Why meditate? – 10 August 2012

For the last couple of weeks we have been groaning under the weight of achievement and success. Gold, silver and bronze. It dawns on me that we now have something called High Performance coaches, who presumably differ from the kind of coach I might be allocated, that is to say, remedial. The pinnacle of all our culture and striving, to stand on that podium having overcome all odds and one’s opponents, and now to be a national icon, a role model, a hero. Children with shining eyes are being motivated to great and wonderful things. Per ardua ad astra, was the motto of my old school, which we translated as through tights to heights – not that it had any noticeable effect on me. This result-and achievement-oriented culture often has echoes even in Meditation. And indeed, as one teacher, Kim Nataraja, wrote very recently: It is wonderful to stop the endlessly chattering mind and release stress and tension. It feels great to have ‘time out’ from the concerns, anxieties, hopes and fears that generally beset us, to stop the drain of energy of a mind going round and round in circles. I do see the point she is making, although she may have forgotten for the moment that our teaching says that meditation is independent of feelings. “Whether we feel like it or not,” is what we teach. Emotions, including the drive to exceed and excel, are a big part of what is brought into obedience and conformed to reality. Meditation is about transformation at another level than how fit we are. It has a lot to do with what St Paul wrote to the Romans:

I appeal to you therefore... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice... Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We emerge, as the months and years go by, with another, better, more Christlike way of thinking and reacting to events and to people, less fearful, less threatened, less defensive, more understanding and compassionate, more mindful and insightful. And it is not from having attended night classes with high performance teachers, but from having been still and silent and paying attention. Fr John Main always said, if you have to look for results, then look for them in a deeper capacity for love, understanding and compassion.