Teach Yourself Spiritual Meditation
Spiritual meditation is a variant of "regular" meditation where you focus your attention on a particular image or person that you revere. Although many people for thousands of years have benefited from having formal teaching, this is not necessary in order to learn spiritual meditation today. Meditation used to be considered a mysterious process. Today, this mysterious process is freely available to all who really want to learn.
When The Student Is Ready…
There is a very old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. The first step in learning spiritual meditation is not to rush into it. Trust the Fates, or God, or whatever you want to call it, to get you the best teachings on spiritual meditation when you can best understand them. This may take you a while.
In the meantime, there are many things you can do to practice for the time when you will do spiritual meditation. You can meditate without using anything as a focus. You can exercise your imagination to the point where you can vividly see and feel an imagined object. You can also take some time out every day to sit and be still.
…The Teacher Will Appear
Your teacher in spiritual meditation will sometimes appear out of the blue. Your teacher in spiritual meditation doesn't have to be a famous guru or even someone that's you've ever met. Your teacher might not even be human. It will probably be in hindsight when you realize who your teacher in spiritual meditation was.
For me, my teacher in spiritual meditation is a man who has visited me in my dreams since I was sixteen years old. His name is Peter Gabriel, which (not coincidentally) is also the name of my favorite singer and a revered personal hero. He has helped to nudge me to books, situations and even animals to watch in order to help with many aspects of my life, including me spiritual meditation practices.
Everybody's way of meditating to nourish their spirits will be different. I do many things. Some people chant mantras, some count a rosary, some people imagine a religious icon in every detail. And some people have imaginary but powerful conversations with spiritual teachers when they are in a meditative state.
You will know when you have found your teacher when you know. That's a vague answer, but it's the best I can give. Until then, keep on searching, asking questions and dreaming.
