The Power of Chillin' Out

This morning I read the first 58 pages of Real Happiness, The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg (author of Lovingkindness), a 28 -day program. I found it helpful to hear from someone whose taught thousands of people from all walks of life in part through the Insight Meditation Society she co-founded with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein.

The basic idea for starters is to appreciate that many people benefit from being able to 'calm down and tune into' their very own breathing in (slowly) and out (also slowly) ideally for 20 minutes a day in a  consistent quiet place at a regular time. Those last two may not be as 'doable' as the first, but maybe most people make time to do this as part of their waking up routine.

Others may work it into a lunchtime or mid or late afternoon break..or part of their evening routine. She offers that people can 'find what works for them' and start with 5 minutes 3 days a week, and gradually lengthen the time..and add a day so that after 4 weeks you do have a basic routine.'.and rinse and repeat. 

Then I got a link from someone about a Bishop sharing his thoughts on prayer. He has a  small chapel he can use to have quiet and commune with G-d. (That's the way some prefer to respect the spelling of a holy name, so I feel that is reasonable to employ here.) Here's a link to the Bishop's program but not necessarily his talk on prayer. That may be closer to this date, August 8th, 2019. https://youtu.be/yCyzRsyKlOk

He did say he says Mass daily, prayers through a 4-week cycle of readings and says the rosary as well. He also says 'just being quiet' is very helpful...so maybe he and Sharon Salzberg could have a little chat. Why not have the benefit of all the things that work for various people in one handy reference place? The talk about the start of the Benedictine ministry includes that St. Benedict went out on his own to commune with G-d in the wilderness, not intending to found an order, but over time people wanted to be with him in that kind of lifestyle and asked him to be their abbot or 'abba'  (father/ leader.) That tradition then was integrated into other models.