Meditation for beginners
“For some, prayer is asking for God’s help; meditation is listening for God’s
answer…. Quieting the mind through meditation brings an inner peace that brings us
into contact with the God within us.”
Basic Text, pp. 44-45
“Be patient when you’re learning to meditate” many of us were told. “It takes
practice to know what to “listen for.” We’re glad someone told us that, or many of us
would have quit after a week or two of meditating. For the first few weeks, we may
have sat each morning, stilled our thoughts, and “listened” just as the Basic Text
said-but “heard” nothing. It may have taken a few more weeks before anything
really happened. Even then, what happened was often barely noticeable. We were
rising from our morning meditations feeling just a little better about our lives, a little
more empathy for those we encountered during the day, and a little more in touch
with our Higher Power.
For most of us, there was nothing dramatic in that awareness-no bolts of lightning or
claps of thunder. Instead, it was something quietly powerful. We were taking time to
get our egos and our ideas out of the way. In that clear space, we were improving
our conscious contact with the source of our daily recovery, the God of our
understanding. Meditation was new, and it took time and practice. But, like all the
steps, it worked-when we worked it.
Just for today: I will practice “listening” for knowledge of God’s will for me, even if I
don’t know what to “listen” for yet.