Meditation VS the Media

“We pay too little attention to the value of meditation...”

Said President David O McKay.

President McKay lived from 1873 to 1970. If the people of his time were struggling with valuing meditation, how much more would we be struggling, in our world of more efficient technology, proliferation of cars on our roads, planes in the air, faster downloads and a seemingly busier world?

The Guardian's article by Professor Lea Waters expresses this generalization beautifully:

"In our warp-speed world, stillness is a rare experience. 

"Parents are working longer hours and children’s lives are fully timetabled. Being “busy” has become the new social currency. It carries status. People marvel at those who are busy. The greeting “hello” has been replaced with the question “keeping busy?” It seems if you’re not busy, you’re not important."

(http://www.theguardian.com/university-of-melbourne-partner-zone/2015/oct/06/imagine-if-we-taught-stillness-in-classrooms)

President Hoesli (who is now Brother Hoesli, having been released from the temple presidency of the Sydney, Australia Temple) was the first from whose lips I heard an acronym to "busy".

Be

Under

Satan's

Yoke

When I have free time, I do love to search the scriptures. I turn to my phone.

On the train on the way to work, I have time to fulfil some duties and run some tasks, usually involving communication. On my phone.

I am almost always thinking about being efficient and effective.

Taking inventory of how often I use my phone each day, for things important, seemingly important, useful and useless, it appears that I personally am on a road to developing technological addiction, and I'm not happy about that.

But overall, I am happy to have caught myself in midair, coming to give the doctrine of meditation more attention. This post is a fruit of my non-hypocritical application of my previous spiritual thought on searching for answers to the questions of our souls.

Returning to the words of President McKay from earlier,

“We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. In our worship there are two elements: One is spiritual communion arising from our own meditation; the other, instruction from others, particularly from those who have authority to guide and instruct us. Of the two, the more profitable introspectively is the meditation. Meditation is the language of the soul. It is defined as 'a form of private devotion, or spiritual exercise, consisting in deep, continued reflection on some religious theme.' Meditation is a form of prayer.”

(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O McKay, Chapter 4: Elements of Worship)

I am pretty keen on receiving counsel from friends, family, and priesthood leaders. I love the work of sifting through all the counsel, and linking the pieces together to grow a network of understanding the gospel, and life's educational opportunities in general.

Personally, the meditation has been on the decline. It has been in need of being guided, recently. I have discovered my mind racing every day now, and my mental calmness has been borderline. Typing thoughts and feelings down in my journal and on blogs is a great help, but always, the racing mind returns.

Professor Waters has more to say in this regard.

"I led a team of researchers at the University of Melbourne who recently conducted a meta-review of meditation education that included 15 studies combining almost 1800 students from Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom, United States, and Taiwan. 

"The results showed that meditation is beneficial in the majority of cases and led to higher optimism, positive emotion, self-concept, self-care and self-acceptance as well as reduced anxiety, stress, and depression in students. Meditation was also associated with faster information processing, greater attentional focus, working memory, creativity and cognitive flexibility."

It seems my desires to be efficient and effective have prompted me to move like Esau after his pottage, forgetting to keep my decisions in line with true principles. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" (https://www.lds.org/liahona/1984/01/on-the-wrong-bus?lang=eng).

So, all things considered, how do we meditate?


I share from the worldly discoveries, then from the Lord.

Professor Waters continues:

"Self-observation exercises can be as simple as sitting, walking, eating, listening and learning with full attention. 

"Mindfulness-meditation is one [of] the more popular practices being taught at schools and involves a three-step mental process where students are asked to 1) focus their attention on a particular object (e.g. their own breathing), 2) notice when their attention has wandered away from the object and 3) bring their attention back to the attentional object. 

"Students engage in this practice with a stance of non-judgment and open curiosity which allows them to identify patterns in their thoughts and feelings, leading to a clearer mind and a more peaceful heart."

From the March 1975 Ensign, Chauncey C. Riddle wrote:

"The helpmate of mighty prayer is meditation. In meditating, one tries to minimize his involvements with the physical world for a time in order to concentrate on something inner, on ideas and feelings. As a person prays sincerely with the Holy Spirit as his guide, that Spirit will bring to him many thoughts and feelings. This is part of the process of revelation. To take full advantage of this revelation, one would do well to mull over the matter under consideration, piecing together what one already knows with the new insights received. 

It is one thing to have a revelation. It is quite another to understand and obey. Understanding comes in the process of careful, prayerful reflections of meditation upon what one has received. To pray is often like asking for food and then being blessed with a sumptuous meal. What would you think of a person who, when thus honored, merely took a sniff, then put the meal on a shelf and left it? Though greatly blessed, he would not be nourished. 

So it may be with those who pray and do not meditate. They may have much but may be little edified. 

Meditation cannot be taught, because it is something personal and private; it is the venturing of the soul into the unknown. But it can be learned by anyone who has the courage to think for himself. A likely initiation to meditation is to ponder the scriptures, the words of the living and the dead prophets of God. Banish all commentaries for a moment; forget hearsay teachings. What does the Lord actually say? What does the Spirit whisper as to how this passage or that doctrine should be understood? Where two scriptures appear at first reading to be contrary, what is the real intent of each? 

That soul who has bravely ventured into the sea of scriptural interpretation, who humbly seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit and rejects the opinions of men, soon makes a marvelous discovery. In the midst of the tumult of human interpretation there is a rock! He cannot see it, for it is spiritual, but he can plant his feet firmly upon it. Then the winds and waves of opinion can beat upon him from any direction. He is no longer tossed to and fro by every wind and wave, but rests firmly on that rock, and on his own two feet. He now has a foundation for his salvation. He has found the rock of revelation from the Savior. 

In mulling and pondering the scriptures, our venturer has found the Holy Spirit to be an able and willing guide as well as a comfort and a bulwark. Flashes of insight come. Now he sees how God is both just and merciful. He rejoices to learn how God can govern and control all things yet man can be free. He is overcome as he glimpses what the Savior has done for him. Now, having his own light from eternity, he is a new person, a little child born again in the image of the Master. 

Having learned to think, to meditate upon the scriptures, the venturer is now prepared to meditate upon the spiritual gifts that come in connection with his own prayers. Now mighty prayer is so rich an experience that he can hardly contain it. Ideas, hopes, and feelings tumble into his mind, then are carefully fit together under spiritual guidance, into the fabric of his new life. They become part of his robe of righteousness as he prepares to meet the Bridegroom. 

He who learns to meditate on the things of the Holy Spirit need never suffer the rebuke that came to Oliver Cowdery: 

“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. 

“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. 

“But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me. 

“Now, if you had known this you could have translated; nevertheless, it is not expedient that you should translate now. 

“Behold, it was expedient when you commenced; but you feared and the time is past, and it is not expedient now.” (D&C 9:7–11.)

I close with two more quotes. (Canst thou not tell of my love for quotes? and my lack of proper grammar?)

President Ezra Taft Benson:

Ponder the significance of the responsibility the Lord has given to us. The Lord has counseled, “Let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds.” (D&C 43:34.) You cannot do that when your minds are preoccupied with the cares of the world.

(Seek the Spirit of the Lord, April 1988, First Presidency Message, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/04/seek-the-spirit-of-the-lord?lang=eng)

...and finally, President Spencer W Kimball:

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find myself loving more intensely those whom I must love with all my heart and mind and strength, and loving them more, I find it easier to abide their counsel.”

(“What I Hope You Will Teach My Grandchildren and All Others of the Youth of Zion,” address to Seminary and Institute personnel, Brigham Young University, 11 July 1966, p. 6.)