Sunday, February 27, 2011

MANTRA

FOR YOU ALONE, MY SOUL WAITS IN SILENCE!’


Slowly - distinctly, I whisper:

“For you alone, my soul waits in silence!”

My voice arises from the depths –

words vibrate in my whole body -

coming from the deepest parts of my center –

whose depth is infinite –

endless tunnels - stairs – deep darkness

so still – noise never penetrates there.

I enter - descend slowly but am hopelessly lost in mystery –

mystery of an encounter – in my depths.

I meet my Beloved – utter stillness.

My Beloved speaks in silence –

clue to the divine’s presence.

I whisper: “For you alone, my soul waits in silence!” -

feel the resonance of the words –

words of love – longing – words of waiting.

I sit in utter silence – I feel nothingness –

but emptiness is full –

out of darkness – out of mystery – comes light.

What meeting could be more beautiful!

Robert Trabold
                                                     ----------------------------

MANTRA


Robert Trabold



                        In the two large meditation movements in the United States, Centering Prayer Movement and Meditation Movement of John Main, both suggest that the use of a mantra is a very important part of our growth in contemplation and touching God’s presence in it. The former lets each individual select his/her mantra that is meaningful to the person while the latter suggests the use of the last word of the bible “maranatha.” Individuals have to choose which is best to them. In our inward journey of contemplative prayer, we need to develop a discipline so that we can compose ourselves and focus on the silent presence of God within us. This is a challenge because we are busy people and generally involved in a million things each day. Some of these are important and emotionally laden so it is a challenge to empty out our minds and focus on our inward contemplative journey. We follow the rules to develop the discipline of silence by selecting a quiet place to meditate, its decoration with pictures and/or flowers, our posture, etc. At this point, the mantra is very important. By repeating it either silently or out loud, these repetitive words enter into our person and we focus on and touch the divine Beloved at our center and still point. This is the goal of contemplation; the mantra helps us reach this point and rest in God’s presence. Somehow the repetition of the words pulls ourselves together and we become silent and quiet to meet the Lord. It is in one sense a hard meeting because it is in silence and with time, we have to learn to become comfortable with this. Many writers on the contemplative path say that silence is the language of God and we have to cultivate this. Most of our meetings with people in life are not silent but here we are pulling ourselves together so that we can enter into this kind of encounter.

            With the constant repetition of the mantra, there is a calming down of ourselves and we rest in the quiet and sweetness of God’s presence. We sense immediately that we are in the presence of someone special, one who loves us and is really happy that we have taken the time and effort to have this encounter.  The Lord is waiting for us to come and meet him. There is a peace that settles over us because we have left our many activities and cares of our life and world on the side of a while, so that we can have an experience of someone who is important in our lives and is the ground of our being. We have taken the time out from our many activities in order to focus on another dimension of life which lies below all the other busy and pressing activities of our daily routine and which also gives meaning and direction to all that we do. John Main mentions that in the silence of contemplation, we meet the divine who is the ground of our being and lets our life have another dimension to it. We are not happy with defining ourselves by our work, profession, title, marriage and children, etc.  We have entered into a new dimension of our life which is other and transcendent and meet God who loves us and invites us to be friends during our life on earth.

            This is why there is a peace and depth that comes upon us when we say our mantra because we know that we are touching someone deep in our lives who goes beyond all our other activities. This peace which we experience in the use of the mantra in meditation remains with us even if we have many distractions during the prayer period. Distractions come and go and gently we have to let them go and continue on into silence. Now the mantra helps us control and let go of the distractions because the repetition of the words aids us transcend them and again focus on the divine presence within us. We again continue on in our inward journey and touch the divine within us. We should not let the distractions get us down because we are humans and our minds were made to inquire and looking into the many things we meet during the day. Humans are inquisitive people and it takes much effort on our part to focus on the divine presence within us who meets us in silence.

            There is a religious proverb in German “God’s work is one of silence and the night.” We do not have many important things in our life that are as such. As a result, we have the challenge in our contemplation to cultivate this new and very different dimension which redefines us and we go beyond just being human beings. We meet the ground of our being and become one with our divine Beloved who loves us unconditionally that goes beyond all human love. The faithful use of the mantra is an important key to this meeting and inward journey.