July 15, 2005> 5:10 PM
chewing The word meditation is akin to "chewing," like chewing a cud. You put it in your proverbial mouth and chew on it and chew on it, and then chew on it some more. I've heard that it may not be good to even know what you're going to meditate about when you go into your meditation. Rather, you should be open - emptying yourself - not injecting something into it before anything comes. I think this is probably true, for the most part.
The sort of old monastic line on it is this - to be like the disciples waiting in the upper room, the cenacle, after Jesus' death. They were there and then there He came, through the wall, He was there. He put Himself into it. They didn't do that. They probably had little faith in the matter of His Resurrection at the time. He just came. That's how it is sometimes.
This line of thought is about us and God. It's about how much us we force into our "thing" with God. It's not really the clearest thing. You sit or walk and meditate. If you have some particular idea about what you're going to "accomplish" in this meditation, you may effectively crowd God out of the room, as it were. What if He has some higher thing to get done? What if He has something... beyond? Well, we usually end up limiting Him out of our picture is what. Let's not do that. It's hard, I know. It's very hard. You'd think it would be harder to think something up than to think of nothing in particular - not quite so.
Now, good Lord, please don't carry this over into everything and every time we pray or think about anything. That is certainly not what I, or any of those old monks, are or were talking about. This is not even a habit that I have developed in my own life. It is one that I want to develop. It is very difficult for me. My mind reels with activity all the time. It will not be quiet. I suppose I'm just sitting here thinking and thought of this and write to encourage you and myself in a direction worthy of travel. Grace and Peace be with us.
July 15, 2005
> 5:10 PM
The word meditation is akin to "chewing," like chewing a cud. You put it in your proverbial mouth and chew on it and chew on it, and then chew on it some more. I've heard that it may not be good to even know what you're going to meditate about when you go into your meditation. Rather, you should be open - emptying yourself - not injecting something into it before anything comes. I think this is probably true, for the most part.
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