In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.”
Charlie Brown
So what does Charlie Brown have to do with meditation? HMMM??? Everything to me! That's the sound I hear in my head if I haven't meditated. When people try to talk to me I hear, "wha, wha, wha, wha, wha!" Huh? Were you talking to me? I meditate two times a day, often begrudgingly - so that I can comfort, understand and love others - either that or I'd be selfish and self centered craving only to be understood. I was not fortunate enough to born with a clutter free, totally focused clear head. nor have I always made good choices. So for me meditation is a sanity pause. It slows me down long enough so that I don't react to my perceptions of reality. I struggle more than not. I strive, dig and hold on to life many days so hard that my knuckles go white and numb or my head roars so loud that I can not hear myself think. Many days I feel like a Who in Whoville - is anybody out there???
No matters how chaotic or dark life has been (and trust me it's been as chaotic as a the eye of a hurricane and as dark as Linville Caverns, there's one thing I have never totally lost and that is HOPE. For when I am completely empty just like Pandora's Box I miraculously find deep inside of me a tiny drop of hope. To think I can just skate through life without replenishing that hope would be foolish and although I have been accused of being many things - foolish ain't one of them!
In order for me to sustain a drop of hope within the vessel of my being - I personally must give to others of my time, my love and my light. When I stop doing that a part of me goes dark and the chaos begins to swirl if only in my minds eye. And that's why I meditate morning and night...the answers to life truly are not found in the back of a book. The answers that we need are found inside of us and we can only get them if we cultivate the ground within the valley of our souls!
A simple meditation for centering yourself:
1. Sit comfortably in as quiet a place as possible.
2. Inhale and Exhale 3 deep breaths (think when the Doctor has a stethescope to your back..."take three deep breathes").
3. Have a passive attitude toward intrusive thoughts. Just let them roll in and out.
4. Once your mind has stopped roaring, it helps to say a centering prayer (this is optional and the prayer can be moved from the middle of your meditation period to the beginning or end) here is my favorite prayer:
THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of
forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort
than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.
5. Now listen as you begin to hear the things needed for you to become a channel of peace!
6. Remember when you've finished meditating to slowly open your eyes and stretch before standing up.
Peace and Blessings!!
