Seemingly every day I receive a news story about a celebrity who meditates every day. And interestingly, this practice is peddled and marketed through expensive apps and classes which frame meditation as a solution to all of life’s problems. It is post-post-modernism at its finest. A reality is that if you start meditating, you will likely discover problems you did not even know you had, and never wanted to address. And virtually none of these problems are solved by purchasing an app or paying a consultant.
Meditation has increased dramatically in popularity in the past few years, especially due to the coronavirus pandemic. And while this is largely good, it is worth discussing the entirety of the meditative experience- why meditation could be good for you, and why it can be challenging or difficult. Physical exercise often feels good, until we get out of breath or experience soreness the next couple of days. Meditation can be similar, and can lead to fear, confusion, pain, or confrontation. Examining and evaluating our own thoughts can be triggering and off-putting.
And very rarely is this reality addressed, like it is in the world of fitness. I am sure many people are dissuaded from continuing with meditation because it is hard, and the celebrity/Instagram/”water is harder than rock” philosophical culture surrounding it confuses folks, makes it appear easy, and ultimately alienates newer practitioners.
This is a really complicated topic, because unlike muscle soreness, there are so many ways meditation can become difficult. I will later post about more detailed strategies. But the most common reason I see people dissuaded from meditation in a secular or non-theistic context is a failure to consider attraction and aversion as two sides of the same coin. In a spiritual context I find it is a failure to acknowledge Jesus as a non-dualistic religious teacher, which is roughly the same thing.
For Christians in particular, this is quite confusing, as most religious education comes in the form of good-evil, right-wrong, sin-virtue, God-devil format. But as Richard Rohr states in Falling Upward, Jesus was the first non-dualistic religious thinker in Western philosophy, but Catholics and thus Protestants have been handed him filtered through a dualistic, “enlightened” lens. We need to rediscover his non-dualistic philosophy, and that will support our meditative practice.
To start, let’s examine that attraction-aversion issue. Here is a comment from a person struggling with meditation:
Let’s be honest, this person is doing great. They get it. But she or he is attracted to the idea of having a monk-like focus and attitude, and averse to their brain’s patterning and habits. It is okay! But we owe this person to be explicit about the nature of attraction and aversion. If he or she learns to notice this attraction and aversion, and refrain from engaging with it, they could make great progress. I will write a more detailed post about these specific tactics in the future.
How does Christianity enter into this, particularly Jesus’ non-dualism? Refraining from examining every issue in a dualistic, judgmental, attraction/aversion lens is part of the Christian message. Consider the woman accused of adultery in the Gospel of John. She broke Mosaic law, and according to the local customs and “law of God”, was to be stoned. But Jesus neither condoned her actions, nor advocated for the law to be enacted: he followed a non-dualistic approach to the situation, which gave her life, and forced her accusers to reflect on theirs. Examples like these abound in the Gospels, and we will return to them in other posts.
To summarize, meditation is not as easy as it is marketed. But the first real “lesson” many who practice need to recognize is that attraction and aversion tug us from our initial purpose in meditation. And overcoming that is extremely valuable. And for Christians exploring their spiritual life through meditation, additionally acknowledging Jesus as a non-dualistic teacher can make a massive difference in mindset and outlook.
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