Meditation for Thursday 15th December 2022
Over the years I’ve been asked many questions about meditation but perhaps the one I’ve been asked the most is “Is meditation a spiritual practice?” Usually a follow-up question is, “What is spirituality?” I like this broad definition which I found in a book with the alluring title, “Beat Stress with Meditation” (Auth: Naomi Ozaniec. Pub: Hodder Headline, UK 2010)
“The word spiritual relates to attitudes, to relationships, and to the moving forward from one level of thinking to the next. It is related to the power to see a new vision and new and better possibilities. It refers to every effect of the evolutionary process as it drives us forwards from one range of sensitivity to another: it relates to expansion of consciousness, to all activity which leads towards further development. The discoveries of science or the production of some great work in literature or in the field of art are just as much evidence of spiritual unfoldment as the experiences of the mystic.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that definition and many of us will do so with the underpinning of our life experience and in some instances religious tradition. It’s clear that the definition is spelling out a way that is an alternative to the purely materialistic values of life.
Meditation offers an alternative to acquisitive thinking; it is a means of harmonizing or resolving the apparent conflict between the spiritual and material aspects of living. Without that resolve life can be stressful. With meditation as a regular practice in our life we don’t ignore the injustice that accompanies materialistic ideology but rather we gain a sharpened self-awareness.
Meditation
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