WHY MEDITATE?
In our rush to find a better situation in time we trample over the flower of our beingness that presents itself in every moment.
Tony Parsons: The Open Secret.
The all important aim of Christian meditation is to allow God’s mysterious presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are. John Main
Under the influence of a daily rhythm of meditation life gradually ceases to swing so wildly from extreme to extreme; or it becomes unstuck if it has been jammed into blinkered perception or tunnel vision. Laurence Freeman 2005
The great spiritual teachers of all religions have themselves practised and taught mindfulness. To be mindful is to live in the present moment, not to be imprisoned in the past, nor anticipating a future that may never happen. When we are fully aware of the present, life is transformed and the strain and stress disappear. So much of modern life is a feverish anticipation of future activity and excitement. We have to learn to step back from this into the freedom and possibility of the present. Bede Griffiths
The default setting for human conflict has long been set to violence…We must learn to reset it to non-violence or destroy ourselves. Ideas, even great ones won’t change the default. We will have to go deep into the operating system of human nature to do it. Insight alone will achieve this, that lightning flash of consciousness that emerges from a deeper level of our self, illuminating, transforming all that it shines on. This is how meditation makes a difference. At first on the personal plane of reality and then by logical extension to the social… Every peace process, whether it is resolving a painful family conflict or racial or national hatred, benefits from meditation. Patient, wise, calm, impartial arbiters make all the difference to the way conflicts can be diverted from violence to reconstruction. Laurence Freeman in 2004
webmaster@mosm anuniting.org
MOSMAN UNITING CHURCH