Passage Meditation, as introduced by Eknath Easwaran, is an excellent way to meditate, as it nourishes the mind with uplifting and inspirational thoughts. Here are some passages you might like to use. To learn the technique, see my previous post on this subject.
The Vision Ramdas
Live always in the awareness of your immortal life.
Let this consciousness never leave you in all the vicissitudes of life.
All things that are visible pass away.
All events that happen dissolve in the past.
The eternal reality, which is your real nature,
is alone permanent...
Why pursue merely the shadows of life, when eternity can be yours?
Evening Prayer for the Sabbath Jewish Liturgy
In this moment of silent communion with Thee,
O Lord, a still small voice speaks in the depth of my spirit.
It speaks to me of the things I must do to attain holy kinship with Thee
and to grow in the the likeness of Thee.
I must do my allotted task with unflagging faithfulness
even thought the eye of no taskmaster is on me.
I must be gentle in the face of ingratitude or when slander distorts my noblest motives.
I must come to the end of each day with a feeling that I have used its gifts gratefully
and faced its trials bravely.
O Lord, help me to be ever more like Thee:
holy, for Thou art holy, loving, for Thou art love.
Speak to me, then, Lord, as I seek Thee again and again in the stillness of meditation
until Thy bidding shall at last become for me a hallowed discipline, a familiar way of life.
In The Midst of Darkness Mahatma Gandhi
I do dimly perceive that whilst everthing around me is ever changing, ever dying,
there is, underlying all that change, a living power that is changeless,
that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates.
That informing power or spirit is God.
And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist,
He alone, is.
And is this power benevolent, or malevolent?
I see it as purely benevolent.
For I can see in the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists;
in the midst of darkness, light persists.
Hence, I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.
Believe In God Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:9
Believe in God;
believe that he is, and that he created all things,
both in heaven and in earth;
believe that he has all powewr,
both in heaven and in earth;
believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
Do Not Look With Fear St. Francis DeSales
I look with good cheer and with hope on the changes and chances of this life;
I look to them with full faith that as they arise God, whose I am, will deliver me through them.
He has kept me hitherto.
If I but hold fast to his dear hand he leads me safely through all things;
And when I cannot stand he bears me in his arms.
Not anticipating what will happen tomorrow I know the same everlasting Father
who cares for me today will take care of me tomorrow and every day.
Either he will shield me from suffering or he will give me unfailing strngth to bear it.
I am at peace, then, with calm thoughts and trustful imaginations.
Just Because You Are My God St. Ignatius of Loyola
Oh, my God, I want to love you
Not that I might gain eternal heaven
Nor excape eternal hell
But Lord, to love you just because you are my God.
Grant me to give to you, and not to count the cost,
To fight for you, and not to mind the wounds,
To labor and to ask for no reward except the knowledge that I serve my God.
Her Heart Is Full of Joy St. Teresa of Avila
Her heart is full of joy with love,
For in the Lord her mind is stilled.
She has renounced every selfish attachment
And draws abinding joy and strength from the One within.
She lives not for herself, but lives to serve the Lord of Love in all,
And swims across the sea of life breasting its rough waves joyfully.
For more beautiful passages, see God Makes the Rivers to Flow, by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California.
