The boy looked at the book with wonder and awe. It was a book of 85 pages. Its cover was made from leather.
He began to read:
Introduction
"Let those who walk in these realms know that there are only those
Signs which are needed, signs you see which come forth from within."
(Pseudo-Dionysius, Seance, 15th September 2111(6)
Cosmic meditation is fundamentally a practice that involves the universe from the viewpoint of the spiritist philosophy. It can be said, for the spiritists, that it involves the universe as a community or continuum of spiritual beings. Yet for philosophers, a cosmic meditation based on a philosophy of pure or raw experience would be thought to involve centers of experience, or entities, participating in a process of meditation as built up out of the most basic elements of experience. In an interesting way, cosmic meditation and the ways it is done by both the spiritists and the pure experientialists would seem to overlap, they would seem to share many areas and spaces of thought in common. Perhaps this is true of many - or even all - of the schools of meditation, they overlap at various points or meeting spaces, revealing a zig-zag line of connectedness, or a community of meditators and a continuum of minds.
Beyond what we have just said as to the nature or function of cosmic-style meditation, it might be asked if it is really just another metaphysics, somehow trying to gain an audience or a public of spirituality-seekers? However, if we detach ourselves from such cultural propaganda and examine the simplicity of the process, we can surely see that this way of doing meditation does not conflict with certain areas of contemporary value. Nor does it attempt to exclude any type of practical effort at maintaining a 'practical' lifestyle; rather, it seems to bring its own space. For cosmic meditation is simply a process for exploring our experiences inwardly, whereby we grow into a deeper relationship with the universe as we see it - an exploratory voyage of self-discovery, which extends the horizon of human awareness in all directions. It appears as an approach to self-awareness and grows into an understanding of what the self and what awareness truly are.
In brief, it is self-understanding, or understanding that takes us very far and connects us to all that we meet along the way. While it is true that this pathway of 'cosmic meditation' may appear to be like some schools of metaphysics; it does not rise to the surface of the mind as a particular teaching or dogma, or as any special type of doctrine. It quite simply appears as a givenness or way of thinking. We know that metaphysics has been questioned from all directions of thought and has suffered a loss of credibility, whereby it has fallen from a position of honor to one of uncertainty and lack of trust, This is simply because metaphysics was seen as an exclusively human enterprise, rather than as a venture which involved both human efforts and the cooperation of the spirit. So cosmic meditation is a process, a practice, or method, which grows within human experience and involves the universe of the spirit as we might in any deep personal relationship. Once we are working with spiritual components or energies in our process of identifying with the universe, we then realize why the definition of meditation as 'the action of the mind upon the universe of the spirit' is the most apt description of what is happening in this process of self-realization.
In these chapters we move from a general spiritism to the explanations of some phases of Haitian esotericism, finally ascending to the astral plateaux of Thibet – because ultimate reality for cosmic meditation may be found in the lifestream of the esoteric Lamaism of Bon, the vudu-mysticism, or essential shamanism, of the Himalayas. This movement of consciousness is a technique that operates as both a methodology of interactions and as a mythology of interactive explorations - and at many levels of imagery, speculation and intuition of the ultimate roots of esotericism. As you open your inner eyes you will see that this lifestream is an extensive journey in the suggestiveness of the mystical and symbolic realms of many cultures and values. We experience this richesse of the occult imagination; yet, we have not been convinced that there is any final form of truth, which would thereby close the doors to our quest. Rather our outlook is never to be finalized, never exactly defined or revealed in any of the existing systems. By contrast, we see each outlook, each defined word, each revelation, each experience, as continuing steps in the mystical pathway - leading on to that consciousness which is open and intuited in all mystical interpretations.
Michael Bertiaux
Chicago, September…, 2006
He didn't understand so much, but felt it is something good, something deep, that he explored and longed so much. And he promised himself to read to a to z.