Dear Group Leaders and Friends in Christian Meditation,
At the end of January, my wife Michelle and I were in Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan, for a folk festival. On that Sunday, we had hoped to attend the gathering of the local Tibetan Buddhists for White Tara meditation and a teaching from Demo Rinpoche on Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times. We wanted to experience this community. I didn’t realize their calendar had been changed because they were beginning a retreat the next day. They had canceled the meditation yet were still holding the teaching a little later. So, we headed to a coffee shop to wait for the service to begin, returning to a community of about 100 people gathering in their sacred space (and about an equal amount of people on Zoom) to listen to a dharma talk. When we walked into the doorway one of the members of the community greeted us with kindness and asked if we were Buddhist practitioners. We replied no but were meditators in the Christian tradition. The welcome continued and we felt right at home in a tradition different to ours but one flowing from a contemplative way of living.
I was struck by the immediate question about whether we were practitioners. Think about our own meditation practice. We are always beginners on the way. We are practitioners in our tradition. Interestingly, the early church spoke of “being the way.” That was before calling ourselves Christian or any other label we would give ourselves. People of the way. We are to live the way of Jesus. Sadly, we are in some great conflict in our nation about what that means. Imagine if we all spoke of ourselves as practitioners. We are practicing our faith.
The other day, I was on YouTube and heard someone say that the term Buddhist was a modern western construct. That it would be more appropriate to describe those who are called Buddhists as people who strive to live the teaching of the Buddha, the Dharma or in Pali, dhamma. Now I don’t remember who said this, so, forgive me for my ignorance, but I do find this instructive in thinking of what it means to follow the way of Jesus. We can get caught in our denominational divisions and neglect Jesus and his teachings. So instead of emphasizing my identity as a Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist or any other title, even Christian, maybe we take some time and remind ourselves that we are following the way of Jesus. We are practitioners of what Jesus continually taught as essential to our lives — love of God and love of neighbor. We are to be practitioners of love. Meditation, the way of the mantra, helps me every day to love God and neighbor more intentionally by laying aside thoughts in silence, stillness and simplicity. I still continually struggle but where I falter, God always provides.
Soon we begin our Lenten journey. It is a time of repentance as in the Greek Metanoia which was originally thought of as a change of mind or change of direction. Many have lost touch with this original meaning. So often, we have turned into the time when we beat ourselves up for not being perfect in our faith (perfection is also a word that gets in the way of our faith. The word in scripture that we translate as perfect is equally translated as whole). We are to strive to be whole. Maybe these 40 days of Lent can be an opportunity to grow in our lives as followers of Jesus and practitioners of his way. Maybe it could be a time where we reinforce our meditation practice, perhaps adding another time to meditate each day beyond our morning and evening meditation. If we haven’t been meditating twice a day, then preparing to add that second meditation. It is not another opportunity to beat ourselves up, but it can be a time to stretch ourselves in the way of Jesus. Remembering that each of us is always a beginner.
If you are looking for something to inspire you this year, there is an online opportunity from our World Community for Christian Meditation: “The Future of Religion: How can spirituality evolve to meet today’s challenges?” https://wccm.org/events/the-future-of-religion/ It could be an opportune time to engage monthly with a variety of inspired people as we come to understand what it means to be people on the way together. It reminds me of what the American, yet eastern teacher Ram Dass had said, “We are walking each other home.” Another opportunity for gathering this year is the John Main Seminar being hosted by the US WCCM Community in September. The organizing community has been meeting, and there will be more information very soon.
May God guide us in our Lenten practice!
Warmly,
Kevin Maksym
