Each Morning, Each Evening...Into Love

Friends,
Apologies for being away so long. It's been about a year. A lot has happened in all our lives. God bless us! So, without any further, I wish to invite us into a simple practice of meditation and prayer. Each morning and each evening we'll sit in silence and stillness and meditate. There's a lot of talk about prayer and meditation. I thought it would be good to make an invitation here and on Facebook and Twitter for those who wish to come together each morning and each night in the quiet. I suggest an amount of time of twenty minutes each time we sit. Some people find choosing a word or a phrase helpful as a focal point. Others do well by focusing on the breath. Others use a mantra given them or chosen. May I suggest each time that we sit for twenty minutes. However we do it, let's do it.

The idea is that we will practice stillness together in our respective places. In the stillness we learn many things. An old monastic saying from centuries ago said ," All we need to learn we can learn in the stillness of our little monastic cell." Perhaps , the most important thing we can learn is to love. Here (or there) in the silence we do indeed learn to love. For as we practice we begin to strip away illusion and violence. The illusion and violence within that prevent us from loving. As we sit in stillness, thoughts and emotions, sensations of all kinds come and go. And we let them come and go. Personally I like to use the words of Jesus on the cross -" Into Your Hands..." For me everything that comes up in meditation I offer into God's hands with these words as I return over and over again to my center. Each thought/feeling is a welcomed guest. Kinda like this: " Welcome to my house. And Farewell as you leave." There are four good guidelines here in the practice of this kind of meditation. They are the four R's of meditation:
1. Reject no thought/feeling.
2. React to no thought/feeling.
3. Retain no thought/feeling.
4. Return to your chosen word, phrase or breath.

This practice is many things. It is in reality the practice of non-violence and love. We do not react violently to anything that comes and we return in trust and love giving our attention to our chosen focus. This is indeed a powerful practice. It is practicing life.

In meditation, we begin to see more and more clearly who we are and who God is. This can be both a liberating experience and a painful one. It is a call to reality. Not escaping reality , but entering more deeply into what truly is.

There will be bumps along the way, no doubt. But let's keep on. I invite you to try this out until September 11, 2011. It seems that this is one way we can bring the realities of self, world and God together in a practical, daily way.

So, there it is. You are most invited to join a small international community as we sit each day in the wordless silence, learning what we need to learn, seeing what we need to see, hearing what we need to hear. Always be gentle with yourselves. In this way we practice peace. In this way we enter into the depths of Love.

Are ye in? Shall we go on this little journey together?

Pace e Bene,
Peace and Goodness,
Your Little Brother,
Macushla
www.songsofpeace.net
www.speakingofpeace.blogspot.com