Meditation is a way of bringing us back to ourselves where we can really experience and taste our true being beyond our thoughts and emotions. It is about bringing the mind back home in the midst of the busyness of living.
Meditation is an art, the art of being still, the art of being aware, the art of being present, the art of being in the now, the art of being grounded, the art of being relaxed and alert at the same time, the art of BEING.
Meditation is a technique that slows us down so that we can descend into the depth of ourselves in the present moment. We all have a continuous stream of thinking flowing through our minds morning, noon and night, and most of us are totally identified with this activity of the mind. To take our attention out of this stream of thinking we need to give the mind a focus. We need to give it something to attend to, we need to give it an object such as the breath or our senses or a mantra to bring us into the present. Bringing the mind home beyond thoughts and emotions, and that is how we learn to meditate.
Meditation is coming into stillness. W.B. Yeats wrote – “we can make our minds so like still water that beings gather around us, that they may see their own images and so live for a moment with a clearer and perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet.”
If you would like further information on courses in meditation and mindfulness with Sr. Stan see www.sanctuary.ie