Christian Meditation: The Light Within

Early Christianity, as practiced by the monastic Desert Fathers, had a contemplative dimension that was lost for hundreds of years and recovered in recent times by Father John Main. The practice involves the focused repetition of a short phrase - a prayer-word mantra - to turn the search light of consciousness away form the ordinary preoccupations of mind, to discover the greater sense of being found in silence. Meditation in the Christian tradition is concerned not with thinking but with being - it goes beyond thoughts, even so called “holy” thoughts of God or Christ, requiring complete surrender to the simplicity of the mantra, bringing the distracted mind to stillness, silence and attention.

Dom Laurence Freeman O.S.B. is the Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, a global network inspired by the teachings of Fr. John Main (with whom Dom Freeman studied in Montreal). He now serves a worldwide network of 27 meditation centres and more than a thousand weekly meditation groups in 50 countries. He travels regularly in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Dom Freeman is the author of several well-known books on Christian meditation, including “The Light Within, “ and he led the “Way of Peace” dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He is a Benedictine Monk of the Monastery off Christ the King, London, UK. He has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Oxford, and experience in merchant banking, journalism and at the United Nations.