An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Space to Be,” MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 92-93.
To know ourselves, to understand ourselves and to . . .get ourselves and our problems in perspective, we simply must make contact with our spirit. All self-understanding arises from understanding ourselves as spiritual beings, and it is only contact with the universal Spirit that can give us the depth and the breadth to understand.
The way of meditation is very simple. All each of us has to do is to be as still as possible in body and in spirit. . . . Learning to meditate is learning to let go of your thoughts, ideas and imagination and to rest in the depths of your own being. Always remember that. Don’t think, don’t use any words other than your own word, don’t imagine anything. Just sound, say the word in the depths of your spirit and listen to it. Concentrate upon it with all your attention.
Why is this so powerful? Basically, because it gives us the space that our spirit needs to breathe. It gives each of us the space to be ourselves. When you are meditating you don’t need to apologize for yourself and you don’t need to justify yourself. All you need to do is to be yourself, to accept from the hands of God the gift of your own being.
After Meditation, an excerpt from Rumi, “Sheikh Sarrazi Comes in from the Wilderness,” THE SOUL OF RUMI, tr. Coleman Barks (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), pp. 247-48.
There is nourishment like
bread that feeds one part
of your life and nourishment like light for another. There
are many rules about restraint
with the former, but only one rule for the latter, Never be
satisfied. Eat and drink
the soul substance, as a wick does with the oil it soaks in.
Give light to the company.
