"Prayer and meditation:"
SLOW DOWN
THINK AND BREATH
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MEDITATIVE EXERCISE FOR ALL
A simple, deep breathing exercise that can slowly expand your lung efficiency can be done every day while walking, sitting, or doing any task that does not require much concentration. Start by taking in a steady breath to the count of four.  Hold your breath to a count of two. Exhale the breath to a count of four. Then hold the breath to a count of two. Repeat this pattern forseveral minutes.  You will notice the periods of holding your breath is half as long as the periods for inhaling and exhaling. This is the important pattern for this breath exercise-the count of inhaling and exhaling is twice the count for holding the breath. If you can comfortably inhale and exhale to a count of six and hold to a count of three, it's OK to start with this pattern. But if at any time, you find yourself straining during the breathing exercise, just lower your counts.
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You might want to start out with a four, two, four, two count every day.  Then in a few days do the six, three, six, three count just one or two times at the end of your breathing exercise. Every few days do some more six, three, six, three counts until your whole breathing pattern for this exercise is a comfortable six, three, six, three pattern. A few days later you can start doing eight, four, eight, four breaths at the end of your exercise period, and so on.
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An experimenter put some fleas in a glass enclosure. Halfway up the enclosure walls the experimenter taped a piece of fitted glass forming a closed ceiling. At first, fleas would jump up and hit the glass ceiling. After a while they got smart.  They held back, limiting the height of their jumps to just below the glass ceiling.
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The glass ceiling was removed after all the fleas had stopped hitting it when they jumped. Amazingly, no flea jumped above the height when the glass ceiling was in place. They thought it was still there. The fleas had created a belief system about their ceiling. And they continued this belief, even after their ceiling had been removed.
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In our own lives, we hit glass ceilings of one kind and another. These can be financial, relationships, goal-oriented, emotional, religious, or any variety of ceilings. When we hit these ceilings we pull back a little, we limit ourselves to our comfort zone. We create for ourselves a belief system from our experiences. Or we might accept another person's or another group's belief system. When we accept a belief system, it becomes an active force in our lives. We find ourselves unable to go beyond the limits of the beliefs we've accepted.
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Each of us is a divine aspect of one SPIRIT by whatever name we refer to SPIRIT.  Our soul forces are the common and direct link each person has with SPIRIT and with each other. In meditations we close out what seem external forces.  We become aware of direct communication, direct guidance from  our soul forces. We must, however, believe this is possible for us to do. If we  do not believe this is possible, then our glass ceiling of belief will generally limit what we can experience in meditation. We always have free will. How we act upon the guidance and communication from our soul forces is an individual choice. There's no mandate from SPIRIT to do something that does not feel right to do.

"Prayer is the concerted effort of the physical consciousness to become attuned to the consciousness of the Creator, either collectively or individually.
MEDITATION is EMPTYING self of all that hinders the creative forces from rising along the natural channels of the physical man to be disseminated through those centers and sources that create the activities of the physical, the mental, the spiritual man; properly done must make one STRONGER mentally and physically."

For has it not been given? He went in the strength of that meat received for many days? Was it not given by Him who has shown us the Way, "I have had meat that ye know not of"? As we give out, so does the WHOLE of man - physically and mentally become depleted, yet in entering into the silence, entering into the silence in meditation, with a clean hand, a clean body, a clean mind, we may receive that strength and power that fits each individual, each soul, for a greater activity in this material world.

"Be not afraid, it is I." Be sure it is Him we worship that we raise in our inner selves for the dissemination; for, as He gave, "Ye must eat of my BODY; ye must drink of MY
blood." Raising then in the inner self that image of the Christ, love of the
God-Consciousness, is MAKING the body so cleansed as
to be barred against all
powers that would in any manner hinder.

"Be thou CLEAN, in Him."

Insteresting lesson, is it not?
MEDITATIVE EXERCISE FOR ALL
A simple, deep breathing exercise that can slowly expand your lung efficiency can be done every day while walking, sitting, or doing any task that does not require much concentration. Start by taking in a steady breath to the count of four. Hold your breath to a count of two. Exhale the breath to a count of four. Then hold the breath to a count of two. Repeat this pattern for several minutes. You will notice the periods of holding your breath is half as long as the periods for inhaling and exhaling. This is the important pattern for this breath exercise-the count of inhaling and exhaling is twice the count for holding the breath. If you can comfortably inhale and exhale to a count of six and hold to a count of three, it's OK to start with this pattern. But if at any time, you find yourself straining during the breathing exercise, just lower your counts. You might want to start out with a four, two, four, two countevery day. Then in a few days do the six, three, six, three count just one or two times at the end of your breathing exercise. Every few days do some more six, three, six, three counts until your whole breathing pattern for this exercise is a comfortable
six, three, six, three pattern. A few days later you can start doing eight, four, eight, four breaths at the end of your exercise period, and so on.  An experimenter put some fleas in a glass enclosure. Halfway up the enclosure walls the experimenter taped a piece of fitted glass forming a closed ceiling. At first, fleas would jump up and hit the glass ceiling. After a while they got smart.
They held back, limiting the height of their jumps to just below the glass ceiling.  The glass ceiling was removed after all the fleas had stopped hitting it when they jumped. Amazingly, no flea jumped above the height when the glass ceiling was in place. They thought it was still there. The fleas had created a belief system about their ceiling. And they continued this belief, even after their ceiling had been removed.
In our own lives, we hit glass ceilings of one kind and another. These can be financial, relationships, goal-oriented, emotional, religious, or any variety of ceilings. When we hit these ceilings we pull back a little, we limit ourselves to our comfort zone. We create for ourselves a belief system from our experiences. Or we might accept another person's or another group's belief system. When we accept a belief system, it becomes an active force in our lives.  We find ourselves unable to go beyond the limits of the beliefs we've accepted. Each of us is a divine aspect of one SPIRIT by whatever name we refer to SPIRIT. Our soul forces are the common and direct link each person has with SPIRIT and with each other. In meditations we close out what seem external
forces. We become aware of direct communication, direct guidance from our soul forces. We must, however, believe this is possible for us to do.  If we do not believe this is possible, then our glass ceiling of belief will generally limit what we can experience in meditation.
We always have free will. How we act upon the guidance and communication from our soul forces is an individual choice. There is no mandate from SPIRIT to do something that does not feel right for us to do.
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"First, in considering such, it would be well to analyze that difference (that is not always understood) between meditation and prayer.
Prayer is the MAKING of one's conscious self more in attune with the spiritual forces that may manifest in a material world, and is ORDINARILY given as a COOPERATIVE experience of MANY individuals when all are asked to come in one accord and one mind;
"Be not as the Pharisees, who love to be seen of men, who make long dissertation or prayer to be heard of men. They IMMEDIATELY have their reward in the physical-mental mind.
"Be rather as he that entered the temple and not so much as lifting his eyes, smote his breast and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"
"Which man was justified, this man or he that stood to be seen ofmen and thanked God he was not as other men, that he paid his tithes, that he did the services required in the temple, that he stood in awe of no one, he was not even
as this heathen who in an uncouth manner, not with washed hands, not with
shaven face attempted to reach the throne of grace  "Here we have drawn for us a comparison in prayer: That which maybe the pouring out of the personality of the individual, or a group who enter in for the purpose of either outward show to be seen of men; or that enter in even as in the closet of one's inner self and pours out self that the inner
man may be filled with the Spirit of the Father in His merciful kindness to men.
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Through that man has chosen to call the imaginative or theimpulsive, and the sources of impulse are aroused by the shutting out of thought pertaining to activities or attributes of the carnal forces of man. That is true whether we are
considering it from the group standpoint or the individual. Then, changes naturally take place when there is the arousing of that stimuli WITHIN the individual that has within it the seat of the soul's dwelling,
within the individual body of the entity or man, and then this partakes of the individuality rather than the personality.
"If there has been set the mark (mark meaning here the image thatis raised by the individual in its imaginative and impulse force) such that ittakes the form of the ideal the individual is holding as its standard to be raised to, within the
individual as well as to all forces and powers that are magnified or to be magnified in the world from without, THEN the individual (or the image) bears the mark of the Lamb, or the Christ, or the Holy One, or the Son, or any of the
names we may have given to that which ENABLES the individual to enter THROUGH IT into the very presence of that which is the creative force from within itself - see?
"Some have so overshadowed themselves by abuses of the mental attributes of the body as to make scars, rather than the mark, so that only an imperfect image may be raised within themselves that may rise no higherthan the arousing of the carnal desires within the individual body. We are speaking individually, of course; we haven't raised it to where it may be disseminated, for remember it rises from the glands known in the body as the lyden, or to the lyden [Leydig] and through the reproductive forces themselves, which are the very essence of Life itself within an individual - see? for these functionings never reach that position or place that they do not continue to secrete that which makes for virility to an individual physical body. Now we are speaking of conditions from without and from within!
"The spirit and the soul is within its encasement, or its temple within the body of the individual - see? With the arousing then of this image, it rises along that which is known as the Appian Way, or the pineal center, to the base of the BRAIN, that it may be disseminated to those centers that give activity to the whole of the mental and physical being. It rises then to the hidden eye in the center of the brain system, or is felt in the forefront of thehead, or in the place just above the real face - or bridge of nose, see?
"Do not be confused by the terms that we are necessarily using to give the exact location of the activities of these conditions within the individuals, that we may make this clarified for individuals."When an individual then enters into deep meditation: "It has been found throughout the ages (INDIVIDUALS have found) that self-preparation (to THEM) is necessary. To some it is necessary that the body be cleansed with pure water, that certain types of breathing are taken, that there may be an even balance in the whole of the respiratory system, that the circulation becomes normal in its flow through the body, that certain or definite odors produce those conditions (or are conducive to producing of conditions) that allay or stimulate the activity of portions of the system, that the more
carnal or more material sources are laid aside, or the whole of the body is PURIFIED so that the purity of thought as it rises has less to work against in its dissemination of that it brings to the whole of the system, inits rising through
the whole of these centers, stations or places along the body. To be sure, these are conducive; as are also certain incantations, as a drone of certain sounds, as the tolling of certain tones, bells, cymbals, drums, or various kinds of skins.  Though we may as higher thought individuals find some fault with those called savages, they produce or arouse or bring within themselves - just as we have known, do know, that there may be raised through the battle-cry, there may be raised through the using of certain words or things, the passion or the thirst for destructive forces. Just the same may there be raised, not sedative to these buta CLEANSING of the body.
"Consecrate yourselves this day that ye may on the morrow presentyourselves before the Lord that He may speak through YOU!" is not amiss. So, to ALL there may be given:"FIND that which is to YOURSELF the more certain way
to your consciousness of PURIFYING body and mind, before ye attempt to enter into the meditation as to raise the image of that through which ye are seeking to know the will or the activity of the Creative Forces; for ye are RAISING in meditation actual CREATION taking place within the inner self! "When one has found that which to self cleanses the body, whether from the keeping away from certain foods or from certain associations (either man or
woman), or from those thoughts and activities that would hinder that which is to be raised from FINDING its full measure of expression in the INNER man (INNER man, or inner individual, man or woman, meaning in this sense those radial senses from which, or centers from which all the physical organs, the mental organs, receive their stimuli for activity), we readily see how, then, IN meditation (when one has so purified self) that HEALING OF EVERY kind and nature may be disseminated on the wings of thought, that are so much a thing - and so little considered by the tongue that speaks without taking into consideration what may be the end thereof!
"Now, when one has cleansed self, in whatever manner it may be, there may be no fear that it will become so overpowering that it will cause any physical or mental disorder. It is WITHOUT the cleansing that entering any such finds ANY type or form of disaster, or of pain, or of any dis-ease of any nature. It is when the thoughts, then, or when the cleansings of GROUP meditations are conflicting that such meditations call on the higher forces raised within self for manifestations and bring those conditions that either draw one closer to another or make for that which shadows [shatters?] much in the experiences of others; hence short group meditations with a CENTRAL thought around some
individual idea, or either in words, incantations, or by following the speech of one sincere in abilities, efforts or desires to raise a cooperative activity IN the minds, would be the better.
"Then, as one formula - not the only one, to be sure - for an individual that would enter into meditation for self, for others: "Cleanse the body with pure water. Sit or lie in an easy position, without binding garments about the body. Breathe in through the right nostril three times, and exhale through the mouth. Breathe in three times through the left nostril and exhale through the right. Then, either with the aid of a low music, or the incantation of that which carries self deeper - deeper - to the seeing, feeling, experiencing of that image in the creative forces of love, enter into the Holy of Holies. As self feels or experiences the raising of this, see it disseminated through
the INNER eye (not the carnal eye) to that which will bring the greater understanding in meeting every condition in the experience of the body. Then listen to the music that is made as each center of thine own body responds to that new creative force that little by little this entering in will enable self to renew all that is necessary - in Him.
"First, CLEANSE the room; cleanse the body; cleanse the surroundings, in thought, in act!
Approach not the inner man, or the inner self,with a grudge or an unkind thought held against ANY man!
or do so to thine own undoing sooner or later!"