Faith Venture

Those of you who have followed my writing for some time know that I am an eclectic reader. I pick up ideas and wisdom from wherever I can.

Listening to an interview with Zen Master Henry Shukman on the flight to California this week. He mentioned that meditation is like dipping a tea bag into a cup of hot water. It infuses your life.

There is a rich history of Christian mediation. We also call it contemplation or prayer.

Sit for a moment or two. Let this idea of connecting with God infusing our life. How much better we would live if we let God infuse our life. Perhaps that is a part of what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God surrounds us.

When I sit in meditation, the experience of God infusing my life is part of the whole.

(For a great book on the subject, try The Cloud of Unknowing by an anonymous 14th Century English Catholic religious.)

Andrew Huberman, a famous neuroscientist, described how making a fist sends a signal to the brain thence through the body to tense up and prepare for fight or flight. So, unclench your fists to begin to relax.

Which reminded me of Henri Nouwen’s marvelous little book With Open Hands.

People often are concerned with posture during meditation or prayer. Maybe they’ve seen photos of an old guru or a famous movie star sitting cross-legged (we call it lotus or half-lotus position in Yoga, not easy for everyone to get into) with hands resting on knees and the tips of thumb and second finger touching (called “completing the energy circuit”).

Forget all that. You can sit on a cushion on the floor or on a firm chair with an upright posture engaging strong abs. The important thing is what we learned from Huberman and Nouwen. Unclench your fists and open your hands. Now you will be in a more relaxed posture and a more inviting one. It signals the body and the mind that now I’m open to God. I am ready to receive God’s blessing or nudging or whatever the spirit feels I need for the day.

With open hands.

There is an ancient meditation technique from India that identifies “primordial” sounds with energy centers in the body. You sit quietly. Regulate breathing. Then inhale deeply. While exhaling slowly say one of these sounds. The A sound is like ahh; the O sound is like Ohh.

From base of spine upward to top of head:

• Lam
• Vam
• Ram
• Yam
• Ham
• Sham
• Om

Within Christianity there is a simple prayer, called the Jesus Prayer, that Christian monks, nuns, and recluses have repeated since at least the second century.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

You sit in meditation just as above. I would say the first phrase on inhale and the second one on exhale. I used the word “say” in both instances. Actually, you can repeat aloud or silently.

Over much time, I shortened the prayer to just the word “God” which focuses me on the entire sentence.

The apostle Paul said once that we should pray without ceasing. That was it. One sentence of a suggestion or command or something.

A marvelous little book called The Way of the Pilgrim tells the story of a 19^th century Russian peasant who met with tragedy where his house burned to the ground and his family was lost. His only possession was a Bible. Recovering, he could only think of the command to pray without ceasing. He decided to wander the land of western Russia repeating the Jesus Prayer. The story tells of his adventures meeting various people who helped him on his way.

The power of a mind focused on prayer. The power of prayer itself.

Try it. First thing in the morning. When I exercised at a Y, I sat cross-legged in the sauna after exercise and prayed it for 15 minutes almost every day. When you’re standing in the queue to check out at a store. When you are stopped by a traffic light.

Many opportunities present themselves for us to pause and say this little prayer. It helps us remember who we are.