|
Redeemer Home > Spiritual Growth > Meditation Groups
Many people believe that meditation is something Buddhists do-not Christians, that there is no history of meditation within the Christian tradition. Actually, the roots of Christian meditation date at least to the Christian desert seekers of the third century.
Today, we have the example of Bishop Eugene Sutton, who urges us to take up centering prayer, a Christian form of meditation. Meditation also fits into a larger scheme, as shown by these comments from Ken Wilber, a contemporary psychologist and philosopher:
.....meditation itself is, and always has been, a spiritual practice. Meditation, whether Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, or Muslim, was invented as a way for the soul to venture inward, there ultimately to find a supreme identity with Godhead. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within"-and meditation, from the very beginning, has been the royal road to that Kingdom. Whatever else it does, and it does many beneficial things, meditation is first and foremost a search for the God within.
I would say meditation is spiritual, but not religious. Spiritual has to do with actual experience, not mere beliefs; with God as the Ground of Being. . . .
Meditation . . . seeks to go beyond the ego altogether; it asks nothing from God, real or imagined, but rather offers itself up as a sacrifice toward a greater awareness.
From Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber, (Shambhala: Boston & London, 1992), p. 76.
The contemporary Christian meditation practice of centering prayer offers a slightly different twist on the usual meditation practices. When we practice meditation, we directly follow Jesus' modeling of "Not my will, but Thine be done." We surrender our personal agendas and rest in God-is-Love.
Please join us as we continue this centuries-old tradition of Christian meditation. Classes, which include instruction and practice in centering prayer, begin on Wednesday September 30 at 6 p.m. All are welcome-beginners and advanced practitioners, and, yes, skeptics and the curious! Each class lasts one hour. The first session ends on Nov. 18. For more information contact Sherrill Pantle or call (410) 377-0381.
|
