Learning to meditate is not just a matter of mastering a technique.

What are your ideas of meditation? If you have been meditating for a while when you first started were you looking
for a technique? What brought you to explore meditation?
It is much more learning to appreciate and respond directly to the depths of your own nature, not
human nature in general but your own in particular.
How do you define the depths of your own nature? Some people find this frightening others exciting. When you
think about being left alone with just you and God, no words no doing, what is your reaction? If you have been
meditating a while what do you notice about your nature? What does going deep mean?
Ideally, you should find a teacher who will help to guide you on your pilgrimage.
Many times another person brings us to meditation. Who are your guides along the way? Other times we start on our
own but find something is missing. What would you look for in a teacher?
First we must understand the Christian context of meditation. I am using term meditation in this
instance synonymously with such terms as contemplation contemplative prayer, meditative prayer,
and so on. The essential context of meditation is to be found in the fundamental relationship of our
lives, the relationship that we have as creatures with God, our Creator. But most of us have to take
a preliminary step before we can begin to appreciate the full wonder and glorious mystery of this
fundamental relationship. Most of us have to get into touch with ourselves, first to get into a full
relationship with ourselves before we can truly openly to our relationship with God. Putting this
another way we can say that we have first to find, expand and experience our own capacity for peace,
for serenity, and for harmony before we can begin to appreciate our God and Creator who is the
author of all harmony and serenity. pp 1-2
Why do you think self knowledge is so important in this journey?
Spend a few moments writing about what you do know about yourself. Where are you being called to expand and
experience yourself more fully? You may want to use crayons or colored pencils and draw what makes up you.
John Main talks about a different type of meditation not just for relaxation or focus. His focus is on
the already existing relationship with God within ourselves. That awareness brings peace. Yet to
realize this fact as a present reality in our lives we have to decide that we want to be at peace. This is
the reason for the psalmists saying: be still and know that I am God(ps.46:10).
Why would we resist this peace? This is similar to Jesus asking Do you want to be healed? How would you
answer that? Are there restrictions to what God can do in your life?
In Christian meditation we live in the reality that through Jesus Christ we live in an alive, vibrant
relationship with God. indeed our faith is a living faith precisely because the living Spirit of God
dwells with us, giving new life to our mortal bodies. The all -important aim in Christian meditation
is to allow Gods mysterious and silent presence with us to become mer and more not only a reality
but the reality in our lives: to let it become that reality which give meaning, shape and purpose to
everything we do, to everything we are p 3
Deep Reading week 1 Word Into Silence
How do you make space for this reality? Think back on the last 24 hours. How have you experienced this reality?
How would this expand your life? What would be some reasons meditation would help with this process? Spend the
next week practicing noticing this reality.
Meditation is a process.
Learning takes time even as adults. Yet as adults often we feel we must get it immediately. If
something doesnt come easy or doesnt make sense right away we may give up feeling it just isnt for
us. Yet being open to transformation isnt an instantaneous practice. It takes being willing to be
molded and opened to Gods presence. Make a mark on this scale of where you are in your willingness to
learn and be a part of this process with 1 being not ready at all and 5 being you are totally open.
1 2 3 4 5
The process of meditation
1 Self awareness
The first step in learning to meditate is paying attention to ourselves. Not to put ourselves down or
to uncover some hidden part of our past or even to dismantle ourselves. We pay attention to realize
We have a divine origin, God is our Creator p 4 and that God is continuing to loving create in us.
This is the truth about ourselves that we commemorate, pay full attention to in meditation.
Forgetting this reality leads to a lack of an abundant life. This is the reason why we can become so
trivial, and why we can find ourselves and our lives so boring, is simply that we do not pay enough
attention to our divine origin p 4
How often do you look externally for ways to make life more meaningful? How might life be different if you lived life
as Gods own? Be specific.
2 Awareness of Christ. Being aware of the splendor of the Christ-event in our lives. Because of
Christs life as we know it is full of Gods creative wonder and that we are a part of this creative
process.
Write a dialogue with God about your participation in Gods creative act through Christ.
But the great weakness of most Christians is, that although they know these truths on the level of
theological theory, the truths do not really live in their hearts. Christian meditation is not new it is
what the Christian walk is all about, living Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts. p. 5 Yet in doing
meditation we do not think about these things we experience them. To experience God as the
ground of our being. Through meditation we get first hand experience of the Truth of our faith
and the truth that this is for everyone not just theologians.
Do you ever feel everyone else knows more about God than you? Where did that come from?
Learning to be silent
In order to enter into this holy and mysterious communion with the Word of God dwelling within
us, we must first have the courage to become more and more silent. p 6
Why is courage needed? Dialogue with God about your feeling around entering into this type of silence.
Deep Reading week 1 Word Into Silence
John Main speaks of this silence causing us to listen, to concentrate, to attend rather than to think.
Spend a few moments just writing down all the thoughts that come to you in the next 2 minutes. When you are done
think about how much time your thoughts take you away from God. Think of how freeing it would be not to be a
slave to your thoughts.
John Main speaks of the challenge of achieving a state of alert stillness in our mind and heart. Do you agree that we
as a culture tend to be either alert or relaxed.?
Is your concept of meditation not to relax but to be alert new to you?
Go through the physical aspects of meditation on p 8. What do you need in order to create this space for yourself ?
Can you see your minds thoughts like that of a tree full of monkeys? p 8-9 The task of meditation
is to bring all of this mobile and distracted mind to stillness, silence and concentration, to bring it,
that is , into its proper service. 9
He mentions Cassian and the Cloud of Unknowing encourage using a word not to speak to God
but as a tool to quiet thoughts and listen. The use of this word is called formula in Latin or mantra
in Eastern traditions.
Have you ever thought of prayer this way? Listening to God? When you have heard of a mantra in the past what
came to mind?
Picking a mantra is important as is having a teacher help you. He suggests words that do not have a
powerful meaning to you. Like aramaic words like Maranatha, or Abba, he also suggests staying
with the mantra you pick.
Meditation will certainly give you new insights into poverty. p 11
What type of poverty is he speaking about?
Do you notice any resistance to meditation twice a day for 20-30 minutes? Dialogue with God about this.
The power of the mantra
All Christian prayer is basically the experience of being filled with the Spirit, and so , in any talking
or thinking about prayer we should fix the spotlight firmly on the Spirit not ourselves. p 12
Is this how you would define prayer? Where is the focus in your daily prayer life? What motivates
you to pray?
He speaks of how before prayer we sense our limitedness and after prayer our principal conviction
about ourselves and the whole creation is of the infinite capacity in everything to mediate the
wonder and splendor of God. p 12 As we enter into this wonder it is no longer for ourselves alone
but for all humanity. we begin to experience it as a new capacity for true empathy a capacity to be at
peace with other, and indeed at peace with the whole of creation. p 12 Gods spirit begins to
integrate into our whole being. Our mantra becomes not so much a word in our head but a word in
our heart.
Over the next week of practicing meditation see if you notice your word becoming part of your everyday life.
He speaks of sin as the separation of the head and heart. The twentieth-century word for sin is
alienation. If we ponder the wide spectrum of meaning that the word has for us, the Marxist sense,
the sense of powerlessness, meaninglessness, self-estrangement, the failure to find adequate norms
for social or personal relationships, and if we ponder the conceptions we have of ourselves, we will
Deep Reading week 1 Word Into Silence
realize how deeply divided we are. In the context of meditation all these many alienations resolve
into that one basic division between mind and heart. The mind is our organ for truth; the heart is
our organ for love. But they cannot work independently of each other without filling us with a sense
of failure, dishonesty, deep boredom or frenetic evasion of ourselves though busyness .p 13
Have you thought in terms of uniting mind and heart before? Or have you thought of a dualistic sense of either the
mind or the heart? Did you see one as better than another?
The mantra is the tool which unties the mind and heart.
Three aims in meditation
1 Say mantra from beginning to end. Saying the mantra without haste or expectation.
2 Say the mantra without interruption and remaining calm in the face of distractions.
3 Say the mantra from beginning to end without distractions.
We do this as a response to the invitation of Jesus to leave all things and to follow Him. Luke 9:23
Make a list of what you think meditation is about.
Meditation is a transformational process of becoming aware of Gods presence within us. The
mantra is simply the device which leads us to this center Christian experience, leading us to know
from our own experience that Gods love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit He
has given us. (Rom 5:5)
How do you experience these words? Do you agree with if we lack authority and confidence and courage it is
because we have not ourselves experienced its immediate and enduring reality?
We cannot make this happen. This is Gods work. Meditation places us where we need to be
receptive of this gift.
Do you agree that left to our own devises we are are limited and distracted from experiencing Gods presence within?
What distracts you? What are the ways you complicate the spiritual journey?
Have you ever said to yourself - when I arrive then life will make sense. Who is in control then?
John main brings up a teacher not to spoon feed us or do the work for us but to encourage us and
help us stay on our own unique path. What are some criteria for finding a teacher like that?
The fullness of life
Often we want to run away to a monastery but according to John Main the Light and Life of God
dwell within you. Meditation helps us pay attention to this Light. It brings us into this moment.
Spend some time this week paying attention to where your thoughts go - Is it towards light and life?
Saying the mantra is just this process of polishing the mirror, the mirror with us, so that our heart
becomes fully open to the work of Gods love for us, fully reflecting the light of that love. We must
understand very clearly that the first step in this process is to set our own house in order. p 19
The task we have is to find our way back to our creative center where wholeness and harmony are
realized, to dwell within ourselves, leaving behind all the false images of ourselves such as what we
think we are or what we think we might have been, because these have an unreal existence outside of
us. Remaining with ourselves in this sense of illusion-shattering honesty and simplicity, leads us to
remain always in the presence of our Creator p20
Deep Reading week 1 Word Into Silence
Learning to pray is learning to live as fully as possible in the present moment
Notice how often prayer in the traditional sense pulls you either into the past or the future.
Can you see how meditation puts us in the now?
We begin to understand that to be is to be here and now. p 21
Are you ready for a pilgrimage of the heart? Imagine you have packed - what would be in your suitcase? What
would you need to leave behind? What if meditation was the only thing in your suitcase?
But meditation is the prayer of faith, because we have to leave ourselves behind before the Other
appears and with no prepackaged guarantee that God will appear. The essence of poverty consist in
this risk of annihilation. This is the leap of faith from ourselves to the Other. This is the risk
involved in all loving. p21
Spend some time this week thinking about this journey to Light and Life with no circumstantial guarantees. Write a
letter as though you were going on a trip where you do not know the outcome.
Deep Reading week 1 Word Into Silence