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Image: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light (Matthew 6:22).
Talk 6: Leaving Self Behind (a transcript of an audio talk by John Main found on the Series 2012c DVD)
Listen to these words of Jesus in St Mark’s Gospel: Anyone who wishes to be a follower of mine must leave self behind. He must take up his cross and come with me. (Mark 8:34)
Now we meditate to do just that, to obey that absolutely fundamental call that Jesus makes and which is the basis of all our Christian faith: to leave self behind in order that we can indeed journey with Christ in his return to the Father. Saying the mantra is a discipline which helps us to transcend all the limitations of our narrow isolated self-obsession. The mantra leads us into an experience of the liberty that reigns at the centre of our being. “Where the Spirit is there is liberty,” said St Paul. (2 Cor 3:17) It introduces us to this liberty by helping us to pass over into the Other by helping us to take our minds off ourselves. This is what Jesus means by “leaving self behind”.
In our own day, we have perhaps lost our understanding of what it really means to renounce self. Self-renunciation is not an experience with which our contemporaries are familiar or which they even understand very clearly, mainly because the tendency of our society is to emphasise the importance of self-promotion, selfpreservation, self-projection. The materialism of our consumer society puts ‘what I want’ at the centre of our life and it renders the other merely an object which we see in terms of our own pleasure or advantage. But the other is only really other if approached with reverence for itself and in itself. We must learn to pay complete attention to it and not to its effect upon us. If we begin to objectify the other then its reality, its uniqueness, and essential value escape us, and it becomes not the other but a projection of ourselves.
Many people today, and in the past, have confused selfrenunciation with self-rejection. But our meditation is no running away from self, no attempt to evade the responsibility of our own being or the responsibilities of our life and relationships. Meditation is rather an affirmation of ourselves, not however of the self that is involved in this particular responsibility alone, nor the self that wants this or wants that. These aspects of our self are illusory. They become little egos when we isolate them from the central point of our being where our irreducible selfhood exists in complete harmony with the Other, the Other being the source of our being and the sustainer of our selfhood. It is this whole self, the real self, which we affirm in the silence of meditation. We cannot affirm it, however, by trying to lay violent hands on it or by trying to possess or control it. If we do so we are in the absurd position of our ego trying to command the self, of unreality dictating to reality,or of the tail wagging the dog. This is what Niebuhr meant when he said: “The self does not realise itself fully when self realisation is the conscious aim.” In meditating we affirm ourselves by becoming still, by becoming silent, and allowing the reality of our real self to become more and more apparent, to diffuse its light throughout our being in the course of the natural process of spiritual growth. We do not try to do anything. We simply let ourselves be. When we are renouncing self, we are in that condition of liberty and receptivity that allows us to be in relationship with the other, which is the condition that makes it possible for us to decide positively for the other, to say though not in words ‘I love you’. But we can only turn to the other, we can only make this movement of self, if we leave self behind, that is, if we take our consciousness away from its involvement with me and direct it on the thou. Self-obsession is the means of restricting and limiting the self.Self-renunciation on the other hand is the means of liberating the self for its real purpose, which is loving the other. Meditation is a simple and natural process. It is the process that reveals our real being as a state of open-hearted receptivity to the Spirit of Jesus who dwells in our hearts. This revelation dawns when we renounce, step aside from, the external manifestations of our consciousness such as thoughts, words, and images, and when instead we move into the level of consciousness itself. We then become silent because we have entered silence, and we are wholly turned towards the other. In this fully conscious, fully free silence, we naturally open ourselves to the word that proceeds from the silence, God’s own Word, in whom we are called into being, in which we ourselves are spoken by our Creator. This is the living Word within us. Our faith tells us that we are wholly incorporate in this Word, but we need to know it fully in the height, length, depth, and breadth of ourspirit, to know it though it is beyond knowledge. The silence brings us to this knowledge that is so simple that no thought or image could ever contain or represent it. By renouncing self we enter the silence and focus upon the other. The truth to be revealed is the harmony of our self with the other.- John Main
In the words of the Indian Sufi poet: I saw my Lord with my heart’s eye and said ‘Who art thou Lord?’ ‘Thyself’ he replied.
Contemplation:
There are three verses that it may be useful to contemplate, the first follows the Sufi Poem we have just heard on the DVD by Mansur al Hallaj a Persian mystic and writer :
“I saw my Lord with my heart’s eye and said ‘Who art thou Lord?’ ‘Thyself’ he replied.”
The verse is from al-Haqq” (“The Truth”) Al Hallaj was crucified as his persecutors believed he was claiming to be God. What Hallaj was perhaps expressing was self renunciation and the experience of sacred unity through love.
The 13th Christian mystic expresses something very similar…”The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.”
Matthew 6:22-23 The light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light,23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
The above verses refer to what Buddhism might call Enlightenment, Satori or Liberation (the opening of the third eye) Secular teachings may use the term non-duality. This is where consciousness is liberated from Self-obsession and its restricting and limiting of the self. As John Main says in the audio, liberation from the self is where we are then free to hear the living word of God within us.
Exercises: Light and Darkness: Meditation Group Week 4
Take a few moments to think of oneself as light. Pausing for a moment to consider the Aramaic meaning of Good, which means ‘ripe’ or ready. evil with means ‘unripe’ or not yet ready. Therefore when one finds oneself in darkness be kind to the spirit, and find not evil or sin, but instead the potential for light….or enlightenment.
Body Prayer: Reflection on Light and Darkness Consider the gift of light, Look for a moment at a candle flame, see the intensity of the flame and then the glow as the flame illuminates any darkness that surrounds it. With eyes closed, use this vision to relax the mind and still the spirit and say silently to oneself the Aramaic word Alaha which means Sacred Unity.
Turning attention to the breath, gently breathe while resting in the heart, think of Christs endless capacity for selfless love and forgiveness. Feel the expansiveness of Christ in your own heart and how this has the capacity to illuminate all your actions in your own life and the lives of others and bring you every day guidance.
Allow yourself to notice for a moment any darkness in your life and observe and accept this without wishing to change it. Breathe slowly allowing each breath to fill your heart with love, allow this expansiveness to fill the space around you, sending love and light beyond yourself, to those you love, to those who need healing and to anyone who opposes or oppresses you. Expand this feeling and radiate it out unconditionally out into the farthest reaches of the cosmos. In this expansive moment, feel how your own heart is able to illuminate any darkness around you.
Think now of a whole candle, the body, wick flame and the surrounding darkness which is illuminated by light. See how even the darkness supports the light, perhaps the candle is a metaphor for the balance of bodily and spiritual existence, and all experience in the world. Without trying to change anything simply rest in this feeling of sacred union and notice how awareness rests in the heart. Affirm the possibility that any darkness only remains because it has not yet become light.
Continue to breathe, and with each breath focus on Alaha and sacred unity, accept any felt sensations, there is no need to analyse any thoughts, these come and go and are part of our ‘beingness’. As part of all creation Our body and mind is a pathway of connection to all that is. Here with each breath we embrace all that we are, and all that is with acceptance and love.
As Jesus says in Matthew 6:22 As we let the light of the body be our eye, we see that the ‘eye’ is our inner consciousness, while light illuminates our darkness, at times flames also test us with fire when as John Main says, self-promotion, selfpreservation and self-projection threaten to ‘separate’ us from sacred unity and one-ness with God.
It is the singularity of our own eye, the understanding of one-ness that ensures the quality of our own work in life and through prayer and meditation. When we see oneness we are good, ripe or ready, our eye is single, we are full of light and can see things in the compassionate, inclusive and loving way in which Jesus saw them.
As we prepare ourselves for our mantra we contemplate the words of Matthew “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, Open our hearts to the silent presence of your son. Maranatha…Come Jesus Lord
With eyes closed gently Chant ‘Maranatha’ ( Ma-ra-na-tha) which means ‘Come Lord’ in Aramaic- the original language of Jesus and early Christians, this can be done for between 10 and 30 minutes
Closing Prayer: May this group be a true spiritual home for the seeker, a friend for the lonely, a guide for the confused.
May those who have prayed here be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In the silence of this room may all the suffering in the world encounter the power that will console, uplift and renew the human spirit.
May this silence be a power to open our hearts to God, in love, peace, justice and dignity. May the beauty of divine life fill all who pray here with joyful hope.May all who come here weighed down with the problems of humanity, leave giving thanks for the wonder of human life.
We make this prayer through Christ our Lord
End: Take a few moments to come back to the responsibilities of your day
WCCM Meditation in Romsey
There is a weekly WCCM Christian Meditation Group in Romsey Abbey, based on the teachings of the World Centre for Christian Meditation
Romsey Abbey: Every Tuesday Evening at 7.30pm in the Abbey (the main door will be locked, entrance through the Choir vestry door) Email Fiona or telephone 1794 518406
The Wisdom Centre, Romsey: Friday 11-12am, for information telephone 01794 830206 or email
John Main OSB (1926–1982) was a Roman Catholic Benedictine monk and priest who presented a way of Christian meditation which utilized a prayer-phrase or mantra. In 1975 Main began Christian meditation groups at Ealing Abbey, his monastery in London. This was the origins of the ecumenical network of Christian meditation groups which have become the (WCCM). Useful videos can be found here:
how to do meditation meditation music