Christian Meditation, and indeed meditation within any of the great faiths or none, brings us to think differently about time. So much of our life is about the spending, prioritising of time. Often, at various stages in our lives, there seems scarcely enough time to allocate. But when it comes to meditation our teachers tell us not to worry about the passage of time. And at first that is one of the harder tasks. The usual difficulty with starting to learn meditation is that “I simply don’t have the time”.
We had a neighbour where we used to live who was simply unable to be still while she was awake. In her childhood her father would not allow her to sit down with a book. He would demand, “Haven’t you got something to do?” Now in later life she is totally justified by works and is known as a good and kind, busy and outgoing woman.
It can be quite funny at a serious silent retreat -- retreatants are invited to come without their laptops or cellphones or detective novels or edifying books. But they usually shamefacedly smuggle these items in.
Father Laurence Freeman tells about spending one Easter on Bere Island, a very small island off the Irish coast. He and some others decided to awake early on Easter morning and watch the sun rise from a place where there were some very old sacred stones. When they staggered out of bed and up the hill it was just becoming daylight. Fr Laurence says he had forgotten the long wait between the light of dawn and actual sunrise -- it can be up to an hour before the sun appears on the eastern horizon. They were cold and bleary, and they wanted their breakfast or at least some hot coffee. He says it was a long wait -- he found himself wondering whether the sun would rise -- he decided it probably would.
But this, he thought, is exactly the life of faith. Faith is waiting in hope -- the writer to the Hebrews calls it the hope of things not seen. Immediate gratification may have to be set aside. He notes how the chatter of he and his friends settled down to a silent waiting, as though silence were more appropriate. And then, of course, the Easter sun began to blaze and rise in the sky. In meditation we are waiting in faith. And that is all. The mantra is our reminder not to follow down the byways of distractions.
The discipline begins to reshape our usual sense and experience of time. The things that bother us start to change, or reduce in number, or both. We are becoming still enough, perhaps even poor enough, to receive the fruits of the Spirit. The ego, and whatever facade we may hope is what others see of us, begin to reduce. In quietness and confidence is our strength, writes the prophet.
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