{"id":24271,"date":"2025-05-26T10:29:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T09:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=24271"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:03:12","slug":"three-notes-on-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/three-notes-on-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Notes on Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most people think meditation is reflection or contemplation. Assagioli maps the stages of meditation as seven acts of the whole psyche working in sequence, from memory to will.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Meditation<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong> [1]<\/span><\/span><\/a>
Course on psychosynthesis and meditation, 1931
Docs. #10815 and #13635, Assagioli Archive in Florence
Original title: La Meditazione<\/em>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In these course notes from 1931, Roberto Assagioli offers a systematic and practical account of meditation in three parts. Part I traces the seven sequential psychic faculties engaged in meditation: memory, thought, imagination, feeling, desire, intention, and will. Together these constitute what Assagioli calls a temporary psychosynthesis, the fullest possible engagement of the whole person in a single act of inner work. Part II addresses psychophysical preparation: bodily relaxation, the regulation of breathing, and the relationship between physical and inner states, drawing on the yoga traditions of asana and pranayama. Part III surveys the main categories of subjects suitable for meditation, from geometric symbols and colours through to ideal figures such as the Buddha, Christ, Plato, and Pythagoras. The notes close with complex symbolic images, including St. George and the dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Part I – \u201cMeditation\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After the extensive theoretical and practical preparation we have made during this course, we are now in a position to understand well what meditation is and to do it satisfactorily.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us first see what meditation <\/span><\/span>is not<\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people believe that meditation means mentally examining a given problem, reasoning about it, drawing purely rational and philosophical conclusions from it. Now this is not so: this is <\/span><\/span>reflection<\/span><\/span><\/em> or <\/span><\/span>reflective thinking<\/span><\/span><\/em> , not meditation. Meditation <\/span><\/span>makes use of<\/span><\/span><\/em> reflection, but that is not all there is to it. Much less is meditation a r\u00eaverie, a passive daydreaming without order or restraint. It is instead an ordered, disciplined inner activity, consciously aimed at a goal. <\/span><\/span>All<\/span><\/span><\/em> the inner faculties operate in meditation. This will become clear by examining a complete meditation exercise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – MEMORY<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first psychic faculty that operates in meditation is <\/span><\/span>memory<\/span><\/span><\/em> . It is necessary to recall the theme, the subject matter, so to speak, of meditation and the various elements and points to be considered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 – THOUGHT\u2014REFLECTION <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intellectual activity follows. It is necessary to think, to reflect on the chosen theme, to develop it, to deepen it, thus evoking new ideas and new reasons. This constitutes the first part of meditation, but the most vital and central part of it has not yet been done. Abstract ideas and thoughts, as such, do not have the dynamic power, the propulsive and arousing force necessary for the purpose of meditation to be implemented or fully realized. Thoughts must become concrete, alive, warm, active; and therefore they must clothe themselves in images \u2014 incarnate themselves, so to speak. Here, therefore, another faculty comes into play:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 – IMAGINATION<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no need for me to insist on demonstrating the power of imagination: we have often spoken of it. Suffice it to recall that it is actually the imagination that arouses and causes the subconscious, this enormous reservoir of energies, <\/span><\/span>to action<\/span><\/span><\/em> . Imagination makes you sick and imagination makes you well. Imagination arouses feelings and emotions. You see now why we insisted in the first part of our course on exercises for evoking images, on experiments in visualization.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is about learning to master, to discipline, and to direct the imagination; to become capable of evoking the images we desire, which are useful for our purposes: to evoke them vividly, clearly, intensely, and to hold them for a long time before our inner eye so that they can operate most effectively in us, shaping and directing the subconscious, evoking the desired feelings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those images become living forces, almost entities with an autonomous life, and they recur spontaneously: almost imposing themselves. Therefore be cautious about playing with the imagination.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 – FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the next stage: the awakening, the arousing of <\/span><\/span>feelings<\/span><\/span><\/em> . What must take place in us is what the Psalmist says so well (Psalm 39 v.3):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My heart was warmed within me as I meditated, a fire was kindled.” <\/span><\/span>[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2014 (See Petit, <\/span><\/span>Joy in meditating<\/span><\/span><\/em> ) <\/span><\/span>[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a> ( <\/span><\/span>Love \u2014 its miracles<\/span><\/span><\/em> )<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only in this way is there full participation of the personality; only in this way is there the propulsive force that leads to action. But it is precisely here that there is the greatest danger, the greatest pitfall that can make the meditative work done so far futile.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is danger of allowing that force of feeling to dissipate \u2014 of letting it evaporate and disperse, so to speak. There is the temptation to be pleased and delighted by the lofty and comforting feelings aroused by thought and imagination; to revel in them and almost to allow oneself to live in that ideal world without proceeding to action, without caring about <\/span><\/span>embodying<\/span><\/span><\/em> those ideals and to make them a <\/span><\/span>living reality<\/span><\/span><\/em> , here.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This produces a dualism, a harmful dissociation of the personality; an escape from life, an inability to act; and nervous and psychic disorders can also result. (See James: <\/span><\/span>On Some of Life’s Ideals,<\/span><\/span><\/em> p. 154). <\/span><\/span>[4]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who belong to certain psychological types are more easily prone to this error, and must especially guard against it. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are:  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n