Mindful Living
So here we are again in Holy Week – a week when we are invited to recall the sacred rhythm of the spiritual life: the inevitable cycle of death, burial, and resurrection. For all of this week we celebrate the paschal mystery, the passion of Jesus and his resurrection as Christ because, as the Easter liturgy declares, “dying, he destroyed our death and, rising, he restored our life”.
Meditation is a process of emptying ourselves of unreality, so space is made for the real you”
A central message of Holy Week is that we too are called to practice self-emptying love. In Philippians 2:6-11, St Paul, encourages us to “make your own the mind of Christ”.
“Who, being in the form of God,
Did not count equality with God
Something to be grasped
But he emptied himself,
Taking the form of a slave,
Becoming as human beings are
And, being in every way
Like a human being,
He was humbler yet,
Even accepting death,
Death on a cross.”
The phrase ‘emptied himself’ is the English translation of the Greek verb kenosein, which is the opposite of the word ‘grasped’ in the previous line. Jesus started his earthly life and finished it with the same commitment to kenosis, to letting go. It is the hallmark of his ministry, it was his way of being in the world and each of us is called to follow his way.
We could say that kenosis is the theological basis for meditation. In Christian theology, kenosis refers to the ‘self-emptying’ of Jesus’ own will and becoming entirely receptive to God’s divine will. This is our intention when we meditate. By focusing our attention on our mantra, our sacred word, we aim to move our attention away from the egoic self – to let go of all thoughts, feelings, images, emotions, sensations, to let go of doing and simply be in God’s presence. The aim of our meditation is to leave self behind, as Jesus taught, and leave ourselves open to a graced encounter with the divine, open to becoming ‘one with the one who is one’ in the words of John Main. While whatever happens in meditation occurs at a level of consciousness deeper than ordinary self-consciousness, we have faith that by leaving ourselves open to such a graced encounter, our spirit will be transformed and enriched by the Holy Spirit.
It is important to understand that our letting go of self-consciousness at the time of meditation is not about self-rejection but self-fulfilment; letting go of our daily preoccupations, of our desire for power, prestige and possessions and discovering as a result who we truly are at the depths of our being. As we let go of the false, egoic self, we come to discover the true-self. This constant letting go, through the continual repetition of the mantra, never becomes boring, because it is always taking you beyond yourself. It is always opening your spirit to what is beyond, to more of the infinity of God. As John Main describes it: “The essential message of Christianity is that our call and our potential is to enter into the life of God through Jesus, through his Spirit present in our heart. We do this, not by analysing God or analysing Jesus, not by thinking about God or thinking about Jesus, but by being silent and still and, in his Spirit’s presence, opening our hearts to his love.”
Meditation is a process of emptying ourselves of unreality, so space is made for the real you. When we let go of our tendency toward self-preoccupation and self-indulgence, we move from a mind-set of wilfulness, where we put ourselves and our needs at the centre of everything, to a mind-set of willingness, of allowing God’s word to find a home in us. Meditation is a way of making space for our true-self to be, that space which Thomas Merton described as follows: “At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us.”
There is in our world today a great spiritual hunger, which derives from a loss of connection with our true-self identity, linked to the decline of the great spiritual traditions of humanity. Meditation has the capacity to re-waken our innate spirituality and satisfy that spiritual hunger.
Being centred, being present, and opening your heart to the deepest place within, where your spirit communes with the Spirit of God: that is the practice of Christian meditation. While the intention is to allow for this communion, it is not something one is striving to achieve. Meditation is not about doing, but being. It is the path of letting go and letting be, allowing love to be itself.