Learning to meditate is also learning how to live. There’s an old saying from the early church, lex orendi lex credendi , the way of praying is the way of living. So the way we pray, we could say, is a powerful influence, deep influence on how we live and the level at which we live, how we under-stand the spectrum of life. So learning to meditate is learning how to live. That’s why we could say the times of meditation every day are the most important part of the day. The more we practise, the more we see medita-tion as a revelation of meaning. And this question – how long do I have to wait? am I a good meditator? am I a bad meditator? am I successful? am I failing? – becomes quieter. It saddens me when I meet people who say, ‘I’ve been meditating for 20 years and I’m a very bad meditator,’ because if they’re faithful to it, that’s all that matters. It’s not about evaluating yourself, good or bad. One of the important teachings that we give to new meditators is: don’t evaluate; give up this idea of being successful or being a failure; just be faithful. And the more we practise it in this way, and come to let go of those questions, we see it as a revealer of meaning.
( Enlightenment by Laurence Freeman OSB )
