Meditatio Divina–The Virtual Kind

• Posted by: Joe Williams

Alums know about Meditatio Divina, but since many readers of this blog have not been to Dialogue, let me do some explaining…but don’t skip over this, either, dear Dialoguers, for I’m going to give you a virtual Meditatio in a moment.

On Tuesday morning during the Workshop we take one of our two pre-dawn hikes in the desert. Pre-dawn, meaning around 5:30 a.m., depending on the season we are there. Sometimes it’s earlier. When I go over the agenda on Sunday evening this is always met with raised eyebrows. Am I really serious, the eyes ask–5:30 a.m.? Like I say in the literature, this ain’t your typical Workshop. This is when they really start to believe it. But when I tell them that the Tuesday walk is optional, they let out a collective sigh of relief. But this thing with a funny name does sound intriguing, so when 5:30 a.m. comes around, normally 80-90% of the participants end up showing up. And those who slept in wish they hadn’t.

The purpose of the Tuesday walk is to watch the sunrise, silence ourselves from the world outside, and listen to a meditative reading. That’s it. Very simple. And it is nothing strange. No one levitates, although at this point, folks are still not too sure about me and less sure about the desert. And when no one levitates I’m not sure if folks are disappointed or glad.

Celine Barbeau of Bell Canada in Montreal, enters the silence of the desert during the Tuesday morning Meditatio.

When we get to the place in the desert–at the Lazy K it was on a “saddle”–a ridge between two hills where we sit just behind Bill’s Rock, in the shadow of one rocky hill and next to another that will glow bright red-orange when the sun hit it; at the White Stallion it is on the desert floor, amidst the creosote bushes, looking up at the Tucson Mountains, where the sun will peak over.

In the pre-dawn light, we sit apart but within sound of my voice. Each of us enters the silence and refrains from talking. We just listen to the sound of the Sonoran Desert. The call of a cactus wren cries out to another, who answers back. The wind picks up and we hear it swirl around us, oftentimes bringing a quick chill. We see turkey vultures circling Hat Mountain (officially called Safford Peak). Sometimes the distant wail of a train can be head, reminding us that the world is but a few miles away. But here, for the moment, we are grounded in this place. We are connected, even if for just a few minutes, to the desert and to each other. And we come to grips with the silence that is so missing from our lives. It feels good. Cleansing. Refreshing.

After the sun has come up, I read the group something called a Meditatio Divina–a slow and deliberate reading, made and heard more from the heart than the mind.

Most of the time, I read something I wrote long ago called The Filling Cup. I tell them that I will read it three times. The first reading, I ask them to listen for what it says to you and afterwards, to reflect or meditate on what they heard. After a short meditation, I read it again a second time, but this time I read it more slowly, more carefully, with attention to the words themselves. With this reading, they are to listen for a word or phrase that speaks to them and as they meditate upon that word or phrase, they are to speak that word or phrase aloud to the rest of us, so we can hear what it is they are reflecting upon. Then I read it a final time and after that we do a final mediation upon it. Afterward, participants often talk about what the reading meant to them.

We then walk back to the Ranch.

It’s a nice way to start the day–the walk, the reading, the sunrise, and the silence does one good thing: it works up a hardy appetitive. Breakfast has never tasted this good.

We are now all separated to the winds. But we can all connect again with the desert and with the reading and perhaps even, with each other.

The 2007 Master Class and Alumni weekend group on Bill’s Rock after Meditatio Divina. Next stop: breakfast…Meditatio in the desert fills the soul; breakfast at the Ranch fills the body!

Whenever you are, quieten you body and still your mind. Close your eyes for a moment and let your mind take you back to the desert and the morning walk. Remember what it felt like to get up early and venture into an unknown place. Remember the walk into the desert and how darkness quickly turned into light. Remember sitting there listening to the sounds of the desert and how wonderful it felt to let go of the noise of your world.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Meditatio Divinas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.