School of Meditation Weekly Teachings

Weekly Teachings 10/04/2011

Christian meditation can be done anywhere by anyone

 The hallmark of Christian Meditation is its simplicity. The discipline is simple; there are no complicated techniques to learn; it does not require extensive background information or any expensive equipment or special outfits; it can be done anywhere by anyone.
Let me remind you of the discipline:

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Weekly Teachings 03/04/2011

The Way of the Mantra

It sounds quite incredible, almost unbelievable, to us when we first begin to learn to meditate that the discipline of saying this little word, our mantra, can be a profound spiritual path that gradually transforms our life in a profound way. But it does. Think of the mustard seed that Jesus refers to in the Gospel that grows into a huge tree and the birds of the air come to rest in its branches. The mantra is just the same. 

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Weekly Teachings 28/03/2011

Thoughts, thoughts and once more thoughts

What to do about all those thoughts crowding in when you are longing for interior silence? An image comes to mind: I remember hearing years ago about an advertisement for meditation. On a poster was a picture of an Indian Guru standing, in typical attire and appearance, on his surfboard, perfectly balanced, riding the waves. 

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Weekly Teachings 20/03/2011

Stilling the mind

When we begin to meditate, we soon become aware of the fact that the discipline is simple but not easy.

When we have countered our outer restlessness, it will now try to find a different outlet: if we can’t move physically, we let our thoughts do the walking. We wander about in daydreams, down memory lane, planning, hoping, worrying; internally we are still filled with perpetual noise and movement, the mad whirl of disconnected thoughts. 

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Weekly Teachings 13/03/2011

The Practice

We all know the practice by now:

Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert. Silently, interiorly begin to say a single word. We recommend the prayer phrase, Maranatha. Listen to it as you say it, gently but continuously. Do not think or imagine anything spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts and images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so keep returning to simply saying the word. Meditate twenty to thirty minutes each morning and evening.

‘Sit still and upright’ is not as easy as it sounds. 

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Weekly Teachings 06/03/2011

 

The universality of meditation

Meditation is a universal spiritual discipline central to most of the World Religions and Wisdom Traditions. There are many different forms of meditation in these various traditions, all equally valid in their own way. In all the emphasis is on practise and experience rather than theory and knowledge.

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Weekly Teachings 27/02/2011

 

How do we prepare for meditation?

 

John Main rediscovered meditation, the faithful repetition of a prayer phrase to lead us into the silence of ‘pure’ prayer. He found it to his utter joy in the writing of an early Christian monk from the 4th century CE, John Cassian, who had sat at the feet of many Christian hermits in the desert of Egypt in that time to learn about prayer and about leading an authentic Christian life.

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Weekly Teachings 20/02/2011

Why do we start to meditate?

 The impetus for starting to meditate is often the moment when we are faced with something out of the ordinary, something that shakes us out of our ordinary perception of reality. It can be a crisis point or major life event at any stage in our lives, when the seemingly secure and unchanging reality we live in is bewilderingly turned upside down: we are rejected by an individual or a group; we face failure, loss of esteem; we lose a treasured job or our health suddenly fails us.

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Weekly Teachings 13/02/2011

 

How did John Main learn about meditation?

John Main was introduced to meditation when he was serving in the British Colonial Service in Malaya. During the course of his duties there he met Swami Satyananda, founder of the ‘Pure Life Society’, who lived a spiritual life dedicated to serving others. John Main was very impressed by the serenity and the holiness of this monk and when the official business was over they started talking about prayer, especially about the Swami’s way of repeating a mantra during the whole period of his meditation.

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Weekly Teachings 06/02/2011

What is Meditation?

Meditation is the faithful repetition of a prayer phrase or 'mantra' as John Main called it. John Main rediscovered this way of prayer in the writings of the early Christians, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, who in the fourth century of our Common Era retired mainly to the desert of Egypt to live an authentic Christian life based on the teaching of Jesus.

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