Letters from the International School
Sample talks introducing meditation to a
mainly Christian audience (Part Two) by Kim Nataraja
The following are suggestions for talks for weekly groups. The
following points will be food for a series of talks. Restrict your
introduction to 15 minutes at the most at your weekly group meeting.
· Highlight John Main's importance as a spiritual teacher.
By rediscovering our way of meditation – the repetition of
a prayer word to enter the silence - in the writings of John Cassian,
a monk from the 4th century, he has contributed greatly to the recovery
of this spiritual tradition and the contemplative dimension of prayer.
After the flourishing of this way of prayer amongst Christian hermits
in the Desert in the 4th and 5th century, it was considered only
a valid way of prayer for saints and some specially spiritual monks
or nuns, definitely not for the ordinary person. But John Main stressed
that meditation was for everyone: "Meditation is as natural
to the spirit, as breathing is to the body." After the death
of John Main, Laurence Freeman has been leading the World Community
for Christian Meditation.
· Emphasize the simplicity of meditation; it is not a complicated
technique, there is no difficult theory to master, but it does require
discipline – twice-daily practice will lead to continuous
prayer. But this is a self-imposed discipline – it is your
free choice to meditate or not.
· Introduce the concept of a Mantra, a Sanskrit word, but
now in the Oxford English Dictionary and used in daily life. Its
meaning is: “that which clears the mind". John Cassian
used the term "formula" and this was translated by John
Main as "mantra". We are using it in the sense that it
is spoken of in the anonymous book "Way of the Pilgrim"
as the ‘Jesus prayer’, a prayer word we repeat in the
heart. John Main recommended "Maranatha"- an important
prayer in Aramaic – the language Jesus spoke - for early Christians,
meaning: "Come Lord" and "The Lord comes". St
Paul uses it in 1 Cor 16; St John ends ‘Revelation’
with it and according to modern scholars it was a password for early
Christians to enter secret Eucharistic celebrations during the persecutions.
· Explain the purpose of the Mantra. It simplifies and unifies
the mind by freeing it from distractions. The result is an alert
stillness, when we are focused on God. By silencing our thoughts,
we "leave self behind" (Luke 9,23) and become more attentive
to God and in turn to others in ordinary life. By limiting ourselves
to the "poverty of the single verse" (Cassian) we become
"poor in spirit" (Matthew 5: 3). "Set your minds
on the Kingdom of God and his justice before everything else"
(Matthew 6, 33-34). Explain how to say the Mantra: gently; don't
evaluate; don't expect to achieve anything; don't use it as a club
to beat your thoughts with; say it with faith and love.
· “Unless the mantra is accompanied by faith and love,
it has no real value; it would be merely a mechanism. It is a real
danger to trust the mechanism of the mantra. But as an expression
of faith and love, it becomes a very powerful means to direct your
faith and to open you to God.” (Bede Griffiths)
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