



Produced by Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders




THE WAY OF PEACE


BY JAMES ALLEN


AUTHOR OF "AS A MAN THINKETH," "OUT FROM THE HEART"




CONTENTS


THE POWER OF MEDITATION

THE TWO MASTERS, SELF AND TRUTH

THE ACQUIREMENT OF SPIRITUAL POWER

THE REALIZATION OF SELFLESS LOVE

ENTERING INTO THE INFINITE

SAINTS, SAGES, AND SAVIORS; THE LAW OF SERVICE

THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE




THE POWER OF MEDITATION


Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the mystic ladder
which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from pain to
peace. Every saint has climbed it; every sinner must sooner or later come
to it, and every weary pilgrim that turns his back upon self and the world,
and sets his face resolutely toward the Father's Home, must plant his feet
upon its golden rounds. Without its aid you cannot grow into the divine
state, the divine likeness, the divine peace, and the fadeless glories and
unpolluting joys of Truth will remain hidden from you.

Meditation is the intense dwelling, in thought, upon an idea or theme, with
the object of thoroughly comprehending it, and whatsoever you constantly
meditate upon you will not only come to understand, but will grow more and
more into its likeness, for it will become incorporated into your very
being, will become, in fact, your very self. If, therefore, you constantly
dwell upon that which is selfish and debasing, you will ultimately become
selfish and debased; if you ceaselessly think upon that which is pure and
unselfish you will surely become pure and unselfish.

Tell me what that is upon which you most frequently and intensely think,
that to which, in your silent hours, your soul most naturally turns, and I
will tell you to what place of pain or peace you are traveling, and whether
you are growing into the likeness of the divine or the bestial.

There is an unavoidable tendency to become literally the embodiment of that
quality upon which one most constantly thinks. Let, therefore, the object
of your meditation be above and not below, so that every time you revert to
it in thought you will be lifted up; let it be pure and unmixed with any
selfish element; so shall your heart become purified and drawn nearer to
Truth, and not defiled and dragged more hopelessly into error.

Meditation, in the spiritual sense in which I am now using it, is the
secret of all growth in spiritual life and knowledge. Every prophet, sage,
and savior became such by the power of meditation. Buddha meditated upon
the Truth until he could say, "I am the Truth." Jesus brooded upon the
Divine immanence until at last he could declare, "I and my Father are One."

Meditation centered upon divine realities is the very essence and soul of
prayer. It is the silent reaching of the soul toward the Eternal. Mere
petitionary prayer without meditation is a body without a soul, and is
powerless to lift the mind and heart above sin and affliction. If you are
daily praying for wisdom, for peace, for loftier purity and a fuller
realization of Truth, and that for which you pray is still far from you, it
means that you are praying for one thing while living out in thought and
act another. If you will cease from such waywardness, taking your mind off
those things the selfish clinging to which debars you from the possession
of the stainless realities for which you pray: if you will no longer ask
God to grant you that which you do not deserve, or to bestow upon you that
love and compassion which you refuse to bestow upon others, but will
commence to think and act in the spirit of Truth, you will day by day be
growing into those realities, so that ultimately you will become one with
them.

He who would secure any worldly advantage must be willing to work
vigorously for it, and he would be foolish indeed who, waiting with folded
hands, expected it to come to him for the mere asking