Our latest podcast meditation is yet another variation on a theme. It's along the same lines as the Letting Go, Simply Being, Effortless, Let it Be and Trust meditations. Each has a slightly different angle that points the mind to the same place, a place which isn't really a place. They help us to achieve a state of being in which there is a lack of resistance to the natural flow of life. This state of mind can be described in so many different ways. "Lack of resistance to the natural flow of life" is only one way to talk about it. "Resting in the source", the name of this new meditation, is another. And yet, words always fall short. Words have meaning, but the words used in these meditations are used to help the mind move beyond meaning. They are words to undo words.
The word "source" in the context of meditation is full of meaning for many people. I asked what it meant to people on our Facebook page, and it was interesting to read the responses. For some, source has spiritual or religious meaning; for others it is more secular. And yet, it's my feeling that the most fundamental meditative state is the same regardless of how we approach it. Sometimes images capture it best. In the meditation, the image of a fountain came to me. All of the water flows from the source and falls back into the source. Hopefully the meditation sets the stage to allow your mind rest at the still point from which everything emerges and to which everything returns.
Are prayer and meditation the same?
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I just re-read a beautiful piece by Adrianne Murchison examining whether there is a difference between prayer and meditation. She questions whether there is a difference because she learned to meditate through prayer. Saying the rosary transformed into silent meditation and the experience of Oneness for her. Here is how she describes her experience:
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"I’m Catholic and first learned to meditate years ago by saying the Rosary –a recitation of the “Hail Mary" prayer. I start by whispering the words. After a few minutes I am no longer whispering but, instead, mouthing the words in silence. Soon the words and my thoughts become laboring, because I am with God and they are not necessary. I let my words and thoughts go and simply experience Oneness."
What I've been exploring is at which point did the prayer become meditation? Is prayer the part where she is saying the words, since prayer is usually associated with speech and communication? Does it become meditation at the point when she lets go of the words and thoughts? Is meditation arriving at the point where she feels "with God" and no longer needs words? But then, isn't that how some people would define meditation, as a means of getting close to God or becoming one with God? Is it the transition from words to Oneness that defines it as meditation? Perhaps it becomes meditation because the experience of Oneness happens and there is no possibility of prayer in Oneness. If prayer is communication between self and "other", how could there be prayer when self and other have merged into one?
What struck me about her experience is that, although it occurred in the context of prayer and her religious and spiritual practice, it contains elements common to many meditative practices whose goal is to transcend thought and reach a deeper level of the mind where all is one. Many practices provide an object of attention as a means of allowing the mind to relax its focus, expand and move beyond duality to the experience of Oneness. It can happen with the repetition of a mantra, staring at a candle flame or even watching the breath. Letting go of thought is an essential element of this experience, as meaning keeps the mind engaged in distinctions like self and other, past and future, and in Oneness these distinctions dissolve.
The experience of Oneness can also happen spontaneously without prayer or meditation or any other practice. We love to do things that help that to happen -- like sitting and watching the fire in the fireplace, looking at the ocean waves come in and go out, and listening to music that takes us out of our heads and into our hearts.
I'd love to know what you think. Perhaps you meditate but don't pray. Or you might pray but not meditate. Maybe you do both, and maybe you do neither. But chances are you've had the feeling of being at one with everything at some point in your life. Have you experienced Oneness and, if so, do you know how it came about? What is prayer? What is meditation? What, if anything, makes them different?
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Do you have to be spiritual to meditate? Is prayer meditation? Where prayer and meditation meet
Decluttering and the Meditative Life
Was wondering what I'd blog about this week and a trip to our sunroom screamed "decluttering" to me. I hate to say why, but I'm sure you can guess. The sunroom has become a storeroom for our business -- full of boxes for things received, bubble wrap envelopes for CDs to mail, and all sorts of related stuff. Richard is great at keeping things neat. His tolerance for clutter is way lower than mine. But still sometimes we get busy and the boxes start to take over. Hence the room's cry for help. Well, truth be told, hence the cry for help by my psyche! As soon as I walked in the sunroom, I felt the energy of the clutter. It's unpleasant to say the least! I've promised myself to take care of it by day's end. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to doing it. I find decluttering to be a lot like meditation. It's a kind of meditation-in-action for me. It has the same calming and grounding effect when I do it in a relaxed, non-pressured way. It has to be done in a loving way. It can feel so self-nurturing when I'm not chiding myself for what I find, for having let it get out of control. It feels good when I allow myself to be there, fully present to all the sensations, emotions and thoughts that accompany the work, and that includes being present to the self-critical part of me! If I'm present to that self-critical part, I have a chance to cut myself some slack. It feels good when I allow myself to relax into it -- when I give myself "all the time in the world" to do it, not being pressured by the clock.
Is this sounding at all like meditation to you? It does to me. It's the same art. Meditation is all about the art of living, the art of how we do things. How we do something is totally about how we handle our inner world -- how we handle our thoughts, emotions and the experiences that come our way. We can make decluttering a meditative experience. Instead of starting out with a logical plan, I like to just dive in. I enter the room or area that needs to be cleared and organized and just start -- taking one step at a time as my intuition guides me. It's so much more relaxing that way.
I read an article with all sorts of tips about decluttering -- practical things to do. It sounded so intelligent, logical, effective. But I balked at the idea of following some rules, of having to things set up and plan in advance. That's the way that person decluttered -- it worked for them, but I can guarantee you that they didn't start out with that list. That's just how it developed as they did it and then they said -- wow, that worked -- now I can tell someone else how. I much prefer to get in there and discover how I do it. Like meditation, it's an exploration that reveals my own path to me. If I start out with a instruction manual, then I think there's a right and wrong way to do it. I start getting awkward and ignoring my own intuition and inclinations. What's more it becomes work when it can be play!
It's like writing this post. I had no idea when I started where it would take me. I just started writing and discovered where it took me. Just like meditation. Just like life.
A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
Something happened a couple weeks back that made a deep impression on me. I was walking a very familiar route I take around my neighborhood. I rounded a curve where I habitually speed up to get past a home where a dog barks loudly at me from a patio hidden by bushes. The barking is invariably followed by a gravelly woman's voice telling the dog to stop barking. This would be enough to make me want to hurry up, but the additional irritant of cigarette smoke wafting out to me adds to my scurrying. Sometimes I avoid that route altogether, but I like other things about it and on the day in question had elected to go that way.
Here's what happened on that day and here's why I titled this post "A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing". As I was hurrying by, I heard a voice call my name and turned to see a woman I know sitting in the patio. She was obviously there chatting with the gravelly voiced woman. Turning to say hello to my acquaintance, I heard the dog's owner say "Let him come out and see you so he'll get to know you and not bark next time". A few seconds later, "Bandit" emerged from behind the bushes.
Bandit was a most surprising, and welcomed, sight. Such a soft presence, he approached me gently and silently. He had the nicest, softest coat and I was sure he was a puppy (although I later learned he's 15 years old). He was the kind of dog you can't resist petting and seemed to have the sweetest disposition. I was stunned!
I accepted an invitation to join the two women on the patio, and there behind the bushes was the gravelly voiced lady, smiling and warm, and not at all like I had imagined. Hidden in the bushes was a birdbath surrounded by a skillful arrangement of beautiful plants. I felt I had entered a lovely little retreat. I stayed and chatted a bit, then continued my walk knowing my little neighborhood world would never feel the same.
The memory of this event has come back to me so often. I've wanted to blog about it and on my walk today pondered how it might relate to meditation. What occurred to me is that in meditation we have the opportunity to discover the sheep in wolf's clothing as ourselves. Do you ever feel like the "big bad wolf" when you are stressed? I do! And when I do I know I need to meditate. Meditation can bring out our inner sheep even in the most wolfish of times.
Blackberry picking and lessons on creativity
Blackberries can be sooooo delicious when they're soft and sweet, and sooooo disappointing when they're not. I've been picking them on a nearby road where they grow on a fence by a field. It's a great summer for blackberries. There are tons of them, enough to lure me back into berry picking after having given up on it last summer when I seemed to always come home with a bag of tart berries. But this year I discovered bring sweet, juicy berries home. What's more, honing my fruit picking skills has given me insights on creativity and life.
It all began with our plum tree in June. The plums are outrageously delicious -- incredibly sweet, juicy and perfumed with their own unique fragrance, but only when they're really ripe. We learned last year that when they fall off the tree, they are just perfect. Only problem is they often split open when they land, and a bagful of split plums soon degenerates into a mess. The trick then is to get the plum when it's just getting ready to fall, and you can do that by grasping them ever so carefully and giving just the slightest tug. Not a tug even, a faint whisper of a tug... If the plum falls into your hand, it's ripe. If it resists your tug, it's not ready. It may still be good, but not incredible, and why settle for good?
Having mastered plum picking, I was ready for the more delicate task of picking blackberries. One has to be ever so careful, not just dodging thorns, but tugging on the berries just right, being careful not to mush the ones that are truly ripe. It's a delicate operation. It takes patience, sensitivity to the bush's readiness to let go of its fruit. After all, the bush thrives by having bird's eat the berries when they are ripe, when the seeds are ready to be dispersed. There's a reason the fruit gets sweet when it does.
It takes patience to cooperate with the timing of the bush. It takes respect for its natural rhythms to enjoy the treasures it holds. You learn to listen, to cooperate with the life cycle of the bush, and when you do you are rewarded with a berry that drops effortlessly into your hand and tastes incredibly delicious.
Picking berries this way has allowed space for reflection as I pick. Since I am still in the midst of creating a new set of meditations, the parallels in the process of berry picking and giving birth to a new project became obvious. The ideas have to gestate and grow, and when they are ripe, they come easily. Like the berry bush that I return to day after day to cull the berries that are ripe that day, I have to leave the project to mature and ripen at its own pace. I spend time with it and then leave it. It percolates inside me and then when I work on it again, the latest "fruits" are ready for the picking. Inspirations come in their time, and I can't force them.
Letting the new project grow requires the same respect and trust that I'm learning in berry picking. I can't make the berries ripen faster. It's always tempting to try to pull off a berry that isn't really ready. It just doesn't work. It's not fun, actually. It feels as if the bush is resisting. If I do manage to get one off, it doesn't taste good. Creativity can't be forced. It comes in its time fueled by the same vital force that ripens the fruit. Sure, you can make sure a fruit tree is planted in the sun and gets enough water and fertilizer, but then you just have to wait. You can nourish yourself with adequate rest, exercise, meditation -- but you still have to wait.
My fruit picking is teaching me that patience, respect, and trust. The blackberry bush is teaching me its lesson as I learn to listen. The new project will be finished on its schedule, in its time. I can try to push it, but it will only result in frustration and will get me nowhere. Or I can surrender to the process. I don't have any more ability to hasten the creation of my new meditations than I have the ability to make the fruit ripen. This realization is humbling, and it's also a relief. If I don't seem to be making progress on a project, I can just let it go, knowing it will come in its time.
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