While a sophomore in college studying cultural anthropology in South India I was introduced to a Brahman form of meditation by professor Ram Chandra Rau of the University of Bangalore. He taught us the introductory meditation breathing and posture common for all adolescent Brahmans. One aspect of the discipline is the recitation of a "mantra", an phrase repeated to the rhythm of the breath as a means to focus one's mindfulness and chase away distractions. This phrase can be spoken out loud or in the silence of one's mind.
We were encouraged to adopt our own individual mantras. I chose an ancient Christian prayer of confession, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." It fit for me in so many ways, including the rhythm of my breathing. I have practiced this form of meditation, in varying degrees of commitment, since 1972. The mantra usually begins or ends my personal prayers and has become like a dear friend. By taking a few deep breaths and repeating my mantra I physically relax and refocus in almost any situation.
For the last eight weeks I have been taking the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) campus. MBSR is offered nationally in hospitals and medical centers for pain management and a host of physical/psychological challenges. Mine is the struggle to get a good night's sleep! Sharing my struggles with a trusted friend, she referred me to the MBSR program at PAMF having taken the course herself. She found it a blessing. It has been one for me as well!
Research confirms the health benefits of MBSR practice. The class offered participants many new practices of mindfulness, new resources on the subject and has encouraged us to adopt and adapt a daily practice. I've added yoga to my regular meditation discipline as well as some other fascinating options including a walking meditation.
After a yoga and breathing "warm up", a participant is asked to walk at a normal pace in sync with one's breathing rhythm and the silent recitation of a mantra. As a non-sectarian program based on ancient Buddhist spiritual practice, MBSR suggests generic mantras. Such as silently counting steps or repeating such phrases as " Breathing in....breathing out" or "I am arriving, I am at home, right here, right now". A walk can become a moment of attention to the stimulus of sun, wind, sound and our connection to the world around us; it can help us tame the distracting thoughts that recycle again and again in the mind; it can "ground us" in the here and the now as we move to the rhythm of our bodies in motion.
I've been experimenting with walking meditation during my almost daily 4:00pm excursion from the church office to Starbucks across the street for my afternoon tea. [After living over 5 years in former British colonies...India, Kenya and Malaysia...I am a committed tea drinker, especially as my energy wanes at the end of the day!] Its an easy walk, only 10 minutes each way.
In class I liked the instructor's introductory mantra for walking, "I am arriving, I am at home, right here, right now". It worked for my stride and my goal of connectedness with the moment.
From the very first day my walking mediation mantra has evolved into "Jesus Christ, Son of God, right here, right now". Quite unconsciously I have melded my 40 year Christian tradition into my new MBSR learnings.
Which for me is a perfectly natural and good thing to do.
In the wonderful prayer attributed to the Apostle Paul we hear, "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:18-19)
Can you hear the paradox? "I want you to know that which cannot be known; this reality we call the love of Christ."
Prayer is that dialogue in all its myriad of forms that draws us to the presence of the Divine in each and any moment, to know that which can never be fully known. The practice of mindfulness, which does not claim or require the articulation of such divinity, never-the-less opens one to it.
Mary Oliver, in her poem, "The Messenger", writes of those who would open themselves to the spirit found in all of creation "...and this is our work.....to remain astonished". Prayer, mindfulness practice, worship, compassionate service, acts of justice and so much more can be means to do just that.
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