#11 – The Time To Be Silent

To learn to meditate is to learn to be profoundly silent; to learn to sit really still and say our mantra with total attention.  Sit with your spine as upright as possible.  Close your eyes and internally say your mantra silently in four equal syllables – Ma-Ra-Na-Tha, from the beginning until the end.

Use all of your energy saying your mantra.  Meditation is a process.  It takes time.  All of us have to be very patient with ourselves.  We must find the courage and humility to start again every time we stop.  We learn to let go of our ideas, plans, thought processes and memories, and to enter into total silence.

You may ask yourself, “does this mean to let go of everything I’ve learned in order to meditate?” No, we are only suspending all operations of our being;  The mind – rational analysis; The heart – knowing and loving people; The body – movement.

When we stand back from these processes, we discover a harmony, peace and stillness.  This harmony we experience in meditation becomes the basis for our judgments.  We are inspired by love, so we persevere in our meditation.

It appears that nothing is happening.  But gradually, our lives will be changed.  We are made free to love.  We find a holy, new ground to stand on.  We discover a rootedness in being when we discover ourselves rooted in God who is love.  All of this because we found the courage to take the attention off
ourselves and allow ourselves to be.  To be still; to be silent…in God…in love.

Unity in Christ:  Meditation is the great way of unity. We are unified and made whole in Christ.  We find our own essential and unique place in the Universe…in unity with all.

Notes from John Main’s Christian Meditation Lectures
Presented by The World Community for Christian Meditation
www.wccm.orgor www.wccm-usa.org