“Meditation: First and Last Step—From Understanding to Practice” by Ivan Antic
"In this book, you will find everything you need for the practice of meditation, the way the oldest and greatest authorities, Buddha and Patanjali, presented. They left a legacy for humankind that we can all benefit from. We also cover the purpose of meditation: why man needs it, why it is so appealing to spiritually mature people, and its relationship with the soul.
Unlike other practices of meditation that deal with the mind only (mantra), or with the body only (yoga), or with emotions only (bhakti) — often leading to discrepancies that have to be adjusted through rituals and beliefs — the practice of meditation presented here encompasses all of these dimensions of man in one harmonious unit. You will discover that a human being is composed of all the dimensions of nature; a human being is a microcosm, and therefore meditation is complete only when man becomes aware of all these dimensions, not just his body and mind. This meditation is inherently complete and does not require any support in the form of ideological and religious preconceptions.
The purpose of meditation relates to the meaning of man's existence and consciousness of his soul; what we were before birth in this body and what we will be after death. Meditation is the connection with consciousness of the soul, the divine consciousness within us and that enables everything, including all of nature. In order to understand this connection between the mind and the divine consciousness of our soul, we discuss here how the spiritual sense of meditation is connected with the latest scientific discoveries regarding the essence of nature.
You will see all of the evidence pointing to the fact that consciousness is not in the body; our body only uses the divine consciousness, which is the essence of nature itself. Our brain does not produce consciousness, it merely slows down the velocity of the current divine consciousness that enables everything, so it is slow enough to become our reality, taking on the appearance of matter divided in space and time.
You will discover that with the help of meditation, you will become aware of the higher dimensions through out-of-body experiences and in your dreams, and the way in which these experiences relate to empathy, bringing you emotional maturity that bonds you with unity and the divine consciousness, here in reality.
In short, this book makes the connection of the earliest spiritual knowledge with that of the latest scientific evidence; the accompanying manual on how to apply this wisdom to yourself and your everyday life will enable a sense of purpose, through the realization of your sense of existence."
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