Returning – 4 October 2013

The rhythm of the mantra, that is to say, the simple discipline of gently, interiorly, repeating the mantra – and then, finding that we have strayed from it, that we have got distracted -- and therefore gently and simply returning to it…  this is at the heart of Christian Meditation.  It is actually all we do.  To some this seems altogether too naïve to be true.  It’s not even meritorious.  There is no formula for success. Sometimes people think we ought to help things along by lighting candles, playing reverential music, reading some inspiring thoughts, to give the impression that we’ve done something. But like the treasure hidden in the field, this is the whole point of taking time in our busy and important lives to stop all that, to be still and silent.  We shut down our family lives, our business lives, our religious lives, and even our personal lives.  They will all be there when we’ve finished.  And in that silence, in which the only landmark is the mantra, returning to it is the point.  Someone complained to Fr Thomas Keating, My 30 minutes of meditation was useless.  I was distracted 10,000 times.  And he said, How wonderful.  You had 10,000 opportunities to come back.

Coming back means that we have reset our priorities for the moment.  All the important things, the things we have to control, the things we believe depend on us, the agenda of things to do today, we have chosen to set aside for the moment.  For now, we do not admit them to our presence where God is present.  That’s the easy part.  As we know, the minute we have made a start on that, choosing the mantra, the mind gets seriously anxious and fills up the space with memories and regrets, ancient and modern – and if all that fails, along come the thoughts (as Jesus said) about what we will eat and drink, and how we will be clothed.  Every time, returning is the thing that counts. 

It’s a very biblical concept.  The Hebrew word return is “shub” שוב, which connotes coming back to where we always belonged.  In quietness and trust will be your strength, writes Isaiah [30:15], in returning and rest will you be saved. The Greek word is “metanoia” μετανοια, and it means turning right around.  Jesus’s story of the prodigal son hinges on the fact that the young man decided, I will get up and go to my father… a picture movingly and forever depicted by Rembrandt in The Return of the Prodigal. 

Meditators and all contemplative people come to know a place which is almost impossible to talk about.  It is what would remain if everything else disappeared.  It is good because it doesn’t depend on us.  We glimpse what is meant by the narrow gate and the eye of the needle – we come back to this place repeatedly with empty hands but a full heart.  And it is the mantra that points the way.