Meditation for Thursday 12th October 2023
Some years ago at a lecture by a Buddhist monk I recall he said that if we meditated regularly we would achieve nirvana, i.e. Perfection. As a young man I remember being taught in a religion class that it should be our goal in life to be perfect. Let me tell you a story…
Two young men, Hugo and Simon were talking in the pub. Hugo asked Simon if he had ever considered getting married. Simon said that a couple of years ago he set out to find the perfect woman. First he travelled to Byron Bay, where he found a gracious and beautiful girl but discovered she had no spiritual depth. Then his travels took him to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, where he met a deeply spiritual girl but unfortunately they didn’t communicate well together. Finally he travelled to Margaret River on the south coast of Western Australia and there at a winery he found his perfect partner. She was the ideal partner, gracious, spiritual, beautiful, at ease with the world, perfect in every way.
“Well” said Hugo, “ Did you marry her?”
“No,” answered Simon, “Unfortunately she was looking for the perfect man.”
The mature heart is not perfectionistic. To think that meditation can make us perfect is idealistic and romantic. Meditation is a tool on the journey on which we strive to be our authentic selves. Meditation is not about gaining or attaining but rather about love and freedom. A mature heart rests in the compassion of our being instead of in the ideals of the mind…Poet Mary Oliver wrote…
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves….”
In deep self-acceptance let us enter the stillness of meditation.
Meditation
__________________________
For information about the programs offered by the Carmelite Centre go to www.thecarmelitecentremelbourne.org