So in a sense meditation or even prayer,
I'd say prayer goes deeper than meditation.
Prayer not just in some sense of like asking for something but prayer in the sense of the most precious kind of listening,
The most precious kind of conversation that you develop with God which is not different than your inner being.
With either though there is this starting point of quietness because our mind is full of so many things,
Full of past,
Full of future,
Full of relationships,
Full of tasks,
Desires,
Fears,
Worries.
And I just want to remind you what I was saying in class that attention is the same thing as care and care is the same thing as love because we pay attention to the things we care about even though sometimes our attention is led by things that we seem to care about but that only bring us unhappiness and suffering.
So this is a moment in getting quiet to orient your attention not toward the usual things,
Not toward your worries and your fears and your desires and relationships but toward what it is that your heart really longs for,
What's there in your core waiting to be acknowledged.
So a simple suggestion here,
Be glad,
Be glad and let your attention rest not on some like well-groomed intention or mantra or affirmation that you have for yourself.
Forget all those,
Forget all those things,
You don't need those things.
Just let your heart dwell in goodness and goodness is not something that you need to make,
It's not something you need to find,
It's not something you need to cultivate.
Goodness is here,
Goodness is it is you and it is you and it is inside of you.
In our willingness to be quiet and rest and be still it's as though we have tapped into this deep well and out of that well flows good.
That well,
That goodness may be covered over by many layers though,
Layers of apathy,
Cynicism,
Numbness.
We might look to our heart and say I don't,
I don't feel goodness,
I don't feel glad,
I don't feel anything like that,
I feel numb or I feel cynical or lost or any number of things that we could encounter,
Good things too.
But now in our meditation is the time,
This is the space right now,
This is the invitation to dive deep beneath the surface.
Let there be a quiet sincerity in the way that you're showing up right now,
The way you're paying attention.
An earnestness that is not rigid or overly serious,
But an earnestness to draw close to what your heart desires.
A willingness to forsake the things that are truly unimportant,
Your petty desires,
Your petty fears,
Your complaints,
Your arguments and maybe more importantly your past and your future.
Because the living present,
Often called the Holy Spirit,
The living present,
It's your inheritance,
It's waiting for you to acknowledge it.
It's waiting for your yes,
That core love,
That core beauty and all that goes with it,
The peace,
The wisdom,
The courage,
Just waiting for your acknowledgement,
Just waiting for you to turn your attention to it,
To bring your care and your love to that most precious jewel that lives in you.
Leave everything else out of your mind and out of your heart here.
Give yourself entirely to that.
Then we will know meditation and prayer.
And you know enough now to know that this is not a task for your head.
This is not an intellectual game or pursuit.
It's not a riddle.
There's no secret to it.
It's not complicated,
But it does require your sincerity.
It does require your deep interest,
Your deep attention,
Your deep care.
So let's let those things happen now,
Leaving everything else aside,
Every relationship,
Every task,
Every success or failure,
Every desire,
Hope or dream,
Every pain,
Every injury,
Every trauma.
Enter into this moment alone,
Bare,
Naked.
Let the answer that you long for dawn in you.
Let it dawn.
When you see that your attention becomes drawn by frivolous things,
Unimportant things,
Even things that seem important,
Turn your attention to what really matters.
There are many important things in our lives.
There's only one thing that matters.
When you come to that one thing that matters,
You will realize it doesn't have a name or title.
It won't be like family matters or knowledge matters.
When we come to the one thing that matters,
It will leave us speechless and yet filled.
Filled.
It may be important too as we sit here that we also put down our searching mind.
This meditation,
This prayer is not a search.
It's not a looking for something.
If you find your mind in pursuit or your emotions in pursuit of something like a feeling or a state,
Recognize that pursuit and simply set it aside.
This is not a pursuit.
It's possible here too to rest in such a way where your attention is just so wide open,
So available,
So ready,
So much in a state of yes,
That when your attention is in that readiness,
The flower simply blooms.
Allow yourself here in that readiness to just drink in the fragrance,
An unfathomable love,
A peace that surpasses all understanding.
This is yours and simply waiting for you to give your attention to it.
If you've not discovered this flower,
Simply sit in the deepest form of patience,
In the deepest form of readiness,
Quiet and attentive as if you were listening for the slightest whisper.
That flower is the Christ within each of us.
The Christ that has been crucified in our confusion,
Ignorance,
Fear,
Disregard,
Lack of attention.
This is an invitation for that rebirth,
For that resurrection,
For that to come to life again,
To let your heart be filled,
Not with the ordinary things that we fill our heart with day to day,
But with that precious gift,
The love and the peace and the vastness that can only belong to spirit.
And let it be abundant in your heart.
Let it spill over,
Be full.
So we might end this meditation or prayer with a simple thank you,
Because only a full heart,
Only a heart that is spilling over can say thank you.
And that thank you is the blessing,
The acknowledgement of grace,
The acknowledgement that the heart is filled mysteriously.
And the prayer here in a sense is that in this thank you,
In this acknowledgement of the blessing,
The blessing of just this life,
That our life will be made into a blessing and a gift.
So fold that into your heart.
Keep it there quietly.
Keep it there secretly.
But let your blessing,
Let it show through your words,
Through your words,
Through your words,
Through your words,
Through your words,
Through your words,
Through your actions,
Through your eyes.
Similar to when St.
Teresa says,
Christ has no lips but ours,
No hands but ours,
That we are here to let that blessing and gift live through us.
