Sacto: I've gone back to Meditating

     I had forgotten about meditation for some years now.  Even after needing a procedure on my heart, I never thought about using meditation as a method to calm my body and mind down.  That's the value of moving about--you get to look at the world from a different (physical) perspective and from some other place review what options are open to you.

     So, I've started attending Centering Prayer groups of the various Episcopal Churches in town.  The one I went to last night was exceptionally focused.  When I sat down in the church to participate in the group meditation, I was struck by the leader's countenance--she appeared to be a saint!  She read a piece on theology about St. Bonaventure, hit a bell, and told us it's quiet time for the next 20 minutes.  Immediately, I brought to mind the way I was taught to do TM in a New Age class many years ago: say something to myself that could serve as a mantra, extend my hands on my lap, palms up as if receiving rays from the light into my veins, place feet firmly on the ground, as if I were imagining gushers of junk being expelled into the floor, etc., etc.

     When she rang the bell again to signal time's up, I was called upon to participate in three rounds of concentrating on words in the passage that meant something especial to me, amplifying each time on their significance from hearing them in the context read.  Then, as the meeting was about to be adjourned, the leader asked for comments about the hour experience.

     In me, the remarkable result was the calmness that was infused for the rest of the evening and into the next day, today.  I seemed impervious to any level of fear or threat (to which I would respond with an appropriate state of mental and physical alertness): the interactive process--we commonly label "stress."