Meditation
The key of solitude to the door of understanding
Jock McTavish, Holy Manners 4, 21 October 2002 |
Your vision will become clear
only when you look into your heart ...
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.
~
Carl Jung |
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| Four Paths of Meditation. There appear to be 4 paths of meditation: intellect, emotion, body, and
action. Each of them is a discipline. Each of them is worthy. The same
paths are found in every tradition. |
| Secular Perspective. Increasingly we are seeing a secular perspective on meditation. This
perspective is well represented in a paper published in March 2000 in the
International Journal of Psychotherapy, Meditation: concepts, effects and
uses in therapy, by de Albeniz and Holmes. (It's linked on the website.)
This compendium of 75 scientific studies finds some 63% meditators encounter
negative side-effects. As the authors conclude in part, "It could
be argued that in extracting the technique from its theoretical and belief
context, the meaning and effect of meditation is deprived of its essence
…" Compare their efficient definition "Meditation is the intentional
self-regulation of attention, in the service of self-inquiry, in the here
and now.", to the following spiritual notions. |
| Transcendent Perspective. Of course we are more interested in the Transcendent Perspective, the
spiritual experience of mystery and the applications in our life that sustain
that mystery. In preparing for this evening I was intrigued to notice three
Mystical Meanings of "Space". |
| 1. The "Thin Space" of Evelyn Underhill (Which was a Celtic idea
first.) |
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"The early Celts believed in "thin places": geographical
locations scattered throughout Ireland where a person experiences only
a very thin divide between past, present, and future times; places where
a person is somehow able, possibly only for a moment, to encounter a more
ancient reality within present time; or places where perhaps only in a
glance we are somehow transported into the future."
- Edward C. Sellner, from "Wisdom of the Celtic Saints" |
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| She found her Christian belief as an adult. She experienced "conversion"
and then studied mysticism. She found the process one of seeing and experiencing
a time and place apart, of being in a space that had no normal dimension.
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"He who falls in love with the Holy, … "undergoes conversion"
… all these have truly known for an instant something of the secret of
the world." |
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"Christians may well remark that the psychology of Christ, as presented
to us in the Gospels, is of a piece with that of the mystics. In its pain
and splendour, its dual character of action and fruition, it reflects their
experience upon the supernal plane of more abundant life." |
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| 2. The "Space Between" of Martin Buber (Hasidic Jew). |
| Martin Buber gave us a new understanding of relationship. It was between
ourself and another that the great mystery revealed itself to Martin. |
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"Between you and it there is mutual giving: you say Thou to it and
give yourself to it, it says Thou to you and gives itself to you. You cannot
make yourself understood with others concerning it, you are alone with
it. But it teaches you to meet others, and to hold your ground when you
meet them. Through the graciousness of its comings and the solemn sadness
of its goings it leads you away to the Thou in which the parallel lines
of relations meet. It does not help to sustain you in life, it only helps
you to glimpse eternity." Concluding words of I and Thou. |
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| 3. The "No Space" at all of Julian of Norwich |
| Julian lived in the 14th century in a closed in cloister with a church
garden for her tranquility, a cell to live in, and a window to speak to
others through. But she was the first European woman to publish a work
and that work was the story of her revelations. The result of her meditation
was an instant revelation which worked its way into lovely words like these: |
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"God is close to us than our own soul, for he is the foundation on
which our soul stands, and he is the means which keeps the substance and
the sensuality together, so that they will never separate. For our soul
sits in God in true test, and our soul stands in God in sure strength,
and our soul is naturally rooted in God in endless love." And I saw
no difference between God and our stance, but as it were, all God; and
still my understanding accepted that our substance is in God, that is to
say that God is God, and our substance is a creature in God. … from the
14th Revelation. |
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| William James. In The Varieties of Religious Experience, in the chapter on Conversion, William James remarks: |
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"There are only two ways in which it is possible to get rid of anger,
worry, fear, despair, or other undesirable affections. One is that an opposite
affection should over-poweringly break over us, and the other is by getting
so exhausted with the struggle that we have to stop, - so we drop down,
give up, and don't care any longer." |
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| I think James got it exactly right. It is a theme of our lives, that too
often and too easily we find ourselves in "undesireable affections",
and when these have gone from us it is in either of these two ways, and
sometimes both ways at once. I think we could regard prayer and meditation
as practices that facilitate the glory of love breaking over us, and that
bring us to the place of giving up. |
| Eastern Meditation. One often associates the idea of meditation with Buddhists or Hindus.
Let us then look at each of these, and the thoughts they have about mystery. |
| Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Vedic Hindu practice of meditation was regenerated in our culture
most successfully by the Maharishi. Here are two thoughts of his centered
on what meditation is about. |
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The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what
we are for what we could become. |
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Whatever we put our attention on will grow stronger in our life. |
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| A Koan. A koan is a Zen Buddhist way to shake up our thinking against the possibility
of illumination. Here is a cute one. |
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"Silence is better than holiness, so opening your mouth is a big mistake.
But if you use this mistake to save all beings, this is Zen." … Zen
Master Seung Sahn |
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A Wrap. The Jesuit Anthony de Mello studied Buddhism and wrote many parables of
an interspiritual sort. Here is one to conclude the subject with.
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To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth the Master said,
"If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above
all else."
"I know. An overwhelming passion for it."
"No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong." |
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