Found Meditation
This service led by Jinjer Stanton
In the stillness of the morning a pair of tiny, elegant insects conducted sedate courtship on the leaf of a scented geranium. Wind rustled leaves above without disrupting the peace. Even birds calling to one another seemed to emphasize the quiet rather than break it.
I slipped into contemplation without effort or intention. Into the silent places within myself I came. I entered the deep place where separation dissolves and all things are one. In that place I rested secure in the unconscious awareness of the perfection of all being.
It wasn't the first time. Nature has always been my easiest route to the divine. A field of winking fireflies at dusk, the grass tunnels made by voles under the snow and left bare in the spring, coming face to face with a deer in a cornfield, and too many other instances to describe have all shocked me out of myself and into the infinite.
I can't believe I'm alone in this. Even dandelions in pavement cracks have the potential to move us beyond ourselves.
But other things have had similar effects. In my early days learning desktop publishing I would slip the leash of time and unconsciously spend hours exploring the power and possibility inherent in commanding electrons to do my bidding. Sometimes a work of art will show such wisdom and understanding of the nature of infinity that it spirits me away. And occasionally, I see another human being acting in the world from that higher place in all of us, and I feel my heart rise up in answer.
Many times we are surprised by experiences of this type and dismiss them as lovely, but not really much use in the "real" world -- particularly before we become consciously aware of our spiritual path. But they stand ready to give us hints about the true nature of reality -- the reality behind the "real" world if we can but shift our attention.
I think that is where the true magic of the practice of meditation lies. We often come to it so we can become more spiritual, but for me it has opened my eyes to the spiritual in all things. It has made me more aware of the rightness of the world which is constantly revealing itself to me with every breath I take, every dish I wash, and every financial reversal that plagues me.
I'd heard about meditation and its benefits for years before I decided to buckle down and start doing it. I came up against a lot of frustration in my early attempts. I never experienced anything like what the literature described, so I'd soon quit. Finally, I decided to set aside just five minutes a day to make the attempt -- whether I succeeded or not I'd still sit for five minutes. I checked the clock every few seconds at first, then began keeping my eyes closed with grim determination for as long as possible before peeking to see if the five minutes were up yet. Invariably, they weren't. Eventually, I gave up checking since it did so little good. Shortly after that an evening came when ten minutes passed without my awareness of their passing.
I was so excited it was another two weeks before it happened again. With practice I became able to enter this meditative state relatively easily and my life began to feel less desperate. I became less reactive and more responsive in the way I conducted my life and that was a great relief. But I didn't yet make the connection between my new practice and the spontaneous experiences I'd had before.
Not even when I began attending the Toning and Meditation services at Lake Harriet Spiritual Community did I see the utterly natural character of that state of consciousness outside of space and time. I did thoroughly enjoy the power of using that state to consciously renovate my concept of the world and myself. I began to mindfully interact and co-create with spirit instead of being a passive passenger on the life train. One of the most potent aspects of this new period was my drastically increased sense of myself as a being of value in and to the universe.
Little by little my daily meditative practice has become less a clearly demarcated ten or twenty minutes set aside and much more of a constant awareness of the spirit around me. At the same time my life is becoming simpler because I am letting go little by little of the expectations of the world as I pay more and more attention to those things that move me, the things that give me joy. Even as my life becomes simpler it becomes fuller.
I still have times when the pain of the world frustrates me. I still have times when I judge myself a failure because certain things are not part of my life. But, where once misery was the theme of my life and melancholy (depression) my normal state, I now find an upwelling joy is more often present than not and I can often call it to myself on those days when I'm feeling just a little low. And some days the wonder of existence surprises me with the little miracles it creates.
Before I began to meditate, there was no room for the wonder to creep in. Agony and a feeling of entrapment were too powerful and beauty was bittersweet. Today, meditation is the foundation of my happiness and I find it everywhere.
Today's Meditation
For today's meditation I suggest you try the mindfulness meditation technique in the Just One Percent area of this website.
Thank you for coming.
Namaste
For more from Jinjer Stanton, you can visit her website www.jinjerstanton.com and for more about meditation you can visit "Just One Percent", an offering of Miracles of the Spirit created by Jinjer Stanton.