The Two Level Meditation

UV 2189/10000 Two Level Meditation
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19 v 14

A supercomputer even working for a million years cannot write a meditation on a single verse. Meditation is the unique capacity and gift of mankind. Meditation is medicine for the whole being of man- spirit, mind and body. As a testimony, I can tell you that in the seven plus years I have been writing the uni-verse series of meditations day after day, I have not fallen even slightly ill in all these days, weeks, months and years. Our souls have been created in order to meditate on the words of God. When we meditate, we fulfil the purpose of our lives. We cease all other thought, all other communication, all other activities and concerns in order to focus on the Lord and what He says in His word. Meditation on His word releases its goodness as food, medicine , a means of strength, a weapon of power and a source of redemption and blessing in our lives. The essence of life is contained in the word itself –Love, Integrity, Faith, Excellence. Meditation will equip us in each of these four aspects. When we fill our hearts with His word, saturate our thoughts with it, it will overflow into our mouth and make our communication wholesome and beneficial to ourselves and others. Meditation is the virtual process that transforms us from being mere hearers into doers.

Meditation is a two level process. Meditation is a lot similar to the way we use our mouth and teeth to bite into food and break it into tiny pieces that can be swallowed, digested in the stomach. The first part of the digestion begins in the mouth itself when food particles mix with the saliva. The second part of digestion takes place in the stomach when the stomach lining secretes the digestive juices that further break down the food ingested. Likewise, we need to meditate on the words of His mouth. It will show us clearly the differences between His ways and our present ways of perception, communication and action or reaction. His ways are much higher than our ways. We cannot find it by imagination or creativity. We can discern His ways only by meditating on His word. While our day to day life is more about ‘number crunching” – concerns like how much can I earn, how much should I spend or save- meditation is about “word crunching.” We need to run the words of each verse in scripture over and over in our minds even as a cow ruminates over its cud over and over again. Each time we do so, we should extract the inner meaning of each word, the root of each word, each phrase and sentence. This first phase of meditation is more mental or intellectual. We should then see how it applies to what we think, speak and do. This is meditation of the heart- applying things we learn by the mental crunching to all that we are, do and aim for. It will be a good practice to hold one verse every day of our lives in our minds and run it over and over again, crunching it, chewing it, mixing it with all parts of our lives, applying it to our entire being.

When we meditate in this manner on the Word, it is pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord is the only One who is able to listen to our every thought. He is pleased when we delight in His word as we delight in delicious food. We draw our strength and energy from the food we consume. So also, we draw on the immense spiritual strength, blessings. power and energy of the Lord when we meditate. Moreover, we learn the truth about the Redeemer. We come to know that Jesus is the Redeemer of our lives. Truth abides not in a concept but in the very person of God. Jesus is Truth with a capital T. The two level meditation described herein will deepen and reinforce our faith in Jesus. The words of His mouth become the constant meditation of our hearts.

Prateep V Philip