This is not quite the 1960s admonition that if it feels good you should do more of it.
But for those beginning meditators in particular the question of “what should I be experiencing?’ is real, valid, and it often determines whether meditation will be a passing notion or part of a longstanding spiritual practice.
I struggled with this issue when I started practicing Centering Prayer a few years back. Revelation, of sorts, came late one night as I sat in the Sacramento airport (remember those) waiting for a long-delayed flight. It had been a very tough day. I had arisen at 3 to get a morning plane to the capitol and had been in meetings all day. (Having just written that sentence reminds me that the pandemic travel restrictions have an upside.) Maybe there isn't actual grace in the design of airports, but in the waiting area I found a very large chair, more like a semi-womb that I could sink into and block out much of the surrounding noise. I was simply exhausted, and thought that meditation might give me the strength to not throw up.
Much to my surprise, I did not fall asleep; I heard the people around me as background noise. But I was clearly feeling a remove, a lightness, calm. That state did not last for a long time, but when I concluded my meditation, I felt strangely refreshed and energized.
During morning meditation, first in-person in the chapel and now on line, I try to replicate that experience, not always successfully. It often takes me ten minutes or so repeatedly using the centering or “sacred” word I have chosen to bat away the howling monkeys in my brain.
However, the more I meditate, the more successful I am in reaching a state that is inwardly silent. Being there feels warm, safe, a little holy.
Join us online on Friday mornings @ 8 for 25 minutes of silent meditation. Register for the online chapel here or send me a message at charlestaylorkerchner@gmail.com and I’ll see that you are registered.
From Meditating on Mourning to Lamentations
Last week’s post about meditating on mourning brings to mind the study series being taught by Pastor Karen Sapio. Into the Light: Finding Hope Through Prayers of Lament. Is a nine-lesson study about lament as a proper theological response to the difficult situations of our world. One of the foundational points of the study is that, in scripture, lament usually leads to hope. After crying out to God, the one who laments remembers God. And while that doesn’t fix things in the moment—the injustice, the loss still exists—the lamenter is strengthened to face the world and to hope. And for us as Christians, hope is not just an emotional response or an attitude of pie in the sky. Hope implies movement: both God’s inherent movement toward justice and our movement toward God. Recovering lament may be one of the church’s most timely gifts to the world.
Wednesdays at 4 on Zoom. For information: karensapio@gmail.com.
Photo: Levi UX at Unsplash