CHRISTIAN VIRTUE & MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness practice is a powerful vehicle for spiritual health and transformation in the life of a Christian.  Specific connections between mindfulness and Christian theology are explored within the sub-pages of this section (found by clicking on the Christian Virtue & Mindfulness tab).  But first, a more general overview...

Mindfulness Defined

Mindfulness is nonjudgmental awareness of experience as it unfolds, moment by moment. Through the practice of mindfulness, we exercise the “muscle” of our attention in order to focus intentionally on the only moment in which we have any control—right now. While mindful awareness can be practiced on an informal basis throughout each day, periods of meditation are the primary vehicle for cultivating focused attention on the moment. Mindful awareness can dwell on a variety of present-moment experiences, such as breath, physical sensations, thoughts, emotions, sounds, and visual stimuli.

Mindfulness is an ancient practice that is a component of all major world religions, including Christianity.  In the United States, it is typically taught from a secular perspective.  The goal of mindfulness is to cultivate compassion towards ourselves and others, and to accept the reality of each moment's experience with curiosity and openness.  

Why Practice Mindfulness?

Mindfulness has benefits that are emotional, physical, spiritual, and cognitive. A recent surge of interest in mindfulness meditation within the medical and psychological communities has led to widespread research on the effects of the practice. Results of this research suggest that consistent mindfulness meditation leads to neurological changes that decrease stress, ruminative thinking, and anxiety while increasing spiritual values, empathy, and self-compassion. Practitioners of mindfulness often describe feeling happier as a result of their practice—less anxious, more comfortable in their own skin, more content in life, and more connected to others. They also describe better concentration, resulting in improved performance within a variety of contexts, and increased impulse control. Mindfulness practice increases healthy immune response to illness, decreases the impact of chronic pain, and improves heart health. Due to the many benefits of mindfulness, mindfulness training is commonly offered in medical centers, schools, psychological treatment settings, and athletic training centers around the world.

For more information regarding the extensive and growing body of research concerning mindfulness, please visit the American Mindfulness Research Association. 

Is meditation Christian?

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10a). Echoes of this exhortation toward stillness resound throughout scripture, and Christians over the centuries have explored practices that encourage a quiet, listening stance before God — a stance often referred to as “meditation” or “contemplation.” Jesus engaged in regular times of solitary contemplation during his ministry, and contemplative practices subsequently flourished among early Christian monks (the Desert Fathers and Mothers, 300-400AD). Meditation has continued to thrive within several Christian traditions over the centuries, including Benedictine and Trappist monasticism, the Eastern Orthodox church, and Quakerism.

Attention to Christian meditation practices has been recently revived through the Centering Prayer movement, as well as through the practices of Lectio Divina, Taizé, and the Daily Office. Numerous modern authors have spoken to the power and importance of meditation in the life of the Christian, with one eloquent example being found on the Taizé website.

Meditation is practiced within all cultures and faiths today, with a variety of techniques and goals. “Christian meditation” implies that the practitioner is practicing meditation within the context of their Christian beliefs. Some sample goals of a meditating Christian might be increasing attentiveness to God’s presence, creating space to hear God’s voice speaking, moving prayer beyond words into a more intimate relationship with God, learning to “pray without ceasing,” taking the focus of attention off of the self, increasing impulses of love and compassion toward others, nurturing simplicity, increasing emotional health, and receiving God’s healing. Christians who meditate often speak of the practice as a component in maturing and deepening their Christian faith, a method for opening the heart to intimacy with God and for cultivating Christian maturity within a fast-paced and busy world.

"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... the more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us. All our words will be useless unless they come from within—words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness."

- Mother Theresa, Something Beautiful for God, p. 48

What about mindfulness meditation?

Mindfulness is embracing God’s promise of abundant life—living life fully by being entirely present in each moment.  Being present in each moment as it actually is rather than insisting that it be something different.  Accepting our experience in each moment as a gift from God.  Through mindfulness, we stop pushing away our experience and open ourselves to what God has for us through each moment.  We learn to fully live the life that God has given us rather than resisting it in hopes that something “better” will come along. 

There are many ways of resisting our experience, such as:

• thinking
  
• fixing
• analyzing
• avoiding
• sleeping

• boredom
  
• labeling
• substance use
• technology
• judging

We can live abundantly when we pay attention to our life, when we lean into our experience with curiosity and acceptance.  When we are simply with ourselves as we are, we find that we are okay exactly as we are. 

But what about when our experience in the moment is painful?  Wouldn’t we want to distract ourselves from reality when reality hurts?  This is a universal human tendency, and yet avoiding our pain increases our pain.  It is resistance to our experience that multiplies the pain of life into suffering that feels intolerable.  God has made us far more resilient than we often realize.  When we give ourselves messages like “I can’t stand this” or “this is too much,” we are adding negative judgments onto ourselves and our experience that increase our pain and interfere with our innate resilience. 

Mindfulness exists as a concept within all major world religions, including Christianity. The Bible consistently exhorts us to exercise disciplined attentiveness to our minds and hearts, to set aside our attachment to ourselves, and to live in the awareness of God's moment-to-moment provision. Perhaps these exhortations can best be summarized by the "fruit of the Spirit," consisting of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). It is clear in scripture that this fruit is developed through an abiding relationship with God (John 15:1-8). And how do we live in relationship with God? By being present and attentive, by spending time with Him, by experiencing life together.

In the evangelical culture of the West, spending time with God has most often translated into the practice of devotions -- a practice of words, thoughts, and study. We tend to consider prayer as a time of talking at God and thinking about scripture. Mindfulness provides another route, one more consistent with how healthy relationships work -- the route of being with God in each moment, paying attention to our experience in a way that allows for an awareness of all that God provides in that moment. In this sense, mindfulness is the practice of praying without ceasing -- being with God during each moment of our day. Mindfulness is a method of watching over our hearts and minds so that we are not fooled by inaccurate thoughts, so that we can maintain a clear perspective, and so that we can receive the good gifts that each moment has to offer. It is a method of opening ourselves authentically to God's healing presence.

Of all the world religions, Buddhism puts the most focus on mindfulness, and the recent increase of attention to mindfulness in the United States has emerged largely out of the Buddhist community.  However, the practice itself is not tied to a particular religious tradition apart from that chosen by the practitioner. Mindfulness is not inherently Buddhist, just as meditation is not inherently Buddhist. Practices such as prayer, meditation, mindfulness, fasting, etc., exist as components of spiritual experience across a variety of religions and cultures.

Formal training in mindfulness meditation within the United States is most typically taught in a secular form through the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, an eight-week course developed through the University of Massachusets Medical School. Variations of this secular training have permeated business, educational, psychological, and medical settings. While mindfulness meditation is an inherently valuable tool for increasing positive mood, increasing attentiveness, and supporting physical health, Christians have the opportunity to use this tool for developing spiritual maturity and strength. Mindfulness meditation is a resource for strengthening our relationship with Christ in each moment. 

When I am liberated by silence,
when I am no longer involved
in the measurement of life, but in the living of it,
I can discover a form of prayer in which
there is effectively no distraction.
My whole life becomes a prayer.
My whole silence is full of prayer.
The world of silence in which I am immersed
contributes to my prayer.

- Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness