Meditation connects us to a deeper sense of what it is to be human and to be in connection with others, writes author and retreat leader Dr Stefan Gillow Reynolds.* For this reason, he says meditation offers a bigger vision of work, and the possibilities that come from letting-go of ourselves and opening to ‘dynamic goodness and compassion in action’, something particularly important in a time of pandemic.
By Dr Stefan Gillow Reynolds
Work is a large part of our lives. Due to Covid-19, many of us face insecurities in work and have had to spend times ‘not working’ or having to work from home. Many, even if they do get financial compensation, miss the experience of going to work. It provides rhythm in our lives and relationships with others.
Working in hospitality (at a Cistercian monastery in Ireland) my work has been ‘on hold’ now for some months. Restrictions and lack of funds have meant I have had more time at home than usual which has given me an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of work in my life. I have been greatly helped in this by a recent book, Good Work: Meditation for Personal and Organisational Transformation (Medio Media), by Laurence Freeman OSB, a Benedictine monk and teacher of Christian meditation.
Fr Laurence’s book joins a long tradition of reflection on the relationship between work and spirituality, and shows how work can bring out the best in us because it can be an expression of our true self.
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arguna that action that is done for its own value is better than that which looks for results - motivation for such work is not the ego but rather the true self which lives out the creative activity of God in service. As Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his true self?” (Luke 9:25).
In the Book of Genesis, God is seen as working, resting and seeing that “all that was done is good” – a creativity and nurturing in which humanity is called to participate. Following Jesus, many Christian teachers affirm the dignity of labour and the goodness of well motivated work: From the Papal document Rerum Novarum to the Anglican poet George Herbert we have been encouraged to work, as God asks us, for the benefit of others:
A servant with this clause/Makes drudgery divine/Who sweeps a room for Thy laws/Makes that and th’ action fine. (The Elixir)
Fr Laurence shows that the best way of seeing ‘good work’ in action is to look at the practice of meditation. Meditation is the practice of loving attention to the source of goodness itself. It is a way of opening ourselves to creativity, value and quality. In turn meditation shapes the way we work: work becomes in the end a way of self-giving rather than simply getting. Indeed, all the elements of ‘good work’ are involved in this simple, but not easy discipline: attentiveness, fidelity, generosity, personal responsibility, perseverance through trials and purification of motivation.
There are also a couple of very useful chapters which see the connection and difference between mindfulness and meditation. Mindfulness is presented today as a therapeutic rather than as a spiritual practice. It has played an important role in opening the door to meditative practice in the work-place. However, Fr Laurence encourages organisations to then go on through the door to forms of meditation that can give deeper meaning to work and a less individualist approach to self-help.
In mindfulness the mind and body are calmed by awareness exercises that move attention from thoughts to sensations, but we are still keeping the attention on ourselves. In meditation we come to a deeper sense of who we are and how we are related to others by taking the attention off ourselves. Though we may at first look for benefits – reduction in stress, ability to give our attention to something – we find that through meditation the ability to work well with others and the discovery of a centre of energy and creativity greater than what is possible as individuals, become the deeper fruits.
Fr Laurence engages with the spirituality of work without using traditional religious language or concepts. As such this is an excellent book for the modern marketplace, and no one can possibly think that the aim is to promote a religion. The aim is for people to find ‘good work’ in silence and in action whatever one’s beliefs may be. Good Work is, in fact, the perfect book on meditation to give to someone who does not see themselves as religious. The depth of the teaching on Christian Meditation is there, but the path is opened up to a secular reader. If mindfulness has brought meditation practice out of a specifically religious world so as to help people with mental heath, the practice of meditation this book teaches can take us one step further – to take attention off ourselves, to be re-centred in God, and thus to discover new depth to ourselves, new sources of leadership so as to be a real help to others.
In today’s world we need leaders who are not driven by the ego, who have an awareness of their inter-connection with the whole human family, and who can witness to integrity and values in professional life that will inspire others to work that is genuinely ‘good’.
Through interviews with business leaders, the book also shows how business, as well as professions like teaching and medicine, can be other-centred; working for the benefit of all rather than for a few. I have also been helped to see that there is no competition between work and meditation; in fact, they need each other.
Meditation has all the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness but also a deeper sense of what it is to be human, to be in connection with others. It cultivates attention, not just to immediate experience but to a bigger vision, and possibilities that come from letting-go of ourselves and opening to ‘dynamic goodness and compassion in action’, which could be an excellent way to describe God.
*Dr Stefan Gillow Reynolds is a speaker and writer on Christian mysticism, and is Director of Retreats at Mount Melleray Abbey in Ireland. His books include Living with the Mind of Christ: Mindfulness in Christian Spirituality (DLT, 2016) and The Wisdom of Love in the Song of Songs (Hikari Press, 2018). He has a PhD from London University on ‘Middle-English Mysticism’. He also writes Icons and poetry and is a regular writer for The Furrow magazine in Ireland.
Good Work: Meditation for Personal and Organisational Transformation can be ordered from www.mediomedia.com