The beautiful thing about teaching meditation to children is that you don't have to explain why to meditate.
They intuitively understand.
They also understand that we need how to meditate.
And that's what I'd like to begin with in these short meditation sessions,
How to meditate,
Because meditation is primarily a practice.
It's not a theory.
It's not an explanation for things.
It's not a magic pill.
Meditation is a practice that bears fruit.
And I'd like to speak about the fruits of meditation as well later.
But it's primarily a practice and experience is your teacher.
So how do we meditate?
We meditate by sitting down.
Basic posture is to sit with your back straight.
So you're relaxed,
Comfortable,
Not in pain,
Not in discomfort.
Don't try and look like a meditator.
Just be a meditator,
Sitting comfortably.
The alertness of your posture will help to awaken you at a deeper level as well.
So be relaxed and alert.
Relax your shoulders,
Relax the muscles of your face,
Your forehead,
Your jaw.
And during the meditation,
You may also find that a natural relieving of tension takes place as well.
Choose a chair with a straight back.
Sit on a cushion,
Sit on a meditation stool,
Whatever is comfortable you may need to experiment a little bit,
Because you'll want to be able to try to meditate for 20 minutes,
Sitting still.
Your stillness of posture,
That's not scratching yourself,
Not moving around,
That physical stillness will teach you a lot about what meditation is and means.
And it will help to bring you to an interior stillness,
The stillness of mind and spirit.
And then we're ready to begin to meditate.
These are preparatory things.
And you may add some little preparatory techniques,
Like watching your breath or being aware of your environment or listening to some music,
Or some stretching or some yoga,
Something that will prepare you physically or mentally for the time of meditation.
And these little mindfulness practices can be very helpful.
And you'll probably develop your own when it becomes a routine.
But the important thing then is to get into the meditation.
And getting into the meditation means that you're letting go of your thoughts,
Including thinking about yourself,
Self observation,
Self analysis,
Self consciousness.
But we're letting go of all thoughts,
Good thoughts,
Creative thoughts,
As well as silly thoughts and bad thoughts,
All thoughts.
And to do that,
This is the essential practice in our tradition,
Is we take a word,
A single word,
A meditation word,
A mantra,
Sacred word.
And we repeat this word,
This mantra,
Continually during the time of the meditation.
And we keep returning to the word when the mind becomes distracted,
Which of course it does for a long time.
Sometimes you'll be more distracted than other times.
But distraction is something you have to learn to live with,
Accept and become familiar with.
And don't evaluate your meditation by saying,
Oh,
I was very distracted.
You don't have to evaluate yourself at all.
But it's the returning to the mantra,
Returning to the word,
Which is the journey that we're making from the head to the heart.
That's the essential universal meaning of meditation.
We find it in all the great spiritual families.
So let's do that now.
We'll meditate for 20 minutes.
And I'll end with a short piece of scripture.
So let's begin by sitting upright,
Your back straight,
Put your hands on your lap or on your knees,
Relax your shoulders,
Close your eyes lightly,
Breathe normally.
The word I would recommend is the word Maranatha.
Maranatha is an Aramaic word,
The language that Jesus spoke,
It means come Lord.
But we're not thinking about the meaning of the word as we say it,
We're listening to the word.
And we're saying the word faithfully,
Which means we stick with it.
And we come back to it whenever we become distracted.
Word Maranatha is a beautiful word because of the sound and the four syllables.
And if you choose this word,
Say it like this.
Ma ra na tha.
Ma ra na tha.
Don't visualize the word,
But listen to it.
Give it your attention and keep returning to it very simply.
Ma ra na tha.
Ma ra na tha.
Ma ra na tha.
Ma ra na tha.
Ma ra na tha.
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Ma ra na tha.
And the meditation now,
These words of Jesus on how to pray from the Sermon on the Mount.
He said to them,
When you pray,
Go into your inner room,
Close the door,
And pray to your Father who is in that secret place.
And your Father who knows what is done in secret will reward you.
The inner room.
The inner room of our heart.
