Meditation/Dedication ?

[Joe Mc]

Here is a small and simple realisation I've had recently. It was
at a time when my elderly Father was and still is but getting better
suffering from Corona virus and my step daughter was suffering too.

The realisation being that the Dedication which many meditation traditions
place at the end of meditation is much more important than I realised. It's
just one of those things, I felt some kind of shift recently after each meditation
dedicating it to various things and to everything in general. Up until then although
I was aware of Dedicating the merits of a meditation, it's something that never
really moved me. This is for two reasons because i was spiritually not mature enough
secondly I didn't come across any teachers or teachings stressing its importance. I just didn't come across any.

The Dedication is important because it keeps us in 'Touch' with reality. Helps us to realise
that it is a 'We' situation always as opposed to a 'Me' situation. It also helps us to foster a sense
and growing reality of 'interconnectedness'. When I first came across meditation I remember one
of my initial reactions being no I don't want to give it away ..the merit It's mine and I earned
it sitting through that 40 minutes of torture

Today perhaps the Dedication is what links meditation and prayer. It almost allows the meditation
to become a prayer. We ask that the merit gained in acting this way in Meditation be dedicated to the
alleviation of Suffering. We can also be specific in our requests and this can and does result in very
beautiful results and often wonders too. We could also dedicate the merit to our ability to forgive our
past transgressions and those which have been done against us. We can lay down this burden let the
door open onto new beginnings even fields of possibilities. Even as I write here I can sense the
possibility of 'The Dedication' coming at the end of a formal meditation as an endless realm of
positive potential. Hallelujah Sadhu !!

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[Miss Hepburn]

Very nice, Joe.

I have talked about this, too, but didn't use that particular word dedication.
I might have said prayer, setting an intention, doing a little honoring ritual before we start a meditation session.
Lol, 40 min of torture.
I remember the chatter of what the mind can do at the beginning.
It does take awhile to make different habitual pathways in the brain;
making the entire process so easy...so you can reach a still state in the first minute...and away you go!

(I didn't make that up, it's from exp...then, it has been researched by Neuroscientists-these actual pathways. Drs. Leaf and Perk.)

[Joe Mc]

Very good Miss Hepburn thanks for your post. :)
It's interesting that you set out with an honouring prayer
at the beginning of the meditation, where as the dedication
of merit usually follows the meditation at the end. But equally
as important for sure, I might give your one a go too :)

The habitual pathways and the neuroscience seems fascinating,
although i've come across it of course i've never really gone deep
into how it is explained. Neuroplasticity being one of the terms they
use to explain it i think. Amazing.

Yes meditation is definitely a learned 'skill' i know it's probably wrong to
use that term but i can pretty much enter into silence and when there
isn't much silence lol it isn't a big deal i just know the silence is there
which is a great comfort i suppose. I suppose when little realisations come
like my fascination atm with dedicating the merit...then we are kinda childlike.
I wanted my mother to stay in contact with me the otherday
my father was in hospital she wasn't answering the phone, thought she
was sleeping which is good, any hows i did a quick prayer and she phoned
me some time later saying the electricity had gone off in the house. So gave
me motivation to go and sort it out ...it was something and nothing but
it wasnt obvious how it had gone off lolol...don't tell her lol. Thanks once again for your nice post ..great food for thought. :) Joe.

[Miss Hepburn]

Yes, the silence is there and is a comfort, even at a Rock concert...
it really is. Takes practice.
It is as easy as, (being in a noisy crowd), closing your eyes and feeling the one you love filling your heart...
a new kitten, your newborn, your partner or God
Doesn't matter...that peaceful silence is always there. Yes.

[Joe Mc]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Yes, the silence is there and is a comfort, even at a Rock concert...
it really is. Takes practice.
It is as easy as, (being in a noisy crowd), closing your eyes and feeling the one you love filling your heart...
a new kitten, your newborn, your partner or God
Doesn't matter...that peaceful silence is always there. Yes.

Absolutely, the silence is all knowing, all full, ... yes not forgetting the world is the way to go.
I think it was Thomas Merton who said he felt closer to the world when he was behind 'the walls
of the monastery' in Kentucky. I suppose with meditation there is no where to hide, you can hermitise
in a cave perhaps but work is given to you, challenges set, equilibrium to be set as I believe
I'm an important cog in God's machine, but just a cog nevertheless, Thank you. Joe.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Joe Mc

I'm an important cog in God's machine, but just a cog nevertheless, Thank you. Joe.

No, not just a cog.
In all of creation - you are as important as an Einstein.
God would not be God if 'you' did not exist...you are like a thread in a 200 AD
wall Tapestry,
(which I've seen bef it was illegal to transport them out of Europe!).
Take ONE thread out of that tapestry and it's not the same tapestry.
There is no one like 'you'.

[Joe Mc]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

No, not just a cog.
In all of creation - you are as important as an Einstein.
God would not be God if 'you' did not exist...you are like a thread in a 200 AD
wall Tapestry,
(which I've seen bef it was illegal to transport them out of Europe!).
Take ONE thread out of that tapestry and it's not the same tapestry.
There is no one like 'you'.

Wowww some real food for thought here, I love the tapestry
motif and that must have been mind blowing to see such an
ancient work of Art. A Buddhist friend of mine once told me
that you will see the thread running through your life some day
I have from time to time seen the thread that joins us all.
Thank you for reflecting me in such an esteemful way, Oneness contains All.

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