Meditation gives you an opportunity to come to know your invisible self. It allows you to empty yourself of the endless hyperactivity of your mind, and to attain calmness. It teaches you to be peaceful, to remove stress, to receive answers where confusion previously reigned. – Wayne Dyer
Right across our house is the parish church for over 5000 or more residents. A few years ago, we agonized over the wailing and chanting of “pabasa”. Fortunately, there is none this year.
I don’t know with you but I find the “pabasa” very irritating especially if the marathon chant is done right across your house. As you are all aware, the “pabasa” is a uniquely Filipino tradition of chanting or singing the pasyon, a book narrating the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some would say that I should make it a personal vow or panata during Holy Week. Really, it’s no use escaping the Pabasa’s wailing chants. It is like forcing me to reflect on its messages, and to relate to the suffering of Jesus.
Michael Tan in his article on. Pabasa on a Carabao, tells us more on the origins of the “Pabasa”
The Passion plays, and our Pabasa (sometimes also called Pasyon), are not just religious rituals. They are intended literally to indoctrinate the public, which is instilling doctrine. Given how central Christ’s Passion and death are to Christian doctrines, the Pabasa is there to hammer down the messages around Christ’s redemptive act.
Today is unlike the past. There are choices on how we choose to reflect on our spirituality.
The “pabasa” is really meditating but just done loudly. I prefer to meditate quietly. I recognize that Jesus is God so I talk directly to Him. Now, to meditate is a route to improving my conscious contact with God. Meditation means opening my mind and my spiritual energy to the God connection. I cannot connect to God in a noisy environment so I prefer to do so in peace and tranquility. I want to relax as best as I can and open my consciousness and subconscious mind to God.
Today being Holy Thursday is a quiet day. I have time to slow down, to stop what I am doing and take this kind of break. During normal days, my meditation and prayer comes to play when I am alone in the sanctuary of my room. It is during these times when answers, insight or inspiration hit me. Sometimes it might not be immediate but solutions are surely coming.
If I did my part on meditation and prayer, I then let the rest go. I allow my conscious contact with God improve so that my subconscious contact will too. I discovered that with time, I found myself in tune with God’s harmony and will for me. I find and maintain that soul connection, the God connection.
I know all of us take our own moments for meditation and prayer either the first thing in the morning, during a coffee break or in the evening. It is our choice.
Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Practical Guide to Meditation
“Connect to the divine Source with unconditional love. This principles creates an awareness of the significance of accepting your manifestations with absolute love.” Dr. Wayne Dyer
1.) “There’s no such thing as a bad meditation. Any time you spend time in silence is valuable, even if your inner voice is persistent and loud. Don’t judge it; just observe it. Simply observe yourself sitting there, and when a stray thought suddenly appears, just note it, and use its presence as a reminder to go back to the gap.”
2.) “With time, your inner dialogue will shut down. We all know that mastery is seldom achieved without practice. Meditation is no exception. Perhaps that’s why it’s called practice. With the passage of time, you’ll easily slip into the gap with joyous anticipation of reuniting with God.”
3.) “There’s no right or wrong time to meditate. Each of us finds our most comfortable time of day, so don’t try to do this on someone else’s schedule. You can slip into the gap frequently if you take advantage of a two minute stop at a traffic light, a pause in a meeting, a trip to the rest room, or the time you spend waiting for an appointment.”
field-meditation
4.) “There’s no correct mediation length. I find that approximately 20 minutes per session twice daily is optimal for me. However, even a few moments can be nurturing. I’ve also learned that a two or three hour flight is a grand opportunity for me to spend an extended period of time in the gap, and that the time passes in what seems like a few moments.”
5.) “There’s no correct posture or place for meditation. Find what makes you comfortable and trust it. Sitting, lying down, kneeling – whatever works for you is the perfect posture. Anyplace at all can serve as your location. Since I travel so much, I’m not particular about location, while some people I know use the same posture, the same chair, and the same time every day. Whatever ““floats your boat”, as my teenagers say, is fine.”
