28. Alternative Meditation

For some, the idea of emptying one’s mind might seem too daunting a task.  I understand, it is a difficult practice to master.  And for some of us, we are not in a place to easily empty our minds of what is going on around us.  We need to remember that the Spirit does not demand the same spiritual practice of everyone, and there is a path to the Spirit for each person.  We will be exploring many different spiritual practices, and we must choose the ones that make sense for us.

Another option of emptying one’s mind, is to narrow one’s focus to one phrase.  For instance, I  might repeat the phrase in song, 

Speak to me Lord, for your child is here, listening
Speak to me Lord, for your child is here, waiting

On the first phrase, I will breathe out, and on the second, I will breathe in, allowing my body rhythm to be wrapped around the prayer.  This one works for me for my usual gift of the Spirit is him speaking to my spirit.  

But other phrases can also be used, such as “Jesus, son of God, Savior, have mercy on me.”  Or make up a phrase of your own, “Cleanse me, heal me”, for example.

Just repeat the phrase, even under your breath, and whenever your mind wishes to explore the everyday troubles and concerns, just go back to the phrase, focusing on it alone. 

27. Your Meditation Gift

In that space of meditation, you may receive a gift from the Spirit.  It is not a special state of grace, nor is it your reward for reaching a spiritual plateau.  Rather, it is simply the Spirit meeting you so that he might meet your needs and the needs of those whom you know.

Some, in that place, might speak in tongues.  This is known by some as glossolalia, a form of speech that might sound like babbling or an unknown language.  It seems strange at first, but one gets used to it after a while.  It is the Spirit making a request of the Divine through you.  It is especially granted those who do not know how to pray, or what to say.  The Spirit then gives the gift of praying without conscious thinking activity, allowing the Divine to act, despite our ignorance.

Some might hear the voice of the Spirit.  In the deafening silence of the mind, the Spirit is free to speak and to direct.  To some, the Spirit might send a vision or dream (if asleep in the Spirit).  To others the Spirit might give a direct word. 

Whatever the case, the exercise is to keep listening, to not allow your concerns to overwhelm what the Spirit is accomplishing in you. 

26. Meditation

To meditate is to intently pay attention to something with all of one’s mind.  The spiritual practice of meditation is to intently listen to that which one cannot physically hear.

There are two spiritual practices commonly called “mediation.”  We will speak of the meditation of Scripture later.  Here, we wish to focus on meditation without an object.

This form of meditation is stereotypically considered to be in a “lotus” position, legs crossed. The most important thing is to remain comfortable and stable but still alert.  Sitting on a chair would work, or on the floor.  Laying down encourages one to sleep, which isn’t the goal of the practice.

The next step is to empty one’s mind, which sounds like one must take a broom, and sweep the cobwebs out.  But really, it is a waiting game.  You sit, and allow thoughts and worries and tasks to appear in your mind, but do not engage them.  Just let them go by the wayside, and do that with all the thoughts that appear.  Until you are left with nothing.

And in that nothingness is where the Spirit may dwell.  This meditation is obtaining the silence, not just of sound, but of the mind and soul. It is an inner peace where one might find that which no ear may hear, and no eye may see. 

25. Rest

“Humanity was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for humanity.”-Jesus

Perpetual fatigue destroys.  Should the stress of our everyday lives not kill us, the turmoil and chaos left in the wake of overwork and constant pressure leaves nothing but an empty quivering shell of resentment and pain.  This is not to say that there are not seasons which we must work past our limit—after childbirth, to support our families in poverty, to save the lives of those near death, for example.  But we must follow those seasons with deep, unqualified rest.

It is a misconception that some advertise that the Spirit is in opposition to the body.  The Spirit made the body, and loves the well-working flesh.  The Spirit created the body to be in balance, and that balance is peace, which the Spirit covets.  Part of that balance is labor, and part of that balance is rest.  The Spirit demands for us to rest, as much as he demands us to labor, for in that balance is health.

Health is not the most important aspect to peace on the earth—that would be love.  But the body that is unbalanced cannot love, for deep stress creates a body that is desperately trying to preserve itself, even at the cost of others. Generosity comes from well-being.

There have been times when the Spirit so desired for me to rest that I was led to a quiet room, in a comfortable chair, my eyes were drawn closed and, in the presence of the Spirit, I slept.  A deep sleep, that when I awoke I knew that the Spirit had never left me.  He was not offended by my rest, but created it for my sake.

There are times when we go to the Spirit and he asks us to just rest.  May we listen to that call. 

24. Sabbath

“Keep the seventh day holy.  On that day, you shall do no labor.” –Ten Commandments

One of the earliest spiritual disciplines is to stop working.  We are never told, in those early texts, what we are to do, only that we must stop the toil of everyday life.  That toil is essential, it is the warp and woof of the molecular structure of who we are.  But it must never become all of our being. 

As human beings, we must create.  And our everyday work, even when we work for another, allows us to do that.  Even if our labor is security through the hours nothing dramatic happens, in our pay we create a living space, the means to purchase food, the bulk of our lives.  We must make something beyond ourselves, for this is the Creation impulse of the Spirit in us.

The Spirit, who created our form, recognizes that we must rest, even as he himself does.  He created us to be complex beings, both physical and spiritual omnivores.  Our souls are made to swallow and ingest all that we come across.  If our spiritual and mental diet consists of only one kind of action, then our souls become congested, sick, unable to create.  If our lives are centered around toil, then our spiritual diet is unbalanced, and it breaks our souls.

We must cease our labor, for a time, on a regular basis.  Traditionally, this is measured as six periods of labor, one period of ceasing toil.  This is not supposed to be a strict necessity, this time frame.  But it is a fair measure of health.  We work to create with our labor for six days and then we rest to create balance and ingenuity with a day. 

23. Silence

“Come to the quiet. Come and fill your soul like a child at rest on her mother’s breast.”

We live in a world of terrible noise.  I drove down a highway today, and along the sides of the road were thousands of signs all screaming to me, “Pay attention to me!”  This is to such a degree that I find it difficult to find the signs I should really pay attention to, warning me to be careful, or to stop for others. Eventually, I arrived at my destination—a Trappist monastery.  And as I entered the building, there is a single sign which says, “Silence is deep as eternity.”

To seek the Spirit is to seek silence. The world shouts at us, clamors for our attentions, demands and cajoles and shakes us.  The Divine, however, is quiet, whispers in our ear, lulls us.  It is through the quiet that the Divine changes the world. While it might not seem like much of a strategy, we need to remember that the Spirit understands our souls better than we.  Our souls prefer to find (rather than to be given), and then they adopt what they have discovered.  Our souls wish to reveal secrets that most have not heard.  Our souls find no nourishment in the push-and-pull of merchandising, but in the silence that feeds.

The Spirit waits in the place of silence, waits for our silence so that we might meet him.  The Spirit does not want us distracted by the Many Things, but focused on the One.  Of course, our lives are full of the Many: the children, the internet, the busy street.  This is the place in which we live.  But the Spirit calls us, constantly, to silence so that we might find the One.  And the One is that which directs us through the Many so we can accomplish what is most significant. Until we spend regular time in silence, we will not find the important. 

Drink in silence as one might drink a huge mug of a hearty mead.  Become drunk on the joys of her pleasure.

22. Exercises: Private and Public

I am dividing the exercises we discuss into two categories: private and public.  According to Jesus, there are two commands, reflections of each other, we should follow to have a spiritual life.  The first is to love the Divine.  The second is to love those around us.  These loves are not the same, but to enact one love has an immediate effect on the other love.

The love of the Divine is primarily private.  Jesus spoke of praying in a closet, of giving to the poor in secret.  This is not because there is any value in secrecy, except that we are not doing these actions for anyone else but the Divine.  We are not trying to impress anyone, we are not trying to get people to tell us how spiritual we are.  Even so, there are some actions that are best done without anyone else observing.

In a sense, the core of our spiritual life is private.  We may rest in the Spirit and be completely open and relaxed, knowing that the Spirit loves us and has complete mercy on us. It is in that place that the Spirit builds up our core, and makes us a transformed, renewed person.

However, if we do not spend time with others, then we cannot love them and so we are not fulfilled spiritually.  The life in the Spirit is taking time to spend meditation in him, in solitude, and taking time to allow others to lead us to the Spirit through their graces and irritations, through their glories and their horrors.   We must take care to choose some exercises which gets us alone with the Divine and to choose others which cause us to be among others, seeking opportunities to love. 

21. Choosing Exercises

Below, (beginning with number 23) I will begin listing exercises of a wide variety.  Our task, at this point, is to find a beginning path to the Spirit.  This path will consistent of a set of exercises that we practice regularly.  As mentioned above, the path you choose may not be the same as another seeking the Spirit.  It probably won’t.  The Spirit knows you intimately, and you and the Spirit will choose a set of exercises, and the level of practice between the two of you.

If you like, look over the list below and pick two or three exercises that resonate with you.  Then use the tips in each section, making an attempt to practice them.  There may be an exercise that immediately doesn’t feel right to you.  That is fine, set it aside and next time choose another.  There may be some exercises that you gain some benefit from, but over time you realize that it is not for you.  Again, that is fine, just set it aside and pursue another one.

Then there may be an exercise that you reject.  It is too difficult, too outside the scope of your experience.  That’s fine.  But don’t be surprised if the Spirit later leads you back to the unthinkable practice.  Again, the Spirit knows us better than we know ourselves.  What may not work for us now might be the very thing we need later in our lives.

Whatever path you choose or attempt, don’t fail to do it.  If you aren’t in the mood, practice it anyway. If you get distracted and forget, pick it up and do it at the next possible opportunity.  The important thing is to act it out, regularly, until it becomes second nature.  That will take a long time.  Well, be patient.  The spiritual life isn’t an instant breakfast.  It’s a long term project, just like growing up.

You will fail.  You might even set your spirituality aside for a time.  But always come back.  The Spirit will be there, ready for you when you come. 

20. Examination

It is a fair task to examine ourselves.  The Spirit already knows where and how we are broken.  Perhaps we know some of our brokenness, and perhaps we do not.  For certain, when we begin with the Spirit, we cannot possibly understand how deep our brokenness extends.  Nor does the Spirit want us to know.  To understand how deep of a task we have before us to be healed is overwhelming at best, and a cause for us to give up any future work at repair at worst.

It is good to take time to examine ourselves, to give ourselves an evaluation.  The method I often use to examine myself is to ask two questions of my life and to create lists beneath both.  Below, I give you a list of question pairs that you can use to examine yourself.  Do not use all of them at one time.  For now, just answer one pair, or perhaps two, and you can leave the others for another time.  Some of the pairs of questions may not open up your life at all—that’s fine.  Just skip them and work on a pair of questions that reveals something about who you are.

• What do I need in my life? / What needs of others do I meet?
• Where is the Divine in my life?/ What parts of my life need the Divine?
• What is separating me from God?/ Where does God meet me?
• How do I act like Jesus?/ How should I act like Jesus?
• What habits separate me from the Spirit?/What disciplines might renew me to the Spirit?
• What relationships are breaking me and how?/ Where is God in the people I have broken relationships with?
• What about myself needs forgiveness?/ How do I display forgiveness?
• Who are the people I view negatively?/ What is the good in those people?
• Why am I overwhelmed? / How does God want me to have balance?
• What things in my life harm me?/ What aspects of my life are healing?
• What discipline do I need to add to my life?/ What am I willing to give up to make the discipline happen?
• What things in my life cause uncontrollable anger?/ What things grant me peace in my life?
• What things in my life do I worry about? / What can be changed through love?
• What do I expect from others? / Am I fair in my expectations? 
• How is God great? / What do I wish God to do for me that he hasn’t done yet?

Take the questions you chose and the answers you discovered and give them to the Spirit, allowing him to work with you on these areas.