MEDITATION: THE INWARD ART

by Bradford Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 1963

Suakerite Smith's big book on meditation sounds often like Mrs. Lindbergh's small one, Gift From the Sea, though without the womanly poetics. For Smith, meditation is the meaning of man's nature and his link with the divine. God speaks to all men, atheists or believers, if man but listens. The methods of meditation are manifold: there's symbolic thinking (making the commonplace sacramental), acrostics (keep saying: Life is Love with Intelligence), parables (out of evil good can come-for whom did Adam's sons marry?); there are also breathing exercises (take one big breath and merge with existence). Among the devotional delights are beautiful, brilliant quotations: from the Bible, from Emerson, Gandhi, Tillich, Berdyaev, from the Gita, from Yoga and from Zen. ""All is one, one is none, none is all"", so says a Zen paradox. We must realize the infinite self, but the deepest self is that self we share with all. Mysticism is the universal religion; not dualism, not creedal differences, but a complex unity is the ground of being. God can be many gods (East) as well as one (West). God appears repeatedly if He appears at all. An inspirational guide, a non-denominational feast.

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION