Meditation for Thursday 10th August 2023
Central to our meditation practice are….
- Concentration.
- Tranquility.
- Insight.
Concentration because we focus our attention on the breath, a mantra, a mandala etc. When we dwell in this state of concentration our mind becomes tranquil. Without tranquility we can’t experience the openness and the clarity within which insight can emerge. Without insight our meditation practice cannot advance beyond relaxation.
Insight takes us into our interior life, the inner world of our being. Its here, if we want to progress, that we let go of any intellectual analysis. The language of our interior life is intuitive and paradoxical. We suspend logical questioning and accept what occurs. This is not anti-intellectual as there is a place and a time for rigorous enquiry but not during meditation.
The ‘self’ the ego, the learned person we think we are can be a barrier to progress. Meditation places us in touch with a much more thoughtful sense of our being, a sense which transforms us both in our relationship with our self and in our relationships with others.
At a deeper level our meditation dissolves any boundaries between the inner and outer, between our interior life and our outer life in the world.
Aldous Huxley referred to ‘perennial wisdom’, a wisdom that is taught by the great spiritual teachers, and then rediscovered by men and women in our own hearts.
The path of meditation is a path in tune with the flow of life itself, a path that follows to its source the creative spirit which underlies everything we do and that sustains and renews our life, moment by moment.
(The above reflection is based on the writings of David Fontana from his book
The Meditator’s Handbook, Element Books Ltd, 1992)
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for information about their forthcoming programs.
Meditation
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