Meditation is a process that takes place beyond the senses. Consider a rose plant with branches, leaves, flowers and thorns. Locating a rose plant with a flower in a garden requires concentration. Once we have concentrated and identified the flower, the next stage is to pluck it without the thorns. Love is the flower, lust is the thorn. We have to carefully pluck the flower, without the thorn. This is contemplation. Having plucked the flower, what do we do with it? We must offer it to the Lord. Thus, meditation means offering the flower of love to the Divine. In the rose plant of our body, there is the rose of pure and sacred love, emitting the fragrance of good qualities. Below the rose, however, there are thorns in the form of sensual desires. The purpose of this life and meditation is to separate the rose of selfless Love from the senses and offer it to the Lord.

- Divine Discourse, 'My Dear Students', Vol 2, Ch 5, Mar 11 1984.