Meditation is a way of following the human trail to the center of reality, where we are able to experience a oneness that is peace and joy and love. Here differences have been transcended, dualities resolved. And we discover that we don’t meditate only for our own private peace of mind. We meditate with a growing sense that our journey is of vital importance to others. [ . . .] Saint Augustine said that the whole purpose of this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart, by which we see God in all things. Meditation is the means by which we restore health to the eye of the heart so that we can see the unity of God wherever we are, whomever we are with–even in the heart of conflict and discord, especially in the heart of conflict and discord. As we follow our journey, we begin to transcend the dualities that keep us locked into conflict, suspicion, anger and violence—verbal, psychological, or physical. All of which we know are the most negative forces in ourselves, in our relationships, and in the world. But as we move forward on the journey, meditation by meditation, day by day, we cut ourselves free from the dark root that holds us back from love, from the vision of God.
After meditation: “Love Does That” by Meister Eckhart, in LOVE POEMS FROM GOD, ed. Daniel Ladinsky (New York: Penguin Compass, 2002), p. 108.
Love Does That
All daylong a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,
because love does
that.
Love frees.
