I didn't finish this article last week, so I am posting it now. The reason why is simple. Last week, I experienced something that reminded my brain of my childhood. It caused anxiety. I have spent much time doing deep breathing with tapping. And I also kept practicing meditation. Admittedly, it is harder to meditate when I experience a trauma reminder. My brain is in a heightened alert state. However, I know that is when I most need meditation. Is it a coincidence that it is this week that I write about the chapter in John Main’s book titled, The Way of Meditation?
“The task of meditation is to concentrate our attention wholly in and on the reality of the present moment. In meditation, we seek to enter fully into the now, and there to live our lives in the utmost.” John Main
The beginner’s mind
Each chapter of Main’s book, Awakening, is one I read slowly and ponder, and I read the chapter on meditation even slower. I read with what meditation practitioners call a “beginner’s mind.” Even though I have practiced meditation daily for over a year and a half, I approached this chapter as if I just began. Why? As Suzuki Roshi once, said, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
It takes humility to approach a topic like meditation with a beginner’s mind when you have practiced it for at least a year. You come with a mindset that you can always learn, that the present moment is always there to teach you how to really live. You embrace the words of Richard Rohr who said, “Beginner’s mind is a posture of eagerness, of spiritual hunger. The beginner’s mind knows it needs something.”
“But if you remember from time to time that each moment is fresh and new, maybe, just maybe, what you know will not get in the way of being open to what you don’t know, which is always a larger field. Then a beginner’s mind will be available in any moment you are open to it.” Jon Kabat Zinn
Turning off the ordinary
Staying in the present moment is the purpose of meditation. We spend so much of our lives either looking back or ahead. We miss the magic of the moment. We forget that drawing a breath and breathing that breath out is a gift from our Creator. Every day, I practice observing my breath for 10 minutes. I do so with an awe of God who is the author of each breath. I begin and end meditation by thinking of the name of God, Yahweh. The name sounds like breathing, and some scholars say that our very breath utters God's name.
Taking time to meditate every day is the best way to know your own mind. As you meditate, thoughts will come. It will seem that thoughts are bombarding your mind. As you let the thoughts go during meditation, it becomes easier to reject negative thoughts throughout the day. You become more aware of the present moment. And if you approach meditation as contemplative prayer, you will find yourself closer to God.
“If you turn off your ordinary thinking and emotional patterns, you open yourself to a new world of reality.” Thomas Keating
Resources
Awakening by John Main
Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer by Richard Rohr
Mindfulness For Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Image by Renan Brun from Pixabay
Thank you, dear Gina. Each day is a precious gift from God and we want to enjoy the precious gifts that He gives us. Yes, each breath is a precious gift. Love you, dear girl. May you and all your loved ones have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving. <3
I have read Awakening and it's perfect to describe of what you speak