Meditation

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” (Psalm 62:5)

Last Monday my husband and I went for a Christian meditation support group for the first time. It is a very small group at a church and it lasted for about 20 minutes.

We are taught how to recite the mantra in our minds repeatedly with an upright sitting position, hands resting on our laps. On the surface, this looks very simple but the difficult part is to concentration. For the first 5 minutes it was quite easy but thereafter I found my mind drifting away and 20 minutes seemed to be an hour for me. Such is the behaviour of human being. One can watch a Taiwanese TV drama for 3 hours without problem. We want our daily living routines to fill up to the maximum with lots of activities even for weekends so much so that it becomes not normal for a person to rest and do nothing even for a short while.

After this meditation session, we learned how to slow down the pace of our daily lives and to be more relaxed. When we practise solitude by temporary withdrawal from people, noise and work, we will get in touch with our inner self, refocus our life, recharge our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual batteries. If we do not know how to detach ourselves from our inner compulsions and the world’s dazzling sights, sounds and mesmerizing voices, we will be caught up in the rat race and constantly compelled by our inner compulsions to win, to achieve, to prove ourselves, and to impress. The practice of solitude can also help us to refocus on what ultimately matters in life.