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Today's Scripture
He lets me rest in green meadows...
*Psalm 23.2a (NLT)
Comments
We are called to stillness. Out of the Divine Darkness, where our heart-mind agrees that what we call God is ultimately and infinitely beyond us, we "hear" the invitation to rest in the Field of Plenty~the meadows of Psalm 23.
The Wonderful Presence invites us to feed slowly, deliberately, and with fullness of loving be-ing in green fields. To heighten awareness of all around us. To undergo slow, joyful growth. To expand from within. To ripen in waiting. To linger consciously, willingly. To gaze with wonder upon the creation taking place inside us and outside us. To live from the Source of all, not entangled in the forms of created things. To love the Nameless, being unattached to the named and names, but using them wisely to express gratitude and devotion.
This is not an escape, as many assume. Rather, the person who rushes mindlessly through the green meadows, refusing himself or herself restful stillness is escaping the demanding, joyful, and nurturing Life of Grace. This stillness, in contrast, is like the spaces within music, providing the rests essential to the whole piece.
This restful stillness is simple and relies on trustful surrender. Surrendering ourselves is the sole path to stillness in quiet of mind-heart before God.
What happens in this fruitful, quiet stillness?
Brightly doth His Spirit shine
Into this poor heart of mine;
While He leads I cannot fall,
Trusting Jesus that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly,
Trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him whate'er befall;
Trusting Jesus~that is all.
*Edgar Page Stites (1836-1921). Hymn "Trusting Jesus."
I often engage a meditation of simple awareness. The meditation entails being still and quiet, while receiving all the sensory happenings within and around. After the body is relaxed and the mind stilled, I am receptive to whatever happens ~ this does not always feel good, negative emotions can arise.
Sensations on the body become present to awareness. So do ticks of a clock on the wall, the wind blowing outside, the bark of a distant dog, the humming of a refrigerator, the sound of the air coming from an overhead vent, a pressure somewhere in the body, neighbors talking, a car passing by,... I resolve not to be judgmental or angered at a "disturbance." If the telephone rings, I appreciate its unique quality. If an unpleasant emotion arises, I am with it, not rejecting it as bad simply because it does not feel good.
This meditation invites me to enjoy strengthening muscles of detachment, aimlessness, and impersonalization. Likewise, this is an exercise in realizing religion and spirituality is not a me-against-the-world or us-against-the-world matter. I, too, am reminded that God is not present simply to make sure I feel good, rather, God is helping me grow from the habitual and restless patterns that limit my loving others and myself more freely.
Healthy, mature religion is world-affirming, body-accepting, optimistic. Such spirituality celebrates the natural order of things, as well as that all creation arises from the Creating Energy we call by many names.
Stillness is not trying to arrive anywhere; being in the green meadows is being where the Self is and trusting the process of Divine Provision and Wisdom. Most of all, we are not trying to control anything within or outside ourselves. In stillness we receive; we reverence the freedom of the world to be itself, fulfilling its purpose in the universe, even as we trust our own unfolding and its part in the universe.
In stillness, we are taught to respect creation and ourselves as part of a dynamic, God-infused organism. We own our limits and lack of control. We embody the truth that inner freedom is wed to outer freedom. Freedom of Self reaches out in oneness to the freedom of all, which includes in this world and elsewhere.
Finally, we discover the magic of things as they are, including ourselves. In grazing in the green pastures, our personalized boundaries dissolve. In the Prayer of Inner Quiet, we lose our small-mindedness and personal territory. We joyfully and amazingly, and more so over time with experience in the plush meadows, discover: "There is some principle of magic in everything, some living quality. Something living, something real, is taking place everywhere" (Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. "Discovering Magic." In The Essential Chogyam Trungpa. Ed. Carolyn Rose Gimian.)
Spiritual Exercise and Reflection
1. Sit or lie down. Relax. Close your eyes. Breathe naturally, through the nostrils, from the space just above the abdomen. Relax. Sense the body, the environment. Sense lying or sitting where you are. Keep resting. Accept whatever sensation, thought, sound, … arises. Let all pass gently, like a stream flowing by you. Honor your lack of control over the process. Do not say a prayer, let loving stillness be your prayer of trust. Do this exercise for ten to twenty minutes.
2. If you approached life as the above exercise teaches, how would that transform you and your experience of the world, as well as your relationships with other persons?
3. What does it mean to be prayer? How might being prayer transform the way we say prayers?
4. How might we see all creatures as being prayer? How, then, might prayer be a joining in the prayer of all other creatures, all Creation?
5. If God is not in all Creation, then, where is God?
6. If God is everywhere, then, how does that shape our practice of prayer, as well as our relationships?
A Prayer
Teach me to be.
Lead me into Stillness.
*Brian K. Wilcox
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For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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