(This is the third post in a series about meditation.)
Meditation matters, because it positively impacts so many aspects of our health. Meditation matters, because we learn how to listen to God. Meditation matters, because it is part of the polarity of prayer. Meditation matters, because we develop our being nature in a culture that is so weighted toward developing our doing nature. Meditation matters, because it is healingfrom stress, from injury, from fear, from confusion, from dullness.
But for me, none of these things was compelling enough to start meditating. What was compelling was seeing my wife shift in such beautiful ways after several years of meditation. And I didn't want to be left behind! Somehow, an intellectual relationship with God didn't cut it anymore.
I wanted to KNOW God.
I wanted to FEEL God.
I wanted to SENSE God.
I wanted to TALK with God.
So, I began one of the most difficult, intense, humbling, and frustrating journeys of my lifeand one that eventually changed everything. For the first two years, I worked with a meditation teacher two hours every week. And practiced on my own.
Learning just a little about being instead of doing was so challenging learning meditation was more difficult than any of my academic pursuits. By far! (For me maybe not for you.)
But, little by little, I started to develop a kind of "first sight." A sense of the Divine intense, amazing, healing, all-consuming. And there came a tipping point where I wanted nothing more than to know God more deeply. It no longer took efforting to pursue spiritual practice.
And with this tipping point, a sudden neutrality about all my beliefs. If they changedit was fine. If they stayed the sameit was fine. This surrendering into an experience of God from a belief in God was like waking up for the first time from a long sleep.
Having said that, I feel like I've taken the first tiny step (12 years later) on a journey where I will take many more tiny steps during my lifetimebut will have only just begun.
But, don't be discouragedthis is the beautiful, inexhaustible nature of God's universe. We get to dive more deeply into itforever.
I don't know if a contemplation practice would have the same value for anyone else reading thisbut just in case it wouldeven a little bitit's worth mentioning.
Thoughts? Questions?
Next: Meditation The Science of the Heart
Meditation matters, because it positively impacts so many aspects of our health. Meditation matters, because we learn how to listen to God. Meditation matters, because it is part of the polarity of prayer. Meditation matters, because we develop our being nature in a culture that is so weighted toward developing our doing nature. Meditation matters, because it is healingfrom stress, from injury, from fear, from confusion, from dullness.
But for me, none of these things was compelling enough to start meditating. What was compelling was seeing my wife shift in such beautiful ways after several years of meditation. And I didn't want to be left behind! Somehow, an intellectual relationship with God didn't cut it anymore.
I wanted to KNOW God.
I wanted to FEEL God.
I wanted to SENSE God.
I wanted to TALK with God.
So, I began one of the most difficult, intense, humbling, and frustrating journeys of my lifeand one that eventually changed everything. For the first two years, I worked with a meditation teacher two hours every week. And practiced on my own.
Learning just a little about being instead of doing was so challenging learning meditation was more difficult than any of my academic pursuits. By far! (For me maybe not for you.)
But, little by little, I started to develop a kind of "first sight." A sense of the Divine intense, amazing, healing, all-consuming. And there came a tipping point where I wanted nothing more than to know God more deeply. It no longer took efforting to pursue spiritual practice.
And with this tipping point, a sudden neutrality about all my beliefs. If they changedit was fine. If they stayed the sameit was fine. This surrendering into an experience of God from a belief in God was like waking up for the first time from a long sleep.
Having said that, I feel like I've taken the first tiny step (12 years later) on a journey where I will take many more tiny steps during my lifetimebut will have only just begun.
But, don't be discouragedthis is the beautiful, inexhaustible nature of God's universe. We get to dive more deeply into itforever.
I don't know if a contemplation practice would have the same value for anyone else reading thisbut just in case it wouldeven a little bitit's worth mentioning.
Thoughts? Questions?
Next: Meditation The Science of the Heart
