Prayer and Meditation Workshop

"I have often been driven to my knees by the conviction that I had nowhere else to go" Abraham Lincoln

I find the universe and life to be an incredibly intelligent and awesome creation and believe there is an intelligence involved, not an “old man in the sky” God, but somehow more than just a chance occurrence in a big dumb universe. If there is one word for such a powerful, amazing, intelligence it would be God so that’s what I often use, but am just as comfortable with Higher Power, Great Spirit, or The Force. Some religions even consider it wrong to even say the name. What is important is to find what works for you.

Also many people are forsaking religion and instead becoming more spiritual. Some say the problem with organized religion is that it is organized. Why? Because if dogma and control begin to over-ride good sense then difficulties will surely arise. Also many people don't like the idea of an angry, jealous, and punishing God. For that reason I made this shift in perspective years ago. That was until I heard that the definition of religion (re-ligre) is to “return to the source”. This is something I can really get behind, so with that understanding I now find myself deeply religious and eager to pray. Here's how:

Formal prayers: I write out prayers of gratitude for my relationship with my Higher Power, my partner, family and friends, my communities, service and career work, awareness of spiritual wisdom, my health, the gifts of prayer and meditation, for life itself, and all of the blessings I am privileged to receive. I sometimes read these prayers before bed and when I am feeling stressed or blue. It may seem odd to write them out, but I don't want to miss any!

Journaling: I write in a spiral bound notebook regularly. I have filled about thirty five notebooks so far. in them, I talk with my Higher Power as my closest friend, one who knows every infinitesimal, obscure, intimate thing about me, because it does. I write out whatever is on my mind and heart, sharing everything of significance. This takes the weight of the world off of my shoulders and leaves it on the pages. This is such an intimate relationship with my Higher Power I consider it a prayer book.

Quiet time: I often pray by just sitting quietly and listening to my body, the world around me, and my mind and heart.  I acknowledge external and bodily sensations as well as internal emotions, thoughts, and feelings, but let them drift past like leaves floating downstream. It is meditation, but since there is union with Higher Power it is also prayer. I often have a journal handy in case something is particularly problematic or inspiring, I make a quick note to let it go for a while. 

Nature: I feel nature is Gods true home. The sun, clouds, plants, animals, water, and earth whether it is mountains, canyons, or deserts, are each a manifestation of God and therefore sacred and holy. Whenever I have difficulty accessing Higher Power, going to nature helps me get back in touch. This is how ancient cultures saw creation, as do I. Seeing the sunbeams thru the clouds I see God. Seeing squirrels or other animals play, I know life is basically good. I find and feel deep holiness in nature, so just being in nature or imagining it is a living communion and prayer.

Community: I grew up going to church every Sunday but stopped in my teens. I later found I missed the experience of singing, praying, and stories, so I started up again in my thirties and continue to attend occasionally. I mention this as there may be a spiritual community you have left behind but may find value in down the road.  I also feel sharing in meetings is in its own way a holy experience and shared prayer.

 Grief Work: If I am particularly grief stricken, suffering, or in pain, I feel it is very important to take time with my Higher Power and let the sorrow and tears flow. This can also happen unexpectedly in daily life, it signals issues that need to be addressed and healed with my Higher Power’s help. Rarely do I share this with other people, if so only with safe, close, caring, and wise family and friends. This work is prayerful as it often sends me to my knees as I cry out to my maker.

Slogans: One of the best tool I have to meditate upon and stay grounded is a slogans list. These are pithy sayings that distill infinite wisdom down to just a few words. Some examples are: Let go, let God, First things first, Just be, just breathe, and Be still and know. This is always my “go to” at work and home, things I repeat trough out the day silently or to myself. I believe everyone can benefit from having a list of their own to refer to at any time.

 

Lately I have been writing them out in bold brilliant colors with markers on paper or on my computer in fun fonts. There is a binder full of them I keep handy, and the cover reminds me I am; Big, Bold, Bright, Brash, Brave, Brilliant, and Beautiful! Again, this might seem an odd topic for prayer, but many of these slogans are simply short prayers, and so divine power, presence, and wisdom distilled into its essence.

 

Music: Favorite music touches me deeply and reminds me of universal truths. I keep popular, spiritual, joyous, and rock play lists on devices handy for tough days, quiet time, and solo bike rides and walks. Many of the titles or key phrases also appear on my “slogans” list for a quick reminder of powerful themes like “Love like crazy”, “Ready to fly”, etc. This might seem to you an odd topic for prayer but for me music couldn't get any more deeply felt, personal, and inspired.

 

My experience, strength, and hope in the practice of meditation:

“Meditation is painful in the beginning but bestows immortal bliss and supreme joy in the end.” (Anon)

Classical meditation is often called mindfulness meditation, because we seek to be mindful of exactly what is going on within and around us in the moment. There classically two types, calm abiding and Insight. Calm abiding meditation refers to "peace" and "pacification". The meaning of peace or pacification in this context is that normally our mind is like a whirlwind of agitation of thoughts and emotions. Our thoughts are principally an obsessive concern with past, conceptualization about the present, and concerns for the future. This means that usually our mind is not experiencing the present moment at all. We are living in the future or the past and missing the present, where our life is actually taking place.

In calm abiding we become aware of sensations such as sounds, sunlight, and temperature, the sensations received from our bodies, as well as internal emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Once again, the idea is to acknowledge and release all of this rather than fixate and analyze. We aren’t denying our relative difficulties, rather setting them aside for a time to experience the infinite peace underlying and deep within our daily life. It is a mental vacation of sorts, as the work will be waiting for us when we come back, but this is the time for rest and relaxation. The deeper we go, the less time it takes to recharge and refresh.

 It can seem like a lot of work to achieve this state of “non work”, as it can require commitment and practice, but it is well worth it. You will likely see benefits in a short time with a consistent practice. Even ten minutes once or twice a day is a good start. You are training your mind and body to create a place of respite and calm. This is the safe and steady place we can move our mind to when things seem to spin out of control, the place where we can take a deep breath and observe, rather than react. From here we can watch life unfold and observe our own feelings, then consciously choose our response from a place of awareness. Another benefit is if we stay calm others will unconsciously lower their own energy to match ours. 

Insight meditation is a practice of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection to the extent that sitting with a steadfast mind becomes an active experience of change. Albert Einstein said a problem cannot be resolved on the level it was created, and that is the idea here, to go to another level. Stepping from the relative world of daily life to the infinite world of spirit, we open ourselves to all power, presence, and intelligence that is our Higher Power. Our relatively small and feeble minds connect to the mind of God and all that entails. We give our problems and needs over to God and listen for guidance. We willingly become God’s hands, feet, heart, and mind, ready to do what is needed.

For insight meditation I simply relax and listen to what's going on in my body and mind. I usually have my journal in hand to make notes of highly charged thoughts, feelings, and emotions. This is the observer aspect of meditation Eckhart Tolle describes so well. Over time I come to see and understand the recurring themes and issues in my life and step aside to look at them from a more peaceful loving place apart from the heat of the battle of daily modern life. This is the "training" aspect of meditation that helps us find where we have denial, dis-ease, dysfunction, and at times insanity.

The classic sitting posture is on the floor or a cushion with the spine straight as if a string is pulling it up through the head. The legs are crossed and hands rest loosely on the thighs or knees. If this is difficult, some sit on a tall cushion or sit or kneel on a short bench. Many sit in a chair, but again, upright if possible rather than resting against the back. The idea is to be “at attention”.  The body is balanced and relaxed. Eyes open, gazing slightly downward, however many (myself included) prefer eyes closed.

Meditation often involves focusing on an object. For example a candle flame or flower. The simplest focal point to use is one’s own breath. It is always accessible, right under our nose! We follow the breath in and out. Not controlling it in any way. Take a few deep cleansing breaths to start if desired as it tends to slow the heartbeat and calm the mind. One part of our attention is with breath, another with body, senses, and surroundings, another releasing thoughts and emotions as they come up. It is okay to adjust position for comfort but also insight may come if we “sit” with discomfort and allow that to be.

An alternative to sitting meditation is walking. Here we take slow and deliberate steps like an elephant or a tiger. We have the intention of slowing down and imprinting the earth with peace and love rather than anxiety and sorrow our rushed steps leave behind. We align our breathing with our steps, a certain number of steps per in and out breath. This will change as we walk depending on speed, hills, attention, and so on. We can practice walking meditation at any time.

The next wow moment for me was understanding how this works. We can let go of thinking by shifting to perceptions. The focus is usually on the breath going in and out, but can be on a candle, word, or short phrase so simple that the mind is bored into submission. Similarly when we see a tree, it is just that, a visual image, a sense perception, and it is possible to just stay there with the subject without thinking about the object "tree".

I feel my breath, but also the presence of my body, the temperature, and the sounds going on. I find myself in a state of peace, calm, and quiet. Thoughts come up, but I simply label them "thinking", and let them go.  This is sometimes called "cool boredom" as it is so boring it is restful. This is "taming" meditation, as we relax the wildness of our minds.

The reason I believe breath is so important and effective is that it moves from the head to the gut and back again, so serving as a bridge between body and mind. The diaphragm expands downward into the belly as we inhale and hopefully brings the mind with it. I experience God in my heart and at a gut level, from the center of my being, and so am carried there by “belly breaths”. Breathing also honors the ebb and flow of life like the tides and seasons, and therefore the impermanence of life, good and bad.

If we feel tired we can imagine energy rising up from the earth through our body and flowing out through the top of our head to help refresh us. If energy is too high, we may imagine it flowing from the head down through the body into the earth to ground us. The trick is to imagine and feel this flow rather than put much thought into it, as we are seeking sense experience over thinking.

In most formal meditation the breath is simply observed. In. Out. I prefer to use short sayings (mantras) with the breath to keep awareness on the breath and calm the mind. The first part goes with the in breath, the second with the out breath. My favorite is “resting”. As I calm down and the breath and mind slow down, I shorten it to “Rest (in breath), ing (out breath). This gives my mind and body a subtle cue where we are headed. Other sayings I like are: just be, just breathe, and let go, let God.  Some of these may work for you but the idea is to find ones that resonate for you.

 

Once meditation has taken hold and become natural, we may take it with us wherever we go and whatever we do. We can practice mindfulness meditation by increasing focus and attention while cooking, cleaning, gardening, hiking, swimming, waiting, listening, playing, and resting. This becomes engaged meditation, and the intimate conscious contact and prayer that gives peace.

For a completely secular look at meditation check out Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR). I would also like to recommend my favorite teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk that Martin Luther King nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has written one hundred books on prayer, meditation, and mindfulness. Perhaps his greatest book is Peace is Every Step, but many are excellent.

In conclusion I want to remind you that it is all too easy to race around at a mile a minute distracted by a million urgent things and miss out on the important things. Prayer and meditation is all about slowing down and attending to the important things. We also tend to focus on a physical and external basis, yet in prayer and meditation we learn to live from spirit and "from the inside out". Looking within we once again find our wonder child, loving inner parent, true self, and Loving Higher power and its reservoir of infinite power, presence, and wisdom, as well as love, peace, joy, beauty, and all of the other "immeasurables".

Excerpt from the introduction to HAPPINESS: Essential Mindfulness Practices by Thich Nhat Hanh

"Mindfulness is being aware and awake to the present moment. It is very simple but the effect is great. Awareness of the breath is the foundation and essence of mindfulness, the source of happiness and joy. We are so uptight and preoccupied with past and future, our body is in one place, mind in another.  Unable to appreciate the richness of the moment, we forget to breath, or really be with the ones we love. Even when we have leisure time, we run off in a thousand directions instead of really living now.

Instead, we take refuge and put focus on the breath and steps to bring body and mind together to witness, contemplate, and enjoy what is, and touch the seeds of peace and joy in us to let them manifest. The practice of stopping is crucial. How do we stop? By the means of our breathing, walking, and sitting, we can then practice mindful eating, driving, sweeping, and so on, always (and in all ways) in the here and now. Mindfulness leads to concentration, then to insight which can liberate us from fear, anxiety, and anger, allowing us to be truly happy. We create a foundation of peace and love within".                                                                                                                                                         Other Sources:  Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness Jon Kabat-Zinn Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices and Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

P.S. Prayer and meditation are absolutely essential as a release valve and off switch to let go of whatever is troubling us. Then we don't take it so seriously, personally, pervasively, or permanently. The importance of this one aspect is huge! Absolutely critical and completely transformative. This changes everything! It's like cutting ropes and chains to free us one limb or concept at a time. "I don't mind so much anymore." So it's more mind-less-ness then mind-full-ness. I used to be mind almost exclusively. That was my sickness as "think is my drink" (Co-dependants Anonymous). Now I'm Soul-full. Soul food, and soul music because love is the food and music of the Soul. It is grounding, settling, and relaxing for all our stress and striving. When we see the vastness the details are less important. Calm abiding is like sitting in the shade with an iced tea looking out over a meadow on a beautiful day and feeling the ease, stillness, and simplicity. "Love is like an hour glass; the heart fills as the brain empties" Jules Renard