By Roland Ashby
God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us. (Romans 5:5)
This is one of my favourite Scripture verses, and for me is at the heart of my faith, and why we celebrate Easter. Through a simple practice of mantra meditation (see below) we can tap into this stream of love, and verify the truth of this claim through our own experience.
I was recently invited to put the following question to God:
Holy One, who do you say that I am?
By reflecting on my meditation practice, this is what I heard in response:
You are my beloved child, created by Love, in Love, and for Love.
You are created to be,
And to delight in my gift of simply being.
You are Being-in-Love,
and as you awaken to Being-in-Love
you will discover your True Self in me, in Being itself,
in the Christ Mind, the Christ Consciousness –
the Deep Spring of all love.
And as you awaken to your Being-in-Love,
the mists of all that you thought you were,
And all that others told you that you were,
will begin to clear, and reveal a still, timeless lake -
a mirror of the beauty of my creation, of sky and earth,
in silence and peace,
joy and love.
And you will forever abide in what is eternal and true.
The aim of mantra meditation, and indeed all prayer, is to open our hearts to the prayer of the Spirit, the Spirit that Jesus said he would send us after his death. Laurence Freeman, Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, says:
The Prayer of the Spirit is like a great river, a great underground river that is flowing continuously in us. It is the stream of love that flows between the Father and Son and is the Spirit. This is the Spirit uniting the Father and the Son: the Spirit of love. And this is the Spirit that Jesus promised he would send us. He has breathed this Spirit into our hearts through the power of the Resurrection.
In saying the mantra, and all prayer, he says we open our hearts to this eternal stream of love ... we enter into it and our lives our flooded by it.
This is the essential Christian experience, he says. “To know that our inmost heart has been flooded. It is not just filled, but actually overflowing, with this love of God through the Holy Spirit. This is the theology of all Christian prayer ...”
Through the mantra, and all prayer, he adds, “we enter into the prayer of Jesus and we enter into his experience of the Father, in the Spirit ... So, in a sense, we leave behind our prayer so that we can become fully united in his prayer.
“This is what St Paul means when he says we do not know how to pray: We do not know how to pray ... but the Spirit prays within us ... deeper than words. (Rom.8:26)
“That is the fundamental theology of all Christian prayer. We go with Jesus, in Jesus, to the Father, in the Spirit.”
The great 20th century mystic Thomas Merton also knew what it is to experience the great stream of love that flows within each of us. He once had a famous vision in which he saw “the secret beauty” of people’s inmost hearts, “the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.”
How to meditate using a mantra
If you already have a meditation practice you are happy with, please stay with that. However, if you are new to meditation I recommend the use of a prayer word or mantra.
The mantra recommended by the World Community for Christian Meditation is the ancient prayer word Maranatha, which is used in the New Testament, and is Aramaic, the language that Jesus used. It means Come, Lord.
Alternatively, you may prefer to use the word Abba, the affectionate term Jesus used for Father, or the phrase ‘Jesus have mercy,’ or simply ‘Jesus’. Or you may prefer a one syllable word such as love or peace, or a word or phrase from your Scripture reading. Whatever you choose, stay with it.
The mantra is a prayer of the heart, and by giving our pure attention to the sound of the mantra as we gently and silently repeat it, we pray with our whole heart and mind, and with all our love and devotion.
You may find it helpful to gently place the word on your breath. If you choose Maranatha, say it as four equal syllables – Ma-ra-na-tha. Simply, gently repeat the word in the silence of your heart, in the depths of your being, and continue repeating it. Listen to it as a sound. It helps us to turn our attention within and attune us to the power of Love that is at the centre of our being, the Spirit dwelling within. As we practise we become one with our prayer word by sounding it (interiorly) and giving the sound our wholehearted and loving attention.
Of course our minds will wander, and thoughts and images will arise. This is quite normal, so don’t fight or resist it. But as soon as we become aware our mind has wandered, simply and gently, without force or strain, we bring our pure attention back to the sound of the mantra. We enter into the meditation without desire for, or any expectation of, some kind of experience. Do not attempt to rate your ‘success’. Simply try to be faithful to saying the word or phrase with love and attention, and let go of all else.
[Meditation requires a daily discipline. Ideally you should meditate every morning and every evening for a minimum of 20 minutes. The optimum time is 30 minutes].
Roland Ashby facilitates two meditation groups, one online and the other in-person. See: https://www.thelivingwater.com.au/deepspringcentre