Christian Meditation

By Alexander Soltys Jones

Christian Meditation helps the reader to follow Jesus' counsel to find the kingdom of God within.It offers methods of meditation that the Desert Fathers, Pope Gregory, Saint Francis, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross and others used to attain holy rest in God.The book shows how to meditate on the single eye Jesus spoke of and the highway of holiness mentioned by Isaiah, which represent spiritual faculties in the brain and spine.Christian Meditation shows how to awaken these centers of energy and consciousness so you can experience the inner kingdom of peace, divine love and light, wisdom, and joy within.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Soltys Jones
• Release date: Mar 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781630200084

Alexander Soltys Jones

Here is a Glimpse of my search for life's ultimate purpose.Author, musician, spiritual director and meditation instructor, Alexander Soltys Jones is most well known for his best-selling book Seven Mansions of Color. Published in 1976, it has sold over 24,000 copies and has become a classic in Color Therapy.Perfectly timed for 2021, his newest books are The Diamond Way and Spiritualized Meditation.His other titles include: Journey of the Heart, Spiritualize the Workplace, How Much Did You Love, Awaken the Christ Within You, Christian Meditation, and Conversations with Christ.Alexander was the first to write and produce New Age relaxation music in Canada and has sold over 100,000 recordings. His music titles include Kali’s Dream, Awake & Dreaming and Pranava. His guided meditations include Angels of Color & Sound and Peace Beyond Stress. All have become soothing and enlightening aids to meditation, yoga and stress management classes as well as popular relaxation induction aids for listeners at home.A long-time Stress Management Instructor, Alexander worked at the Dorothy Madgett Stress Management Clinic in downtown Toronto where he taught relaxation classes and a 15 week lecture series to groups and individuals. Many of his clients at the clinic were from the business community. As he worked with these clients they disclosed to him and themselves their own misgivings and vulnerabilities. Alexander saw the tremendous stress and anxiety individuals were facing in the workplace: “It was obvious to me that a deep sense of spirituality was needed in the workplace and hence the creation of Spiritualize the Workplace.”Alexander offers meditation classes based on his book Spiritualized Meditation, and offers lectures and workshops on color, stress management and opening the heart.Alexander, a certified Spiritual Director, graduated from the University of British Columbia’s Pacific Jubilee Program at the Vancouver School of Theology. He is also a graduate of Tyndale University with the degree bachelor of Religious Education.He has practiced meditation and yoga since his twenties and, in young adulthood, spent a nine-month period of seclusion in the Rocky Mountains. At 24, he became a monastic in Paramahansa Yogananda’s Spiritual Organization (Self-Realization Fellowship), dedicating his life in the search for God. He continues to faithfully practice Paramahansa Yogananda’s life transforming meditation techniques to this day.“I have been fortunate to have touched the lives of thousands through my books, music and workshops. Many have said my gentle approach makes it easy for them to feel safe and open to their highest potential...My mission is to help others rediscover their diamond essence and from that inner center meet all life’s difficulties with courage, love, peace and joy.”Check out alexmeditation.com to learn more.

Book preview

Christian Meditation

Finding the Kingdom of God

Alexander Soltys Jones

Christian Meditation

Copyright © 2014 Alexander Soltys Jones

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Address inquires to the author:

Alexander Soltys Jones

PO Box 188

Millbrook, Ontario L0A 1G0

Canada

www.alexmeditation.com

Published by:

Cygnet Publications

Cygnet Media Group Inc.

www.cygnetmediagroup.com

ISBN: 978-1-63020-008-4

Dedication

To all Christians who desire to meditate

according to the Christian tradition.

Meditation Practices

Meditation Practice on Entering Within

Meditation Practice on Lectio Divina and Resting in God

Meditation Practice on Relaxing the Mind

Meditation Practice of Repeating a Phrase

Meditation Practice of Using a Phrase With the Breath

Meditation Practice of Visualization

Meditation Practice on the Chakras

Meditation Practice on the Sounds of the Chakras

Meditation Practice on the Colors of the Chakras

Meditation Practice on the Qualities of the Chakras

Meditation Practice - Complete Stillness

Meditation Practice on the Love of God

Content

Dedication

Meditation Practices

Content

Acknowledgements

Prayer and Meditation (Entering Within)

Resting in God

Did Jesus Pray and Meditate and Rest in God

Jesus Asks the Pharisees to Meditate and go Within Themselves

The Kingdom of Love and Peace is Within You

The Pharisees Prevented Others from Meditating and Going Within

The Disciples of Jesus Entered Within Themselves

Meditation Practiced in the Old Testament

Early Christians Entered Within (Meditated) and So Can We

The Essence of our Soul

How to Enter Within and Experience our Soul and God

Guidelines for Meditation Practice

Desert Fathers Meditation Practice - The Jesus Prayer - to Attain Holy Rest in God

Lectio Divina and Resting in God

Holy Rest in God

Relaxing the Mind to Rest in God

The Favorite Phrase of Saint Francis: My God and My All

Centering Prayer

Watching the Breath to Attain Holy Rest in God.

Visualization to Attain Holy Rest in God

The Seven Churches, Stars, Seals and Angels

The Seven Chakras Described in the Old Testament

The Seven Chakras as Stages of Spiritual Growth

The Seven Mansions of Saint Teresa of Avila

The Seven Steps of Love of Saint John of the Cross

The Seven Centers Represented as Light and Fire

The Seven Chakras - Locations and Qualities

Holy Rest in God - Complete Stillness

What Needs to be Stilled

Where the Complete Stillnesscan be Found

The Love of God

Acknowledgements

George Johnston, it is with deepest gratitude and appreciation that I thank you for editing this book. I am also profoundly grateful for the priceless content and suggestions you offered for helping Christians enter the silence and stillness of deep meditation according to the Christian tradition.

Maureen McDonald, thank you for reviewing the manuscript and for your valuable suggestions.

Prayer and Meditation

(Entering Within)

A popular definition of prayer and meditation is Prayer is talking to God, and meditation is listening to God. I would like to expand this definition to include that prayer is entering within oneself and approaching God, and meditation is entering within oneself and creating the necessary stillness in body and mind to know and rest in God. Be still and know that I am God (Psalms 46:10). Both prayer and meditation are necessary in the deeper aspects of the spiritual life.

Saint Teresa of Avila has been an incredible mentor for me and has taught me much regarding meditation. She is known as the saint of ecstasy. In the beginning of her thesis on the stages of the mystical experience in The Interior Castle, she tells us that the way for the soul to enter within itself is by prayer and meditation. She insists that prayer must be accompanied by meditation. She encouraged the nuns under her charge to meditate and go within and said to them: If you want to find God, my sisters, you have got to seek Him inside. He is within you. Saint Teresa is echoing the words of Jesus, The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

Resting in God

The ultimate goal of the interior spiritual life is resting in God and this can only be accomplished if prayer is accompanied by meditation. Thomas Merton describes this fruit of contemplation in his book Contemplative Prayer . He says monastic prayer, especially meditation and contemplative prayer, is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in Him whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us to draw us to Himself.

When we perfect our personal relationship and communion with God the fruit of resting in God leads to overcoming all suffering in body and mind and attaining eternal joy. As Isaiah (35:10) tells us, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Did Jesus Pray and Meditate

and Rest in God

Jesus spent time alone to pray and meditate. From Mark 35:1 we read, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, and left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Jesus not only prayed but also rested in the Spirit. Jesus sometimes spent the whole evening in prayer and meditation. From Matthew we read, And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, he was there alone (Matthew 14:23). Luke 6:12 tells us that Jesus would pray all night; In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.

The Bible also tells us that Jesus prayed and meditated in the garden of Gethsemane, the wilderness and on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus Asks the Pharisees to Meditate

and go Within Themselves

Jesus invited the Pharisees to meditate. When the Pharisees demanded that Jesus tell them when the kingdom of God should come he answered them and said; Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

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