I am fascinated by how, in recent years, science has carefully confirmed what people on the spiritual path know from personal experience. I talked about the importance of community and how the meditation group supports us on our journey. The following experiment proved that this was true in several ways: a group of Franciscan nuns was connected to a brainwave meter during prayer. Although at first each individual had his own brainwave pattern, after about ten minutes of prayer, the brainwave patterns were the same.
This plays an inevitable role in our groups. Meditators often tell me that, especially at the beginning, it is easier for them to meditate in a weekly group than when they are alone at home. The mentioned experiment objectively proves that we support and strengthen each other. Moreover, during the meditation period, we are all attuned to the same wavelength — in the words of the Christians — the wavelength of the Spirit. We already know that the Spirit, who is in our deepest center, unites our own being and unites us all, as John Main says in Present Christ: “Even our own center, our objectifying consciousness, is united. All this, the process of ‘unification,’ is the work of the Spirit. ”
Because in normal life we live from the ‘ego’, we see only separation and do not see unity and interconnection behind it. We forget how much we are connected. Meditation thus plays a fundamental role in changing our consciousness, our awareness. Through meditation, through common prayer, “we experience that the basic state of humanity, man and woman, is not separation, but communion, common being with God Love and according to God – Love:” In direct communion ‘being with’ means being in love. (John Main – The Present Christ) How different would our world be if we were aware of our basic unity!
To some extent, we know how much others influence us – parents are always interested in the influence of friends on the thinking and behavior of their children; we are talking about the importance of like-minded friends. In an article entitled Small Neural Systems in Scientific American, Eric Kandel presents his findings: “Even during simple social experiences, such as when two people are talking, the neuronal system of one person’s brain can have a direct and lasting impact on variable synaptic connections in another . ”
In silence, in the center of our being, based on our experience, we discover the intimate, loving experience of a relationship, a community, in fact the true meaning of faith. Laurence Freeman says in her latest book, First Sight – The Experience of Faith: “Fellowship – like marriage – is the result of faith.”
Kim Nataraja
