dhyana-the group

It wasn't a group tonight. Just me. I lit the Advent wreath and altar candles, and plugged in the sanctuary Christmas tree that was still up. I did the Smiling Buddha kriya for the first 11 minutes (Sa-Ta-Na-Ma) and then just sat and listened to the silence in my body. You know, bodies aren't really that quiet. You can hear the heart beating, the occasional gurgle and, in my case, the ears ringing.

It was sweet. And went by very fast.

Last week I told the others that I would no longer do a guided meditation. I will just unlock the church at 7 and sit. They can come anytime between 7 and 7:25 and let themselves in. I'll lock the door when I leave and they can let themselves out.

I'm going to like this even more without having the prepare a meditation.

New Year, New Kriya

Happy 2011! It'll be a great year, I'm sure. I liked 2010, though. I really didn't have any  major complaints.

I've taken on a meditation mentor to bounce ideas off of, and to give me ideas for meditation strategies. She is my kundalini teacher. I only get to see her a few times a year, as her class is during the day when I'm working. The studio has three other teachers who actually lead meditation sits, but something pulled me to this teacher instead. We have one of those funny, unspoken spiritual connections.

So she's give me the Smiling Buddha Kriya to do for the next 40 days. To cultivate Christ Consciousness. You sit in easy pose, hold your hands up at 30 degree angles, bend down your ring and pinky fingers, holding them with your thumb. You then inhale Sa-Ta-Na-Ma and exhale Sa-Ta-Na-Ma. 11 minutes. The meanings are infinity, life, death and rebirth. It is said that Jesus practiced this meditation. I don't know how that would be verifiable, but it adds meaning to me.

Think about it. Who other than Jesus would truly understand this life cycle? Jesus is the only person who actually experienced this in its' entirety. And if he did this while on earth, it would have been a constant reminder of his mission here.

So my primary goal this year is to meditate and do some asana 365 days in a row. My mentor also gave me a 15 minute morning set to do, so this is definitely something that can be in my schedule. I just need to be sure I keep it up on weekends and breaks!

All that said, I must add that this 15 minute set has some killer moments! I mean, do we really need to pull the root lock THAT many times? And on the exhale? I'll see if I can find it online and link to it. The worst part is the shoulder stand bit. You hold shoulder stand for 3 minutes, which isn't a problem, but you pull the root lock on the exhale, and kick your legs at the same time. I get quite out of breath doing that upside-down.

dhyana-the group

The Centering Prayer & Meditation group has still been continuing, but attendance has been very sparse. I did not get to use the December 9 meditation until December 16 because my husband and I were the only ones there. On December 23 I used an Advent meditation by Henri Nouwen:

"Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for his coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting that we have already seen God's footsteps.
Waiting for God is an active, alert - yes, joyful - waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes."

dhyana-the group

Centering Prayer & Meditation

December 9, 2010

Are you awake?

This meditation is excerpted from the book “Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now,” by Gregory A. Boyd.

Living in Love

Whoa! Challenging chapter. In this chapter of Boyd’s book, he gets right to the heart of learning to live in love of others.

The chapter begins with a discussion about our addiction to information. Contemporary Christians are very much into reading books, hearing sermons and attending seminars. We do this because we have the belief that acquiring more information will help us grow and become more Christ-like. This quote by Brother Lawrence says it all:

“We need neither art nor science for going to God. All we need is a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him, for His sake, and to love Him only.”

I know in my own life, I tend to rely on a lot of research to improve myself. I Google, I read books and I ask others about whatever it is I want to become part of my life. In fact, Boyd’s book is one of the many I have collected recently about meditation. On Friday night I plan to attend a class about meditation. I am currently participating in a global meditation challenge to practice for 11 minutes each day for 40 days.

But ultimately, what has really helped me in my practice is just DOING IT.

Boyd does not throw out information as a bad thing. But he does gently encourage us to just DO the practice of awareness of God’s presence. We are to practice loving each other as Jesus does. We need to practice seeing others as individuals that Christ died for. No matter how much they may annoy us or hurt us.  He says, “It’s not about having a nice warm feeling toward another. It’s about ascribing worth to another, at cost to ourselves when necessary.”

I John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Boyd points out that loving like Jesus requires next to no information.

So back to the “Present Moment” thing: we will not be successful in our attempts to love as Christ loved unless we are aware of His presence in our lives each moment. If we can learn to see each moment as a sacred moment in God’s presence, then we can see each encounter with others as sacred, as well.

And so, Boyd gives us this challenge: “…to remain awake to the truth that each person you encounter has unsurpassable worth, not because of anything worthwhile you happen to see in them, but because their Creator thought them worth dying for.”  And this is the essence of what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God:

Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

dhyana-the group

Centering Prayer & Meditation

December 2, 2010

Are you awake?

This meditation is excerpted from the book “Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now,” by Gregory A. Boyd.

Single-Mindedness

Boyd begins this chapter by discussing how we’ve been programmed to view the world as though God were not present moment-by-moment. We are caught up in the human experience and not aware that God is here, with us, every second. He refers to this as the “flesh-mindset.”

Romans 8:6-7 “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” And Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

How does this flesh mindset happen? Through our lives we have experiences, see things, hear things, that we use to develop our worldview. Our minds are “programmed,” so to speak, with beliefs that run in the background of our lives.

So then we accept Christ, or even become aware of God, we learn all about Him and that he is omnipresent, but that knowledge doesn’t actually CHANGE the way we view the world moment-by-moment. Sure, we are aware of God’s presence, but we seem to dance in and out of awareness. Boyd says “we are living as semi-conscious slaves to our past programmers, and God’s presence will be habitually censored out of our awareness.” He says this is what James meant in chapter 1 verse 8 when he said we are “double-minded.” In verse 6 he compares us to a wave in the ocean, tossed and blown by the wind. Boyd recaps this by saying “We live in contradiction between what we believe is true and what we experience as real.”

So, we need to become single-minded. There you go. Easy! (maybe not so much)

The main way to do this is invite God to be your companion in everything you do. Try to remain conscious of the fact that, no matter what you doing…washing dishes…reading the paper…working at your desk…doing things, that there is another thing going on at the same time all the time. God is there. Next to you. Within you. Share with Him what you doing. Keep up a running dialogue with Him. Turn everything you do into an act of service and worship.

As we begin to wake up to God’s presence we’ll start to notice how much garbage there is in our brains. We’ll start to notice how caught up we have been with the past and the future, and how focused we’ve been on ourselves. The key is to just take note of it, and redirect. Don’t get caught up in self-judgment. Just take notice and redirect. Eventually you’ll start to notice less and less garbage and more and more God.

 

dhyana-the group

Centering Prayer & Meditation

November 11, 2010

Are you awake?

This meditation is excerpted from the book “Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now,” by Gregory A. Boyd.

Finding Home

This is the title of Boyd’s second chapter. God created us with a hunger for LIFE. A hunger for feeling like we matter. Animals really only care about biological needs: shelter and food. After that, they are satisfied. But humans are not satisfied with just those things. We feel empty unless we sense that our lives serve an “ultimate purpose.”

God wants to share Himself with us. He wants us to participate in his divine nature. Boyd says it’s like we have a sort of “homing-device” built into our being that keeps dragging us toward communion with our creator. But He also has given us a choice. And often we push God away.

When we push Him away, it does not turn off the homing device. It just gets redirected and we end up trying to satisfy our longing for meaning by looking in other directions: affluence, fame, maybe earthly relationships.

Boyd get a little controversial, I think, when he talks about our beliefs. He says we tend to place great importance on beliefs but don’t really seem to internalize those beliefs. He stops just short of calling us idolaters. Believing Jesus is Lord doesn’t make Him so. It’s what we do with that belief. It’s the conscious act of submitting our lives to Him and making him Lord of our lives. By chasing after things other than our relationship with God, we fail to become full and complete citizens of heaven.

“Money, praise, poverty, opposition, these make no difference, for they will all alike be forgotten in a thousand years, but this spirit which comes to a mind set upon continuous surrender, this spirit is timeless life.” ~Frank Laubach

Live in the Present Moment

Chasing our worth outside of God’s kingdom takes us out of the present moment:

“If you doubt this, investigate your own soul. How much of your thought-life is spent in the past or future, and what is the purpose for this nonpresent thinking? You may be so accustomed to living in the past and the future that you find it difficult to notice how much of your thought-life is spent there, let alone why you spend so much of your thought-life there. But if you are completely honest with yourself, you’ll probably find that most of your past and future-orientated thoughts revolve around you and are centered on your attempts to feel worthwhile and significant.

When we feel perpetually hungry in the flesh, we spend a great deal of our thought-life savoring past experiences or possible future experiences that make us feel more worthwhile and significant. We also spend a great deal of time ruminating over past experiences or worrying about possible future experiences that will make us feel less worthwhile and significant. All the while we are strategizing over how to position ourselves to have more of the worth-giving  experiences and how to better avoid the worth-detracting experiences.”

“The very process of trying to acquire Life on our own forces us to miss most of life, for real life is always in the present moment.”

Boyd talks about finding “home,” or “reorienting the homing device,” by practicing the presence of God. So tonight I’m going to read an exercise from his book that he says helped him to experience God’s closeness and helped him feel “at home.”

“Think for a moment about the way God designed the world and the laws of nature to support you. Unless you’re living in a zero-gravity environment, your body is always in contact with something and is always being supported in multiple ways. At this moment, your feet are probably being supported by the floor and your body is probably resting on a chair or sofa. When you lie down tonight, your body will be supported by your bed. Your skin is always touching some other part of the physical world, and that touch can be transformed into a little signal from the Father that he is watching over you and caring for you.

In this moment, turn your attention to the points of contact between your body and the things that are supporting your weight. Become aware of the weight of your body against the chair, your feet against the floor, and so on… Allow yourself to rest in that support and realize that every point of contact reflects the truth that you are held in existence each and every moment by the perfect love of God.

God is personally holding you securely in the world. He cares that you have places to rest. Throughout your day, turn your attention over and over again to these physical points of contact and transform these physical sensations into a deeper awareness of the great love of God.”

Peter 1: 3 – 4: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

dhyana-the group

(Note: I'm sorry I didn't post this on time. There is no excuse. I just forgot! I'm backdating it so that it will show up in the right spot on the blog)

Are you awake?

This meditation is excerpted from the book “Letters by a Modern Mystic,” by Frank C. Laubach

Laubach recalls this hymn, Moment by Moment

Lyrics: Daniel W. Whittle

Music: May W. Moody

First published in 1896

Here is a website that has all the lyrics and a midi of the tune.

“Moment by moment, I’m kept in His love;

Moment by moment, I’ve Life from above;

Looking to Jesus til glory doth shine;

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.”

Frank Laubach was a missionary in a remote location of the Philippines and in 1935 founded of the “Each One, Teach One” literacy program, designed to teach about 60 million people how to read their own language. In 1955 he founded “Laubach Literacy,” which is a worldwide literacy program. He is the author of a devotional pamphlet called “The Game with Minutes,” which challenges Christians to keep God in their mind for at least one second of every minute of the day. “Letters by a Modern Mystic” is a compilation of excerpts from letters he wrote to his father about his experiences with the game of minutes.

I Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”

Laubach writes: “My teacher…told me this week that a good Muslim ought to utter the sacred word for God every time he begins to do anything, to sleep, to walk, or work, or even turn around. A good Muslim would fill his life with God. I fear there are few good Muslims. Bus would a real Christlike Christian speak to God every time he did anything—and I fear there are few good Christians.”

The Game with Minutes

1.    Select a favorable hour. Try to choose one where you think you might be most likely to succeed. See if you can keep track of how many times you thought of God…at least once each minute for how many different minutes. The easiest hour to start might be the Worship hour in church. Don’t use a scorecard for more than an hour. Start with a fresh one each hour.

2.    Try thinking of God each time you encounter a person, or see a person.

3.    Try leaving something in front of you that will remind you of God.

4.    Wear something on your wrist, or finger, or around your neck that will remind you as it moves. I wear a Sikh Kara on my left wrist. The purpose of the kara in the Sikh tradition is to remind the wearer of the "soul's highest purpose." As it moves around on my wrist and clanks on things, it reminds me of my purpose to serve God and His people.

5.    While reading, read as though you are reading to God—sharing the material with Him.

6.    Keep a running commentary in your head of your activities—sharing with Him what you are doing.

dhyana-the group

Centering Prayer & Meditation

October 21, 2010

Posture

Tonight we’ll talk more about the MECHANICS of meditation. Posture is really 95% of the issue, in my book. For most it may not be. But I have persistent issues with body pain and stiffness. So being at ease in meditation is the biggest hurdle. Once my body is taken out of the equation, then my mind can go to other places.

Here’s an interesting checklist I found on a Buddhist meditation site called how-to-meditate.org:

“…it is a good idea to become accustomed to sitting in the posture of Buddha Vairochana. If we cannot hold this posture we should sit in one which is as close to this as possible while remaining comfortable.

The seven features of Vairochana’s posture are:

(1) The legs are crossed in the vajra posture. This helps to reduce thoughts and feelings of desirous attachment.
(2) The right hand is placed in the left hand, palms upwards, with the tips of the thumbs slightly raised and gently touching. The hands are held about four fingers’ width below the navel. This helps us to develop good concentration. The right hand symbolizes method and the left hand symbolizes wisdom – the two together symbolize the union of method and wisdom. The two thumbs at the level of the navel symbolize the blazing of inner fire.
(3) The back is straight but not tense. This helps us to develop and maintain a clear mind, and it allows the subtle energy winds to flow freely.
(4) The lips and teeth are held as usual, but the tongue touches against the back of the upper teeth. This prevents excessive salivation while also preventing our mouth from becoming too dry.
(5) The head is tipped a little forward with the chin slightly tucked in so that the eyes are cast down. This helps prevent mental excitement.
(6) The eyes are neither wide open nor completely closed, but remain half open and gaze down along the line of the nose. If the eyes are wide open we are likely to develop mental excitement and if they are closed we are likely to develop mental sinking.
(7) The shoulders are level and the elbows are held slightly away from the sides to let air circulate.”

Whew!

To be honest, the best advice I can give about posture is to find what works for you each time. And I say “each time,” because it’s just going to vary depending upon how you are feeling each day. Here are some of the postures I’ve used:

1.    Legs up the wall. This is a great way to bring relaxation and support for a tired body. But it can also be dangerous because you can fall asleep! (yep, I’ve found myself an hour later slumped over on the floor)

2.    Lying down with legs on a chair or other piece of furniture

3.    Seated on the floor, cross-legged. Maybe on a cushion

4.    Seated in a chair

5.    Meditation seat

6.    Facedown, either in child’s pose or just spread-eagled. The later can be a problem because you have your head turned one way. The former can be an issue if your lower legs tend to fall asleep. You can prop up in the pose, though.

I used nothing but legs up the wall when I got started. But I also started during a time when my body was very upset. Now I sit most of the time. Sometimes on a meditation seat, sometimes on a cushion.

What it really boils down to is that you need to find that comfortable spot that eliminates physical discomfort from your practice, so that you can take your attention elsewhere.

Yogi Erich Schiffmann has a podcast on his website where he describes getting into a position. Listen especially to minutes 3 to 7.

During meditation we listened to Ashana's "The Aramaic Lord's Prayer" and then had 10 minutes of silence.

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Presence and Waiting…the essence of waiting on God.

This meditation is excerpted from the book “Sacred Waiting,” by David Timms

Psalm 62:1-“My soul waits in silence for God only.”

Think of a waiter in a restaurant. He comes to your table, introduces himself, he might tell you what the specials are. He is being present for you, establishing a connection with you, putting you at ease. Then he proceeds to serve you. He brings you what you request.

Unfortunately we often seem to treat God as our waiter, instead of us being His! We come to Him in prayer, telling him everything we need and then we expect him to take care of our requests.

But the Bible clearly places the responsibility of waiting on us. Throughout Biblical history we see great examples of God’s people waiting and serving Him.

Noah: Genesis 8:13-“And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. So he waited more than 600 years for God’s rainbow covenant!

Abraham: Genesis 12:2-4- “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.”

Genesis 21:5-“And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.” Imagine getting older and older…watching your wife get older and older…and still be waiting for God to fulfill this promise.

Moses: So he kills the Egyptian supervisor and flees into the desert to Midian, where he lived with the family of Jethro, the priest of Midian. He married Zipporah tended the his father-in-law’s flock. In Exodus 3:10, God said “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharoah, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” It’s been something like 40 years since Moses left Egypt and went into exile.

David: He waited for more than a decade before he eventually became king of Israel.

Henri Nouwen says this about waiting: “For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go.”

Timms says, “Each (hero of faith) learned unique life-altering lessons as they waited on God…Noah learned endurance. Abraham grew in his trust of God. Moses emptied himself. David discovered new depths of worship.”

We will each have our own journey in waiting, too. And we’ll each experience different lessons as we wait. 

dhyana-the group

October 7, 2010

Tonight we’ll try a technique called Lectio Divina, or “holy reading.” This is an ancient art that was practiced at one time by all Christians, and now is kept alive by Benedictine monastics. It is a slow, contemplative way of praying the scriptures. And, by the way, completely different from what we’ve done in the previous weeks. This time we’ll INVITE thoughts instead of chasing them away!

The first step is Lectio-reading & listening. In this step we listen deeply to the passage we have selected. In The Rule (his guide for monastics), St. Benedict urges us to listen “with the ear of our hearts.” He suggests we try to imitate the prophet Elijah who, in I Kings 19:12, listened to the still, small voice of God within…the “faint, murmuring sound” which is God’s word for us. In this manner we atune ourselves to the presence of God. Is there one word or phrase that particularly jumps out at you?

The second step is Meditatio-meditation. Once we’ve found a word or passage that speaks to us, we take it in and ruminate on it. This is reminiscent of cattle chewing their cud. In Luke 2:19 we hear of the Virgin Mary “pondering in her heart” what she saw and heard from the angels when they visited the manger after Jesus was born. Through meditation we allow God’s word to become His word for us. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF DISTRACTIONS. Instead of dismissing them, allow them to happen and give them God. They are a part of yourself that is asking for recognition and to be given over. Is there a particular problem or struggle that is bothering you? A longing?

Oratio is the third step-prayer. This is the dialogue part. We’ve heard what God is telling us in the scripture and we talk to Him about it. We allow this scripture to touch us and change us. In oratio, we allow ourselves to be touched and changed by the scripture. Is God inviting you to do something?

The final step is Contemplatio-contemplation. Rest. Rest in the embrace of our God.  Allow ourselves to be His Beloved. Words are unnecessary. It’s like being in the presence of a dear friend or spouse and knowing that words are not necessary.

As a group, we’ll read the scripture passage 3 times, pausing between each reading.

Tonight we’ll consider Psalm 91:

My Refuge and My Fortress

91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

dhyana-the group

I’ll begin with an excerpt from the book, “The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life,” a compilation of Henri Nouwen’s writings:

“The Divine Spirit Praying in Us

The practice of contemplative prayer is the discipline by which we begin to see God in our heart. It is a careful attentiveness to the One who dwells in the center of our being such that through the recognition of God’s presence we allow God to take possession of all our senses. Through the discipline of prayer we awaken ourselves to the God in us and let God enter into our heartbeat and our breathing, into our thoughts and emotions, our hearing, seeing, touching, and tasting. It is by being awake to this God in us that we can see God in the world around us. The great mystery of the contemplative life is not that we see God in the world, but that God within us recognizes God in the world. God speaks to God, Spirit speaks to Spirit, heart speaks to heart. Contemplation, therefore, is a participation in this divine self-recognition. It is the divine Spirit praying in us who makes our world transparent and opens our eyes to the presence of the divine Spirit in all that surrounds us. It is with our hearts that we see the heart of the world. This explains the intimate relationship between contemplation and ministry.”

I take away from this a couple of things:

1. Namaste-It’s a common form of greeting in India and Nepal.  One translation is “The Divine Light in me recognizes The Divine Light in you.” I like this greeting because it reminds me that I am a child of God and He dwells in me. But it also reminds me that everyone else is too. When we say it to someone else, it is a gentle reminder to them, as well, of the presence of God within them. It’s unfortunate that our culture pretty much sees it as just plain weird)

2. “Let God enter into our heartbeat and our breathing…” I find this part interesting because God is already in there! We are just quieting ourselves enough so that we are more aware of His Divine presence!

3. “The Divine Spirit praying within us…”

John 14:26

But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative--that is, the Holy Spirit--he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

Romans 8:26

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

Tonight we’ll try using a “Sacred Word” to help us keep our minds focused. The word, which we each choose ourselves, is used to help us bring our minds back from wandering.

Some word suggestions might be Possible "Jesus," "Christos," "Jesus Christ," "Father," "Abba," "God," "Amen," "God." Other possibilities are "Love," "Peace," "Mercy," "Listen," "Yes,” “Shalom.”

You may prefer a short phrase, such as “Lead me,” “Kyrie Eleison,” “Christe Eleison,”

The key is find one that you are comfortable and stick with it during your meditation. Don’t change around. Stick with it. Also, you may wish to find one that will work with inhaling and exhaling. “Lead Me,” for example, is good because it sounds smooth and works with breath.

dhyana-the group

Tonight we'll talk about listening and recognizing God's voice.

Scripture says "My sheep hear my voice." John 10:27. I remember once our pastor did an experiment with the children during his children's sermon. While he had the kids at the front of the sanctuary seated at the floor, he had some of their parents speak out loud from where they were sitting. The children were instructed to react if they recognized the voice of the person who was speaking. He pointed out that we, as children of God, recognize His voice simply because we are His children.


But more than that, we recognize our parents' voices, and God's voice, because we are tuned in by habit and training. As we grow up as children (and even before we are born) hearing the voices of our parents, we also grow to recognize God's voice and presence in our lives.

I found this anecdote online at Sermon Central this morning:


"Two men were walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of the men remarked, "Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket," But the other man could not hear the sound. He asked his friend how he could hear the sound of a cricket amid the roar of the traffic and the sound of the people. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature. He didn't explain to his friend in words how he could hear the sound of the cricket, but instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a half-dollar coin, dropped it onto the sidewalk, and watch intently as a dozen people began to look for the coin as they heard it clanking around amid the sounds of the traffic and the sounds of the crowded city living.

He turned to his friend and said, "We hear what we listen for."

So. We hear what we listen for. Huh. Sound simple. NOT!

I wish I had more to offer than this, but this is all I have: Sit. Listen. But don't try to make it happen. Let God's voice come to you. How do we know it's God's voice we are hearing? I think it's like when your mom says "YOU'LL JUST  KNOW" when you find the person you'll marry. And she also says "you can't make it happen. It just will."

Here's another story to illustrate that point from inward/outward.org:

Author James Finley tells of a conversation he once had with trappist monk Thomas Merton. "Merton once told me to quit trying so hard in prayer. He said: 'How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun.' A small green apple cannot ripen in one night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe and juicy beside its small green counterparts. Like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of the true self takes place in God's time. We must wait for God, we must be awake; we must trust in God's hidden action within us."

dhyana-the group Sept 16

It's Really Hard to Shut the Mind Up Sometimes

What a fantastic strip featured on Elephant Journal this week:

 

After last week's meditation sit, a couple of the members said they would like to hear some techniques for quieting the mind. So I've decided to do breath focus this week. 

My first scripture passage will be from Genesis 2:7

"The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

I heard (or read) this comment somewhere: "He is the very breath of our breaths." I wish I knew what wise person said that. It might have been Job! Job 33: 4 says “The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Henri Nouwen wrote about the Holy Spirit and our relationship to Him. He said:

"When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we speak about the breath of God, breathing in us. The Greek word for 'spirit' is pneuma, which means 'breath.' We are seldom aware of our breathing. It is so essential for life that we only think about it when something is wrong with it.
The Spirit of God is like our breath. God's spirit is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. We might not often be aware of it, but without it we cannot live a 'spiritual life.' It is the Holy Spirit of God who prays in us, who offers us the gifts of love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy. It is the Holy Spirit who offers us the life that death cannot destroy. Let us pray: 'Come, Holy Spirit, come.'"

And so tonight we will focus on our breath. We will use our awareness of our breath, or PRANA (a Sanskrit word meaning “vital force”), to help focus our mind and kick the hamster off the wheel.

In the silence tonight I want you to notice your inhales and exhales. Don’t try to control it. Just let it be. Notice how the air passes through your nostrils. Notice the rise and fall of our chest and abdomen. Notice how each exhale brings a measure of relaxation to your body. You can imagine each inhale as a divinely-driven resuscitation. The dictionary defines resuscitation as “to revive.” Think of each breath, each intake of fresh oxygen, as a revival of your body, mind and spirit.

If your mind has a hard time focusing on just that, here is a visualization I’ve used periodically. I think of God as a divine conductor of the orchestra that is my life. I imagine his hand rising as I inhale, and falling gracefully as I exhale. He conducts each in-flow and out-flow of my breath.

dhyana

Who am I to write about meditation? Who am I to think I can practice and it? And mostly...WHO AM I TO THINK I CAN HELP OTHERS DO IT?

yikes

This Thursday I'll begin our new Centering Prayer & Meditation group at church. I want to build my own practice, help others to start or build theirs, and mostly I want to grow a community of meditators that can support each other in this practice.

I've mapped out 4 weeks of meetings. Each meeting will have 10 minutes of tips, techniques, inspiration.

That's the part that kind of freaks me out. That's my part.

I've been going over and over what the first week should be about. I thought maybe just dive in with a breathing technique. But then I've thought about starting with talking about posture: how you have to be comfortable to pull it off. And I've thought about explaining how I came to meditation.

I think I'm going to start with the story of Samuel and my observations about it. I Samuel 3:1-11a.

Now I just have to jot down what those observations are. What are they?

isvarapranidhana & dhyana

Today I hit day 7 of my 40-day kundalini meditation self-challenge, and interesting things are starting to happen. (I inadvertently skipped a day when I had a kundalini class and then ran around all day and just plain forgot about it.)

1. The practice is kind of hit or miss in terms of how hard it is to maintain the postures. Sometimes it downright hurts, and other times it doesn't bother me much at all. And it also varies by segment: Sometimes the first 3 minutes can be the easiest, sometimes the second 3 minutes is the easiest. I have noticed each of the last 3 days that the last segment, however, is not too bad.

2. I'm starting to get outside of the physical sensations and am able to focus for short periods of time on my 6th chakra. This is kind of cool and a little disorienting, as well. It sort of makes you a little dizzy to roll your eyes up like that. Did I mention my eyes are closed? They are. I imagine it would be even more dizzying to have them open!

3. Yesterday as my arms were hurting and my left bicep was spasming, I found myself thinking about my kundalini teacher saying, "It's just sensation. Take notice and then let it go." That's fairly simple to do when you are in an asana or doing a kriya that is not as long or as physically taxing. But when you are sitting in this meditation and your arms are hurting and you have your eyes closed and are not really sure how much longer there is to go (I set a timer down behind my left hand so that I can just turn it off and then back on), it's a lot harder. What bubbled into my head was Jesus on the cross. His arms were hurting much worse than mine ever will. He had his hands nailed to the cross and he was hanging there, pushing himself by his legs (his feet also nailed) to help fill his lungs with air. And yet he was able to pray and talk to his father, speak to the people on the ground and to the two people who were on crosses on either side of him. (John 19:17-37) He was suffering more than anyone ever should and could have called the whole thing off. But he didn't. Just for us. So isn't it kind of a small token of our appreciation to give Him 9 minutes of minor physical discomfort. As my kundalini teacher said the other day, "It's only 9 minutes. We all have 9 minutes."

asana & dhyana makes your arms fall off

or maybe you just wish they would.
Yesterday was Summer Solstice so I thought it might be fun to give a try at 108 Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar A. Without the lunges. Plank instead.)

Uh. 108 chataurangas can really do in the shoulders. Hmph.

But I've also embarked on a 40 day journey with a kundalini meditation. Today was day 4 and my upper arms were quivering as I struggled through the 9 minutes. Here is what I'm doing:

Sit in easy pose.
Raise the right hand up in an angle to the right.
Lower the left hand down in an angle to the left.

For the first three minutes, point your index fingers.
For the second three minutes, point your index and pinky fingers.
For the third three minutes, open the hands with the palms facing down, fingers together.

Slowly breathe in 'sat,'
Slowly breathe out 'nam.'

dhyana

When meditation is "going well" it can be the sweetest experience. When it is not, it can be so frustrating. So mind-boggling, so much like sitting in the midst of a whirlwind.

To me the sweetness of dhyana is marked by the silence I encounter. It's a silence that really is not silence. There is the beating of my own heart I hear. That gentle buzz of the slight tinnitus I've had my entire life. But nothing else. I hear no other sounds that are present. I can focus my gaze on my third eye but all I see is nothing-ness.

And yet there is everything. The hand of God is resting lightly on my shoulder, letting me know of His (yes. sorry. His) presence. Letting me know He is here. And if I I rest in His presence then I'll be able to hear His small whispers of love and care.

My experiences in that kind of dhyana are fleeting. Only seconds at a time. But they are so sweet that they bring me back to my cushion over and over so that I can experience it again and again. Hoping always that I can lengthen the experience.

How do you know you have been successful in dhyana? The yogis say "You are successful if you sat. Nothing more."