I recently created a group on Facebook called "Prayer and Meditation 2017":
"Commit to sit in non-partisan, non-denominational meditation/prayer for 20 minutes a day in 2017 with your intention focused on peace in this world. It's a solemn, intentional undertaking. I invite you to join me wherever you are each day in 2017!"
The twenty minutes comes from this saying: "You should sit and meditate for 20 minutes, unless you are too busy in which case you should sit and meditate for an hour."
The focus on peace is my response to a world gone mad with hatred, exclusion and fear. From ISIS to Syria, Brexit to Trump, cyber-bullying to environmental degradation, the world seems poised on the brink as never before. Gandhi said that you must "be the change you wish to see in the world" - to that end, meditating for 20 minutes a day causes me to "be peace". If I am changed over time to a more peaceful and aware person then the world is so moved as well. I benefit and the world does too.
The desire to commit to meditate every day for one year is not totally altruistic. I have been an on/off meditator for over thirty years - with some very long breaks - I'd like to experience the effects of such a discipline/commitment on me. Meditation is truly a incremental process. Its affects are subtle and cumulative. I think it takes a year of continuous commitment to practice to notice any changes. Note that I use the term "meditate" but you can simply substitute "prayer" where you see that word and I think it makes as much, if not more, sense.
The group is intended to be non-denominational and it is - we have a range of members from ELCA Lutherans to Jews to Catholics to Evangelicals to Hindus to Agnostics/Atheists. But more than this, the goal is not to proselytize on these pages. Still, I tend to take a Zen Buddhist point of view in my discussions so the value of the group is that others can take the lead and provide a different perspective for all of us.
The desire to commit to meditate every day for one year is not totally altruistic. I have been an on/off meditator for over thirty years - with some very long breaks - I'd like to experience the effects of such a discipline/commitment on me. Meditation is truly a incremental process. Its affects are subtle and cumulative. I think it takes a year of continuous commitment to practice to notice any changes. Note that I use the term "meditate" but you can simply substitute "prayer" where you see that word and I think it makes as much, if not more, sense.
The group is intended to be non-denominational and it is - we have a range of members from ELCA Lutherans to Jews to Catholics to Evangelicals to Hindus to Agnostics/Atheists. But more than this, the goal is not to proselytize on these pages. Still, I tend to take a Zen Buddhist point of view in my discussions so the value of the group is that others can take the lead and provide a different perspective for all of us.
If you'd like to join our Facebook group, send me a note on Facebook expressing your interest!
Thanks.
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