Sitting

Through the course of life, time and again I find myself face to face with the practice of meditation.

As a young adolescent I was exposed briefly to a Buddhist type of meditation in which I sat in a room with many others and we chanted, "Myoho Renge Kyo". I found this practice intriguing and both energizing and calming. In adulthood I tried Zen meditation... a rich and beautiful tradition.

In my sojourn in Catholicism I was trained in centering prayer. This is a movement in the Catholic Church based upon texts like "The Cloud of Unknowing". Father Thomas Keating (likely the inheritor of Thomas Merton's "mantle") has written and trained many in this practice. His published lecture, "The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation", is one of the few works that can always be found on my nightstand. His many other books are great as well... He may be the best teacher I've encountered to date in his ability to merge spirituality and psychology.

He says:

• We can be converted to the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ (insert here whatever faith path you like) and do the best we can to moderate the excesses of our desperate search for security, affection, and esteem, and power and control, while our basic attitudes remain the same.
• If we don't face the consequences of unconscious motivation- through a practice or discipline that opens us to the unconscious - then that motivation will secretly influence our decisions all through our lives.

I could go on and on with great quotes from this little book- worth a look.

Meditation for me is about transformation and union (Keating likes the term "friendship with G-d). Over the years I have used many words to describe meditation... sitting, being, union, synthesis, practice... I've just started reading Aryeh Kaplan's "Jewish Meditation"... eager to see what he has to offer.

Ultimately (for me) meditation is about union with the ultimate ground of our being that results in us becoming more like the object (G-d) of our devotion... not so much an entity out there as much as the seed planted within... the imago dei... At the core of us is G-d. She (He if you prefer) is our mother... we possess her DNA in our bones and blood. We, due to living in a temporal world in a body of flesh, are too prone to forget the purity and perfection that is the essence of our being... hence, we can think of meditating as taking time to remember... to remember who we really are.

Sitting is about remembering... it is about centering our soul when it is out of alignment.

Most methods I've worked with suggest use a mantra/ a word, to help bring the wild monkey mind back to one's intent... I've tried many over the years but always seem to return to the word "peace"... many reasons for this I think when I consider my life course.

Most methods suggest letting one's wild horse mind run it's course and to allow thoughts to arise naturally... it is recommended that we not engage in the thought, nor, try to suppress it... rather, one is encouraged to see it like you would the frame of a film or a ship passing by... let the thought come and let it pass by... return to your mantra/ sacred word.

Many times in sitting I have had that priceless experience that the Zen writers call "the falling off of the self"... Christian and Jewish writers would be inclined to call this union with the divine. It is a feeling of selflessness and perfect peace.

We spend so much time each day doing, saying, thinking, feeling, writing, going, working, playing, worrying... perhaps our lives would be richer if we took some time each day to be... to sit quietly in G-d's presence and commune...

I'm experimenting these days... instead of letting my fleeting thoughts pass by in my initial minutes of sitting I am discussing these topics with G-d... once my mind starts to settle down a bit I move to being quiet and seeking to be still and bask and listen...

When I think on this topic I often think of David's words in Psalm 131. May G-d help each of us to still and quiet our souls... may we be like weaned children... right beside the objects of our desires and yet fully at peace without them.

Psalm 131

¹ My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

² But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.