AS WE PROGRESS on the path of life we become increasingly aware of our own insufficiency. We are, however, able to call with greater trust on that power beyond us - and also within us - which we call God.
The Fact of God
No man has ever encountered God directly, for none, save the Son of God made flesh, could survive the meeting: the spiritual power released would destroy the creature. I find too often that people who affirm with great assurance their belief in God are in fact worshipping an image of God that they themselves have constructed. It is easy enough to define God according to those attributes we especially revere, but God is far beyond any attribute that we can imagine, for He is the source of all attributes. The Christian affirms the presence of God in the Incarnate Christ, but even this impeccably orthodox statement, irreproachable as far as it goes, can, in some quarters, tend to limit the qualities of Christ, Who was assuredly incarnate in the form of a man that was crucified and resurrected. But He, in His cosmic form, is the eternal Word and Wisdom of God, active before the foundation of the world and at the same time the light that enlightens every man, as St. John states in the prologue of his gospel.
It is therefore not to be wondered at that the spiritually aspiring person is considerably less dogmatic in his views about God than is the conventional religionist. To be less certain about God's nature is a sign, not of unbelief but of the humility that is the prerequisite for a further revelation of God's grace. As we grow into full humanity, our faith deepens, but we cease to see God exclusively in a personal mode, speaking only to our condition. We begin to know more about a Being that transcends limited personality and is in communion with all creation. This is the transpersonal manifestation of God. The world's great mystics, of all the religious traditions, affirm the unknowability of God, Who in His fullness is best defined in negative terms; any positive assertion limits God. For in Him all things co-inhere. He is the point of coincidence of all that is contradictory. If we try to grasp Him intellectually, He will move beyond the ambit of our mind. All we will possess is a vapid image of our own devising. It is for this reason that the fullness of the Deity is best contemplated in terms that transcend personality. The concept of the Godhead, used especially by that very great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhan, is helpful; as this is beyond the terms of human understanding, the pronoun "It" is best used for descriptive purposes. But this does not degrade the Godhead to the impersonal status of an object; it exalts the Godhead above the limitation of personality to transpersonal communion with all creatures.
The paradox of the situation is this: while the rational mind at its peak of understanding cannot comprehend God, the quiet mind can be receptive to the grace of God Who approaches it in the form of personality. In other words, when we are silent and at peace in ourselves, God can come to us and make Himself known to us as a person among persons. It is thus that we can identify God by the personal pronoun He, though the stress on masculinity implicit in that pronoun is unfortunate in its exclusiveness. It can be deduced from this that in the form of eternal life God is beyond attributes, but in the world of time and space - the world of becoming - God shows Himself to us in terms of personality. The principal manifestation of personality is love, and this is how God reveals Himself to the receptive soul, whether during contemplation or in the purposeful activity of work in the world. We know God by His outflowing energies while we are persons. The mystic who has transcended private personality sees God as the infinite reality, better contemplated in terms of the void or the endless one than as a finite being. We indeed know God according to our own state of self-knowledge and maturity.
As we transcend private personality - the mode of self-concern and self-interest - and put on the collective personality of the world, so we become full persons; as such we gain understanding about the person of God, a very different person to that grasped by the unrealised man. It is in this form that the persons of the Holy Trinity may be well glimpsed. In the Godhead is the eternal generation of the Trinity: the Father Who creates, the uncreated Son by Whom all substantive creation is evoked as the Word and Wisdom of God, and Who is also the Redeemer of all that is fallen and awry, and the Spirit that effects creation by infusing all creatures with life, and sanctifies their redeemed wills so that they can return to the Father as full persons, responsible and free.
If the knowledge I have described is to come to us, we have to be quiet, humble, and open to receive it. The act of becoming quiet and receptive to the power of God is called meditation. In its most simple context meditation is a state of mental repose in which extraneous impressions from the world around us and from our own unconscious can be stilled and eliminated. At this stage the mind is quiet and relaxed and is ready to assimilate knowledge from realms of existence that far transcend the limited world of the five senses. In order to meditate there are no metaphysical or religious pre-requisites; indeed, a non-theist can often meditate effectively on the void of silence, while an atheist may find great bodily relaxation and mental renewal from the shared silence.
It is unfortunate that meditation is now such a popular practice that it tends to be seen as something apart from the world of everyday life, rather than as the essential way of constructive living. If our minds were quiet and untroubled, we would be able to concentrate fully on the work on hand and act with greater efficiency and in harmony with others also. In such a state of conscious receptivity we would be open to inspiration from sources far beyond our usual range, and we would be able to imagine creatively. Creative imagination is the means whereby new hypotheses, whether scientific or philosophical, flash into our minds, where they are clothed in thought and made intelligible to other people. By creative imagination the beauty of form, sound, and word that is inherent in "eternal nature" (the world of eternal values that is unsullied by the creature) comes down to the individual mind where it is transcribed into the plastic arts, music, and literature. By creative imagination God shows Himself to us in vision and illumination, and we in turn transmit this illumination in the form of mystical theology - the only theology that is authentic, for it comes from the Spirit and not merely from the mind of man ("The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" - 2 Corinthians, 3:6).
The Practice of Meditation
To write about the practice of meditation would seem superfluous in view of the plethora of literature on this subject. In fact, meditation cannot be understood from even the most inspired description; its meaning dawns only in the practice of silence in the presence of fellow seekers. In my own work, I encourage those new to the discipline first of all to put their body at ease by consciously acknowledging each limb and part in turn and being grateful for its presence. Special attention to breathing is useful at the outset in order to achieve relaxation of the abdomen by diaphragmatic breathing, but as soon as this relaxation is achieved, I encourage the meditator to forget about his breathing altogether.
Relaxation of the emotions and intellect is more difficult. One way of obviating these tensions is to instruct the meditator to rest his mind on a particular phrase or word that is repeated over and over again until the word vibrates in harmony with the person's own inner rhythm. Personally I do not use this technique, for I believe that the emotions and intellect must not be by-passed, but rather brought into the meditation, just as the relaxed body is also glorified in its own way. I therefore try to evoke feelings of gratitude, thanksgiving, and peace in the meditator - gratitude for the opportunity to be able to set aside a little time for meditation in the course of a hectic daily life, thanksgiving that we are all together in a suitable place and are, at least for this brief period, in physical safety and security, and peace at least during the period when we are all one together. Indeed, although we may have come from a taxing situation and may have to return to it later on, we can at least be at peace one with another during the period of quiet. It is possible, in fact, to use such themes as peace, thanksgiving, and serenity as subjects for meditation, and move progressively into them in complete self-abandonment. Alternatively, when there is such inner quiet, the mind may be filled with a great scriptural theme such as Isaiah's vision in the Temple (Isaiah 6:1-8), Moses' vision of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6), Job's encounter with God (Job 38:1-7), some of the Psalms (such as 19, 23, and 121), the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8), the walk to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), or the Ascension (Acts 1:6-11). For those of a more agnostic, humanistic temperament, a passage of beautiful poetry or descriptive prose may be an excellent anchor for the mind, or even an imagined scene of natural beauty, such as the ascent of a high mountain or a walk through a still meadow or a forest.
The object of these various themes is not discursive study but unitive contemplation. In other words, one should not analyse the theme with the discursive intellect, an exercise that is tiring and eventually frustrating, so much as identify oneself with it. When subject (the meditator) and object (the theme) are one, the mind has found its rest, and the person has really begun to meditate. There comes a time when the stillness born of this union of subject and object (the I-Thou relationship of Buber carried into the field of inner imagination) infuses the whole person, and a new way of living opens out for him. At this stage there is neither distinctive meditator nor theme, but a new creation: all are one in a reality that transcends form and finitude. It is the Eternal One Who is God. And yet there is no merging or self-annihilation; on the other hand, it is only now that the meditator knows his true self (or spiritual self), which finds its life and integrity in God (in whom we live, and move, and have our being - Acts 17:28). This state of loss of limited self-centredness in the fullness of the formless void where God is known is called contemplation, and it is the link between meditation and prayer.
The death of the old self in service and sacrifice is the way to a knowledge of one's true self, which is eternal in nature. But one cannot die to the old self until it has been acknowledged and used in service - indeed, until it is a worthy sacrifice to God's kingdom. Even Jesus did not give Himself to death on the Cross until He had accomplished His Father's will on earth. This is why the experience of contemplation should not be separated, or divorced, from a proper identification of the person with the world in which he lives in the form of a physical body with a rational mind. In other words, contemplation is an advanced state of the spiritual life, and should come only to those who are integrated enough in personality to receive it. Meditation techniques that induce contemplative silence through the repetition of phrases or words can certainly achieve their object often with surprisingly little difficulty and great rapidity, but if the meditator is not already an integrated, balanced person, it is all too easy for him to lose contact with his own identity and become enmeshed in a diffuse, formless void which he mistakes for God. But this diffuse void actually separates him both from his own true self and from effective communication with his fellows. He becomes increasingly remote from the world where we all have to live, at least in our physical bodies, and less outflowing in social relationships. On the other hand, these techniques can be of considerable value to more experienced aspirants on the way who have found the traditional prayers and liturgies of their particular religious traditions unhelpful in the inward path.
Fruits of Meditation
Meditation is no panacea. It does not remove physical or psychological difficulties, nor does it, on its own, effect moral renewal. If a master criminal were to practise meditation without any moral scruples or spiritual aspiration, he would perform his anti-social work with even greater efficiency than before! If a psychotic person, or one in severe psychological difficulties, were to meditate without expert guidance, his field of consciousness would be swamped with previously repressed psychic material from his loaded unconscious, and a complete mental breakdown might ensue. This applies particularly to techniques that by-pass the emotions and intellect and reach directly to the formless void. Those who are particularly sensitive to psychic influence from outside sources (so-called sensitives, or mediums), can be assailed by various types of communications varying from edifying messages from the deceased to dark, unhappy material from the dead or the living (in the persons of those meditating with them in a group).
I mention these adverse aspects of meditation not to alarm the newcomer but simply to put at his disposal the full facts of the case. In actual practice, meditation is much more often a health-giving mental activity which can lead to spiritual renewal and an augmented prayer life. As in all other activities, the attitude and motive of the person are of crucial importance. Nor can the health of the body and the mind be disregarded. A person who investigates meditation because he is dissatisfied with the surface meaninglessness of his life and longs for a greater understanding of reality is on the right path. If in addition he has intelligent insight into his own character, especially the various moral failings to which we are all heir, he is in a good position to practise meditation. None of us is completely sound psychologically, or upright morally, or healthy physically. But if we can face our defects directly and without prevarication, then we are fit people to venture into meditation. The less self-centred our attitude is, the more easily we can meditate. If self development is our overriding concern, we will strain for attainment that in fact comes only when we relax in trust and self-giving. If, on the other hand, we meditate to cultivate our inner life for the benefit of the world, especially as a prelude to prayer, our meditation time will be a source of benediction to us and to others.
If meditation is practised assiduously, our personalities will attain balance, and our sense of perspective will widen. In everyday life the mind tends to course unprofitably around obsessions, fears, resentments, and anxieties. The more we identify ourselves with these thoughts and emotions by constantly lapsing into them, the more are we enslaved by them, and the less free is our will to act constructively in any particular situation. On the other hand, meditation helps to clear the mind of emotional debris, so that its vision becomes less clouded and its action more efficient. It is a fact that most of us think far too much and at the same time very inefficiently. We are consumed by vain thoughts and fruitless imaginings. If we were in full command of our intellectual and emotional life, the mind would be still and untroubled. Instead of thinking superficial, unhelpful thoughts, the mind would not think at all; in place of thought there would be receptivity of the mind to the world around us and the pulsating life within us. In this way we would really be aware of things that are both temporal and eternal. When the occasion arose in which detailed planning was necessary, the mind would think coherently and constructively, hindered as little as possible by fears and anxieties arising from the situation.
Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). It is this peace that the disciple attains after meditation; it is also the peace that he should give to the world, even as Jesus gave it to those who would receive it. This is the acid test of effective meditation, that it sheds fresh light in the mind of the meditator about the nature of reality, and that he flows out in that peace that passes all understanding to the world in his daily life.
Meditation in Relationships
A real relationship is a meditation between two people. This is the I-Thou relationship described by Buber. Each has lost his isolation in the other, and both have found a new meaning to life - no longer the mortal life of the flesh but the eternal life of the spirit. The unifying power in such mutual self-giving is love, and it is at this point that meditation gives way to prayer. In pure meditation it is the head that acts; in prayer the heart also acts and flows out in love. The usual worldly relationship is an I-It affair. When one speaks to another person, one is hardly aware of him as a distinct being in his own right, but simply as a sounding-board for one's own ideas and feelings. But when one becomes silent before the mystery of another human being (or animal, or plant, or inanimate object) and observes in wonder and respect, one is contemplating not only that person (or creature) but also God Who fashioned and created the creature. And then one begins to learn about the Creator, the creature, and oneself also. When we are able to listen in silence to the life story of another person and not respond at once with our own wisdom, a greater wisdom, that of the Holy Spirit who is the Advocate, will flow from our lips and lead both that other person and ourselves into the truth.
From the lips of the silence proceeds wisdom, the Word of God.
From the hushed heart flows love.