The Experience of Meditation by Noel Keating
For most people the word ‘experience’ has a very straightforward meaning. For example, we are all familiar with ‘work experience’. An advertisement for a full-time job may require that an applicant have a minimum of three years’ relevant work experience so that you can demonstrate you have developed a competence in that area.
People refer as well to their life experience. They point to how they have been shaped by the events of life, by the ups and downs of their lives over many years and how that has led them to have a particular worldview and to their own unique way of being in the world. When we use the word ‘experience’ in this way we are referring to experience of the passage of time over a period of many years; as distinct from a more ephemeral, fleeting experience such as observing a murmuration of birds suddenly adopt the shape of a bird as seen from your perspective for a split second.
Sometimes an experience seems very special because it stands out from our ordinary everyday experience and we are highly aware of the event as we experience it; a friend of mine once described white-water rafting as ‘a hair-raising experience I’ll never forget’. Or it might stand out because it is exhilarating in other ways – such as an experience of a sumptuous meal or euphoric sex. Or sometimes an experience stands out because of its importance – we may very easily be able to recall the joy we felt at the birth of a child or the day we got married or the deep sadness we experienced at the loss of a loved one.
The disciplines of psychology and spirituality sometimes speak about peak experiences. The concept was originally developed by Abraham Maslow in the 1960s and he described a peak experiences as a ‘rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experience’ that generates an advanced perception of reality, and may have a mystical effect on the person who has the experience giving rise to a sense of limitless potential and joy.
While it is possible that meditation may for some give rise to such experiences occasionally, that is not what meditation is about. We do not meditate in pursuit of a blissful experience. We do not meditate in pursuit of something that we want to happen to us. John Main said once that nothing happens in meditation, and if anything does, that we should ignore it. And even if it does, ss Jack Kornfield reminds us ‘after the ecstasy comes the laundry’.
So, we need to be very clear about this. We do not meditate in search of brilliant insights or special revelations. Laurence Freeman tells us that ‘it is very important to accept this as early as possible in your journey of meditation, because otherwise you get really distracted and side-tracked because you’re looking for something to happen, and you either imagine it’s happening, or you get upset because it doesn’t happen.’
When we talk about the experience of meditation, we are not talking about experience at the level of doing or being ‘done to’ but about the experience of simply being, of coming to apprehend, however dimly, who we are at the deepest level of our being. In the words of Thomas Merton: ‘Underlying the subjective experience of the individual self, there is an immediate experience of Being … [which] is totally different from the experience of self-consciousness.’ Because it lies beyond self-consciousness, we cannot ‘experience’ it in the same way that we experience our ordinary everyday life. But we know from the wisdom and religious traditions of the world that nonetheless this subtle form of experience changes us. The realisation dawns that there is more to us that the ego and we come to appreciate the true-self deep within. And, as the ego surrenders to the true-self, our desire for control – the drive to accumulate power, prestige and possessions – diminishes and our way of seeing and being in the world is transformed. In Christian terms, we allow God to work in us through the Spirit.
As our way of seeing is transformed, our way of being in the world changes significantly if not dramatically. Your way of seeing the challenges and questions in life is broadened and deepened and you may find that you are more often able to respond to them more appropriately as a consequence of your deeper way of seeing; instead of reacting out of your familial and cultural conditioning.
Some meditation periods will feel wonderful, very peaceful and calm; but other meditation periods may seem like a complete waste of time. The important thing is to be faithful to your meditation and accept whatever happens. The essence of meditation is simply allowing yourself to be; leaving yourself open to a graced encounter with God beyond the realm of self-consciousness, without demand for any kind of ‘experience.’ In the words of John Main: ‘We have to learn to be content to say our mantra. Forget about all notions of progress, forget about enlightenment, forget about insight, forget about yourself and say your mantra.’ Ultimately, the experience of meditation is the experience of Love.
