Bede Griffiths & John Main

STILLNESS AND QUIET

Hardly anything moves – no wind –

neither bushes nor trees swaying – surprising

for a winter’s day at the seashore.

Everything is in suspended animation –

blinding sunshine gives the same impression

even its gentle warmth is motionless.

Vast blue sky does not move –

no clouds to break it up –

all is still!

Not even the vastness of the sky

disturbs the silence.

Is this why I came to the sea?

I leave behind my hectic life –

house cleaning – garden pruning – e-mails –

anti-war demonstrations – neighborhood meetings.

Am I looking for something else?

Is someone pulling me to the seashore?

Stillness - emptiness

start fires burning within me.

I am waiting – catching my breath –

my eyes are straining – the absolute overwhelms me.

My Beloved is knocking at my inner most door –

a door that He can only knock at.

No one else can enter so deeply within me.

Fire burns – my heart beats faster –

my breathing speeds up –

my whole body trembles.

My Beloved is touching me – wooing me

to love –

I lay back my head - rest in

ecstasy.

Robert Trabold

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BEDE GRIFFITHS ON THE

SPIRITUALITY OF JOHN MAIN

Robert Trabold

            Several years ago, Bede Griffiths was asked to give a talk on the spirituality of John Main at the yearly John Main seminar. He was uniquely positioned to give good insights into the significance and meaning of the latter’s thought.  Griffiths was a European born and raised in the West and then spent many years working in India. As a result, he had a grasp of the Western and Eastern contemplative traditions and was able to see how Main in his own way made a good synthesis of the two and brought to his world a deeper understanding of our contemplative path to God.

            Griffith mentions that Main saw that Western people had trouble and difficulty with the Christian churches and their teaching; they did not want words and thoughts but were looking for a direct experience of God. Such an experience goes back to the fathers and mothers of the desert in the early years of Christianity where they expounded a vision of God through love. Main believed that in each person there is an archetype of the ‘monk’ Every individual has the eternal potential to experience God and when this happens, we are the new creation in Christ. In all men and women, there is a desire to reach and touch the divine who is the ultimate meaning and truth of life. The Lord resides within us in the deepest part of our person.

            In the West, our image of God is one of the Father is heaven who is above and beyond us. In the East, religious traditions see rather God as the ground and source of being in the world. Both traditions are true and compliment each other. Main mentioned that in modern life, people are very busy with the things of the world and have lost the capacity of depth where we enter into ourselves so as to have an encounter with God. The challenge for modern people is to recover that capacity to encounter the divine at their center and still point. We need to develop that discipline of silence in which we go beyond ourselves and the appearances of the world and touch the ground of our being who is the absolute and is within us. An understanding of God in the Eastern tradition is helpful in this endeavor.

           In meditation groups, people are looking for this deeper meaning in life which is the reality of God. On the other hand, modern people have lost this capacity to enter into themselves and encounter the divine reality. This is due to sin which alienates us from our true goal in life.  We get lost in the appearances of everyday things and lose sight of our true goal in life. We become the new creation in Christ when we go beyond the appearances of every day life and get to the real source of human living. We have to go beyond our ego which is cut off from God and other people and transcend this ego. We open ourselves to the way of transcendence which is the way of love and expand ourselves so as to be open to the divine and others. Griffiths mentions that John Main saw prayer and meditation as the way to go beyond appearances and touch reality. This reality is God who is always revealing his/her self behind all externals. Western people are restless and do not find the divine and the ultimate meaning in life in words or thoughts but desire to experience the divine.  Griffiths believes that Main can show people in today’s world a way to do this and should encourage us who are involved in different meditation movements to be faithful in our efforts. Our contemplation puts us on a path where we touch God, the ground of all being, and helps us attain our transformation and that of the world in Christ. There is no more important task in our life.

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