Meditation for Thursday 10th March 2022
We practice meditation and punctuate our days with mindfulness practices to help us live a more ordered life; a life lived in the present moment. When life challenges us with illness, pain, loss or death we are easily thrown off balance and meditation becomes a testing trial at these times.
In meditation, in the practice to which we are accustomed we strive to empty our mind by using concentration techniques such as the breath, a mantra etc. Yet in those times as described above we might well gain some benefit by allowing ourselves to explore our challenges as this can result in a positive effect on our life.
By dwelling on things when life is very tough and then allowing our self to drift into our usual practice we can get some relief and we are armed with the additional knowledge that we can rely on meditation and mindfulness even when things fall apart.
Sometimes the circumstances of one’s life can be overwhelmingly stressful. People have financial problems, live in a dysfunctional situation, can’t find employment and struggle from day to day just to make ends meet. When encountered with this kind of stress things start falling apart. There is nothing that meditation or mindfulness can do to fix these practical problems but it can keep us from the edge of despair and help us to preserve some centredness and self-esteem through our struggles.
When we find ourselves in these situations it’s easy to think we can’t meditate. And sometimes the pain or loss is so great that we can’t! But if we can find the time and energy at these times it will be rewarding because if we imagine that meditation is only for the good times then we are greatly mistaken.
Our meditation and mindfulness practices are about approaching each moment of our life, even those moments of difficulty with awareness and with the intention of decreasing suffering for our self and for others.
Now let us meditate in the way in which we are accustomed. If you have a problem that is absorbing all your energy at present you might like to spend the first few minutes of our meditation time reflecting on those problem gradually letting them go and emptying your mind but don’t beat yourself up if you keep returning to the source of your difficulty.
MEDITATION
Take a look at the zoom offerings currently available through the Carmelite Centre by going to www.thecarmelitecentremelbourne.org