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HOW TO MEDITATE Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly.
Sit relaxed but alert. Silently, interiorly, begin to say your word.
We recommend the prayer phrase
The Christian Tradition of Meditation The basic theology of meditation is the basic theology of the Gospel. Jesus, by his life, death and resurrection, has opened up for us a way to God, and by sending the Holy Spirit to us he has become our way and our guide. It is our faith that makes our meditation Christian. It is also Christian because it is centered in the human consciousness of Jesus in our inmost being.We naturally meditate with other Christians, and our lives are guided and enriched in community by Scripture, sacrament and all the different ways of ministering to others in the love and compassion of the Spirit. Jesus did not teach any particular method of prayer, but we can see by what he says of prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, that meditation is a way to find him and to follow him. Meditation is wholly consistent with his teaching about prayer. The Sermon of the Mount Prayer, like good works, must not be merely outward. It is not about looking holy or winning other people's admiration. Nor is it even about feeling we are holy. Jesus says your "left hand must not know what your right hand is doing." Prayer is humble and unselfconscious work which helps us to discern reality (Matthew 6:1-4) Prayer must be interior. People who like their prayer to be too public easily fall into hypocrisy, which is discord between our inner and outer identity. Jesus tells us to go to "your private room" and pray in that "secret place". The word "secret" here also means "mysterious." Mystery is not magic. It is the experience of reality which mental consciousness by itself cannot contain or understand. Prayer is by nature mysterious, and the deepest place of mystery in human life is the heart. The "private room" is a metaphor for the inner chamber of the heart (Matthew 6:5-6). In prayer we must not "babble on." More words do not make God hear us better. Prayer is not about quantity — "prayers" — but quality — "attention" (Matthew 6:7-8). Prayer is not primarily about asking God for things because God "knows what we need before we ask." (Matthew 6:8). We must learn to stop worrying about the future and to trust in God. Anxiety is an enemy of prayer. It makes us too self-centered and prevents us from realizing the gift already deposited in love in our heart (Matthew 6:25-37). Finally, Jesus says, prayer is about "setting your mind on God's kingdom first." In other words, be attentive to the "one thing necessary" — be mindful. Then all the other things will come to you as well (Matthew 6:33). The Present Moment Do not worry about tomorrow, he tells us. In meditation we stop thinking of the past and future and learn to live fully in the present moment. Unfortunately, God often seems absent to us because we are not in the here-and-now. We spend much of our life locked into thoughts of the past and dreams of the future. Thinking of the past breeds feelings of regret, nostalgia, melancholy or guilt. Living in the future quickly generates anxiety, fear and worry. The combination of moods which these feelings make does not add up to peace. Between past and future, which constructs of the mind, you find the present moment which is absolute reality. The present moment — which is what we enter in meditation — is infinitely small — and therefore infinitely spacious. The mantra clears a way through all the thoughts of the past and future to reveal in a thought-free state, the radiant reality of the here-and-now: the moment of the Christ. It is only in the present moment that we can find God, the God who calls himself "I AM". Living in the present moment is an art that is practiced in daily life. Ordinary life is the best school of meditation for this reason. It teaches the error of identifying God with religion, temple, synagogue, mosque or church, with pious language or with ritual. God is everywhere at all times. Meditation is the daily discipline that teaches us to see God in the here-and-now. The contemplative experience is simply being fully conscious in the present moment. We do not have to master any difficult techniques or theories in order to meditate. We have only to be at home and to wake up. This is what the mantra helps us to do. Source: From Christian Meditation Your Daily Practice by Laurence Freeman, OSB. |
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