MEDITATION ON THE SUN

The Notebooks of Paul Brunton 3.7.18 

To be used as a variation on the meditation on the rising or setting sun (given in the Wisdom of the Overself)

 First stage: Fix your gaze upon the rising sun or coloured sky. All other thoughts should be put away at first and his whole attention concentrated upon the physical phenomenon which you are witnessing.

The rays of light must enter your body through your eyes. In this way alone do they attain their utmost efficacy for the purpose of this exercise.

Second stage: partake of the profound inner pause wherein the entire solar system is briefly plunged, to experience within yourself what is actually occuring within the greater existence of which you are a part . . . to tranquillize all thoughts so that personal matters are wholly absent.

The Sun behind the sun, the mystical Light of the World-Mind illumes our mental world and at the same time penetrates it through and through, provided you are present and passive in consciousness to receive its power.

Third stage: This stage moves with the outspreading or waning light until you embrace the whole planet along with it. For this purpose you have to:

1. picture a great globe growing larger and larger within yourself as a formless consciousness mentally dissociated from the physical body, until it assumes GIGANTIC SIZE;
2. make the conception as alive as possible by permeating it with faith and conviction, holding the sense of countless creatures existing everywhere;
3. reverse the process, until it finally encloses your own body alone (globe gets smaller and smaller);
4. exercise the belief that you are mind not matter;
5. strengthen the perception of the true relationship between yourself and cosmic life, your physical and vital oneness with the universe . . . and try to realize that your own existence is inter-connected by a beginningless and endless web with all the other existences around you.
6. There must be deep devotion and heartfelt feeling in your thoughts.

 Goal: You reach the goal of this stage when the physical scene vanishes, when you are no longer conscious of it, when attention is turned inward wholly on the beautiful mood or spirit thus invoked, when all form is absent and you feel in complete rapport with the universal being, so complete that you know you are an integral part of it.

When you feel something of this relationship as a loving response, then you should cease trying to absorb support from the All--whose soul is the World-Mind--and begin to pass it out compassionately and share its grace unselfishly with others.

You see them in your imagination suffused with its warm light and sublime peace.

• First, you direct your effort with your love towards those who are near or dear to you and to any special individuals whom you would like to help in this way.
• Then, you direct your effort with your love towards mankind in the mass--whom you must regard as unconsciously forming one great family.
• Third, you direct it towards individuals who are hostile to you, who hate, injure, or criticize you. You must consider them as your teachers, for it is their business to pick out and make you aware of your faults. You need not send your love, but you must send them your pity.

 Close exercise with: Short, silent, personal prayer to the Overself.