Meditation - The Complete Guide by Patricia Monaghan

Author:Patricia Monaghan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608681143
Publisher: New World Library

How to Begin

To find a Quaker meeting in your vicinity, go to www.quakerfinder.org. This handy resource allows you to search by zip code for a Quaker meeting near you. After locating the possibilities, explore the websites of the meetings in question. You will be able to determine time of worship and style (programmed or unprogrammed). Many websites also provide information on the history of the meeting.

Once you have ascertained when a meeting for worship is held, plan to be there five to ten minutes early so that you can be comfortably seated when the meeting begins. Do not expect a greeting committee or other acknowledgment of your presence. You may be greeted with friendly smiles, but the beginning of a meeting is generally a time in which people settle down into the silence.

There is no signal for the beginning of meeting for worship: no bell or gong, no announcement, no prayer. As they arrive, Friends will slide into their pews or chairs and close their eyes. You should do likewise.

Worship is usually an hour in length. For the beginner, it can be quite difficult to sit still for an hour, so expect at the beginning to occasionally feel restless. Unlike many forms of meditation, Quaker worship has no specific posture requirement. Sit in a way that makes you feel comfortable, cross or uncross your legs if you need to, and breathe normally. You will find, over time, that the physical difficulties of maintaining a quiet posture for a hour lessen dramatically. At first, just relax and focus inward.

The silence will be quite palpable, almost a living thing. In the supportive silence, do not struggle with your mind and its inner actions. Let it move where it will, let ideas and worries surface and submerge, and do not try to structure or control your thoughts. Rather, imagine holding those thoughts in a divine love. Some people do this through visualization, imagining an inner light that illuminates concerns and ideas. Others use a more rational process, thinking through problems in the context of ethical or moral considerations. Each Friend around you will be worshiping in an individual and unique way. Some may be praying silently. Of those, some will address God as Christians, and some will not. Because there is no doctrine in Quakerism, only a set of practices and testimonies, you will not — and need not — be engaged with others’ forms of worship. Your own will emerge with time.

Many newcomers report periods of intense emotion in the silence of Quaker worship. Some, in fact, find themselves weeping silently, often without knowing exactly why. Do not be surprised to find emotional stirrings of this sort. Meditation need not be unemotional. If tears come, let them come. Continue to silently search for the light.

At some point in the meeting, people will probably begin to rise and speak. The messages are those that cause quaking, an inner sense of urgency demanding speech. Normally newcomers do not speak, although it does sometimes occur.

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