Reflections on Exploring stillness: Non-theist Quakerism and Meditation
(Note in the PDF of this post, hypertext links, which extend over 2 lines, break at the hyphen, so copy and paste them to make them work.) Read in conjunction with the the other PDF: Exploring stillness- Non-theist Quakerism and Meditation which was sent out in advance of the meeting.
We had a very interesting and well attended session for this topic on 4 January 2024.
I would like to set out some reflections and clarification and in particular to address David Boulton’s and Mary Pagurelias’s ‘trouble with God’ and challenge as to ‘What is the point of meditation (if you don’t believe in God)’.
Different forms of Meditation ( or Contemplation in the Western Christian tradition as John Senior explained) have been widely practised by different religious groups throughout the world for several thousand years – in Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and others.
Christian Meditation/Contemplation (or silent prayer/worship) began with the earliest Christians, especially those known as the ‘Desert Mothers and Fathers’ – hermits or anchorites who took Jesus at his word and went off into the desert (in the Middle East) in search of silence and to seek the ‘presence of God’ individually or in communities (monks and nuns) who often took vows of silence.
How does this relate to present day Meditation and non-theists (or ‘Christian Atheists’ for example)?
I tried to explain that despite identifying as a nontheist Quaker (and I don’t believe in God in any ordinarily understood meaning of that term), nonetheless I have found James Finley’s ‘Christian Meditation – Experiencing the Presence of God’ the best book on meditation of the many that I have read. Much of what Jim Finley says speaks to me clearly based on my own experience of meditation (TM) over nearly 50 years.
When Finley speaks of God, I can usually mentally delete the ‘of God’, ‘with God’ or whatever and as I don’t believe in the existence of God, to me it makes no difference to what Finley says. Clearly this would not be the case for a ‘theist’ who might conclude that I’m mistaken or crazy.
I have no ‘experience of the presence of God’ but believe that some people do have experience which THEY are happy to describe in those terms – where I would probably look for a psychological/physiological explanation. Neither in meditation (over 50 years) have I ever (yet) had an experience that I could imagine describing in that way. In this context I often reflect on David Parlett’s ’Theist cuckoo in the nontheist nest’:
and scroll down to the last recording for David’s talk.
https://nontheist-quakers.org.uk/events/new-nfn-monthly-meeting-for-worship-and-creative-conversation/
and scroll down to the last recording for David’s talk.
So even if some people meditate in order to draw closer to God, what is the point of it for a ‘non-believer’?
Meditation from the Eastern traditions (especially Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Sufism) was brought to the west by various ‘gurus’ (teachers) or ‘sheikhs’ over the last 150 years or so and especially since the 1950s perhaps most famously by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born Mahesh Prasad Varma, 1918-2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi) with a little help from the Beatles but also by ‘Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’ (later known as ‘Osho’), Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 – 1952 – in the 1920s), the Hare Krishna movement (promoted by George Harrison) and others.
The practice of christian meditation (originally referred to as contemplation) is attributed to the Desert Fathers and Mothers (see above) and has been a practice of silence (including silent prayer) widely practised in monasteries and similar institutions mainly in the Catholic tradition. Contemporary Christian meditation practices (outside of the monasteries and abbeys) and silent prayer (including Centreing prayer) have been developed by, for example, the WCCM (World Community for Christian Meditation) (initially by John Main of Ealing Abbey and Laurence Freeman – https://wccm.org/about/) since the 1970s; The Centre for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in New Mexico led by Richard Rohr (https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/); Contemplative Outreach (https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/history) and others.
As a result of these different traditions and their modern interpretations, it is now possible to join a meditation or silent prayer group online (or sometimes in person) at any time of day or night around the world – there are thousands of such groups from most religious traditions including many Christian ones. Perhaps Quakers are now a tiny minority amongst silent worship groups?
But to return to the question of what is the point of it for a ‘non-believer’?
TM ® (Transcendental meditation) (TM is a registered trade-mark!) was and is ‘sold’ in the west (for a fee) on the basis of ‘reducing stress, improving focus and clarity of mind, strengthening immunity and much more.’ The claims were and are claimed to be supported by scientific research, particularly of the effect of meditation on brain activity and rest (brain waves) https://uk.tm.org/benefits-of-meditation
The mantra meditation offered by the WCCM (World Community for Christian Meditation) – see above – is virtually identical and from the same source (Jyotir Math in north India) as TM so even if the intention is different, one might expect the results to be similar. (see https://wccm.org/people/john-main-osb/)