The purpose of meditation is ...

… There are some Hindu mystics, spiritual teachers, who still know the art of meditation,what its purpose is, how to achieve the harmonies through it, but they’re few. …The Occidental world never took up meditation, with the exception of the Quakers. Inmonasteries, convents, religious institutions, those of higher religious learning have alwaysknown some forms of meditation, prayer, communion, but it never went from them out to thepeople. So that, back in the last century, outside of the Quakers, there were very few in theOccidental world who knew or understood anything about meditation or even heard the word.With the beginning of Christian Science and later Unity,

the term “mental work” was introduced.And mental work was a form of meditation. Probably you might call it the first step in meditation.That part of meditation which precedes the true meditation. In other words, when you sit quietly,and usually with eyes closed, thinking of God, knowing the truth, declaring truth, thinking truth,stating truth, doing what is called “mental work”, you are really in the first stage of meditation.And even that which is called meditation in this country, is but mental work. Because very littleof it actually reaches the second stage. The second stage of meditation is where you finishknowing the truth, declaring the truth, affirming the truth, pondering the truth, cogitating, andbecome silent and still, and enter a state of awareness; an inner state of receptivity in which you

are waiting for something to take place, something to be said, something to be felt. You’re waiting to become aware of something. That is the second step in meditation. The third step, of course, is when you begin to feel that presence within, when you begin to receive a response within you.

Now, this was the unfoldment that came to me. At this particular period in my experience, this was 1932, I knew that I was missing some part of life. … could get still inside. I could wait. I would get a click, and healings would be accomplished. That part was alright. But, there was still no satisfaction in it. There was still no certainty. There was still no knowledge of why. There was no knowledge; well, there was something missing in my life.   And, it was in that year that the voice told me that it was that I was missing; I didn’t know God. It said it in plain English. “You don’t know God.” And here I thought that I did because I was doing healing work. I thought I knew God because I was reading Christian Science and going to church. I thought all that meant that I knew God. And more especially, that the healing work was successful. And still, the voice told me that I did not know God. Now, if you were told that you didn’t know God, and you found something missing in your life, you probably would feel, as I did; “Well then, that’s the missing link. I will have to find God.” And the next thought comes to you; “How can I find God? Where will I go to find God?” And, at least in my case, the answer came; “The Kingdom of God is within you.” And evidently, that’s where I will have to go to find God. And so began this attempt to meditate.
Now, the secret that ultimately revealed itself to me was this; meditation is not for the purpose of healing anybody or supplying anybody. Meditation is not for the purpose of finding a home or accomplishing anything on Earth. Meditation is for the purpose of coming face to face with God. … The purpose of meditation is coming face to face with God, meeting God in the secret place of the most high, which is within you. The Kingdom of God is within you. You may find the Kingdom of God with the help of a teacher, or with the help of the right books, but you will not find Him through the teacher or the right books, because you must find the Kingdom of God within your own self. I’ll let that be clear, that the purpose of books and the purpose of teachers is to help us get back to the Kingdom of God within ourselves. Not to learn a new healing method, not to learn a new way to get rich quick or slow, not a new way to bring peace on Earth. Heavens above, there has been peace on Earth lots of times. All of my earlier years were lived with peace on Earth; look where we are now. It won’t do anybody any good if you do bring peace on Earth, except for those temporary years such as we have all known, most of us have know before; some of us anyhow. But, if we can contact God, if we can bring the Kingdom of God to light in our own consciousness… Or, let me put it this way; if Jesus the Christ ever achieved the realization of the Kingdom of God, that means that we can do it. If at any point in my experience, I have actually touched God or been touched by God in the withinness of my own being, and I’m convinced that has happened hundreds upon hundreds of times, but if it has only happened once that is the proof that it can happen to you. If it can happen to you, it must eventually happen to the whole world.

… Now, the final unfoldment that came to me through my experiments with meditation and my early experiences, was this; that when I achieved even a momentary flash of the feeling of the presence of God, the harmonies of my experience began to appear. …
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is - 1956 - Joel S Goldsmith

Now, achieve a moment of God realization, regardless of what problem presents itself to you, and regardless of whether it’s your problem or your patient’s or your student’s, don’t think of their problem, and don’t think of them, think of attaining a moment of God realization, turn within and take into your thought or meditation whatever immediately comes to you about God, passages of scripture, metaphysical statements, until you come to that moment of peace, when thought stops and you are receptive; “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth.” And then, when you have a moment of, sometimes it’s ecstasy, sometimes it’s the deep breath, sometimes it’s the falling off of the weight from the shoulders, whatever it is, you know something has happened even though you may not know what has happened. Be satisfied then.

You have achieved your goal. Later, if you hear that your patient or student has been healed of the headache, or that they have found five hundred dollars in the mail, or that a cancer fell away or disappeared, don’t be grateful for that demonstration. Watch out that you do not get hooked into being grateful that a cancer was healed, or consumption, or polio, because if you do you’ll lose the whole benefit of your work. Be grateful that you have achieved that momentary

realization of God’s presence. Because, in that realization of God’s presence, anything had to take place that was necessary, whether it was the healing of a headache or the healing of a cancer. It wasn’t the healing of a cancer that took place. It wasn’t the healing of a headache. It wasn’t employment. It wasn’t supply. It was God realization that took place. The other was just the added thing. Never never think that there’s any difference between the healing of the simplest pimple and the biggest cancer, because there isn’t. The same healing agency takes care of both. And the lack of healing is due, in either case, to the same thing; the absence of

God realization. Now, the pimple isn’t going to be healed any more than the cancer is. The headache isn’t going to be healed anymore than polio is, without God realization. But in God realization, the whole work takes place. God Realization Is Pure Demonstration - 1956 - Joel S. Goldsmith