The Secret Life: A Christian Contemplative's Life of Meditation

This is the book I wish I had thirty-five years ago, when I was first learning how to meditate and contemplate, in order to live a God-directed life. This book instructs one in how to live a life of Christian contemplative meditation. One is taught principles of consciousness and awareness, mind, and body, as they pertain to the teaching of Jesus.One learns to practice the presence of God in the manner of Brother Lawrence and meditate such that one experiences the Silence and Holy Spirit. Through these practices, it is possible for one's life to improve through spiritual healing of mind and body. By focusing on imbuing the mind with truth, this book teaches forms of meditation enabling the experience of God and healing. Christian scriptures, seed questions, and "active listening" are used in meditation to transcend the human mind and receive inner teaching from God. This is a practical Christian contemplative way of life based on spiritual principles taught by Jesus Christ. This approach to contemplative meditation, practicing the presence of God, and study of scripture, involves living a normal life with family and friends, while earning a living while performing a normal occupation.Your God-given faculties are your mind and body. These spiritual gifts are not the limited human mind, nor the body of flesh, neither of which is spiritual. Your God-given gifts are your spiritual body and spiritual mind. Neither of these is perceived with the human mind. They must be spiritually perceived and this is done when your mind is transformed, lifted from the human state to its original state, the spiritual state-your faculty for knowing spiritual things.The mind, when filled with spiritual truth, can be lifted to the unconditioned state. This unconditioned, non-judging state of mind is often called "that mind which was in Christ Jesus." (Phil 2:5) This state of mind is available to us. It is through our spiritual mind spiritual experiences and understanding come. Once we learn to access our spiritual mind, it becomes possible to experience God and live a God-directed life. For Jesus, this was "the way, the truth, and the life." (Jhn 14:6)The book explains forms of meditation involving scripture, seed questions, mantras, and "active" listening. The book discusses meditating to perform spiritual healing, explains the illusion of material sense, and how to deal with the negatives of life called error..Key topics include: early experiences with the Christian faith and church, a metaphysical healer, and a guru; being born again; the Christ within; the human mind versus the spiritual mind; metaphysics of God and consciousness; mind and meditation; true individual identity; hypnosis and spiritual healing; the healing method of Jesus; Christian scripture of the Bible and Gospel of Thomas supporting the healing approach of Jesus; spiritual faith; the kundalini and chakras (spiritual centers) as a way of spiritual enlightenment and spiritual growth, and praying for the world or world work.A form of Bible scripture meditation is explained in which one focuses on the space in mind before a scripture emerges from consciousness. This space is akin to the gap taught by Maharishi Yogi and his students Peter Russell, Deepak Chopra, and Frank j. Kinslow. Spiritual principles discussed in this book are similar to those in books by Dwayne Dyer, Dan Millman, J Paramanhansa Yogananda, Joel Goldsmith, Emmett Fox, J. Krishnamurti, and Muktanada.