Chill with the Still

I first became interested in meditation way back in the 1970’s. I was a newly qualified Mental Health worker (RMN) and I’d just landed a plumb job in a pioneering mental health unit in Derby. My first task was to develop a meditation/relaxation program with the aim of helping people become less reliant on tranquilisers and anti-depressants and more able to cope using natural cognitive methods. This was pioneering work back in the day and we found much resistance from Psychiatrists who seemed more intent on pushing drugs that tended to mask the problems rather than solve them. Arguably, these days we have a more enlightened approach to mental health care, and although resources are even scarcer than ever in the NHS, cognitive therapy and mindfulness meditation are now commonplace treatments as they are cheap to administer and effective for many people suffering from anxiety and depression. I also began to regularly meditate at this time using Hindu and Buddhist methods and I found them to be very helpful both for my own personal health and wellbeing but also in my work as a therapist. I have continued to meditate on a daily basis since that time. However in the 1990’s I came across a Christian form of meditation that was very much like the Eastern methods I had been using, but that was firmly grounded in the Christian monastic tradition, and coming from a Christian background I naturally warmed to this way of meditating.
After being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia last year, the doctor told me the condition could possibly be helped by a course of cognitive therapy and mindfulness meditation. As I was already well versed in both therapies, it was very much a case of ‘physician heal thyself’ (Luke 4:23) and I began to ‘set to’ by attending a couple of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy courses and deepening further my lifelong interest in meditation.
The nearest meditation group I knew of was down at the Buddhist Centre in Nottingham They hold a twice weekly lunchtime ‘drop in’ session for people of all faiths and none. The groups they run are really good but it was a long way for me to travel and they drive a different type of vehicle from my own. I started looking for a Christian meditation group in the local area and thanks to Susie Booth from St Edmunds I was introduced to a group based at St Marks in Mansfield who were using mainly Ignatian methods of prayer and meditation in the ‘Kataphatic’ tradition rather than the ‘Apophatic’ method I was used to.
Apophatic, Kataphatic? - these are strange and unfamiliar terms to many Christians but to put it simply, Kataphatic meditation uses thoughts, images and guided scenarios, and Apophatic meditation transcends our thoughts and seeks a direct experience of God. Most Christians are comfortable with the former but find the later much more challenging, unfamiliar, and even scary. On finding no group in this area that was practicing Apophatic meditation I decided to start one of my own! After all I was a qualified mental health worker, with a first class honours degree in religion and healing arts, and with 40 years’ experience as a meditator, I reckoned I had enough of a track record, or so I thought. I ought to have realised that when it comes to meditation we are all perpetual beginners and we have to seek afresh the divine presence every day, (using what the Zen Buddhists call, ‘a beginners mind’). Also I learned quite quickly that this type of meditation is much more familiar to the ‘general’ public than it is to the ‘general’ Christian, particularly up in this part of the world!
Apophatic meditation of all styles is particularly effective in calming down the thoughts that arise involuntarily in the mind, what meditators often describe as ‘the monkey mind’. These thoughts are mainly self-referential ego related thoughts such as – ‘I’ve got to remember to do so and so’, ‘I’ve got to make sure I don’t forget that’, ‘they must think I’m mad, or that I was born yesterday’, what a fool I’ve been’, I shouldn’t have said that’ etc.- They can often be much worse, for example when we criticise and judge others in order to make ourselves feel better and more superior, (the ‘he/she/they/them’ variety). Apophatic meditation, cognitive therapy and mindfulness have proved to be very effective in helping those with low self-regard, anxiety and depression, alcoholism and drug addiction, who will often go to almost any length to escape their destructive self- critical and negative thoughts.
However, in the past 50 years or so many hundreds of thousands of Christians throughout the world have discovered the benefits of apophatic meditation that has been a central part of the monastic traditions since at least the 3rd century CE. They value it for both the physical and psychological benefits, but even more importantly, to develop a deeper experience and awareness of the presence of God. Groups like the ‘World Community for Christian Meditation’, and the Trappist led ‘Centering Prayer Movement’ continue to grow at a phenomenal rate, and authors from these groups like Laurence Freeman, and Cynthia Bourgeault, sell books on Christian meditation in their ‘shed loads’- (search online any of these tags to find out more).
Earlier this year I started holding a regular meditation group at the Park Centre here in Mansfield Woodhouse where I live.. I began by offering a course on ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, a 14th century book on meditation written by an anonymous indigenous monk from the East Midlands of England. This ancient manual on apophatic prayer has been very influential on developing my own style of meditation and so I thought it might be a good place to start. As the group has progressed however, it has evolved into more of a support group for those who have already had a taste of meditation, often via the NHS/College cognitive mindfulness course that they run, and also from encounters with other spiritual traditions.
I am planning to run another lot weekly support style groups again, starting in the autumn. These will focus primarily on encouraging people in their meditation and offering support rather than focusing on specific methods. These open, inclusive, multi-faith sessions are free/gratis and open to all. Meanwhile just remember, ‘If you need to chill, come and be still!’
A quick start guide to meditating
• Sit comfortably and close your eyes
• Mentally scan your body for any tension, (esp. face and shoulders).
• Using the default word ‘one’ begin to say it silently and slowly in your mind. (You can choose your own personal word that is sacred to you, or that evokes a sense of love, peace, or calmness later on*)
• Whenever distractions appear (thoughts, aches and pains, noises etc.) allow them to simply fall away, and gently return to silently saying your word without any strain or tension.
• This is the ‘deal’ - 10 000 times you may be distracted = 10 001 opportunities to return to saying your word. It’s that simple but it’s not easy! But even if you ‘zone out’ for a long time you have not failed because your intention, or will, has been to honour ‘the deal’. You are still meditating – so no guilt or feelings of failure that you are doing it wrong, this only adds to the noise of the distractions.
• After 15 or 20 minutes (or longer) gradually stop saying your word and just sit for a while before you stretch and open your eyes.
*Some suggestions – “Abba” (‘Father’, also mark of respect for an older man or teacher- Aramaic) -“Amma” (‘mother’, also mark of respect for older woman or teacher - Aramaic) - ‘Bless-ed’, (said as two syllables) - “Amen”, (meaning ‘so be it’ or ‘let it be’- pronounced ah-men) – “Shanti” (Hindu word for ‘tranquillity’) –“Santi” (Buddhist word for ‘tranquillity’) – “Shalom” (Hebrew greeting meaning ‘peace’) – “Salaam” (Muslim greeting meaning ‘peace’)- “Seetal” (Sikh word meaning ‘peaceful, calm, contented’