Contemplation Corner: “do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate.”

“Please do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate. Whether or not we are happy depends on our awareness. When you have a toothache, you think not having a toothache will make you very happy. But when you don’t have a toothache, often you are still not happy. All of us have the capacity of transforming neutral feelings into pleasant feelings. If you’re rested and relaxed, all living beings will profit from your relaxation and energy. This is the most basic kind of peace work.” – Thich Nhat Hanh (“Happiness and Awareness” How to Relax – Paralax, Berkley, CA, 2015)

by Pastor Donnie Brooks
Marcellus United Methodist Church
pastordonnieb@outlook.com

  Why is it that so many people think of religion or of religious practices as altogether and always “serious” and boring? What a thoroughly dispersed misunderstanding, likely continued by religious leaders and devotees that this don’t quite know what they’re doing or who they are in their roles. When we are in a meditative or contemplative mode, spending time with ourselves and/or with God, we need not be “solemn.” We need only be aware. Open in listening to God, ourselves, and others in lives. 

   When we’re joyful, we should beam for joy! Maybe you don’t need to be prim and proper, stoic and without expression. I’m not one who gets elated very often and even the less bubbly. But I do like to laugh. Fairly often, I may get sentimental. But much less do I get to the point of crying. But why do we always bottle up and think we must be neutral in feeling before God? The Christian and Jewish mystics reinterpreted The Songs of Solomon from what they clearly were (read it for a paragraphs and you’ll figure it out!) to what they could be in a passionate love and longing for one’s God and the relationship between them.

   Certainly, such a relation to God as that book describes is filled with the “passions” and the many emotions we might feel. If we have been in romantic and friendship loves, we know there are ups and downs. So why so solemn? Let be what in the emotions that you are filled with. Whatever goes around us each day, we can transmute or transform it, into something better. Whether or in the toothache or not, whether elated with the simple joys of coffee, friends and family, a short stroll in nature, whatever it may be, be aware and find joy. Your joy will also spread into the lives of those who may be going through exactly what you’re going through, in the good or ill as well, and will help them transform their experience as well.

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