The contact between man and God here becomes contact between the intelligence and Truth, or relative truths contemplated in view of the Absolute . . . Meditation acts on the one hand upon the intelligence, in which it awakens certain consubstantial “memories,” and on the other hand upon the subconscious imagination which ends by incorporating in itself the truths meditated upon, resulting in a fundamental and as it were organic process of persuasion . . . Meditation – as defined in the language of the Vedanta – is essentially “investigation” (vichara) leading to the assimilation of theoretical truth, and then discernment (viveka) between the Real and the unreal. [GTUFS: StationsW, Modes of Prayer]

Contrary to what is too often stated, meditation cannot of itself provoke illumination; rather, its object is negative in the sense that it has to remove inner obstacles that stand in the way, not of a new, but of a pre-existent and “innate” knowledge of which it has to become aware. Thus meditation may be compared not so much to a light kindled in a dark room, as to an opening made in the wall of that room to allow the light to enter – a light which preexists outside and is in no way produced by the action of piercing the wall . . . The role of meditation is thus to open the soul, firstly to the grace which separates it from the world, secondly to that which brings it nearer to God and thirdly to that which, so to speak, reintegrates it into God. [GTUFS: EyeHeart, On Meditation]

Meditation / Concentration / Prayer: These three words epitomize the spiritual life, while at the same time indicating its principal modes. Meditation, from our standpoint, is an activity of the intelligence in view of understanding universal truths; concentration, for its part, is an activity of the will in view of assimilating these truths or realities existentially, as it were; and prayer in its turn is an activity of the soul directed towards God. [GTUFS: HaveCenter, Fundamental Keys]