It may be a good idea to revisit the matter of distractions in Christian Meditation. Distractions, like death and taxes, are always with us. This may seem disappointing. Once in a while we come across a contemplative writer or teacher who seems to imply that a day may come when totally undistracted stillness floods in upon us... Well, it hasn’t happened to me, and I have yet to meet anyone to whom it has.
One of the important lessons we learn in all this is to stop generalising from our own experience. Each of us is different, mercifully, and each of us reacts differently to whatever happens. A book which I think is marvellous may leave someone else cold -- and vice versa. What I think “works” for me may not be at all of universal application. And in any case, we are not looking for experience, or for what “works”. We are looking to be fully present to God -- and in a group like this, to each other -- in stillness and silence, present and paying attention, in an attitude of quiet consent, asking for nothing.
The mantra is all we have. We have laid all our social skills and ploys aside. But of course, the minute we stop everything else to sit still and silent, our busy minds are not so compliant as to shut down for a while, to go obligingly into standby mode as it were.
What I do notice, however, with people on this journey, is that eventually they say this simple discipline becomes central for them. Perhaps it is partly that it has taught them to stop expecting miracles, perfection and bliss. Perhaps they discovered the utter simplicity and poverty of what Jesus called purity of heart and poverty of spirit: Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. We may have arrived at a place we recognise as actually Christlike, where he is present, not because of any triumphalism or sense of achievement or completion, or ecstasy, but because it seems to be a place of belonging, and above all of love.
The distractions are part of our journey, part of the scenery, part of our ego which will one day be Christlike. The mantra is intended to show us our way back, our return. And so the teaching says: When you find you are distracted, simply return to your mantra -- and say it, interiorly, gently, from the start to the end of your time of meditation.
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