The Process of Meditation
From Concentration to Meditation
The process of meditation is traditionally described in the Theosophical literature as being threefold: i) Concentration, ii) Meditation and iii) Contemplation.
In words of Wallace Slater:
"In the broad exercise of meditation, concentration fixes the mind on the subject, meditation leads the mind around the subject to understand it, and contemplation takes consciousness beyond the mind."
Below is a collection of quotes from Theosophical authors covering the totality of the process of Meditation.
I. Preliminaries
Before contact with the world has disturbed the emotions, meditation should be resorted to. Coming back into the body after the period of physical sleep, from a world subtler than the physical, the [spiritual] Ego will find his tenement quiet, and can take possession calmly of the rested brain and nerves. Meditation later in the day, when the emotions have been disturbed, and when they are in full activity, is not as efficacious. The quiet time which is available after sleep is the right season for effective meditation, the desire-body, the emotional nature, being more tranquil than after it has plunged into the bustle of the world. From that peaceful morning hour will stream out the influence which will guard during the day, and the emotions, soothed and stilled, will be more amenable to control. Annie Besant
Whenever we calmly sit for any sort of meditation, one of the first things to happen is that the Elementals begin to present to our inner eyes pictures of all sorts, and the kind of picture presented will be the result of the prior thoughts and also of the state we are in both mentally and physically. For if we are disturbed or harassed in any way in thought, the pictures will be more and more confused in fact, though sometimes having no appearance on the surface of being in confusion. H. P. Blavatsky
We must not think that there is any virtue in making ourselves uncomfortable. On the contrary, when the physical body is comfortable we are much better able to think of higher things . . . Patanjali's direction is to take a posture "easy and pleasant".
There are two objects with regard to the position of the body during meditation. First, it should be comfortable, so that one can easily forget it, for that is what one wants to do. Secondly, it should be such that if in meditation we leave the body—which may happen at any time—it will not hurt itself. In such a case the effect on the body will be as though we had fainted. C. W. Leadbeater
II- Concentration and Meditation
[N]otice that [meditation] is preceded always by concentration, that concentration produces a very wide-awake consciousness, consciousness at its best, and that in meditation this wide-awakeness is preserved and applied to full reflection upon a chosen subject. Ernest Wood
This state [of concentration] cannot be brought about by the mere exertion of will-power as some people suppose, for the exertion of will-power on a mind agitated by even sub-conscious desires is bound to produce mental strain, and a mind under strain which may be inappreciable, is quite unfit for the practice of Samadhi. The tranquillity which is a pre-requisite for Samadhi is a condition of extraordinary and habitual stability, and real stability cannot exist where there is strain. I. K. Taimni
Concentration is attention. The fixed attitude of attention, that is concentration. If you pay attention to what you do, your mind will be concentrated. Many sit down for meditation and wonder why they do not succeed. How can you suppose that half an hour of meditation and twenty-three and a half hours of scattering of thought throughout the day and night, will enable you to concentrate during the half hour? You have undone during the day and night what you did in the morning, as Penelope unravelled the web she wove. To become a Yogi, you must be attentive all the time. Annie Besant
The student should also remember that concentration is not a matter of physical effort. The moment the mind turns to a thought it is concentrated upon it. It is difficult to express in words what, after all, must be experienced to be understood; but concentration is less a matter of forcibly holding the mind on a certain thought than of letting the mind continue to rest on that thought in perfect stillness and quietude. J.I. Wedgwood
It is true that much of the student's practice must be in the initial stages take this form of repeated exclusion of thought; and to set oneself to do this is excellent training. But there is another and far sounder way of attaining concentration; it consists in becoming so interested and absorbed in the subject selected that all other thoughts are ipso facto excluded from the mind. J.I. Wedgwood
Every little unsatisfied desire, every unthought-out problem, will present a hungry mouth calling aside your attention. . . .
To clear away these obstructions it is little use trying to repress and suppress them. A better plan is to give them their due, appoint them a time and think them out. A mind that cannot overcome such vacillation as leaves its problems perpetually unsettled cannot succeed in meditation. Ernest Wood
. . . Stop yourself suddenly . . . and see what you are thinking and why. Try to follow the thought back to its genesis, and you will probably be surprised to find how many desultory thoughts have wandered through your brain during the previous five minutes, just dropping in and dropping out again, and leaving almost no impression. You will gradually begin to realize that in truth all these are not your thoughts at all, but simply cast-off fragments of other people’s thoughts. C.W. Leadbeater
. . . For a long time you will find, when you try to meditate, that your thoughts are continually going off at a tangent, and you do not know it till suddenly you start to find how far away they have gone. You must not let this dishearten you, for it is the common experience; you must simply bring the errant mind back again to its duty, a hundred or a thousand times if necessary. C.W. Leadbeater
Never concentrate to the point of making a feeling of dulness and heaviness of the brain; never concentrate to the point of pain; dulness and pain are danger-signals of nature, that you are trying to change matter more rapidly in its arrangements than is possible consisting with health. Annie Besant
[P]erfect balance is needed, neither resistance nor non-resistance [to distractions], but a steady quietude so strong that waves [of thought] from outside will not produce any result, not even the secondary result of the consciousness of something to be resisted. Annie Besant
In some schools of what is called Hatha Yoga the students are recommended to assist concentration by fixing the eyes on a black spot on a white wall, and to maintain this fixity of gaze until trance supervenes. Now, there are two reasons why this should not be done. First, the practice, after a while, injures the physical sight, and the eyes lose their power of adjustment. Secondly, it brings about a form of brain paralysis . . . But brain paralysis not only stops all thinking on the physical plane, but renders the brain insensitive to non-physical vibrations, so that the Ego cannot impress it; it does not set him free, but merely deprives him of his instrument. A man may remain for weeks in a trance thus induced, but when he awakes he is no wiser than at the beginning of the trance. He has not gained knowledge; he has merely wasted time. Such methods do not gain spiritual power, but merely bring about physical disability. Annie Besant
When he succeeds in eliminating the distractions completely and can continue the concentration on the object without any interruptions for as long as he decides to do so he reaches the stage of Dhyana. It will be seen, therefore, that it is the occasional appearance of distractions in the mind which constitutes the essential difference between Dharana and Dhyana. I. K. Taimni
III- Contemplation
a) Definitions
Then [the stage of meditation] has become an established habit with you, with which nothing is allowed to interfere; when you can manage it fairly well without any feeling of strain or difficulty, and without a single wandering thought ever venturing to intrude itself, then you may turn to the third stage of our effort—contemplation. But remember that you will not succeed with this until you have entirely conquered the mind-wandering. C.W. Leadbeater
You have gradually made the vagrant mind steady by this process of slow and gradual curbing, and at last you are fixed on the central thought, or the central figure, and there you are poised. Now let even that go. Drop the central thought, the idea, the seed of meditation. Let everything go. But keep the mind in the position gained, the highest point reached, vigorous and alert. This is meditation without a seed. Annie Besant
It is only when the cup of our being has been emptied of personality, that it can be filled with the wine of our divine Life, and when this Life is first experience in meditation, it is like the entrance into a new world, no longer one of appearances, of phenomena, but one of consciousness, one in which we are identified with that which we desire to know. J. J. van der Leeuw
You know that I have told you before that if you will be careful not to strain your physical brain, you can work up to this conception . . . Don't try to do it too vigorously for the first time, because it tends to bring about a headache. It is better not to persist against that; a headache means that you are straining the nervous mechanism of the brain, which you must not do. . . .
There is no objection to any of you who are accustomed to meditation trying this, provided that you can remember to stop the moment you feel a little bit tired. If you are really doing it, you feel tired in a moment; then there is the temptation to go on further. Annie Besant
Positive effort is needed as a preliminary, and the passive condition follows later. The positive intensity of effort uplifts the consciousness to play through the higher levels of its different vehicles, or – to look at the matter differently – harmonises the vehicles, bringing them into synchronous relation with each other, so that the higher influence can play down; and only then is it safe to relax the upward straining in the realization of the peace thus attained. Perhaps, after all, the phrase “opening oneself to spiritual influences” in such a condition means nothing more than maintaining an attitude of intense stillness at a high spiritual level. J.I. Wedgwood
At that highest point of thinking, cling desperately to the last link of the chain, and there keep the mind poised, in steadiness and strenuous quiet, waiting for what may come. After a while, you will be able to maintain this attitude for a considerable time. Annie Besant
b) Raising to a Higher Plane
When the mind is well trained in concentrating on an object, and can maintain its one-pointedness—as this state is called—for some little time, the next stage is to drop the object, and to maintain the mind in this attitude of fixed attention without the attention being directed to anything. In this state the mental body shows no image; its own material is there, held steady and firm, receiving no impressions, in a condition of perfect calm, like a waveless lake. This is not a state which can last for more than a very brief period, like the "critical state" of the chemist, the point of contact between two recognised and defined sub-states of matter. Otherwise put, the consciousness, as the mental body is stilled, escapes from it, and passes into and out of the "laya centre", the neutral points of contact between the mental body and the causal body; the passage is accompanied by a momentary swoon, or loss of consciousness—the inevitable result of the disappearance of objects of consciousness—followed by consciousness in the higher. The dropping out of objects of consciousness belonging to the lower worlds is thus followed by the appearance of objects of consciousness in the higher. Annie Besant
From the time the Pratyaya [the seed of meditation] is suppressed to the time when the Pratyaya of the next plane appears the Yogi is in the stage of Asamprajnata Samadhi. During all this time he is fully conscious and his will is directing this delicate mental operation in a very subtle manner. The mind is no doubt blank but it is the blankness of Samadhi and not the blankness of an ordinary kind such as is present in deep sleep or coma. The mind is still completely cut off from the outer world, is still perfectly concentrated, is still under complete control of the will. . . . The void of Asamprajnata Samadhi is sometimes called a ‘cloud’ in Yogic terminology and the experience may be compared to that of a pilot whose aeroplane passes through a cloud bank. The clear landscape is blotted out suddenly, the ordinary sense of direction disappears and he flies on in the certainty that if he holds on he is bound to come out again into the clear sky. When the consciousness of the Yogi leaves one plane and the Pratyaya [seed] of that plane disappears he finds himself in a void and must remain in that void until his consciousness automatically emerges into the next plane with its new and characteristic Pratyaya. He cannot do anything but wait patiently, with mind concentrated and alert, for the darkness to disperse and the light of the higher plane to dawn in his mind. I. K. Taimni
The term "cloud" is very often used in mystic literature of the West. . . . You feel as though surrounded by a dense mist, conscious that you are not alone but unable to see. Be still; be patient; wait. Let your consciousness be in the attitude of suspense. Presently the cloud will thin, and first in glimpses, then in its full beauty, the vision of a higher plane will dawn on your entranced sight. This entrance into a higher plane will repeat itself again and again, until your consciousness, centred on the buddhic plane and its splendouis having disappeared as your consciousness withdraws even from that exquisite sheath, you find yourself in the true cloud, the cloud on the sanctuary, the cloud that veils the Holiest, that hides the vision of the Self. Annie Besant
Our ideal is perfect consciousness on the highest level we can reach. We do not propose to rest satisfied at any level whatever. But on the other hand, we decline to give up our consciousness and go into trance, as some people do for the purpose of reaching a level beyond the scope of their waking consciousness. People talk sometimes about “passing into samādhi” . . . Samādhi for anyone is the point which is just beyond that at which it is possible for him to retain his clear consciousness . . . to pass into a sort of trance from which one emerges with all sorts of glorified and beautiful feeling, but not generally with clear consciousness. People should not go into samādhi when they meditate; they should retain their consciousness, so that when they come back they can remember what they have seen. I know that many have passed into samādhi and have experienced a great feeling of happiness and beatitude. That, however, does not mean progress, because they lose hold and do not know clearly what they have been doing. . . . It is not a good plan to lose consciousness; it is much better to try to keep control of our vehicles and see a little bit where we are going—otherwise we may lose the physical body and end our temporary usefulness. Our method is to keep full consciousness on any plane that we can reach, and try to be of use on that plane. Our Masters never speak of mere passive contemplation. Our aim is not to sit down and enjoy ourselves anywhere, but to be active in the Master's work at all times. C. W. Leadbeater
Asamprajnata Samadhi can be practised only after the prolonged practice of Samprajnata Samadhi . . . the recession of consciousness in Asamprajnata Samadhi and its passage through the Laya centre depends upon the continuance of the constant pressure of the will which is at the back of the effort to keep the mind in the state of Samprajnata Samadhi. There is no change in this condition of the mind except the disappearance of the Pratyaya. The pressure must be built up in Samprajnata Samadhi before it can be utilized in Asamprajnata Samadhi. The bow must be drawn before the arrow is released to pierce through the target. I. K. Taimni
c) Active Contemplation
When it is able to hold itself thus with comparative ease it is ready for a further step, and by a strong but calm effort of the will it can throw itself beyond the highest thought it can reach while working in the physical brain, and in the effort will rise and unite itself with the higher consciousness and find itself free of the body. When this is done there is no sense of sleep or dream nor any loss of consciousness; the man finds himself outside his body, but as though he merely slipped off a weighty encumbrance, nor as though he had lost any part of himself. Annie Besant
[A]nd then, putting forth all the strength which his long practice of concentration had given him, let him make a determined effort to raise his consciousness to that ideal, to merge himself in it, to become one with it. C. W. Leadbeater
That effort will eventually lead us towards an extension of consciousness. When we succeed we shall break through into a different world, a different way of looking at everything. Along that line is the most rapid and the most satisfactory progress, but as I have said, it is strictly for those who can take it, and for whom that happens to be the way. C. W. Leadbeater
In fact, the process really only becomes intelligible to you as you practise it. This is so often the case in the instructions for meditation. If you try to make out what they mean, you never get very much further, because you are keeping in the questioning stage of what is meant by it, which does not help you at all. Try to begin to do it and, as you do it, if clears itself, because the power is in you and you are calling it out. You call it out by doing it. In this case the "doing it" is the process of thinking, the definite activity of the plane upon which you are working. Annie Besant
For a moment there is nothing; we have withdrawn our attention from the world-image, and have not yet entered the Real, but we must not remain in that point at which the great maya takes place. We must push through; and, having drawn our consciousness away from its world-image and stopped its image-making faculty, we can emerge on the other side of consciousness, emerge into the world of the Real. J. J. van der Leeuw
[H]e will gaze into the darkness beyond the intellect, seeking by concentrated meditation to find the light that is beyond the darkness, the light of the Real, of the Self. In that silence will arise within him the spiritual consciousness, responding to subtle thrillings from an unknown world. First feebly, and then more strongly, with a courage ever-increasing, that loftier consciousness answers to the without and realizes the within; he knows himself as Spirit; he knows himself divine. Annie Besant
d) Inspiration
Quite apart from the possibility of going out into a higher plane in full consciousness, we have here a means of raising the consciousness so that it may feel the influences of a superior world and receive impressions from above. C.W. Leadbeater
The old teachers of meditation held that there is a two-fold contemplation at the top end of our line of thought, one which gives intuition about the object, whereby the mind obtains its closest touch with that object, receiving its highest lesson, while the second leads to the beyond of the mind. Ernest Wood
[I]n that moment of absorption there may come a stillness of the mind, which is not negative or passive, but is dynamic and alert. This is the state of contemplation. Now, it is suggested, [the object of meditation] should be dropped altogether from the mind, while the mind remains in that still, absorbed, poised state of consciousness. The mind is now emptied of images and forms, and in that moment it is free and open to receive intimations from the inner world of the Self, to experience intuition, buddhi. To use a well known analogy, the mind is as a clear placid lake, able to reflect the divine consciousness from within. As the Taoist phrase goes: "Bide in silence, and the radiance of the spirit shall come in and make its home."
In that state of contemplation, which is a state of consciousness beyond form, the individual can have spiritual insight which, however brief, can transform his understanding, can expand his awareness, lifting him out of his usually limited field into a new vision and a realization of the deeper reality which exists within. It may not happen for a long time. Helen V. Zahara
In words of Wallace Slater:
"In the broad exercise of meditation, concentration fixes the mind on the subject, meditation leads the mind around the subject to understand it, and contemplation takes consciousness beyond the mind."
Below is a collection of quotes from Theosophical authors covering the totality of the process of Meditation.
I. Preliminaries
Before contact with the world has disturbed the emotions, meditation should be resorted to. Coming back into the body after the period of physical sleep, from a world subtler than the physical, the [spiritual] Ego will find his tenement quiet, and can take possession calmly of the rested brain and nerves. Meditation later in the day, when the emotions have been disturbed, and when they are in full activity, is not as efficacious. The quiet time which is available after sleep is the right season for effective meditation, the desire-body, the emotional nature, being more tranquil than after it has plunged into the bustle of the world. From that peaceful morning hour will stream out the influence which will guard during the day, and the emotions, soothed and stilled, will be more amenable to control. Annie Besant
Whenever we calmly sit for any sort of meditation, one of the first things to happen is that the Elementals begin to present to our inner eyes pictures of all sorts, and the kind of picture presented will be the result of the prior thoughts and also of the state we are in both mentally and physically. For if we are disturbed or harassed in any way in thought, the pictures will be more and more confused in fact, though sometimes having no appearance on the surface of being in confusion. H. P. Blavatsky
We must not think that there is any virtue in making ourselves uncomfortable. On the contrary, when the physical body is comfortable we are much better able to think of higher things . . . Patanjali's direction is to take a posture "easy and pleasant".
There are two objects with regard to the position of the body during meditation. First, it should be comfortable, so that one can easily forget it, for that is what one wants to do. Secondly, it should be such that if in meditation we leave the body—which may happen at any time—it will not hurt itself. In such a case the effect on the body will be as though we had fainted. C. W. Leadbeater
II- Concentration and Meditation
[N]otice that [meditation] is preceded always by concentration, that concentration produces a very wide-awake consciousness, consciousness at its best, and that in meditation this wide-awakeness is preserved and applied to full reflection upon a chosen subject. Ernest Wood
This state [of concentration] cannot be brought about by the mere exertion of will-power as some people suppose, for the exertion of will-power on a mind agitated by even sub-conscious desires is bound to produce mental strain, and a mind under strain which may be inappreciable, is quite unfit for the practice of Samadhi. The tranquillity which is a pre-requisite for Samadhi is a condition of extraordinary and habitual stability, and real stability cannot exist where there is strain. I. K. Taimni
Concentration is attention. The fixed attitude of attention, that is concentration. If you pay attention to what you do, your mind will be concentrated. Many sit down for meditation and wonder why they do not succeed. How can you suppose that half an hour of meditation and twenty-three and a half hours of scattering of thought throughout the day and night, will enable you to concentrate during the half hour? You have undone during the day and night what you did in the morning, as Penelope unravelled the web she wove. To become a Yogi, you must be attentive all the time. Annie Besant
The student should also remember that concentration is not a matter of physical effort. The moment the mind turns to a thought it is concentrated upon it. It is difficult to express in words what, after all, must be experienced to be understood; but concentration is less a matter of forcibly holding the mind on a certain thought than of letting the mind continue to rest on that thought in perfect stillness and quietude. J.I. Wedgwood
It is true that much of the student's practice must be in the initial stages take this form of repeated exclusion of thought; and to set oneself to do this is excellent training. But there is another and far sounder way of attaining concentration; it consists in becoming so interested and absorbed in the subject selected that all other thoughts are ipso facto excluded from the mind. J.I. Wedgwood
Every little unsatisfied desire, every unthought-out problem, will present a hungry mouth calling aside your attention. . . .
To clear away these obstructions it is little use trying to repress and suppress them. A better plan is to give them their due, appoint them a time and think them out. A mind that cannot overcome such vacillation as leaves its problems perpetually unsettled cannot succeed in meditation. Ernest Wood
. . . Stop yourself suddenly . . . and see what you are thinking and why. Try to follow the thought back to its genesis, and you will probably be surprised to find how many desultory thoughts have wandered through your brain during the previous five minutes, just dropping in and dropping out again, and leaving almost no impression. You will gradually begin to realize that in truth all these are not your thoughts at all, but simply cast-off fragments of other people’s thoughts. C.W. Leadbeater
. . . For a long time you will find, when you try to meditate, that your thoughts are continually going off at a tangent, and you do not know it till suddenly you start to find how far away they have gone. You must not let this dishearten you, for it is the common experience; you must simply bring the errant mind back again to its duty, a hundred or a thousand times if necessary. C.W. Leadbeater
Never concentrate to the point of making a feeling of dulness and heaviness of the brain; never concentrate to the point of pain; dulness and pain are danger-signals of nature, that you are trying to change matter more rapidly in its arrangements than is possible consisting with health. Annie Besant
[P]erfect balance is needed, neither resistance nor non-resistance [to distractions], but a steady quietude so strong that waves [of thought] from outside will not produce any result, not even the secondary result of the consciousness of something to be resisted. Annie Besant
In some schools of what is called Hatha Yoga the students are recommended to assist concentration by fixing the eyes on a black spot on a white wall, and to maintain this fixity of gaze until trance supervenes. Now, there are two reasons why this should not be done. First, the practice, after a while, injures the physical sight, and the eyes lose their power of adjustment. Secondly, it brings about a form of brain paralysis . . . But brain paralysis not only stops all thinking on the physical plane, but renders the brain insensitive to non-physical vibrations, so that the Ego cannot impress it; it does not set him free, but merely deprives him of his instrument. A man may remain for weeks in a trance thus induced, but when he awakes he is no wiser than at the beginning of the trance. He has not gained knowledge; he has merely wasted time. Such methods do not gain spiritual power, but merely bring about physical disability. Annie Besant
When he succeeds in eliminating the distractions completely and can continue the concentration on the object without any interruptions for as long as he decides to do so he reaches the stage of Dhyana. It will be seen, therefore, that it is the occasional appearance of distractions in the mind which constitutes the essential difference between Dharana and Dhyana. I. K. Taimni
III- Contemplation
a) Definitions
Then [the stage of meditation] has become an established habit with you, with which nothing is allowed to interfere; when you can manage it fairly well without any feeling of strain or difficulty, and without a single wandering thought ever venturing to intrude itself, then you may turn to the third stage of our effort—contemplation. But remember that you will not succeed with this until you have entirely conquered the mind-wandering. C.W. Leadbeater
You have gradually made the vagrant mind steady by this process of slow and gradual curbing, and at last you are fixed on the central thought, or the central figure, and there you are poised. Now let even that go. Drop the central thought, the idea, the seed of meditation. Let everything go. But keep the mind in the position gained, the highest point reached, vigorous and alert. This is meditation without a seed. Annie Besant
It is only when the cup of our being has been emptied of personality, that it can be filled with the wine of our divine Life, and when this Life is first experience in meditation, it is like the entrance into a new world, no longer one of appearances, of phenomena, but one of consciousness, one in which we are identified with that which we desire to know. J. J. van der Leeuw
You know that I have told you before that if you will be careful not to strain your physical brain, you can work up to this conception . . . Don't try to do it too vigorously for the first time, because it tends to bring about a headache. It is better not to persist against that; a headache means that you are straining the nervous mechanism of the brain, which you must not do. . . .
There is no objection to any of you who are accustomed to meditation trying this, provided that you can remember to stop the moment you feel a little bit tired. If you are really doing it, you feel tired in a moment; then there is the temptation to go on further. Annie Besant
Positive effort is needed as a preliminary, and the passive condition follows later. The positive intensity of effort uplifts the consciousness to play through the higher levels of its different vehicles, or – to look at the matter differently – harmonises the vehicles, bringing them into synchronous relation with each other, so that the higher influence can play down; and only then is it safe to relax the upward straining in the realization of the peace thus attained. Perhaps, after all, the phrase “opening oneself to spiritual influences” in such a condition means nothing more than maintaining an attitude of intense stillness at a high spiritual level. J.I. Wedgwood
At that highest point of thinking, cling desperately to the last link of the chain, and there keep the mind poised, in steadiness and strenuous quiet, waiting for what may come. After a while, you will be able to maintain this attitude for a considerable time. Annie Besant
b) Raising to a Higher Plane
When the mind is well trained in concentrating on an object, and can maintain its one-pointedness—as this state is called—for some little time, the next stage is to drop the object, and to maintain the mind in this attitude of fixed attention without the attention being directed to anything. In this state the mental body shows no image; its own material is there, held steady and firm, receiving no impressions, in a condition of perfect calm, like a waveless lake. This is not a state which can last for more than a very brief period, like the "critical state" of the chemist, the point of contact between two recognised and defined sub-states of matter. Otherwise put, the consciousness, as the mental body is stilled, escapes from it, and passes into and out of the "laya centre", the neutral points of contact between the mental body and the causal body; the passage is accompanied by a momentary swoon, or loss of consciousness—the inevitable result of the disappearance of objects of consciousness—followed by consciousness in the higher. The dropping out of objects of consciousness belonging to the lower worlds is thus followed by the appearance of objects of consciousness in the higher. Annie Besant
From the time the Pratyaya [the seed of meditation] is suppressed to the time when the Pratyaya of the next plane appears the Yogi is in the stage of Asamprajnata Samadhi. During all this time he is fully conscious and his will is directing this delicate mental operation in a very subtle manner. The mind is no doubt blank but it is the blankness of Samadhi and not the blankness of an ordinary kind such as is present in deep sleep or coma. The mind is still completely cut off from the outer world, is still perfectly concentrated, is still under complete control of the will. . . . The void of Asamprajnata Samadhi is sometimes called a ‘cloud’ in Yogic terminology and the experience may be compared to that of a pilot whose aeroplane passes through a cloud bank. The clear landscape is blotted out suddenly, the ordinary sense of direction disappears and he flies on in the certainty that if he holds on he is bound to come out again into the clear sky. When the consciousness of the Yogi leaves one plane and the Pratyaya [seed] of that plane disappears he finds himself in a void and must remain in that void until his consciousness automatically emerges into the next plane with its new and characteristic Pratyaya. He cannot do anything but wait patiently, with mind concentrated and alert, for the darkness to disperse and the light of the higher plane to dawn in his mind. I. K. Taimni
The term "cloud" is very often used in mystic literature of the West. . . . You feel as though surrounded by a dense mist, conscious that you are not alone but unable to see. Be still; be patient; wait. Let your consciousness be in the attitude of suspense. Presently the cloud will thin, and first in glimpses, then in its full beauty, the vision of a higher plane will dawn on your entranced sight. This entrance into a higher plane will repeat itself again and again, until your consciousness, centred on the buddhic plane and its splendouis having disappeared as your consciousness withdraws even from that exquisite sheath, you find yourself in the true cloud, the cloud on the sanctuary, the cloud that veils the Holiest, that hides the vision of the Self. Annie Besant
Our ideal is perfect consciousness on the highest level we can reach. We do not propose to rest satisfied at any level whatever. But on the other hand, we decline to give up our consciousness and go into trance, as some people do for the purpose of reaching a level beyond the scope of their waking consciousness. People talk sometimes about “passing into samādhi” . . . Samādhi for anyone is the point which is just beyond that at which it is possible for him to retain his clear consciousness . . . to pass into a sort of trance from which one emerges with all sorts of glorified and beautiful feeling, but not generally with clear consciousness. People should not go into samādhi when they meditate; they should retain their consciousness, so that when they come back they can remember what they have seen. I know that many have passed into samādhi and have experienced a great feeling of happiness and beatitude. That, however, does not mean progress, because they lose hold and do not know clearly what they have been doing. . . . It is not a good plan to lose consciousness; it is much better to try to keep control of our vehicles and see a little bit where we are going—otherwise we may lose the physical body and end our temporary usefulness. Our method is to keep full consciousness on any plane that we can reach, and try to be of use on that plane. Our Masters never speak of mere passive contemplation. Our aim is not to sit down and enjoy ourselves anywhere, but to be active in the Master's work at all times. C. W. Leadbeater
Asamprajnata Samadhi can be practised only after the prolonged practice of Samprajnata Samadhi . . . the recession of consciousness in Asamprajnata Samadhi and its passage through the Laya centre depends upon the continuance of the constant pressure of the will which is at the back of the effort to keep the mind in the state of Samprajnata Samadhi. There is no change in this condition of the mind except the disappearance of the Pratyaya. The pressure must be built up in Samprajnata Samadhi before it can be utilized in Asamprajnata Samadhi. The bow must be drawn before the arrow is released to pierce through the target. I. K. Taimni
c) Active Contemplation
When it is able to hold itself thus with comparative ease it is ready for a further step, and by a strong but calm effort of the will it can throw itself beyond the highest thought it can reach while working in the physical brain, and in the effort will rise and unite itself with the higher consciousness and find itself free of the body. When this is done there is no sense of sleep or dream nor any loss of consciousness; the man finds himself outside his body, but as though he merely slipped off a weighty encumbrance, nor as though he had lost any part of himself. Annie Besant
[A]nd then, putting forth all the strength which his long practice of concentration had given him, let him make a determined effort to raise his consciousness to that ideal, to merge himself in it, to become one with it. C. W. Leadbeater
That effort will eventually lead us towards an extension of consciousness. When we succeed we shall break through into a different world, a different way of looking at everything. Along that line is the most rapid and the most satisfactory progress, but as I have said, it is strictly for those who can take it, and for whom that happens to be the way. C. W. Leadbeater
In fact, the process really only becomes intelligible to you as you practise it. This is so often the case in the instructions for meditation. If you try to make out what they mean, you never get very much further, because you are keeping in the questioning stage of what is meant by it, which does not help you at all. Try to begin to do it and, as you do it, if clears itself, because the power is in you and you are calling it out. You call it out by doing it. In this case the "doing it" is the process of thinking, the definite activity of the plane upon which you are working. Annie Besant
For a moment there is nothing; we have withdrawn our attention from the world-image, and have not yet entered the Real, but we must not remain in that point at which the great maya takes place. We must push through; and, having drawn our consciousness away from its world-image and stopped its image-making faculty, we can emerge on the other side of consciousness, emerge into the world of the Real. J. J. van der Leeuw
[H]e will gaze into the darkness beyond the intellect, seeking by concentrated meditation to find the light that is beyond the darkness, the light of the Real, of the Self. In that silence will arise within him the spiritual consciousness, responding to subtle thrillings from an unknown world. First feebly, and then more strongly, with a courage ever-increasing, that loftier consciousness answers to the without and realizes the within; he knows himself as Spirit; he knows himself divine. Annie Besant
d) Inspiration
Quite apart from the possibility of going out into a higher plane in full consciousness, we have here a means of raising the consciousness so that it may feel the influences of a superior world and receive impressions from above. C.W. Leadbeater
The old teachers of meditation held that there is a two-fold contemplation at the top end of our line of thought, one which gives intuition about the object, whereby the mind obtains its closest touch with that object, receiving its highest lesson, while the second leads to the beyond of the mind. Ernest Wood
[I]n that moment of absorption there may come a stillness of the mind, which is not negative or passive, but is dynamic and alert. This is the state of contemplation. Now, it is suggested, [the object of meditation] should be dropped altogether from the mind, while the mind remains in that still, absorbed, poised state of consciousness. The mind is now emptied of images and forms, and in that moment it is free and open to receive intimations from the inner world of the Self, to experience intuition, buddhi. To use a well known analogy, the mind is as a clear placid lake, able to reflect the divine consciousness from within. As the Taoist phrase goes: "Bide in silence, and the radiance of the spirit shall come in and make its home."
In that state of contemplation, which is a state of consciousness beyond form, the individual can have spiritual insight which, however brief, can transform his understanding, can expand his awareness, lifting him out of his usually limited field into a new vision and a realization of the deeper reality which exists within. It may not happen for a long time. Helen V. Zahara