The Joy of Thoughtless Awareness

I got up just before sunrise this morning to meditate. It was calm, peaceful and silent. It’s an amazing experience at that time of the morning to really listen to nature coming awake.  Suddenly, in synchronized harmony with the first burst of sunlight, birds begin to sing. Not all at once, but gradually, like a movement in a symphony that begins with a solo instrument and builds to the full orchestra. The birds announce the arrival of light.

As I listened to the birds’ song in the peaceful state of thoughtless awareness that is the fulfillment of meditation, I was vividly aware that the birds and I are inextricably linked with one life. We share this one life through different perspectives and appearances. We are not experiencing different separate lives - but rather one life through different expression.

ONE LIFE - NO FEAR

When this is experienced - there is no fear.
There is no question of evil or sense of insecurity.
It is as if everything is complete right now just as it is.

Last night I went to a Sahaja Meditation meeting in Cincinnati.  As I meditated with those people from diverse races and backgrounds there is the same sense of completeness and sense of unity of life that I experienced with the birds this morning. It is not a communion in the religious sense; where our common practice unites us, but rather the practice reveals what is always the case but hidden from us by our self-centred acquisitive minds.

REALITY IN PRACTICE

Meditation is the purest expression of the full experience of living that I’ve ever known. The beauty of it is that it does not require any system of learned belief - it is a practice that can be tried and proven without having to acknowledge or accept strange or unfamiliar dogmas as a pre-requisite. The practice itself reveals reality - and there is no compulsion to argue about it with others or threaten others with the consequences of non-practice!

For over 30 years I had searched through every religion known to man to try to possess the truth - to try and hold onto what I was told and understood about God and reality. But I did not find it to be true to my experience - the God I intuitively know is different than the God described in “other people’s mail” that is traditional religion.

At the beginning of this year I made a commitment (I hesitate to say “resolution”) to commit to cease struggling with the truths of this and that religion, and to begin the earnest practicing of Meditation, and at the time, in the back of my mind, I was concerned that I’d lose interest or that I’d lose patience because of “lack of results” (as if there is something to be achieved!!).

But, I have found Meditation to be wonderful, fulfilling and surprisingly easy to practice.

It’s been wonderful to realize that by practicing Meditation instead of religion - I’ve gained something more fulfilling than both - LIFE.

A Growing Commitment to Reality

"It is very difficult to try to determine what it is that makes a person want to meditate. It has puzzled me over the years. There seem to be so many reasons why people start to meditate. But I think there is only one reason that keeps people meditating. That I think we could describe as a growing commitment to reality."

- from "The Way of Unknowing" by Dom John Main, Benedictine Monk

My first experience with Meditation was not what I had expected. I had no experience of visions, or “flashing lights” - it was quite ordinary and relatively easy. I was drawn to it because of the Beatles’ focused interest in it back in 1967 - as a means of reaching an altered state of consciousness without the influence of drugs. Unlike many of my peers though, I stuck with it, even though for years I did it "incorrectly," or practiced ineffectively. It wasn't a daily practice - although I tried to be disciplined about it. 

My interest in Meditation expanded to an interest in religion, as I began to question life's "meaning" and sought a "purpose" for everything. Religion seemed to give answers to difficult questions and provided a means of finding value for life. 

UNORGANIZED RELIGION

"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." - Groucho Marx

Just recently (in the past nine months) - I have found that I do not fit the mold of any institutional form of religion. I have really tried to be Orthodox - to be obedient to the formulas of the Church and other religious authority, but I see too much, and experience too much, of the natural human desire for control within these institutions; where the principals that were first developed to preserve the truth, have become the very means of its distortion. In my own opinion, I think that many of the rules and regulations of the various religious organizations are the result of an attempt to "lock down" reality into a desired formula. When those who lack the REAL personal "experience" of God or Spirit are placed in positions of leadership - there is a natural tendency to want to define truth in concrete terms.

Over the past couple of weeks - while away from home on vacation - I've been looking at the practical aspects of spiritual practice - not as a means of attainment, but as the means of "experiencing" reality. I do not feel distant from God as I once did - I no longer experience any space between God and Creation. I hasten to point out that I'm not a pantheist. Rather, I have become firm in a position as a Panentheist. God is not equal with creation - which is pantheism, rather I see God as containing all - all is in God.

Although I am unable to JOIN any particular religious group or order - I find myself able to appreciate them all when I see that which is consistent among them. 

NO RESOLUTIONS - JUST RESOLVE

"The longer you meditate, the the longer you persevere through the difficulties and false starts, then the clearer it becomes to you that you have to continue if you are going to lead your life in a meaningful and profound way. You must never forget the way of meditation: to say your mantra from the beginning to the end. This is basic, axiomatic, and let nothing dissuade you from the truth of it. In your reading you may come across all sorts of variants and alternatives. But the discipline, the ascesis of meditation places this one demand on us absolutely: that we must leave self behind so completely that we can be totally at the disposition of the Other. We must do so in an absolute way and that is the demand that the mantra makes upon us: to say it from beginning to the end, in all simplicity and in absolute fidelity.”

- from "The Way of Unknowing" by Dom John Main, Benedictine Monk

I'm not one for making New Year’s resolutions or vows - but I do like to make commitments to transformation for the better.  So I've come home to that which was the foundation of all my seeking - the practice of Meditation. It has been the one constant in a life of seemingly endless searching and seeking which I've determined has come to an end. There is no religion that does not fall short of its own definition of reality. 

As John Main astutely observes: the practice of Meditation places one absolute demand on us, and that is: "we must leave self behind so completely that we can be totally at the disposition of the Other.”

2010 is the year for Meditation - for experiencing more of this wonderful reality that is complete, as it is.   HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Resolution

" A way of limitless life requires on our part openness, generosity and simplicity. Above all, it requires commitment. Not commitment to a cause or ideology but commitment in our own lives to the simplicity of the daily return to the roots of our own existence, a commitment to respond to life with attention, to create the space in our own lives to live fully. What we learn in meditation , in the silence of it and in the simplicity of it, is that we have nothing to fear from the commitment to creating this space......What we all find in the experience of meditation is that our horizons are expanding, not contracting, and we find, not constraint, but liberty."

- Dom John Main, "Moment in Christ"

At this time of year I am usually still clinging resolutely to the list of new disciplines or attitudes that I intend to develop or improve in the new year.  

I have traditionally made these "New Year's Resolutions" by January 1st, and by as early as January 15th, I have wandered off track and found myself back in the same routine of behaviors and attitudes that are just part of me - the part that I always desire to change.  It's frustrating.

So why do I do it?

This year I realized that the problem with resolutions is perhaps more with how I've defined the word, and the resulting sense of constraint that comes with it. 

I've always applied the idea of resolutions to determinations, or strong intentions. However, there are other meanings:

For example, 

• In Music: Resolution describes the sound, or voice of a note moving from dissonance to consonance or vice versa. It creates an emotional response in the listener as it releases the tension or drama in a passage of music.
  
• In Communication: Resolution describes the process of moving from multiple points of view into a mutually agreed perception or decision.
• In Photography: Resolution describes the process of bringing an object into clearer view, either through focus or image quality.
• In Science and Logic: Resolution describes the process of solving a problem or analyzing the elements of a compound.

There are several other meanings - but the one that I like for my purposes today is:

Resolution: The act of analyzing complex notions into simpler ones.

So, this year, my resolution is singular. It is to simplify the complex notions that I have about life and all its parts and to resolve it into a wholistic way of living fully in the present. 

I am commiting myself to practice, as much as possible, a discipline of daily meditation. Sitting quietly, focusing on my breath and drawing my attention to the present moment, and letting mental distractions pass me by for twenty to thirty minutes, twice a day.

MANY IN BELIEFS, ONE IN PRACTICES

As I've studied various religions I've found that although in beliefs they differ widely,  in spiritual practices, for the most part, particularly in contemplative prayer,  - there is much unity. 

It is a shame that the art of contemplation and meditation has become associated with "Eastern" esoteric mysticism these days, because there is much historical evidence of its practice in Ancient and Eastern Christianity. There are tremendous similarities between the spiritual practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Mystic Judaism, Islamic Sufism and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In fact, there is evidence of direct shared influences between them as their ancient cultures mingled with each other along the "Silk Road."  

MEDITATING FOR PEACE IN 2009

If Buddhists, Christians, Moslems and Jews gather together for silent meditation without discussing doctrines, (i.e. the things that are believed but not provable), there is peace between them. I've seen it......

Note: There are many styles of meditation. Here's a link to the World Community for Christian Meditation website that has links to more information.

Recently, after a brief but profound period of silent meditation I felt led to write in my journal:

"Be your true self for the benefit of others"

I'm considering that as my resolution for 2009 - I'll keep you posted.