Body-mind meditation can help you become a more integrated,
balanced person. It is an especially helpful approach to meditation if
the pace of life is too fast for you, or if you find yourself frequently
tense or exhausted. As the name implies, it is not something that goes
on just in the mind. It will help you live in touch with your body and
its vital rhythms such as breath and heart-beat. Your over-worked senses
will be calmed and rested. Your thinking, breathing, emotions and bodily
activities will begin to work in harmony instead of fighting one another.
You will tend to eat and sleep in a more healthy way. You will be less
at the mercy of negative feelings towards others, and feel more at home
with plants, animal and bird life and many hitherto unnoticed beautiful
things in the world round about you. Above all, you will experience a
dawning realisation of the Power behind creation as a wise and loving
God, indeed a Father, who is gently drawing us to himself, healing us
and leading us into a happiness and a 'peace, which is far beyond human
understanding' (Philippians 4.7) .
In my book "BODY-MIND MEDITATION - A Gateway To spirituality"
eight body-mind keys to Christian meditation are each given a chapter.
These are
> rest
> breath
> body
> place
> sound
> rhythm
> simplicity
> and wholeness
These keys can be viewed as ways to open the door to stillness of body
and mind, leading on to intimacy with God. Several exercises in awareness
and meditation are given using each key. Here, on my web-page you can
find three examples of meditations from the book.
Louis Hughes, OP
Welcome.
"In prayer it is the whole person who must enter into
relation with God, and so his body should also take up the position most
suited to recollection. Such a position can in a symbolic way express
the prayer itself, depending on cultures and personal sensibilities. In
some aspects, Christians are today becoming more conscious of how one's
bodily posture can aid prayer."
Cardinal Ratzinger
[Letter written in 1989 to Bishops on Christian Meditation, N. 26
"In India particularly, it is the duty of Christians
now to draw from this rich heritage the elements compatible with their
faith, in order to enrich Christian thought."
[Pope John Paul, in his 1998 encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, N.72]
