Today’s morning meditation is available below in audio and script formats. The audio version is also available for free download on the player.

Reading

A desire arises in the mind. It is grasped; immediately another comes. In the interval which separates two desires a perfect calm reigns in the mind. It is at this moment freed from all thought, love or hate that complete peace reigns.

—Sivananda Saraswati

Commentary

Through meditation and the practice of disciplines such as slowing down and keeping the mind one-pointed, we can learn to do something that sounds impossible: when thoughts are tailgating each other, we can slip into the flow of mental traffic, separate thoughts that have locked bumpers, and slowly squeeze ourselves in between. 

It sounds terribly daring – the kind of stunt for which professionals in the movies are paid in six figures. Yet we can learn to step right in front of onrushing emotional impulses and little by little, inch by hard-won inch, start pushing them apart. This takes a lot of solid muscle in the form of willpower; but just as with muscles, we can build up willpower with good, old-fashioned practice. 

Once we can do this we will find that there is not the slightest connection between the stimulus and our response. There seemed to be a connection because our perceptions were crowding together. Now that those thoughts have been separated – even for a hair’s breadth – our response has lost its compulsive force. (WLB)

Stillness

As your day begins, spend a few moments in silence and stillness. As thoughts about the coming day begin to flood your mind, try to find the space, however small, in between them and rest there.

Abbreviations

BC The Belgic Confession

CAC The Center For Action & Contemplation

CD The Canons of Dort

CIB Church In Bethesda Prayers

HC The Heidelberg Catechism

NT The New Testament

OT The Old Testament

WC The Westminster Confession

WLB Eknath Easwaran’s, “Words To Live By”

WLC The Westminster Larger Catechism

WSC The Westminster Shorter Catechism