Guided meditation

It’s Monday lunchtime, and in a Cathedral chapel fifteen or twenty people are sitting quietly with each other while around them city life carries on apace. 

They are attending to their experience of the present moment, following the ebb and flow of their breathing; they are meditating.

These guided meditations for busy people are offered jointly by the Cathedral and the Amida Trust (Sheffield) Buddhist Group.  

And it’s free.

Where and when We meet in St Katharine’s Chapel in the north-east corner of the Cathedral, which feels like a good space.    The Buddhists regard it very positively as somewhere people come to be serious about their lives, within a spiritual tradition that they honour.   We meet every Monday except Bank Holiday Mondays. We start promptly at 1pm and finish at 1.30pm. If you arrive late, please enter quietly. Top

What we do People sit in a circle on chairs or on cushions or stools on the floor, as they feel comfortable.  We explain briefly what meditation is (and isn’t) and what will happen over the half hour.    Advice is given in finding a helpful posture, and then people are helped to achieve a corresponding measure of mental poise, usually by bringing their attention to their breathing.   It is a practice of being in the present, of being aware, of noticing, of attending with gentleness, with compassion and with gratitude. It is not about emptying the mind nor is it a relaxation exercise.   No prayers or incantations are offered. There are no readings from any scriptures.   The session is brought to an end by the ringing of a bell, and people can stay to talk, but most go on their way.  Top

Who takes part? Each session is guided by someone from the Cathedral or from the Amida Trust. Those who come along may be Christians or Buddhists or people of no particular faith – we don’t know and we don’t ask. Nor do we assume that people have any previous experience of meditation. The practice is essentially very simple and the same for beginners and experienced meditators. So newcomers are always welcome, and people come along when they can. There’s no pressure to join anything. Top

Why we do it At a time when there is much that could divide people – not least people of different faiths – it is good to promote something held in common by different traditions.   Meditation is at once a simple human experience and a spiritual discipline, practised for its own sake and to cultivate insight. It so happens that Buddhists are often very skilled in it because it has always been central to their practice, whereas fewer Christians have taken to it. We are confident enough in our own identity to receive the gifts that others have to offer. The rationale for meditating may differ to some extent between the two, but both traditions teach that the ability to be still and attend to what is is of great spiritual worth.  It can help free us from the idols and illusions to which we succumb so readily, even as Christians. I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope                             For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. T S. Eliot If you would like to try meditating click here for some suggestions. Top