------Cynthia Bourgeault
I read this book because I have attended classes taught by a good friend who is a Reiki master and Christian who teaches meditation techniques.
I have been retired now for three years, and I have not mastered the srt of slowing down. Thoreau, while living in Emerson's back yard contemplated nature, studied the growth of beans planted outside his dwelling, and wrote WALDEN, in 1851. He writes,
"Our lives are frittered with detail," and "We do not ride on the railroad, it rides upon us." Imagine what he would witness and feel if he time-traveled into our society today.
I believe that learning the art of meditation takes time and a regular, concerted effort. I have practiced mediation for a year now between shopping expeditions and attending to my busy daily life. I have not slowed down enough to attend to something as important as trying to seek God's help in centering my life through prayer and meditation.
Meditating at mass two days a week is impossible because of the distractions. I attend perpetual adoration with my husband, but again, I believe true and helpful meditation occurs when we motivate ourselves by a sustained effort to be alone contemplating, praying, and seeking to rid ourselves of thoughts so we can be spiritually connected.
Bourgeault, an Episcopal cleric, wrote this handbook as an introduction to meditative practices and spiritual contemplation and developing the art of being silent and "looking at ourselves in the third person."
In the first few of thirteen chapters, she discusses the process of beginning meditation and acknowledging God as the Supreme source from which flows strength and goodness and life itself. She quotes St. Augustine: "God is closer to your soul than you are yourself," biblical passages, functions of meditation in Eastern religions [the Buddhist masters who describe meditation as "developing a mind that clings to nothing," and the beginning of her meditative practice as a Quaker child.
Her many references to Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and Catholic writer, and Thomas Keating, the architect of Centering prayer in the late eighties, describe their advice about the process of "leaving thoughts behind," clearing our minds, and becoming self-reflective to promote inner healing. She devotes a chapter to Christian spiritual practice and theology centered around Jesus' contemplative teachings, St. Paul's theological reflections on contemplation and gives refers his hymn in Philippians 2:9-16 as the process of "self-emptying."
Bourgeault gives many examples of real people struggling to achieve the art of spiritual meditation. She refers to the imagery in The New Testament as "the great intercirculation of love." Applying Jesus' teachings and living them "with a sense of honor and commitment can radically transform a person."
In her epilogue Bourgeault describes prayer time as "letting go," the deepening power of prayer in daily life, the heart as "spiritual perception" as seen as the core of the human person in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," a "catalyst for the purification of the unconscious" and the result as trust and safety experienced in prayer.
Bourgeault ends this treatise on prayer and spiritual awakening with a summation of "finding one's true self":
- Surrender during prayer time
- Awareness carried into daily life
- Regular participation in a spiritual liturgical community
that "will keep [us] grounded in the mystical body of Christ."
Prayer, meditation, and contemplation, while different, all concentrate on communion with the Divine.
No comments:
Post a Comment