We are spiritual beings…that’s the place meditation touches

Jesus said, “the words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.” He wasn’t introducing a new philosophy, a fresh set of cultural ideas or laying out new religious practices. He was introducing spiritual power that would operate at the deepest, truest, central level of human beings in the spiritual heart level that is the source of life. New ideas and revised theology were only the second derivative of what Jesus was doing. Sure, new beliefs emerged from His teachings – a brilliant and distinctive new theology of God’s love, grace and redemption. But Christ’s main goal was to transform the heart, to breath energetic life into the spirit, and to actually marry the human spirit with the Divine Holy Spirit. Really, actually, and powerfully in a way that sparks an immediate reality called “eternal life.” Not conceptually.

Religion loses its power when it is reduced to a set of beliefs and concepts. Sadly, the powerless and untransformed state of the church is exhibit A of this misguided focus on beliefs (a set of thoughts) and concepts (philosophic acknowledgement of truth rather than experience of it). The fact that large swathes of the church is political, fearful of change, reactive and often conspiratorial is the result of almost 100% focus on trying to get people to think the right thoughts and the obsession with the “right beliefs” rather than an actual experience of God. The latter leads to transformation and power, the former to crusty religion. Jesus said, “you’ll know them by their fruit” not, “you’ll know them if they agree to the church’s statement of faith.”

The second truth from Christ’s gospel that is an “engine” of meditational prayer, its the understanding of the spiritual nature of human beings. The reason meditation, known as the “silent prayer of the heart” works so powerfully is that it takes us directly into the “secret place” of our hearts to connect with God. It quickly skips past the “Outer Court” of the mind with its thoughts and concepts and enters the “Holy of Holies” where God dwells in the temple of our bodies. It presses beyond this shallower part of our human nature – our minds – into the deeper, eternal part of our nature where we are connected into the “Body of Christ.”

In this “inner room of prayer” we are receptive and observant and there is nothing for our minds to do. We rely on God in loving awareness to do everything. God speaks in this silent place, but it is a deep communication at the spirit-level that does not primarily engage our minds. A couple of hours later, however, we may have a beautiful heavenly idea or find divine wisdom about a challenging situation that God placed into our spirit earlier in prayer. That is how the spiritual life works: God interacts with our spiritual nature and it percolates up into our bodies and minds, our temporal nature.

There is prayer that engages mostly the mind and it is completely valid. I’m not speaking against it. It is just not the deepest level of prayer. We should do both and more of the second.

This fifth video in our “Espresso Series” on Centering Prayer delves into the way in which this central truth of Christ’s gospel flows into a living reality in silent meditation prayer.

We have a weekly group that practices Centering Prayer by video call. You can learn more here – on how to join or how to replay guided meditation sessions from this group.