Some Basic Thoughts about Meditation
How can I live my spiritual practice so that I can see it bearing fruit in my every day life? That is a practical question for those serious about being authentic and honest with the intentions of life, and not just looking for an escape through meditation in an attempt to avoid or deny the difficulties of human existence and the issues of suffering.
This requires a meditation practice of the heart and not just the mind for integrating wholeness throughout the mind-body being that I am. The spiritual practice of meditation requires dedication, energy and commitment. But this is not just a project of the mind in which we strive to think the right thoughts, reject other thoughts and “have faith.” Striving in meditation only increases our problems. Where we have been judgmental, we find that we become even more judgmental of ourselves regarding our spiritual practice. Where we have been cut off from feelings and our own body, striving toward a spiritual goal can heighten a sense of even further separation.
So a meditation practice of the heart helps us in facing, rather than fleeing from, what we may want to avoid or deny: our own greed, self-hatred, anger, fear, pride, self-centeredness. But this heart practice also gives us a hugely valuable tool as a spiritual practice grounded in personal experience, because in faith knowledge or knowing is not intellectual assent but personal experience, knowing from the heart not the head. It is firsthand, not second hand.
Faith is a key component in the spiritual practice of meditation. We sit and do nothing, wasting our precious time, in faith that it is Yeshua/Jesus, the Lamb of God, his Resurrection Life and his own faith that are at work in every aspect of our being. As the Apostle Paul put it in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live in [the] faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” Yes, I know that most translations read “I live by faith in the Son of God,” but that seems to be reading into the text that it is my faith. The translators get around the obvious genitive case “of the Son of God” by applying a grammar rule that seems constructed for only a couple of instances in New Testament Greek. But it seems to me that what Paul actually literally meant was that it is indeed Christ’s own faith that is at work in us and by which we live.
See also Philippians 3:9 as another example: “…that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through [the] faith of Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” This is to acknowledge that the faith we may claim as our own is actually a gift from way beyond ourselves. Trusting then that this faith is utterly sufficient for all needs we can then practice meditation with an openness of heart relieved from the burden of our own mental efforts and striving. We can be with our personal experience and direct knowing when we sit in meditation, and be able to face the greed, self-hatred, anger, fear, pride and self-centeredness we otherwise would not be willing to encounter. And the process of healing is at work.
Now when we engage in the spiritual discipline of meditation, we have a way of addressing the war going on within ourselves, the struggle with self regarding addictions, desires, denial, fear of death and isolation. But this is not by forcing ourselves through an act of will, but rather through cultivating a new way of being and relating which lets go of the battle. Facing what is the truth of self is not only an act of courage. It is also an act of compassion, compassion for ourselves. The hard work in practicing this new way of being is facing the truth about ourselves that is uncovered.
To live a life of faith requires us to engage in regular practice of a spiritual discipline such as the Prayer of the Lamb. This is meant to “ripen” us so that we can come face to face with life, be in the present, and be more honest and conscious. Then in meditation a sense of wholeness and abundance can arise within us as we sit, for in that sitting we are open to everything, rejecting nothing. Every possibility is there, nothing questioned, rejected or discredited – emptiness, and also expansion of awareness of and connection with all. Fullness.
Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
June 28 One Day Meditation Retreat
Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:
Summer Retreat Day
A Drop in the Bucket
Saturday, June 28
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
St Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N 45th St, Shoreline
The theme will be "A Drop in the Bucket," in reference to how individuals often feel about their efforts in comparison with huge need. In the face of "compassion fatigue" and being overwhelmed by all the areas of the world where disasters have occurred and human suffering is great, take a day to be compassionately with yourself and this universal intercession of the Prayer of the Lamb.
Please make reservations by email at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or by phone 206-713-5321.
Summer Retreat Day
A Drop in the Bucket
Saturday, June 28
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
St Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N 45th St, Shoreline
The theme will be "A Drop in the Bucket," in reference to how individuals often feel about their efforts in comparison with huge need. In the face of "compassion fatigue" and being overwhelmed by all the areas of the world where disasters have occurred and human suffering is great, take a day to be compassionately with yourself and this universal intercession of the Prayer of the Lamb.
Please make reservations by email at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or by phone 206-713-5321.
Support for Practice
Not everyone who prays the Prayer of the Lamb has been through the comprehensive 12 week course, but all have received some sort of training, teaching and initiation into the practice. Whenever I teach the Prayer of the Lamb I also make myself available for follow up for questions and consultation regarding practice. I also make a point of saying that the Prayer of the Lamb is a form of spiritual practice that needs to be incorporated into daily practice and ideally connected to a community of others engaged in the same spiritual practice. Meditation to be fruitful is best connected to a teacher and community. When practiced alone as individuals there are many ways in which we can simply strengthen our own ego identification, miss our self delusion, use the meditation only as a relaxation technique, make assumptions about spiritual attainment, or misinterpret experiences that may occur during meditation.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
Offering Outreach Ministry Through the Prayer of the Lamb
Over the last seven years I have been privileged to share the Prayer of the Lamb with almost 1,000 persons through seminars, workshops, retreats, 12 week groups, and ongoing groups, not to mention an equal number who have received malas (prayer bead bracelets), each mala having been used in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for at least one hour. Members of the Community of the Lamb are those who meditate with the Prayer of the Lamb, and a number of you have taken part in preparing malas for others to use. We did this for those attending General Convention in 2003, for members of St. Paul, New Orleans, as part of the “We Will Stand With You” campaign, and for inmates at the state prison in Monroe.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Agnus Dei Vol. 6.1 Easter 08 Ecological Intercession
Biological life on this planet, as far as I know, exists solely within a thin surface layer of earth, water and air. Relative to the size of the planet, this zone of habitation is miniscule, fragile and exposed. Yet billions of different life forms thrive in this biosphere. This planetary surface is so thin in comparison to the rest of the mass of Earth that it might be considered insignificant if it were not for the fact that this is where we humans live. We have a vested self-interest, therefore, in the condition of this biosphere.
When I teach about the Prayer of the Lamb, I talk about how this is an ecological form of meditational prayer, that this spiritual practice interconnects within the ecological system, that the context for meditation is a context of the whole. We cannot separate out this activity of meditation from the rest of the environment.
Another way of expressing this is: “It’s not about me.” It’s about us. I may think that I meditate for my own good, and yes, that it so. But whatever is for my own good is also for the good of all because we are intrinsically interrelated. Indeed when we continue long enough in this spiritual practice we can come to experience, not just have an insight about, but know experientially the unity of all manifest being. Then the only way we can offer the Prayer of the Lamb is to pray “have mercy on us.”
The Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” begins with an appeal for mercy to intervene in our condition, our situation, our environment. It is offering an intercession for what is seen as a need, and in saying “have mercy on us” it acknowledges that I myself am also impacted by the need seen in another. And continuing in meditation we can come to realize that the mercy, compassion, care, wisdom and grace needed are already abundantly present and available. In truth there is no separation or alienation from the compassion of God, just as much as it is not possible for any organism to exist separate from its ecosphere.
A key scripture text to support this is the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The darkness, may I suggest, is not some evil force or enemy, something that would pose a threat to the light, but nothing, no thing. What we objectify as darkness is rather our assumption that darkness is substantial and able to bind and limit life. It is our supposed separation and alienation from God. To quote my own teacher, “Darkness is a function of our ignorance about the truth of life. We think the world is dark, because we are dark in our awareness, and yet the world is all light, one radiant wholeness of love.” It is salvation to be freed of this self-limiting ignorance.
The condition of ignorance and darkness is within the state of awareness of the whole of our species. As our spiritual practice brings awakening, so too the compassion of this abundant mercy empowers us in our actions, translating meditation into compassionate service not only for other human beings but for the whole of the biosphere. The fruit of meditation is action on behalf of the whole bio-system intervening into the darkness of human hearts, shifting callousness, despair, rage, hatred, envy and greed into life-sustaining directions.
Each time you sit to meditate is a turning toward the light and a cooperation with divine self expression. Every time you meditate you are adding to growing awareness about the illusion of our separateness. Every time in meditation the individual, separate "I" of self identity is no more, and "we" as the miraculous union of all unique beings in the divine radiance of Yeshua becomes the substance of creation. Keep meditating!
When I teach about the Prayer of the Lamb, I talk about how this is an ecological form of meditational prayer, that this spiritual practice interconnects within the ecological system, that the context for meditation is a context of the whole. We cannot separate out this activity of meditation from the rest of the environment.
Another way of expressing this is: “It’s not about me.” It’s about us. I may think that I meditate for my own good, and yes, that it so. But whatever is for my own good is also for the good of all because we are intrinsically interrelated. Indeed when we continue long enough in this spiritual practice we can come to experience, not just have an insight about, but know experientially the unity of all manifest being. Then the only way we can offer the Prayer of the Lamb is to pray “have mercy on us.”
The Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” begins with an appeal for mercy to intervene in our condition, our situation, our environment. It is offering an intercession for what is seen as a need, and in saying “have mercy on us” it acknowledges that I myself am also impacted by the need seen in another. And continuing in meditation we can come to realize that the mercy, compassion, care, wisdom and grace needed are already abundantly present and available. In truth there is no separation or alienation from the compassion of God, just as much as it is not possible for any organism to exist separate from its ecosphere.
A key scripture text to support this is the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The darkness, may I suggest, is not some evil force or enemy, something that would pose a threat to the light, but nothing, no thing. What we objectify as darkness is rather our assumption that darkness is substantial and able to bind and limit life. It is our supposed separation and alienation from God. To quote my own teacher, “Darkness is a function of our ignorance about the truth of life. We think the world is dark, because we are dark in our awareness, and yet the world is all light, one radiant wholeness of love.” It is salvation to be freed of this self-limiting ignorance.
The condition of ignorance and darkness is within the state of awareness of the whole of our species. As our spiritual practice brings awakening, so too the compassion of this abundant mercy empowers us in our actions, translating meditation into compassionate service not only for other human beings but for the whole of the biosphere. The fruit of meditation is action on behalf of the whole bio-system intervening into the darkness of human hearts, shifting callousness, despair, rage, hatred, envy and greed into life-sustaining directions.
Each time you sit to meditate is a turning toward the light and a cooperation with divine self expression. Every time you meditate you are adding to growing awareness about the illusion of our separateness. Every time in meditation the individual, separate "I" of self identity is no more, and "we" as the miraculous union of all unique beings in the divine radiance of Yeshua becomes the substance of creation. Keep meditating!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)