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"As we give direct attention to the surrounding Light of God we step into a higher state of being." -Flower A. Newhouse, The Quest

Meditation and Prayer

Silence, Prayer, Meditation and Contemplation

Mountain Temple, Jonathan Wiltshire
Mountain Temple Meditation and Prayer are the disciplines that most directly draw us Godward, into the inner worlds.

Daily meditation, which is as necessary to the Soul as is nourishment to the body, is a safe and proven means for lifting the level of one's consciousness. It provides brief footholds on higher elevations of perception as well as new levels of living from their range. We consciously purify ourselves of worldly or personal preoccupations and center ourselves wholly upon consciousness of God.

The power of prayer aligns man to God's infinite love and help. There are prayers of adoration, of thanksgiving, of appeal, and of renewal. These expressions to God are lifeless unless we imbue them with the color and vitality of genuine feeling. Prayers should be offered directly to God, the Absolute Spirit.

The important steps of meditation are simple:

Still the mind. The use of a keynote such as "peace" quiets and directs the consciousness.
Practice alignment. Man is a sevenfold being. Each day it is well to relate and attune all aspects of consciousness with the inner Divine Self.
Remember the seven expressions of God by reverently intoning the names of His Host: "God in the Divine Mother and Father Creative Spirit; God in the Perfected Son, our Lord Emmanuel, the Christ; God in the Holy Comforter, Spirit of Truth and Wisdom; God in the Divine Spirit of Grace and Mercy; God, present in the Cloud of Silent Witnesses before the Deity; God Inbeing within man; God, the Supreme Good in everything."
Choose a meditative plan for the day or week. Use specific forms which will encourage a balanced inner unfoldment.
It is necessary to practice previsionment before one begins work on the chosen type of meditation. Envision the endeavor of meditation as flowing smoothly, without interference or mind wandering.

Excerpts on Meditation

Flower A. Newhouse on Meditation Techniques, 1977

Flower A. Newhouse on Expanding Consciousness, 1977

"Our lives remain unproductive and unenlightened until we practice meditation. It is a certain and safe procedure whereby we create and enjoy the good we seek."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"There is one path which is unfailing, which cannot help but mold the man, transform him, change him according to the model of God Who dwells within him, and that unfailing path is meditation. It does not matter what world religion has taught us and has given us inspiration, every world faith of any value whatsoever always upholds this wonderful root into the full awakenment and the full development of spiritual supreme powers. And this is the path of spiritual meditation."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Meditation: The Gateway to Life's Highest Goal", 021-2

"Meditation to me is the most important thing we do."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Contemplation: The Art of Spiritual Envisionment", 549-2

"Meditation is a safe and proven means for lifting the level of one's consciousness. It provides brief footholds on higher elevations of perception as well as new levels of living from their range."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Journey Upward"

"The art of meditation not only grants with time and practice a government of the mind, but it allows for the tuning of the entire instrument."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"Do not begin meditations without becoming conscious of the fact that within you are powers which can reach great distances to touch and bring into availability energies, memories, ideals or archetypes important for your attention."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"We think and feel the qualities of love, joy, and expectancy and we let these reverberate throughout our natures. How much closer to the Presence we come when these qualities are vibrating through us!"
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"Vast differences exist between Easter and Western approaches to meditation. Buddhists endeavor to realize the nothingness of physical life and the continual ebb and flow of changing experiences. In their endeavor, no thought of Divinity or of immortality is realized... The Western approach does not belittle physical existence, but it offers methods and techniques for accomplishing changes and transformations in being and living here and now."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"The first thing we learn is that concentration and meditation deal with aspects and material that we can think about, subjects with which we can familiarize ourselves and in which we can improve our realizations. But contemplation is something you cannot do on your own. It happens to you just as illumination does."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Contemplation: The Art of Spiritual Envisionment", 549-2

"If you can even through imagination conceive of states that you fear, you are also intelligent enough to transpose that thought and to think of the conditions you would idealize."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Meditation: The Gateway to Life's Highest Goal", 021-2

"In effective prayer you combine meditation with invocation... Meditation guides the outline of the prayers and treatments that you use when in communication with the Divine Presence."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"From contemplation, new ideals, habits and resolutions are born... Meditation must then take up the task of converting these purposes into manifest realities."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"Meditation is concentrated thought upon a spiritual subject... Contemplation follows its own ideals and realizations in an unplanned, creative way."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

Excerpts on Prayer

"Open your vigil of prayer with worship of the Christ. Greet him as the Hierarch of all spiritual efforts and attainment."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"The act of prayer unites us with the vital currents of Deity. By no other method could we be worthily and preparedly aligned to these wavelengths."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"Prayer lights up the switchboard of the Ever-Present Deity and this light of request signals help from the realm of the Eternal."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"A lifeline is swung into eternity by prayer from the sphere of the impermanent."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"From the earliest ranks of humanity men have realized that their highest acts were those of prayer. There is no higher way to help anyone than to pray for them."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"Two important essentials to vital prayer are to pray out of right conditioning and to have full trust in God when we pray."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"One of the rules of the inner life is that you never ask for yourself what you have not already asked for the whole world to realize. And you ask assistance for everyone who needs it before you mention your own requirements."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

Excerpts on Silence

"To practice silence we enter the boundary of the Eternal Threshold. At its entrance we thoughtfully pause to gaze upon, examine and consider the inner territory into which we have been admitted by the questing of our higher selves. We gain an impression of vibrant stillness-of Light in different intensities according to our individual approach."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"Silence is entering the boundary of God's great country of the Eternal."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Silence and What it Is", 205-1

"There is this feeling that there is so much wonder and color and music and beauty and purpose and being and life and activity, around us in this throbbing Silence."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Silence and What it Is", 205-1

"There are three stages in Silence: we must proceed from one to another naturally and voluntarily and automatically. The first stage is the one in which we condition ourselves for divine reception. In the second stage we stand receptively in God's light. In the third stage, different entirely too, we enter a higher state of being."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Silence and What it Is", 205-1

"We must not forget, during all of our times of Silence, that the most important reason we go into Silence, as well as the reason that we meditate in prayer is that we want communion with God, who is above us and beyond us, and is our Maker. And so, in Silence we sit or stand absorbed in the reality of that Beauty which created us, which loves us, and which breathes us continually into more expansive states of becoming. We say to the Eternal, ever-listening and observing, ""My soul longeth for the ever-living God."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Silence and What it Is", 205-1

Excerpts on Contemplation

"Meditation to me is the most important thing we do."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Contemplation: The Art of Spiritual Envisionment", 549-2

"We can meditate or pray whenever we wish, but contemplation is something that happens within us when we are involved in deep devotional states."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Gateways Into Light"

"From contemplation, new ideals, habits and resolutions are born... Meditation must then take up the task of converting these purposes into manifest realities."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

"Meditation is concentrated thought upon a spiritual subject... Contemplation follows its own ideals and realizations in an unplanned, creative way."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Quest"

Excerpts on World Treatment

"Pour out your love, your goodwill and an ardent wish for the improvement, the unfoldment and the happiness of these global brothers."
–The Wise and the Strong, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"Concentrate upon the Christ Spirit coming into the great body of mankind. Entertain the thought of this mass body until it becomes dear to you and intensely important. You will work by continents, seeing the peoples of Earth as receptive to this Christ Spirit."
–The Wise and the Strong, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"Strive once again to love this Earth and its population with such depth that crime, war, disease, suffering and want are felt by your soul. Then only, because of your sympathy and your realization, are you able to call down the victorious Christ Spirit, that it may enter the various places and persons on Earth where these destructives are most prevalent."
–The Wise and the Strong, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"Should you do your work fully and from the right or highest level of your soul's aspiration, you will have the mystic experience that the masters abidingly know, of being a conscious and very necessary part of humanity's growth and blessing."
–The Wise and the Strong, "Wellsprings of the Holy Quest"

"It is within your power to ask that the Supreme Spirit functioning through the Solar Logos ray out to each remembered persons and nations Its Light of that frequency which prohibits war."
–The Wise and the Strong, "Disciplines of the Holy Quest"

Questhaven Retreat is dedicated to serving one's vital need to prayerfully repledge themselves. Here, in the quiet haven of peaceful hills, individuals from all walks of life may come to reconsecrate themselves to God and Christ, and find answers to their innermost quest. Sunday Services 10:45am.

Christ Mysticism Discipleship Meditation Angels Nature

Christward Principles

The Living Christ The Living Christ is the Lord of angels and of men and the model of our own becoming. His service is the broadcasting of the Divine Christ Spirit, the light of redemption. His influence awakens in us the Christing of our own natures.

Christian Mysticism Christian Mysticism is simply a method of reverence and devotion to God. It is a path of attainment which leads to the Divine Reality - to first-hand knowing of God. The mystical path stresses the way of Divine union with God through illumination.

The Way of Discipleship The Way of Discipleship is a way of drawing ever closer to the Divine Presence. It is a voluntary surrender of the entire self to the service of God. It pays great attention to spiritual realities and goals inspiring us toward inner growth.

Meditation and Prayer Meditation and Prayer are the disciplines that most directly draw us Godward and into the inner worlds. During these moments, we consciously purify ourselves of worldly or personal preoccupations and center ourselves wholly upon consciousness of God.

The Angelic Kingdom The Angelic Kingdom consists of beings created by God. They, like mankind, press toward the goal of perfection and union with the Supreme Spirit. Angels are purer and more spiritual than man. Their very spirituality readily makes them mediators between Heaven and Earth.

God in Nature Nature provides healing and enlightenment. When wisely trod, the path to God through nature employs every faculty inherent in man. In nature, beauty shines in all its pristine essence before us. It is for us to newly discover and translate this beauty to our spirits and our senses.

Gateways Into Light	Insights Into Reality —Meditation and Prayer	The Journey Upward —Meditation: the Way to Attainment
Disciplines of the Holy Quest —Keys to Creative Meditation	Wellsprings of the Holy Quest —Creative Meditation	Here Are Your Answers —Prayer & Meditation
Songs of Deliverance —The Fount of Meditation —Our Daily Opportunity —Achieving Stillness —Creative Meditation —Prelude to Prayer	The Quest —The Role of Prayer and Meditation —Meditation and Contemplation —The Challenge of Meditation —What Meditation Can Be —Ways Into God's Presence	The Christward Way —Meditation Steps —Posture During Meditation —Meditation Viewed Esoterically