Virtually all spiritual traditions, religions and self-improvement programmes emphasise the importance of meditation as part of ones spiritual practice. Theosophy emphasises a threefold approach to spiritual evolvement – so we may come to know who we really are. This approach is echoed in many the Sacred Texts. They are Study, Meditation and Service. Meditation is the key to assimilating what we study and an essential method to unravel the complex layers of our consciousness to discover our true nature.

Once one has explored and experienced the different types of meditative tools and techniques, it comes time to put together one’s own unique spiritual practice and to begin our inward journey with more vigour. When one is genuine in their effort and persistent with their practice, a guide may appear, this may be in the outer world or they may come to us from within. Geoffrey Hodson when talking about meditation practice says: “The first objective in meditation is to discover one’s own Spiritual Selfhood as distinct from the personal vehicles, physical, emotional and mental, and the consciousness active within them. Devotees of certain temperament others might not be helped by this method begin, therefore, with an exercise in disassociation, seeking both to realise the distinction between the Immortal Ego and its mortal, personal vehicles and to know the Spiritual Self. To know the knower may appear impossible to the analytical mind. The seeming paradox is, however, resolved at the level of the synthesising and intuitive intelligence in man and women, in the prophetic mind, to which in meditation the centre of consciousness is deliberately raised.

The Sacred Texts, when talking about putting the knowledge that you have learned into practice, emphasise three significant steps. These are as follows: 1. Study. It is recommended that the aspirant study the sacred texts so that they will have something to compare their experiences with. 2. Meditation. To come to understand our personality, the illusions of life and eventually becoming fully conscious as divine beings. 3. Service. This is essentially a process where we turn our attention away from pleasing ourselves to the world around us.

The transcendent consciousness brings out another insight into the nature of things the unity of life. This is the ultimate foundation of universal kinship. Let us explore this more deeply.

Look at a single leaf of a tree. Its life appears to be separate from the other leaves. The apparent proof of such separateness is that if we cut that leaf, it will die, but the other leaves will not die or be injured.

The Spiritual Life in Today's World

Spirituality simply consists in discovering and becoming one’s higher, nobler self, in accentuating the highest in motive, speech and the conduct of life. Indeed, the discovery and expression of one’s highest Self is both the immediate and the main and true purpose of all spiritual exercises. Especially is it the message of the unhappiness and pain which have so large a part in human experience. Pain itself can be one of the chief agencies which cause men to seek and follow the spiritual life, even whilst fulfilling worldly duties.