Expectations

John Main, One with God Through Jesus, Meditatio Talks Series 2016 D

One of the questions we have to face when we begin to meditate is: ‘What should our expectations be; what should we expect to happen?’

To approach meditation like that would be somewhat similar to approaching breathing by asking, ‘What will happen as a result of my breathing?’ As you know, what happens when you breathe is that you live. Your vitality is assured with every breath. Meditating is very like that. Nothing dramatic happens except that your spirit breathes. You come to a vitality of spirit very similar to the vitality that your body enjoys as a result of your breathing.

If someone says to us that we should meditate every morning for half an hour and every evening for half an hour, that sounds like a big investment of time. We can’t help asking, ‘What is the return going to be?’ We are used to profit and loss; we are used to investment and the return on the investment. There is a real danger for anyone who tries to talk about meditation to present it to you in terms of some sort of return. If you look at any of the paperbacks on meditation that you can find in the bookstores, you will see a whole list of returns: lower blood pressure, capacity to bi-locate, be at two places at once, capacity to levitate as well, and so forth. You will see all sorts of pay-offs that are promised. Now, it may be that you will be able to levitate or bi-locate, but it is not of the slightest importance.

The really important thing is that your spirit lives, that it lives wholly, and that it realises its union with God, and with all. So, a quality you require for meditation is the quality of simplicity. You have to learn just to sit down and to do it.