For this weeks meditation exercise, Sri Chinmoy takes us into the realm of creative visualisation — using the mind in a creative and positive manner. We are constantly assailed by thoughts and in order for our lives to be spiritually expansive, we must learn to discriminate between a progressive thought and a regressive thought.

For this exercise, you will need a flower. Either hold a flower in your hand or have a flower in a vase in front of you. When Sri Chinmoy offered this concentration exercise, he had given each person present a flower...

I have offered you a flower. Please look at the entire flower for a few seconds, and while you are concentrating on it, try to feel that you yourself arc this flower. At the same time, try to feel that this flower is growing inside your heart — in the inmost recesses of your heart.

Then try to concentrate gradually on one particular petal of the flower. Feel that this petal which you have selected is the seed-form of your reality-existence. After a few minutes, concentrate on the entire flower again, and feel that it is the universal Reality. In this way, go back and forth, concentrating first on the petal — the seed-form of your reality, and then on the entire flower — the universal Reality. While you are doing this, please do not allow any thought to enter into your mind. Try to make your mind absolutely calm, quiet, and tranquil. Also, kindly keep your eyes half open.

After some time, please close your eyes and try to see the flower on which you have been concentrating inside your heart. Then in the same way that you concentrated on the physical flower in your hand, kindly concentrate on the flower inside your heart, with your eyes closed.

A flower signifies purity. Try to feel that your heart has become as pure as the flower.

Purity you want?
Just imagine breathing in the beauty,
Purity and fragrance of a flower.
– Sri Chinmoy