Meditation in time of trouble

Years and years of meditation... 40 years or more; sometimes a meditation is peaceful and sometimes meditation is a continuous effort to come out of the thoughts revolving in my mind.  Then, just one morning, for no reason at all, along comes a totally different experience.  Unlooked for and surprising, it leaves a certainty that there is more to life than breakfast, lunch and tea.   Out of the blue my whole being is filled with bliss, every part; my body feels it, my mind delights and my heart is lifted to somewhere both new and totally familiar.  And this on a day when the news is bad, when there is grief and turmoil and stories of unrelenting aggression.  This on a week where each person I meet has a new ache or pain, has a sad story of loss, when telephone calls often elicit bad news and where it is clear that there is a realm of suffering which can't be denied.  And yet... one dip into this realm of untroubled joy tells a different story; it welcomes and invites discovery, it shows an unmoving benevolence which is there for everybody and where there is no fear or pain or loss or gain.  This is why people meditate, they meditate for their own self but I believe that each good-hearted meditator adds to the capital of goodness and creates a space in the otherwise seemingly impenetrable mist of everyday existence.  This gives hope that no terrorist, no bomber, no death can divide us from the realm of unconditional love which has the feel of encompassing the whole universe.

Sellotape and Meditate, Meditate and Sellotape!

Have you ever felt your equanimity slip!  Or are you so well balanced and detached that when you find the roll of sellotape has no findable end you realise that it is just a test of patience, rise to the challenge and just keep searching with your finger nails until you find something which gives.  Or, do you look at it with its round smugness, all curled round itself and giving nothing away and curse it. Today the demon of sellotape crossed my path.  It is now in the bin, never mind that it still has metres to go.  And you would think that a regular meditator would feel more patient wouldn't you?  Well I am patient about lots of things but sellotape isn't one of them YET!

The enemy

who arrives and who departs and when

Who lives in here?

life support

I have enjoyed watching that baby.  First, there was this teeny tiny red baby which needed every sort of life supporting care.  If she wasn't kept at a constant temperature, her body temperature might go down.  If she wasn't watched and monitored, she might just cease to breathe.  There wasn't much sign of a person in there although of course, we knew that there was starting to be someone there.  Now, there is a real being moving her arms and legs at will, smiling, connecting with her eyes and it is clear that although she needs care, she is there and she is participating.

 Coming into life

This Thursday morning I say goodbye to her and her mother in the kitchen and make my way from the quiet country village we live in to the great big city with honking horns and traffic lights and traffic jams.  I make my way across the great whizzing metropolis where by some extraordinary grace no-one bumps into another, where the stops and starts are governed by lights and everyone just obeys them; I make my way to see my 96 year old friend who is struggling to leave her now wasted and painful body behind and return to the place which is waiting for her.  I think that this is the same place that the baby came from, it is where we all came from.  Some people call it heaven, some call it their eternal home and some call it nirvana.  I don't know quite what to call it and nor do I know at the moment what it is like but I do sense that it exists and that it is probably more familiar than the home I call home at the moment.

Tonight I hear that the dear and old friend has been able to leave the tired and wasted frame she has called ME for 96 years.  I feel that she is now free and full of the delight which I can see crossing the ever changing face of the baby who has come to live with us.

Kitchen 

Granny gets a chance to pass on something she values

The teeny tiny baby is big enough to come and stay with us.

The parents settle her in, they bath her (in the same bath of her great grandmother as well as the present day grandparents), they do baby massage, they feed her, they sing to her and they read her a story and THEN they give Granny the monitor and the now respectable sized baby goes to sleep in the room used by those other children and grandchildren who were here before her and which has been made ready for her first night 

The doting parents go out for a well-deserved treat to the local pub.  Granny has the monitor and here is her chance to see if a little meditation practiced in the room where she can hear her beloved grandchild will deliver the goods it promises.  A good sleep, a contented child and an appreciation of the stillness which lies behind everything and every being in the world.  30 minutes and counting...... no disturbance, no crying, no need to even move from the meditation seat; we enjoy deep peace together, she asleep, me meditating.  

Why is this so important to me and important to other meditating Grandmothers?  

It is important because we have seen the troubles which come and go in everybody's lives, we have seen success turn to failure just as failure may turn to success.  We have seen health and happiness disappear with age and illness and we want to give all those we love a way of dealing with all that life stuff in a peaceful way.  We hope that if the beloved grandchildren can find a peaceful way to meet whatever they have to meet, to meet gain and loss, to meet success and failure, to meet friend and foe with a degree of steadiness in themselves, it will make their passage along the way much easier.  And it will probably make them into very useful citizens as well.

So, give your Granny a chance to pass on whatever tried and tested methods for dealing with life in a way which she has found helpful.  She clearly only wants the best for you all.