Meditation may be thought of or defined as the practice of mental exercises and disciplines to enable the aspirant to achieve control over the mind; specifically; to stop the vibrations of the mind due to unwanted thoughts; imaginations; etc. But why is this necessary? Why should one need to control the thoughts and vibrations of the mind? Ordinarily; people profess to believe in something greater than their physical existence but what is this something? If a person on the street is asked; "Who are You?"; most likely he or she will point to their body and say "this is me." But is this all there is to life? Many people profess to believe in a soul but do they really understand what it is? If they did why would they mourn at funerals or fear their own death? A human being is not just a physical body with a mind and five senses. In reality there is a deeper existence; a vast ocean of reality of which most people are not aware. This is the realm of the Higher Self which all the teachings of yoga and the various practices of meditation are directed toward discovering. This "hidden" aspect of ourselves which is beyond the thoughts is known as Neter Neteru; Amun; Asar or Amenta in the Ancient Egyptian mystical philosophy system of spirituality; as Brahman; in Indian Vedanta philosophy ; as God in Christianity and as The Self. Due to mental distraction and erroneous thoughts and lifestyles; people are unable to discover their true higher nature; and thus they experience a limited existence as ordinary human beings until the time of their death. The Higher Self in a human being is like air. Air is free; moving in an unobstructed manner it circles the earth. However; if a certain volume of air were caught in an airtight bottle; the air would seem to be caught; trapped in the bottle existence. In the same manner; the human soul is part of the cosmos and it is all pervasive. However; as it associates with an individual existence and becomes involved with the desires; thoughts; fears and ignorance of human existence; it loses sight of its all-pervasive and transcendental nature. Thus; the body; mind; senses; thoughts; emotions and ignorance which together constitute the personality of a human being; are in reality like a bottle which closes off the vision of the truth. The soul; which is innately free and boundless; is as if caught by the reality of the individual personality; and the pressure of desires; longings and imaginations from this limited reality as if mesmerizes the Higher Self. This limited existence is known as the ego-consciousness. So from being Universal; the soul begins to believe itself to be individual. However; in reality the soul never stopped being Universal. The personality of a human being is like a transient veil like a magical illusion. At night the stars appear to be minuscule but if you were to get closer you would see that they are massive heavenly bodies. In the same way if you were to get closer to your real Self you would see that it is expansive and limitless. In most people their ego-personality is so prominent that they cannot see beyond its reality. Through the process of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation; a human being has the possibility of breaking through the confinement of individuality in order to discover universality and limitless expansion. So in reality every human being is not limited and finite. There is a greater reality which can and must be discovered.
#967833 in Books J.S. Sanders Books 1993-05-20 1993-05-20Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.22 x 1.50 x 6.48l; 1.19 #File Name: 1879941198478 pages
Review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. events launching this new Union into the great struggle for its lifeBy Larry Lee PetersonA classic version of one of the most important; and misunderstood; events launching this new Union into the great struggle for its life. We may never know Brown's complete story but this is as close as we can get at this moment in history.2 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Exposes the Myth that began the Destruction of the RepublicBy O. A. GlazebrookJohn Brown was a fraud; murderer; thief and a failure who had no other interest in the Abolitionist movement than what he could get from the wealthy Boston Brahmins and people like Gerrit Smith.Penn's book is one of the few that actually tells the truth as to who Brown really was. It is far more readable than the first to expose Brown. This was a book by H. P. Wilson; who started out viewing Brown as a hero until he started digging.......Read Wilson's version free here:To prove the accuracy of Warren:H. P. Wilson - John Brown Soldier of Fortune - free from Google books - download it as a PDF: [...]To verify Wilson Warren versions; read The Mason report:[...]RE: Pottawatomie massacre - The confession of James Townsley:[...](Warren's Book on the Civil War is short but balanced and accurate IMHO:This is short just over 100 pages. [...] )This book should be a must read. Other proof that Brown's story of Pottawatomie was complete B.S. can be found in S.B. Oats' version in the maps on pages: 108 9.John Brown started the Civil War with his invasion of Virginia by John Brown's Provisional Government (complete with a constitutional convention) - Harper's Ferry was to be a grand repeat of Pottawatomie.Brown should have had a lot of company on the scaffold on Dec. 2; 1859 among them H.D. Thoreau; R.W. Emerson; Frederic Douglass; the "Secret Six"; J.W. Howe (possibly) and almost all of Brown's original biographers. The myth of John Brown was propagated to save their necks - literally. Almost all were Harvard Alumni. the waas another person in the audience for Brown's hanging that nicely bookends the War........ guess who he/she was?Understanding John Brown is the "Rosetta Stone" for getting at truth of the Civil War and why it was really a Jacobin Revolution.8 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Part of the ProblemBy Louis A. Decaro Jr.While one may appreciate the literary contributions of Robert Penn Warren overall; surely this early work is an unfortunate part of the problem that the 20th century view of Brown has been so warped and skewed. Warren not only sustained the regional biases of his background; but he did no original research and largely appropriated the problematic but unquestioned "facts" of biographer Oswald G. Villard; whose "definitive" 1910 work questionably presents Brown as a kind of principled murderer. Warren found that an easy thesis to turn his way. The bottom line is that this book offers no original research; only an interpretation that says more about the author and his times and prejudices than about the subject. The quality of the writing can be otherwise judged by literary scholars; but as a biographer of Brown; this is not a book I ever have reason to reach for. It's only important to RPW's career and is recommended for those wishing to study the author's life and times. However it is largely irrelevant to any serious biographical study of Brown and no one interested in learning about the abolitionist should start or finish with this book.
