In The Selfless Self, Benedictine monk and teacher Laurence Freeman describes the essential dynamic of contemplative prayer. This kind of prayer, he says, is like exploring a sea-cave discovered in the holidays of childhood.
Many people today have a deep spiritual thirst and hunger that in many ways is as urgent as the material needs of developing nations. Unless affluent societies escape the addiction to materialism, they will be unable to feel the depth of compassion from which works of mercy and justice spring.
Though its recesses may seem dark and deep, something calls to our spirit of adventure and entices us inward to find a hidden treasure. Meditation is the spiritual journey into the cave of the heart, which has its own hidden and unlit places. Though we are entering the unknown, each successive step of faith brings light into our darkness and dispels our primal fears. Then the journey becomes a two-way process: with enlightened vision, we return to the world with renewed understanding of our place in it and our responsibilities towards it. We are better able to resist its illusory attractions and to discover instead its true joys.
Silence, stillness and simplicity are the keys that open the cave of the heart. Laurence Freeman is a universal guide with whom anyone can discover the world-transforming power of meditation.
LAURENCE FREEMAN OSB is director of The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.wccm.org). He worked closely with its founder, John Main, to revive the tradition of Christian meditation through practice, teaching and the development of a global prayer community. He is involved in inter-religious dialogue and the spiritual education of children. He is the author of 'Light Within' and 'Jesus: The Teacher Within', travels widely and is a regular contributor to The Tablet.
From the book...
"Doctors and nurses often comment on the difficulty they face in trying to diagnose a child's illness. A child will come in looking evidently distressed and the doctor asks what is the matter. The child says it hurts. The doctor asks where and the child replies, 'I don't know'. The diagnosis proceeds with great difficulty when the patient cannot locate the source or describe the nature of the pain. Adults are not that different when it comes to their awareness of the cause and nature of their psychological or spiritual suffering. The anxiety or the depression that are prevalent characteristics of our lifestyle are felt keenly enough but far more rarely understood. 'I don't know why I feel so miserable, or restless or fearful'."
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