The Hunger for Depth and Meaning, Learning to meditate with JOHN MAIN, MEDITATIO TALKS SERIES 2007
Everyone who perseveres in meditation discovers that although during our time of meditation it might appear that nothing happens, yet gradually the whole of our life is changed. We have to be patient; we might like it to be changed more rapidly. Our thought becomes clarified, relationships become more loving. This is because, in the process of meditation, we are made free to love by Love. The reason for all this is really very simple. When we meditate, not only do we stand back from the individual operations of our being, but we begin to learn to find a wholly new ground to stand on. We discover a rootedness of being. The rootedness is not just in ourselves, but we discover ourselves rooted in God. Rooted in God who is Love.
The peace, the stillness and the harmony that we experience in meditation becomes the basis for all our action. All our judgments are now illumined, inspired by love, because we know that that love is the very ground of our being. All this happens because we learn the courage to take the attention off ourselves. We learn to stop thinking about ourselves. We allow ourselves to be – to be still, to be silent. And in that stillness and silence we find ourselves in God, in love. What you will find is that the experience itself is self-authenticating. You will find that the more you meditate, the more your day seems to come into shape and the more purpose you have in your life. Then, the more you begin to see the meaning in everything and the more you will find that love grows in your heart. Now it may be that there is a good deal of meanness there as well, but the love is growing. That is the real test of meditation. But you cannot put any sort of materialistic test to meditation, like “Do I get fantastic visions when I meditate?” The real test is the love growing in your heart.
On Love, By Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet (Knopf, 1923)
Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself
He threshes you to make your naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
