| Background
and How-to Essentials
by Fr. Tom Ryan, CSP
This is a concise summary of the theology, spirituality,
and methodology largely followed by the first two schools
of practice mentioned in the previous article.
MEDITATION AS A UNIVERSAL PATH
Meditation is the way most commonly employed by seekers of
God throughout history in their quest to penetrate surface
appearances and come to grips with the Real. Meditation is
not intellectual effort to master certain ideas about God.
Its purpose is not to acquire or to deepen our speculative
knowledge of God or of revelation. Rather than seeking to
know about God through words, thoughts, and images, the meditator
is seeking to experience God directly with the awareness of
loving faith.
CHRISTIAN FAITH IN GOD’S INDWELLING PRESENCE
In the Gospel of John in the New Testament, Jesus affirms
God’s indwelling presence. “I will ask the Father
and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever,
the spirit of truth (whom) you know because he abides with
you and will be in you" (14:17). And again: "If
any loves me, they will keep my word, and my Father will love
them, and we will come to them and make our abode with them"
(14:23). Jesus’ invitation is to abide in him; his promise
is that he will abide in us (15:4). Paul’s letters refer
to the "mystery of Christ, hidden throughout the ages,
which is Christ in you"(Col. 1:27).
ACCESSING THE DIVINE PRESENCE WITHIN
The form of prayer referred to here by the term "meditation"
is based upon the conviction that, in addition to the mind
and imagination with which we ordinarily communicate with
God, we are endowed with what the Christian tradition calls
a "mystical heart", a faculty which makes it possible
for us to be aware of the Presence within, to grasp and intuit
God’s presence and being, though in a dark manner, apart
from all images and concepts which necessarily distort God’s
reality. In most of us, this heart lies dormant and undeveloped.
If it were to be awakened, it would be constantly straining
toward God.
DISCERNING GOD’S REVELATION IN EVERYTHING
The Christian monastic tradition developed a progressive
way of awakening this mystical heart and coming to an experiential
awareness of God. This process of unfolding encompasses the
four kinds of prayer: oral, mental, affective, contemplative.
In this process we see where contemplative prayer enters into
the Christian experience of God. We generally learn how to
pray with memorized prayers or hymns said or sung aloud (oral
prayer). Then as our capacity to reason develops, we engage
our minds more fully in prayer through analysis or reflection,
such as in reading and reflecting on a passage of scripture
(mental prayer). Our thoughts by and large stir the heart
with emergent feelings of gratitude, fear, sorrow or joy which
we express to God (affective prayer). When the heart has poured
itself out, silence grows between the words, and we simply
sit in the silence, resting in God’s presence and open
to God’s love (contemplative prayer).
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
In this “resting in God”, there is an awareness
that God is not only close or present, but is intimately present
within us as the source of our being. Faith is the free consent
to God in me. The life of faith is a conscious communion with
that Presence. The core experience of the Christian life is
a heart to heart relationship with the person of Christ and
the indwelling Trinity who have come to make their home in
us. In the words of twentieth century spiritual writer Thomas
Merton, contemplation is not so much a way to find God as
a way of resting in the One whom we have found. Coming to
this awareness of the indwelling Divine Presence is the birthright
of all Christians, the natural development of the grace of
baptism. It is that communion with the Divine which is the
longing of our hearts.
THE METHOD OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION
Contemplative awareness is regarded as a gift of the Holy
Spirit. When we speak of “Christian meditation”,
we are referring to a way of opening ourselves to receive
this gift which we believe God most wants to give. Meditation
is a preparation for contemplation. It is a way of reducing
the hyperactivity of our lives and bringing us to a state
of quiet, open receptivity wherein we are ready to receive
the grace of contemplation. Today, Christian meditation represents
a recovery and renewal of the fifth century teachings of John
Cassian, the Eastern Christian practice of the "Jesus
prayer", the fourteenth century classic The Cloud of
Unknowing, and other sources. In the 1970’s, leading
monastics such as John Main, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating
put order in the scattered elements of the tradition with
an eye toward our contemporary inclination for simple, clear,
"how-to" instructions.
THE ESSENTIAL TEACHING
- Seek a quiet place
- Sit in a comfortable, upright position, relaxed but alert
with your eyes lightly closed. Remain as still as possible.
- Silently, interiorly, begin to say a single word or short
phrase, e.g. Jesus, Abba; or: Maranatha. Say it with faith
and love. Some people find it helpful to say the word in
equally stressed syllables in conjunction with their calm
and regular breathing, e.g. Je-sus, Ab-ba, or: Ma-ra-na-tha.
- Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise.
When thoughts and images come and your attention strays,
gently return to your word.
Meditate each morning and evening for twenty to thirty minutes.
COMMENTARY OF THE ESSENTIAL TEACHING
- A Quiet Place. Choose a quiet corner
of your room. A space which you use only for meditation
and which is free from other associations is ideal. Decorate
it with an icon, a candle, or an open Bible. If there is
no quiet place in your home, look for one along the way
of your daily route, e.g. a church.
- Posture. Find a posture in which you
can be settled, still, and alert. Be comfortable so that
for the duration of the meditation period the mind will
not need to tend to the body. A quiet body inclines a quiet
mind. An erect but not rigid spine facilitates easeful breathing
and alert wakefulness. Examples: sitting in a straight-backed
chair; sitting with one’s seat on a prayer bench and
one’s knees on the floor; sitting cross-legged on
the floor with the buttocks slightly elevated by a cushion.
- The Prayer Word. Take a word from the
context of faith; it will serve as a “pointer”
for the mind. For example, "Maranatha" is Aramaic
(Jesus’ own language) and means "Come Lord!"
It is probably the most ancient Christian prayer. St. Paul
ends his first letter to the Corinthians with it, and St.
John ends the Book of Revelation with it. Because it is
a foreign word, people generally do not have a lot of thoughts
and images attached to it, which is an advantage since meditation
is a way of prayer that goes beyond thoughts and images.
Another four-syllable mantra that easily accords with the
breath is “Jesus, Abba.” Praying the holy name
of Jesus has a long and rich tradition, and “Abba”
evokes his own intimate communication with God. The breath
on which the mantra rides is the Spirit, the bond of love
uniting “Jesus” and “Abba”. Other
prayer words or phrases are possible and the tradition has
many of them. Whatever your sacred word, by saying it with
faith and with love, you generate the flow of faith and
love in your own heart. Prayer’s first effect is in
us. Once you have chosen your prayer word, stay with it
and do not change it so that it becomes rooted in your consciousness.
Faithful repetition of the word is significant both in terms
of attention and intention. The nature of the mind is to
produce thoughts. One cannot expect the mind to all of a
sudden come to a screeching halt just because it’s
time to meditate. So the mind is given something to occupy
it: a single word, which "thins out" the flow
of thoughts in the mind and holds one’s attention
on the Presence within. The word also carries one’s
intention, one’s consent, to the work of God in us.
- Thoughts, Images, Feelings, Memories, Sense Perceptions
that Engage the Mind. All of these are a normal
experience in meditation. Expect a constant flow of them.
To try to suppress all thoughts and feelings is both impossible
and unhealthy. It is a question of not entering into dialogue
with them, of not investing any energy by reacting, resisting,
or retaining them. Just let them go. Their surfacing and
passing up and out is part of the healing process of emptying,
purification, and liberation that makes meditation a divine
therapy. Each time you become aware that you have been "hooked"
into dialogue with thought, gently return to your word,
allowing it to repeatedly express your intention to be before
the One Who Is, in full, loving attention.
- Time and Frequency. The traditional times
of meditation in all the world religions are early morning
and late afternoon/early evening, before meals if at all
possible. The recommendation of twenty to thirty minutes
is made with an eye to two things: one, the minimal amount
of time generally considered necessary to establish inner
silence; and two, the maximum amount of time most contemporary
people can realistically afford. The end of the prayer period
can be indicated by a timer provided it does not have a
loud tick or make a startling sound when it goes off. At
the end of meditation, some make a gradual transition back
into cognitive activity by slowly, interiorly reciting a
prayer which expresses the attitude of openness and surrender
which they have embodied during their time of prayer.
FINDING SUPPORT FOR YOUR PRACTICE
The "how-to" of meditation is simple. What is difficult
is faithfulness to the discipline, holding that priority in
place, interrupting what you are doing in order to pray. A
support group praying and sharing together once a week helps
maintain one’s commitment to the prayer and provides
an opportunity for further input on a regular basis through
talks, tapes and discussion.
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