Back to Basics…1 – 30 January 2015

What we are practising, together and individually, is Christian Meditation.  Both of those words matter.  And because of the mess religious language is in, including the language of spirituality teaching, each of those words needs to be clarified.

Christian means that we are practising this prayer in the company of Christ.  Along the road we begin to glimpse the possibility that it is really his prayer, and he is praying it, wordlessly, with us and in us, a prayer of love and unity.  I know that this may be a puzzling new concept to many Christians, who assume that prayer is something we decide to do, and in which we ask God to do things – presumably which God may not have done otherwise.  What we are bringing to Christian Meditation is a personal willing discipline of silence and stillness.  As far as we can, we stop the chatter, we stop asking for things, we are setting the ego to one side, we are awake and paying attention and not day-dreaming, we resist trying to imagine or fantasise or go over things in memory.  We are simply still, and saying our mantra – not because the mantra has any magical properties, but because saying it helps us to be and remain fully where we are and how we are and who we are.  It is a matter of disciples being still and listening in the presence of the Teacher, in the presence of God.

So, importantly, the word Christian is inclusive.  Jesus does not turn people away.  Christian Meditation around the world has become a place for some who have given up on the church, or who wonder constantly about doctrine -- but who have never sought to lose the company of Jesus.  Our groups include women and men of all Christian denominations and of none, including some who have survived church abuse.  This is very Christian company, it seems to me.  It is exclusiveness and fundamentalism, legalism and pharisaism, that are contrary to the way of Christ.

Then we have the word Meditation.  In ordinary English it means meditating on something – some event, some saying, some teaching, some art…  We are not using the word in that way.  When the bell sounds, we permit our bodies to be still and our minds to start shutting down all the higher thought, our normal, constant cogitating, predicting, commenting, judging, verbally reacting, ensuring our safety, ensuring our comfort, worrying and bothering, caring for others nearby… and so on.  None of that is wrong when we do it, but it is surplus to requirements at the moment.  It is a matter of choosing instead, for the present, inner stillness and silence.  Of course this takes time to do well, it isn’t done by flipping a switch, and often we seem to get nowhere.  You often come to the end of 20 or 30 minutes and wonder whether anything was achieved.  But it was.  You did sit still.  You did not happily permit all the usual noise in your life.  You made an effort, and I think, somehow, ineffably, God sees that intention, and deep longing, and honours that effort. 

It never becomes perfect.  But eventually we glimpse what might be meant by true contemplative prayer, when we are truly attentive, when we are consenting to whatever the Spirit of God seeks to do in us, when we find ourselves losing our fears for ourselves – because perfect love casts out fear.  And that is the link to what I would like to say next week.  People ask, one way or another:  What’s in it for me?  Why do I do this?  How can I tell if anything good is coming of it?  We’ll think about that next time.