Finding compassion through meditation
Compassion and Meditation
“We’re all on the Titanic, and it’s sinking,” Pastor Dave of the Advent Lutheran Church in Melbourne, Florida, said softly but profoundly at the service last Sunday. The point is, of course, that life is short, life is unexpected, and the end of all this… is inevitable. The lesson prepared here is to find the real importance, the real value of our fragile and unconscious lives. The spiritual equivalent I thought of was the timeless wisdom of Socrates that “The unexamined life is not a life worth living.”
The inspired sermon analogy of the great sinking of the Titanic and the belief in unrestrained and selfless human compassion is universally as important now as it was 100 years ago for spiritual growth on a planet that values automation, competition, technology and creativity. individualization.
Continuing on his theme, Pastor Dave asked the poignant and timeless question; What if the hands of time turned back and we knew what would happen in the future? What if we could not only see the future results of our actions, but could go back and correct them before they actually happened? future results happened as we anticipated, but our revised actions, our new level of consciousness, changed the inner result of our soul and our humanity.
Could we think and act differently? Could our hearts be more open? Would the barriers that separate us break down, revealing an invisible matrix that, on quantum levels, shows that we are all one body, one mind, one spirit? “If hearts and minds had been open to love, could passengers on the lower decks of third class receive the luxuries and comforts of first class?” Pastor Dave asked for…a glass of fine wine, fresh food and water…access to more than the 2 bathtubs finally found on the lower deck, pieces of gold or valuable jewelry to ease the burdens of a lifetime or little treasures to comfort the arduous. trip. Would the privileged have loved, honored and cared for the less privileged given a shift in spiritual consciousness?
A study of the Titanic is in fact a study, on many levels, of the human dilemma.
Essentially, what Pastor Dave was asking us to do was have an enlightened experience. The Sanskrit (Hindu) word SATORI describes this experiential moment as a moment of “wonder.” In Christianity, we refer to this experience as seeing something from a higher spiritual perspective. We call it Grace. It is through such transformative experiences that we grow from where we are to where we want to be… where we imagine ourselves to be.
I wondered, as I left church that day, how many people would really take seriously the relevance of such a shocking question about faith. To do so requires sacred time. Simply letting that question linger on the surface of our minds is subject to the winds of distraction and discursive thought. Going within, where our higher self resides, our true selves, requires courage, patience, conscious thought, and conscious time.
An example of this is meditation.
Most people have little understanding of what true meditation is. As a practicing Catholic for most of my life, I thought of it as something shrouded in mystery, something strange and… too Eastern, unspiritual and strange for good Catholics… Our dogma and door to nirvana was through the sentence. .
What I have come to learn is that prayer and meditation are complementary interwoven like a fine piece of expensive cloth or the two sides of a coin.
Prayer is supplication.
Usually we ask God for something and turn to prayer for an answer.
Meditation is listening. Meditation is simply ‘being’…being present.
From both a spiritual and physiological aspect, meditation is about quieting the conscious, thinking, analyzing, critical, rational, everyday mind… and simply listening to what comes up. It’s not about trying to figure things out, find an answer, or barter with God for what we think we need.
It’s about trust. It’s about knowing that when we are silent… at a very deep level (Be still and know that I am God) we hear that divine whisper from a place deep within us… that special place where we have had little glimpses. of occasional days of grace.
When the ‘child/monkey’ mind is calm, new insights come in, new ideas arise, and those answers we’ve been waiting for… are at hand. It is from this space of stillness that questions of the heart and soul reveal answers that change our lives…and alter our stories.
Thank you Pastor Dave for pushing us in the direction of truth and healing. For asking us to ponder what compassion we might have found; on the Titanic, sitting next to Rosa Parks, in My Lia, during the Nazi German occupations or because of rampant bullying in contemporary America.
May we all hear the call, see the vision, understand the Word and follow the Mind of Christ, toward love.
Christine Vanacore, CTH
Certified Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, Guided Imagery Practitioner