Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Meditate Like Jesus
To meditate not by concentration or emptying the mind but by immersing attention in the feeling of love until the sense of a separate self softens and dissolves into it.
In 5 lines: Sit and settle. Call up the feeling of love — through a beloved, the Divine, or Christ — and rest it in the heart. Let the warmth grow until it becomes a sea you are inside of, not aimed at. Allow the watching self to soften and be “lost” in it; when you drift, return through feeling, not effort. “Meditate like Jesus — he was lost in a sea of love.”
What it is
When a newcomer asked Neem Karoli Baba (“Maharaj-ji”) how to meditate, he answered, “Meditate like Jesus.” Ram Dass asked the obvious follow-up — how did Jesus meditate? — and Maharaj-ji replied: “He was lost in a sea of love.” That single instruction is the practice.
It is a bhakti approach to meditation that runs opposite to most concentration or “empty the mind” methods: instead of narrowing onto a point or watching the breath neutrally, you make love itself the medium of meditation — you sink into the feeling of love until the boundaries of the separate self loosen and you are, in his image, lost in it.
It belongs under meditation/stillness because it is a seated absorptive practice, but its object is not silence or breath; it is love.
The Method
The instruction is famously brief; what follows is a faithful, practicable unfolding of “meditate like Jesus — lost in a sea of love,” consistent with how Maharaj-ji’s devotees received and practised it:
- Sit comfortably and settle. Take an easy, upright seated posture, eyes closed, and let the body soften. No special breathing technique is required — the aim is not control but immersion.
- Call up the feeling of love — don’t think about it. Bring to heart whatever most reliably opens love in you: a beloved person, the guru, Christ, the Divine, an experience of being loved, or simply the warmth in the chest. The object is a means; the felt sense of love is what you are after. (The Inner Creates the Outer)
- Place attention in the heart and let the feeling grow. Rest attention in the chest/heart region and let the warmth expand. Each time it fades, gently rekindle it with the image or remembrance, then return to the pure feeling. (The Inner Creates the Outer)
- Let love become the whole field — “a sea.” Stop directing it at a single object and let it become an enveloping atmosphere you are inside of — surrounding, holding, soaking through you. You are not generating love at something; you are immersed in it.
- Allow yourself to be “lost” in it — release the watcher. The instruction’s heart: don’t stand back monitoring your meditation. Let the self-conscious observer soften and merge into the feeling, so the boundary between “me meditating” and “the love” thins. This letting go of the controller is the move — it cannot be forced, only allowed.
- When the mind wanders, return through feeling, not effort. Don’t fight thoughts or strain for blankness. Re-enter the sea of love through warmth and remembrance. Effort and self-watching are exactly what you are loosening.
- Let it spill into the day (optional). Maharaj-ji’s whole teaching coupled love with service and remembrance; the seated “sea of love” can become a background tone you re-enter in ordinary moments. (Sourcing note: the exchange — “Meditate like Jesus” / “How did Jesus meditate?” / “He was lost in a sea of love” — is recorded by Ram Dass. Maharaj-ji left no written meditation manual; the numbered unfolding is a faithful, conservative practicalisation of that recorded instruction in his devotional spirit, marked as such.)
Source & Lineage
Neem Karoli Baba (c. 1900–1973), a Hindu guru and devotee of Hanuman, taught by presence and terse sayings; the “meditate like Jesus / sea of love” exchange is one of his best-known instructions, transmitted through Ram Dass (Miracle of Love, 1979).
It reflects the bhakti stream of Indian devotion — prema (divine love) and self-loss in the Beloved — and his universalism (sub ek, “all is one”; he honoured Christ freely). This entry is distinct from (verbal repetition of the Name), (feeding as worship), and (service as path): here the practice is a seated love-absorption meditation..
The Traditions' versions
Loving-kindness / metta & compassion meditation (Buddhism) — deliberately cultivating and radiating warmth; the closest measurable cousin.
- Bhakti / prema absorption (Hinduism) — meditation as immersion in love for the Divine; the direct lineage.
- Christian contemplative love / “prayer of the heart” — resting in God’s love; the Jesus reference points here.
- Sufi self-annihilation in love (fana) — dissolving the ego in love of the Beloved; the same “lost in a sea” image.
- Heart-centred meditation — placing awareness in the heart and resting in warmth.
Common refinements
Trying to think about love instead of feeling it. The object is the felt warmth, not a concept. If it goes heady, drop back to the body/heart.
- Forcing or straining for the “sea.” Absorption can only be allowed, not willed; effort recreates the self-watching the practice loosens. Keep it gentle.
- Standing back to monitor “Am I doing it right?” That observer is the boundary you are softening. Notice the checking, then re-enter the feeling.
- Going cold/neutral like a concentration method. This is not breath-watching; if the warmth is gone, gently rekindle it with an image or remembrance.
- Chasing intensity. The goal is immersion, not emotional fireworks; quiet, steady warmth is fine.
- Divorcing it from kindness. In Maharaj-ji’s teaching, love in meditation and love in action (serve everyone, feed everyone) are one fabric.