METAPHYSICAL MEDITATIONS
Excerpts from Metaphysical Meditations by Paramahansa Yogananda
Select a meditation that meets your present need.
Divine Father, in my temple of silence I have made a garden for Thee, decorated with the blossoms of my devotion.
With aspiring heart, with zealous mind, with flaming soul, I lay at Thy feet of omnipresence all the flowers of my devotion.
O Spirit, I worship Thee as beauty and intelligence in the temple of Nature. I worship Thee as power in the temple of activity, and as peace in the temple of silence.
I Worship God Everywhere
Today I will worship God in deep silence and wait to hear His answer through my increasing peace of meditation.
This day shall be the best day of my life. Today I will start with a new determination to dedicate my devotion forever at the feet of Omnipresence.
Reveal Thyself
The ocean of God's abundance flows through me. I am His child. I am a channel through which all divine creative power flows. Bless me. Father, that above all things I seek Thee first, as befits Thy true child.
Beloved God, let the flowers of my devotion blossom in the garden of my heart while I await the dawn of Thy coming.
Dear Father, open all the windows of faith that I may behold Thee in the mansion of peace. Fling open the doors of silence that I may enter Thy temple of bliss.
Beloved God, protect the celestial temple of my mind against the entry of tenacious warriors of evil thoughts.
I know that I am responsible for my own welfare. Therefore I will discard all useless pursuits and idle thoughts, that daily I may find time for God.
My Heavenly Father, Thou art Love, and I am made in Thine image. I am the cosmic sphere of Love in which I behold all planets, all stars, all beings, all creation as glimmering lights. I am the Love that illumines the whole universe.
O Fountain of Love! make me feel that my heart is flooded by Thine omnipresent love.
I want Thee, O God, that I may give Thee to all!
Father of Hearts, awaken eternally the consciousness of Thy loving presence within me.
Divine Father, teach me to dive again and again into meditation, deeper and deeper, until I find Thine immortal pearls of wisdom and divine joy.
My earthly experiences serve as a process of destruction of my limiting mortal delusions. In God even the most "impossible" dreams are realized. ("I will give him the morning star." — Revelation 2:28.)
I am submerged in Thine eternal light; it permeates every particle of my being. I am living in that light. Divine Spirit, I behold only Thee, within and without.
I will close my physical eyes and dismiss the temptations of matter. I will peer through the darkness of silence until my eyes of relativity open into the one inner eye of light. When my two eyes that behold both good and evil become single, and behold in everything only the divine goodness of God, I shall see that my body, mind and soul have become filled with His omnipresent light.
Meditate on God's Light
Look at a light and close your eyes. Forget the darkness around you and watch the bright red color within your eyelids. Look intently into that violet-red color. Meditate on it and imagine that it is becoming bigger and bigger. Behold around you a dimly shining sea of violet light. You are a wave of light, a ripple of peace floating on the surface of the sea.
Now watch carefully. You, the little wave, are tossing on an ocean of light. Your tiny life is a part of the all-pervading life. As your meditation deepens, you, a little shallow wave of peace, are becoming the deep, wide ocean of peace.
Meditate on the thought, "I am a wave of peace." Feel the vastness just beneath your consciousness. The wave should feel the sustaining life of the vast ocean beneath it.
God's Protecting Presence
Teach me to feel that I am enveloped always in the aureole of Thine all-protecting omnipresence, in birth, in sorrow, in joy, in activity, in meditation, in ignorance, in trials, in death, and in final emancipation.
Teach me to open the gate of meditation that alone leads to Thy blessed presence.
Behind the wave of my consciousness is the sea of cosmic consciousness. Under the ripple of my mind is the supporting ocean of Thy vastness. I am protected by Thy Divine Mind.
Thy light of goodness and Thy protective power are ever shining through me. I saw them not, because my eyes of wisdom were closed. Now Thy touch of peace has opened my eyes; Thy goodness and unfailing protection are flowing through me.
I Will Extol Thee
O Heavenly Father, I will extol Thy glory, the beauties of Thy paradise within us. May I live in the garden of soul-happiness and noble thoughts and be filled with the aroma of Thy love evermore.
O Spirit, make my soul Thy temple, but make my heart Thy beloved home where Thou wouldst dwell with me in ease and everlasting understanding.
Wilt Thou not open Thy lips of silence and whisper constant guiding thoughts to my soul?
Beloved Lord, teach me to feel that Thou art the sole activating power, and that in recognition of Thee as the Doer lies the value of all my life's experiences. Teach me to behold Thee as the only Friend, helping and encouraging me through my earthly friends.
Heavenly Father, from today I will strive to know Thee; I will make the effort to cultivate Thy friendship. All my duties will be performed with the thought that I am realizing Thee through them, and thus am pleasing Thee.
Life is a struggle for joy all along the way. May I fight to win the battle on the very spot where I now am.
When fear or anger or any kind of suffering comes to me, I will view it as a spectator. I will separate myself from my experiences. At all costs I will endeavor to retain my peace and happiness. Beloved Father, I realize that praise does not make me any better, nor blame worse. I am what I am before my conscience and Thee. I shall travel on, doing good to all and seeking ever to please Thee, for thus shall I find my only true happiness.
Take This Darkness Away
Cosmic Mother, take this darkness away! When I sit with eyes dosed, enveloped in self-created shadows, cause Thou to blaze upon me in splendor the aurora of intuition.
Mother Divine, draw aside Thy glittering veil of cosmic motion pictures and show me Thy delusion-dispersing face of mercy.
O blazing Light! awaken my heart, awaken my soul, ignite my darkness, tear the veil of silence, and fill my temple with Thy glory.
Heavenly Father, destroy in us the wrong thought of ages — that we are frail human beings. Manifest Thyself as the light behind our reason: the deep blaze of wisdom.