything that then materialises as well-being is nothing other than a basis for spreading the sunshine to other people. There are many examples of this in everyday practice, even if they have no spiritual background: It happens again and again that individuals or couples, whose a great misfortune happened to them, founded initiatives based on this impulse in order to share experiences and make them available to others.

In the binary mode of communication with the inner voice, the difficulty lies in only being able to scan the possibilities conceivable by the limited mind and to ask for a yes or no answer. The limitation is obvious because we are only dealing with the paths that are conceivable for the mind, although some of the intuitive solutions go beyond these imaginative limits and are nevertheless often of astonishing simplicity. It is always about reuniting with the source of life, which also connects us with each other. In addition, all those who belong to our state of consciousness are also led to us.

If you want to reach someone by phone, you dial their number. But the dialling mechanism does not connect us directly with the person we are calling. This is not possible, because then there would have to be as many cable ends in the wall behind the telephone socket as there are subscribers worldwide. Instead, the call goes (via group diallers as intermediate instances) to the switchboard; this connects the calling party with the party to be called via intermediate diallers. The control centre is a higher level from which communication and thus “problem solving” takes place. It brings about the achievement of the goal. In a spiritually successful life, you don’t go from A to B, but from A to C (like Central). This means, for example, that if you are short of money or unemployed, you distance yourself from goal B (job) in meditation and hand the matter over to the Self as C and wait for guidance.

So you don’t go inwards to find the error, but to find the truth. From this it follows that the following external healing process came about through a change of consciousness and not through some god somewhere up there. You heal the consciousness, and this heals the defect (see chapter 10). You don’t focus on the solution to the problem, but on the problem solver. If, for example, you are without a partner and feel a longing for partnership, you selflessly hand over the realisation of your inner guidance in meditation and do not turn to a dating service first. However, this attitude of “Thy will be done” also includes tolerating the fact that the soul may not currently envisage togetherness. You avoid ideas of a deficiency situation, but instead fill your consciousness with your own divine identity and a suitable wisdom such as the above, e.g. “I have come so that they may have life and abundance” or “Even when I no longer know what to do, I am an expression of a power that can cope with it.” Then you begin to wait trustingly for the release in meditation and later for signs, information, constellations or incidents that show or bring the solution. This can take time. The farmer cannot expect the grain he sowed in March to yield in April. This is how the balancing act between personal desire and selflessness can be realised. A typical example is the behaviour of the Nazarene in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he expresses his desire (!) to the “Father in me” that the cup of imprisonment and execution may pass him by, but at the same time submits to his inner guidance. Conscious of his own self, he fits into the overall concept. There are countless problems in our lives, both big and very small, but for all those that we really need to solve, there is an answer from within.

While the prayer of everyday people is aimed at realising material desires – including the ritual recitation of prayer formulas such as the Lord’s Prayer – the main goal of inward meditation is spiritual dialogue, communion with the inner guidance. For it goes before us and levels all obstacles (Isaiah 45:2) – including material ones – and leads to the ultimate destiny of every human being. It is the return to the “Father’s court”, as described in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The prerequisite for this is regular – not just occasional – meditation. It is food for the soul in the same way that eating several times a day is food for the body. In addition to self-programming, it contains the quantitative aspect of refuelling: as a single charge of spiritual energy is not enough for a whole day – you don’t just eat once a day either – you need meditative contemplation 3-4 times a day in order not to succumb to the distractions of the outside world in the long term. Material people cannot do without food and drink, spiritual people cannot do without meditation. Without it, spiritual perception is almost impossible, because without it the mind cannot be excluded and peace of mind cannot be achieved.

With increasing meditative experience, firstly the individual mode changes again and again, and secondly the meditative phases expand insofar as short-term meditative elements are added: Before starting a journey, before entering a room, before the first bite of a meal, after being flashed, before a telephone call or business meeting, before switching on the radio or PC, etc. This is extended further and further so that not a quarter of an hour goes by without a visualisation of the inner sun being undertaken even without these external occasions. Eventually, one can reach a state of consciousness that is quantitatively characterised by perhaps even around 50 % residence in the “kingdom of God”: this would then be a kind of throne room consciousness. Some “chosen ones” (term from the film “Matrix”) achieve more. The forefather of Christianity, St Paul, describes this stage as praying “without ceasing”. To train, it can be useful to call up the timer function on your mobile phone and be reminded of these second meditations at regular short intervals. So much for the quantitative aspect.

Qualitatively, the path to thoughtlessness is anything but easy because the negative thoughts of worry, retaliation, etc., i.e. the contents, try to maintain the aspirant’s attachment to the non-mental gross physical environment.

If, for example, a medieval architect is commissioned by the king to extend the throne room and does his work on site in this very room, he will always have a parallel awareness of the place he is in, even if he is highly focussed on the designs. This double or background consciousness, which plays a major role in the hindsight, is called “throne room consciousness”.
The modern term for this is mindfulness, not concentration.

The most important instrument of training is the observation of thoughts. It does not mean taking in their content, but their category. This means realising that a package of thoughts, e.g. the classification “worry”, has just tried to enter. One ignores the content, does not allow it to penetrate and immediately goes into the self-realisation of the inner god: Gnothi se auton! The Hindus and Jainas would say: OM!

In everyday life, there are a myriad of questions and thus decisions about how we should proceed. This can concern how to deal with partners, children, etc., how to find suitable remedies or healers or how to proceed in business or professional matters in general. The many decisions we have to make every day often have serious consequences and are not just about buying a second-hand car, for example. It’s about choosing a partner, career crossroads, investments, personnel decisions, for managers of the manufacturer it can be about whether to opt for hybrid cars, electric cars or cars with fuel cells, about career choices after school, financing, etc. All in all, these are problems where there is no final authority and which can end fatally if the wrong decisions are made. This even applies to the advice given by the head physician, whose 60:40 statistics are only a very limited aid to decision-making when it comes to predicting the success of an operation. Many people draw up a list of pros and cons for their decision because they rely on analytical thinking. There is nothing wrong with this at first, but it does not, and cannot, solve the usually tight decisions. Ultimately, it comes down to so-called gut decisions, always associated with the fear of having made the wrong decision and having to bear the responsibility. But such gut decisions have nothing to do with spiritually based reliability because they are unconscious and unfounded. Only spiritual dialogue brings certainty. However, this is not a complete guarantee for success in one’s own mind, because the soul guides me under the primacy of the overall good, and this does not always have to coincide exactly with one’s own wishes. For example, you can be extremely satisfied with your car and still get an impulse to buy a new one. The impulse can also come externally, e.g. through a total loss. Then you are faced with the problem of choice. In the subsequent question “Which car?”, inner guidance is an invaluable aid to decision-making. Later, you can judge the wisdom of this guidance through your experience with the new car – which you would never have bought without guidance.

When it comes to guidance in material matters, it is also important not to use it as a tool, as an extended telescope for your own interests. The ego always wants to decide for itself and not relinquish control. Therefore, spiritual contact always involves obedient (!) execution, which is nothing other than the realisation of the principle “Thy will be done!”

A young office worker is dissatisfied with his job, which is too monotonous for him. He asks inside whether he should accept his friend’s offer to work with him as a sales representative. The answer is yes. However, when the switch proved to be a failure, he recognised his skills and his role in the overall concept more clearly. He resumed his old job, but now with satisfaction and new motivation.

Spiritual return, formerly referred to as ‘enlightenment’, depends not only on regular meditation but also on the study of wisdom writings and their intuitively based active realisation. This means demonstrating the knowledge gained through action.

Phases of meditation
(1) Modern meditation can be roughly summarised as consisting of three phases. The following points are important for preparation – lying down or sitting in yoga with your eyes closed: you go into your “… closet, close the door … and pray in secret and … don’t babble so much because you think you will be heard if you say a lot of words.”

Shankara illustrates the rejection of the barrage of thoughts with the image that the poison of the cobra cannot work if it does not enter the body.

Then, through progressive muscle relaxation or similar concepts, a state is practised that leads to the loss of body awareness. This is the basis for the second step, the loss of mental and emotional consciousness. Only when the earthly-material factors have been faded out is space created for the effectiveness of the soul.

After overcoming physical and psychological sensations, you begin by carefully observing the stream of thoughts that you have not invited and that are undesirably rushing at you. So, as I said, you don’t get involved with the content, but just take note of the title, like this: Look, here comes a thought of anger. Then you take your time until it subsides of its own accord and, in the best case, just dribbles away. It would be futile to try to fight it with positive or generally worldly thoughts by exerting mental counterforce. This means that any effort within meditation would be counterproductive. Observation is therefore not content-related, i.e. we do not perceive anxious or aggressive thoughts as such, but rather characterise the thought in question purely formally, statistically, so to speak: “Aha, a fearful thought.” In doing so, we do not allow it to spread and certainly not to repeat itself. Because as long as thoughts can keep interfering with meditation, it is not meditation. Successfully blocking thoughts is a crucial prerequisite for meditation and therefore for accessing the soul. As long as they manage to spark into silence, there is less success. That is why we change levels as soon as the attack arrives and switch from physical consciousness to spiritual consciousness by going to our spiritual identity as the “father in me”.

In Greek mythology, meditation is symbolically expressed by the fifth heroic deed of Heracles, who defeats the Lion of Nemea, a negative animal thought(!) monster, by going into the lion’s den, closing both entrances (eyes) and strangling the monster without weapons (!), thus depriving it of the air it needs to breathe. Allowing the thoughts of fear, lack and anger is the basis of existence for the personal vale of tears. However, if we go into silence by observing the stream of thoughts vertically, the attacks can no longer dock, they cannot take root and are therefore stifled. This clears the channel for the inner voice, because the observation takes on the perspective of our soul. We switch the point of view of observation to our higher self.

“If you want to hear the eternal word
to speak within you,
you must first
completely break free from restlessness.”
(Angelus Silesius: Cherubinischer Wandermann I, 85)

This overcomes the desire to have and the orientation towards the rules of the external world and thus the origin of evil. As long as this does not work, there are various aids. We hold our breath from time to time. At this moment, the thought terror is also stopped. We do this until the shift to our spiritual “I” works better. You can also intimidate the flood of thoughts for a few moments by asking the question: “Who will dare to enter next?” However, these little helpers are only intended as temporary aids for getting started and lose their significance with increasing practice. We then free ourselves from any hostility towards disliked contemporaries by looking through to their spiritual core. The interaction between the two souls – in me and the opponent – is always harmonious. This is a powerful tool in any dispute. Without love of our enemies and the constant forgiveness that goes with it, or at least the endeavour to do so, we do not need to continue – except in the beginning – as it would block access to the divine.

Then we ask for enlightenment for the world, not for ourselves. This is an important point, because the sun shines on everyone. In this respect, those who ask in this way have a certain responsibility for further events on the earthly plane. As with everything else, the focus is not on ourselves, but on the overall good: in a dispute over custody of the children after a divorce, for example, it is all too often only about the realisation of ego-related interests, by hook or by crook. If each partner would at least try to take the position of the family judge, who is primarily concerned with the best interests of the child, much would be done for peace and at the same time the liquidation of the ego programme.

(2) The second phase consists of the contemplative part of the meditation and is the first focus of the whole process, another active part of the immersion. This phase consists of the contemplation of a spiritual truth (here mainly taken from Christian wisdom) such as:

“I have come that they may have life and full sufficiency”,
“Be still (!) and know that I am God”,
“I will never leave you”,
“Every weapon that is prepared against me shall not prosper”,
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”,
“I am created as his expression”,
“The kingdom of God is within you”,
“I live, yet not I, but I live in me”,
“I have provision because I am provision”,
“You would have no power if it were not given to you from above”, etc.
“Seventy times seven times forgive my brother who sins against me”,
“I in myself am the way, the love and the life.”

Here the activity of the mind is already reduced, negative thought attacks play a lesser role, the consciousness is largely filled with the statement of truth and its materialisation in our lives. Without the consideration of such principles in every meditation, it is clearly limited in its effectiveness.

This phase of meditation also includes spiritual analysis, the contemplation of our decisions or behaviour from a spiritual point of view, regardless of whether we are considering future plans or evaluating crisis experiences, wrong reactions, etc., especially with regard to relying on the mind, which, however, cannot be relied upon.

The essential characteristic of this contemplation is that you look at an object, a state, a situation or a person without desire, without fear and without good or bad. Then the observation is egoless and freed from the good-evil thought pattern.

Let’s say I have a member in my tennis section who, like me, is a weak player. When we play doubles together and he makes a lot of technical errors, he shouts out his displeasure, but doesn’t relate it to himself, only to then shower me with a torrent of accusations when I make mistakes. Sure, he projects his shortcomings away from himself onto the nearest scapegoat. If I were to defend myself, as people normally do, or – in the worst possible and usual way – respond with a counter-attack pointing out his subterranean play, escalation and lasting poisoning of the atmosphere in the entire team would be inevitable. If, on the other hand, I know or realise in a second’s meditation that I am the bearer of the Son of God, that the interaction between our two souls is always and fundamentally harmonious and that evil is powerless, I no longer need to strike back outwardly (although this may be necessary at some point with particularly stubborn contemporaries). Inwardly, I counter the instinct-driven impulses and thoughts that demand my resistance with the appropriate truth, such as “He can’t know what he’s doing.” Then, due to the dominance of the soul power, my ego part no longer has the energy to realise my striving for self-preservation and dominance. I recognise the Son of God with his omnipotence in me and also in him and let the scolding bounce off me somewhat calmly. Then a miracle happens. He subsides and becomes meek, at least for the time being. Over the next few training sessions, he becomes increasingly accommodating – albeit with the occasional ego flare-up. (Only in some very stubborn cases do I resort to answers that hold up a mirror to him without reproach. For example, you can simply walk off the pitch. He then quickly becomes meek because my recognition of my soul and his makes it much easier to break through his ego).

Only by looking through can we reach the only-good, under the umbrella of the highest, the view of the soul. If we were to take evil into meditation and perceive it as evil instead of understanding it as a wake-up call to repentance, evil becomes real. However, if I first examine my bankruptcy, my failed marriage, my serious illness, my rival, etc. neutrally and mentally go through all aspects in connection with the corresponding spiritual principles, then the evil will disappear.

Here “spiritual principle” means that my competitor, my ex, my enemy, etc. are in reality in (spiritual) unity with me, just as my fingers are my secondary fingers. But Mephisto is supposed to awaken the view of being hostile towards them, so that I suffer, so that I get into serious problems through my understanding of enmity and am virtually forced by these evils to look for new ways out of the given hopelessness of all these evils. This is how I am to find the spiritual path that will permanently eliminate these bad conditions. That is why I imagine myself in contemplation as being equipped with an aura that I radiate and my enemies with the same. Then I begin to understand that true self-preservation is only possible if I am not there for myself (which 99% of all people believe and follow), but first and foremost for all other people. Then and only then is my own self-preservation assured. This is what the so-called “golden rule” means.

Then I have come to the realization that there is nothing to worry about. Problems and reflections that contain classifications of good and bad do not belong in meditation under any circumstances, not even “good” ones, because “good” is a category of material man, and problem images contain evil and therefore cannot be part of spiritual, truthful contemplation. Because creation is “very good”. Particularly in meditation, the “demons” have the ability to deepen consciousness faster than anything else and thus conjure up disaster.

This is illustrated by the story of the sailor who has a serious capsizing accident at the beginning of an elaborately prepared sailing trip, then wakes up in hospital and asks his spiritual teacher why this could have happened to him, even though he had meditated extra long and intensively before setting off to protect himself from the many dangers (!?) in the strong currents near the coast!

This means that even in the case of urgent questions, we should not focus on the problems as negative. In this way, we detach ourselves from the object, from the surface, from the appearance. We look behind the scenes and grasp the spiritual essence. In the case of an enemy, for example, we then only see his divine identity, in the case of a crisis its deep meaning. Then we have eliminated consciousness-forming evil by avoiding judgment. The Tanakh would say: This is paradise. Even in this phase, with sufficient perseverance, intuition can kick in and provide us with inspirations that we might never have thought of. We can also ask questions about what decision the soul recommends to us and also ask for advice if we don’t have the slightest idea where the journey should take us – just as Odysseus was advised and guided by the goddess Athena. In advanced meditation, we often receive clear answers immediately, but sometimes the answers are delayed. They come at a more favorable time (kairos) or in a different form. The form of the answers varies greatly from person to person: they can be visual impressions similar to dream images, but mainly a binary-coded confirmation through deep breathing, a feeling of liberation or words that can be heard clearly and loudly, even though they are silent.

A clear criterion for the receipt and clarity of the information is given when typical accompanying phenomena occur: The noise of silence becomes louder, even booming, a tingling sensation in the palms of the hands sets in, etc. The physical presence of the soul can be felt and must be felt. The presence of the soul force must become noticeable and tangible at some point; then we can be sure that the connection is there and that it is working. “It is a “Here I am” that you cannot hear, but can feel from head to toe.” (Rumi: The Matnavi II, 1193)

(3) The third phase is the one in which the streams of thought have come to a complete rest and in which the aim is to remain silent within in oneness with the Son of God. This is a stage that would be almost unbearable for the material man. Only then, however, does the “thinking of the soul” become truly effective. This central component of interaction is fundamentally different from active contemplation. Conscious being without thinking activity is a state that is dangerous for the ego in man. That is why the moment of silence, of pause, of stillness, especially an interruption of thinking, is terrible and destructive for the ego, because in such intervals the knocking of the soul becomes more audible. If every pause in conversation quickly becomes embarrassing, an interruption to the flow of thought is really dangerous. This is why some people panic when they try to achieve meditative silence.

The basic attitude when entering this silent phase is not aimless, but one of listening, of listening to impulses from within, which is initiated by the request “Speak!”.

Without this default setting, it is much more difficult to maintain the thought-free phase. When listening, we wait for the soul’s response and prepare ourselves for the coming dialogue with it by being ready to receive. This is the area without words and thoughts that Meister Eckhart means with the expression “ane bilde”. Actually reaching the dialogue means that we communicate with the inner guidance in (limited) question and answer as in a physical conversation.
What has always taken place, namely the soul’s attempts to reach the human being, namely through certain dreams, signs, pressing sensations, has never been understood as the soul’s search for us, but has regularly been corrupted by the ego programme within us (“dreams are foams,” “borders on a miracle”, etc.). But: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

This means that meditation is the key to experiencing the vital truth. But how could this word “from the mouth of God” be heard through the constant stream of words and thoughts? The uninterrupted raging of uninvited thoughts is the ego’s decisive means of preventing the soul from making itself heard. Thus the Gita also clearly states:

“Try to wander even to the new
the flock of fluttering thoughts,
fetch them back again and again,
until they banish the self’s peace.”
VI, 26)

“He who thus unites himself to the Eternal
frees himself from special will,
becomes, full of delight, aware
of the inner God’s presence.”
(VI, 28)

The good thing is that it is actually possible to put a stop to the barrage of thoughts, even if this requires persistent practice. The usual misunderstanding is typically expressed in the following sentences: “I have to (!?) think about it all the time!” Or: “I think about it every day!” A serious misunderstanding.

The taming of thought attacks is a realisation that – apart from the mystics – is not so old, at least for the West. The first translations of Eastern wisdom only appeared in the middle of the 19th century, and they were only disseminated a hundred years later. After a long period of persistent practice, sporadic but increasingly frequent moments arise in which we feel the approach to the eternal self.

In the passive phase, we listen to the “quiet, gentle voice” and wait for it to become audible to us. Because those who ask must also make space for the answer. So we make ourselves permeable to it.
The example of the feeding of the 5000 clearly shows how Jesus demonstrates this: He listened, so he switched off his problem-solving mind, gave thanks (!), so he went inwards and received (see chapter 8).

This is precisely what the ego tries to prevent by all means, because that would be its end.

“If the doors of perception(!) were cleansed,
every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up …”
(William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Memorable Fancy)

Listening is not the only decisive factor for successful meditation. How we end this pause is just as important: We wait for a soul impulse of release. This will probably not come at first (and not only a few months), but at some point, if we have been persistent and stubborn enough.

“Whoever endeavours, we can redeem.
And if love has even been
participated from above,
the blessed multitude meets him
with a hearty welcome.”
(Goethe, Faust II, Mountain Gorges, Chorus of Angels)

Then there will be a sensation of some kind that signals to us that it is now time for contemplation, that the moment has come when the soul agrees and signals us to leave.

Without waiting for this release, the entire attempt to gain a direct “line” to the inner voice, to the telephone centre “C”, is made more difficult. Because release means that the soul is already touching us. Only with this touch do we come under the “umbrella of the highest.” Only then can we speak of the dialogue being opened.

This rough three-part structure changes in the course of spiritual progress. The spiritual seeker experiences that phases, forms, time periods and contents change individually in the course of development.

Through such a dialogue-based approach to meditation, we are re-grafted as a “cut branch” that should wither. In this respect, meditation is the opposite of conventional prayer. It is not that which emanates from man, but that which flows to him, it is the breakthrough of the gentle, quiet voice (1 Kgs 19:12-13) to the conscious interaction between the outer and inner man. In this respect, it is not we who find the soul, but it finds us. And we “knock”, make ourselves permeable to it and begin to become its instrument.

One example is the “voice” that guided the eighteen-year-old (!) Joan of Arc on her way to the liberation of France and of which Joan reports:

“A great brightness almost always accompanies her …
Two or three times a week, the voice told me that I, Joan, had to go to France…
The voice told me to lift the siege of Orleans. It told me to go and see Robert de Baudricourt, the captain of the city, and that he would give me people to come with me. I replied that I was a poor girl who knew nothing about riding or warfare. …
When I arrived in Vaucouleurs, I recognised Robert de Baudricourt, and yet I had never seen him. I recognised him by his voice. It told me it was him. …
I got to the king without obstacle. … When I entered the hall, I recognised him among all the others, my voice pointed him out to me. I told the king that I wanted to wage war against the English. …
There is never a day when I do not hear the voice, and I need it. I have never asked for any other reward than the salvation of my soul.”
(Joan of Arc: Documents of her Condemnation and Vindication 1431, 1456. Cologne 1956, p. 43 ff.)

The sceptic might assume that Joan made all this up, because there can be no one who could confirm such a thing. But inner spiritual processes have outer material effects. Her successes in the liberation of France speak for themselves.

Johanna’s communication is characterised by a detailed use of language on the part of the inner leadership. More often, however, it is binary processes in which the inner voice only reacts to questions that are designed for a yes or no and only responds as a yes. The yes answer often manifests as a sudden deep inhalation.

The Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, is credited with a mixture of detailed spoken response and binary code. Nowadays there are many people who have been assigned one and/or the other focus in their dialogue with the soul.

Johanna only heard her “voice” from above, while mentally ill people, for example, hear their destructive voices from “below”. A typical example is provided by John Lennon’s murderer, who stated: “A voice inside me said: Do it, do it!” In this respect, spiritual seekers usually have to learn the art of “discernment of spirits” (see chapter 12 in the book), because Mephisto also interferes with spiritual contact.

In Johanna’s case, it is noticeable that she does not make any reference to the church in order to receive spiritual guidance from it. It is always about direct contact and never about a mediating authority. She did not need it. That characterises the alleged role of the church more than enough.

“I well believe that the church militant cannot err or lack. But I hand over and leave my words and deeds to God alone, who told me to do what I did.” (In: DIE ZEIT, No. 2, 05.01.2012)

The same abstinence can also be found in the great spiritual novel of the Middle Ages “Parzival” (Wolfram von Eschenbach), in which the hero refrains from any reference to church community on his path to redemption. It was also Meister Eckhart who clearly denied that the church had a monopoly on the mediation of salvation.

The furious anger of Scottish Presbyterians towards the Quakers can be seen in the following outburst: “Cursed be all those who say that everyone has a light that is sufficient to lead to Christ”
(Paul Held: The Quaker George Fox. Ch. 1)

For religious organisations, the occurrence of the direct wire is a challenge, as it robs them of their privilege of being the only mediator between God and man. This is an existential threat to them. That is why they do everything they can to prevent the direct line between God and man. Among other things, they do not want confession to be made directly to the soul under any circumstances, but squeeze themselves in between and insist on using the clergy for this.

This is why they immediately marginalise mystics such as Al-Halladsch, Jesus, Meister Eckhart or Johanna, which is no different today, at least in principle. But since they have lost the funeral pyres, today they replace exclusion with demarcation.

(But here, too, it would be superficial to blame organisations or individuals. The evil has nothing directly to do with the individuals, who are merely the transmitters of the general programme of self-preservation. So basically it is not the church representatives, but the ego programme within them).

Meditation compact

Meditation forms the bridge between me and my soul.

Meditation is not about praying upwards.

Rather, it is a waiting for an answer from above.

In principle, it is not the soul that needs information from us, but we from it.

Meditation is the access to the truth that man cannot know by himself.

Prayer wants to reach God in order to beg him and therefore remains unsuccessful.

Spiritual contact is only possible through meditation. It doesn’t work through the mind.

It is not my goal to reach the soul, but for it to get through to me.

In this way, I make it possible for it to break through the barriers I have built up myself.

I can only live the principle “Thy will be done”.

The life of the outer ego-man consists of the principle “My will be done.”

The more ego emptying, the more replenishment through the soul.

Alongside spiritual knowledge, meditation is the foundation of spiritually based action.

Meditation is based on the ability to observe and control thoughts.

The prerequisite for accessing the soul is blocking the interference of thoughts.

The soul only becomes active when it succeeds in creating emptiness of thought.

Meditation means that the Son of God within can only be reached in devout silence.

Meditation excludes thoughts and thus detaches oneself from good and evil.

Meditation means listening, not thinking; it is a kind of prayer with the ears.

The goal is to realise that I need nothing, but have everything.

Because by recognising the soul, I have everything – spiritually and then materially, through participation in omnipotence and omniscience.

The worldly desire to have (instinct for self-preservation) is the reason for all evil in the world.

Meditation therefore also contains few selfish elements such as “I”, “me”, “my”, etc.

The main point is to listen for a response.

Meditation is there to create my receptivity to the inner voice.

In this way, it serves to free the “trapped glamour”.

The connection with the soul must be felt, otherwise there is no certainty.

Meditation is feeling the omnipotence in silence.

Meditation is an instrument for the realisation of my soul’s programme.

It is about reaching the presence of the inner God, the union with him.

This is the meaning of kissing awake in some fairy tales.

Meditation is like rubbing the lamp (Aladdin). Only then does the spirit appear.

Meditation is refuelling, both mentally and physically.

Meditation takes place in secret, after closing the door of the chamber.

Meditation can take the form of night vigils.

Only when we have freed ourselves from worry does liberation come.

Meditation contains the request for enlightenment, for the ability to see spiritually.

I ask that my soul reveals every person to me as its likeness.

In this respect, meditation penetrates through the outer appearance.

Meditation aims to unfold the power of my soul: whoever knocks, the door will be opened!

Meditation enables us to receive our care through dialogue with the soul.

We do not go to the soul for the purpose of removing our suffering.

We go to the soul for the truth and are thus (!) freed from earthly suffering.

It lays the spiritual foundation that then leads to material realisation.

Meditation frees you from shying away from self-surrender.

Except in the beginning, meditation contains few material requests, but it does contain spiritual requests.

Meditation always works.

Meditation is the decisive tool on the path out of suffering.

Meditation is the tool for dialogue with the soul.

If the thoughts succeed in penetrating and breaking through, meditation is futile: this is illustrated by Homer’s Odyssey of the “suitors” in the palace (body) who want to get into the soul’s pants.

Meditation consists of an active and a passive phase.

The outside world is switched off by closing the eyes.

By relaxing the body, you first train yourself to lose awareness of the body.

The next step is to lose awareness of the software (thoughts, emotions):

Holding your breath can be a first means of keeping thoughts at bay.

Without observing the thought attacks, it is almost impossible to get a grip on them.

Observation means looking beyond their content and categorising their form.

By categorising them as fear, hate or worry, they lose their power.

Meditation always begins with forgiveness, i.e. with understanding for the enemy.

Material concerns are reserved for the active phase. “What do you want me to do?” “What is YOUR will?”

You wait until a feeling of liberation sets in; then there is a first contact.

This can take a very long time and tests the seriousness of the aspirant.

In the case of negative thoughts, there is an immediate switch to the spiritual identity within.

Interference in the form of negative intuitions also occurs at some point.

In the active phase there is always a check on selfishness.

Instead of hope, one invites fulfilment.

The passive phase consists of silence on the basis of thoughtlessness, of waiting.

It is initiated by “knocking”, e.g: Father in me, speak!

In this way, the consciousness is shaped by an expectation to receive the dialogue.

At some point you begin to feel the presence of the soul physically (e.g. the palms of your hands).

Initially, you meditate at least three times a day for a longer period of time.

Later, frequent second meditations are added.

The silent phase includes waiting for release.

“Then the self has reached its goal.
This is how yoga releases attachment to suffering.
So practise it with determination,
so that you too may be liberated.”
(Bhagavad Gita VI, 23)

Effective, because dialogue-based meditation with the renunciation of material begging can be recognised by the fact that life becomes more harmonious. The fruits of the spiritual awareness that develops in this way are the clearly recognisable increase in harmony in interpersonal relationships – which also has an effect on children as well as well-being and security in everyday life. It paves the way out of constant worry, aggression and fear, it paves the way out of suffering.