Meditation is hard. It is very difficult to maintain attention without letting distractions draw the mind away. And distractions can be so seductive, especially those fantasies which flatter and expand the ego. They can become so real that they shape behaviour, actions and attitudes. Hence the importance of concentration and letting the thoughts and distractions go. Hence too the wisdom of the Buddhist approach. It is agnostic. It requires only a commitment to seeking the truth. The faith it requires is the belief that the truth can be found and that meditation is a sure way, though not the only way. Now I know why I am suspicious of so much of modern spirituality – things like the Enneagram. They seem to me to be ego-centric. They flatter and expand the ego. They focus attention on it when ‘it’ is as ephemeral as the drone of flies on a summer day. Meditation should not become an episode in the day, a sort of fugue state separated from other activities. Mindfulness and one-pointedness should persist throughout the day.
Meditated for half an hour in the garden this afternoon. It has been a beautiful day, full of life. A strong south-west wind bringing showers and vast cumulus clouds chasing their shadows across the wheat-fields. Sitting in the garden, buffeted by the wind, eyes closed, focusing on simply being aware of all round about. It was easy to believe that life pervades the whole of the cosmos. Certainly motion does. I am coming to understand why meditation demands a moral way of life. It was interesting looking at some of the statements on meditation to be found on the Internet which suggested that moral behaviour is an option. On the contrary it is a fundamental requirement, always has been and all religions have emphasised this. What has been exercising me is why this should be so. The answer lies in the fact that meditation is a search for the Truth. Enlightenment, its goal, is to know the Truth. Now the Truth is that all are one, whether you understand this as all having the same Buddha nature, or all being incorporated into the Body of Christ, or tat tvam asi. All the great religions have this insight somewhere in their tradition. The sad thing with the tendency towards sectarianism today is that this is too often forgotten. Even the Catholics, who should know better if they were mindful of their mystical traditions, are increasingly caught up in an emphasis on the supreme importance of dogmatic orthodoxy.