An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Meditation
Meditation is seen as allowing deep relaxation while maintaining 
awareness. The aim is to clear the mind of its incessant chatter and 
restlessness – in Buddhist parlance to silence the monkey mind or to bind 
the monkey – allowing what is real to emerge. There are various tech-
niques of meditation, such as focusing on the breath, contemplating an 
object or pattern such as a mandala, or being guided into a visionary real-
ity. Some people meditate on texts or repeat mantras to absorb the inner 
meaning. These are ways into the inmost heart or soul, sometimes named 
as the ‘Christ within’ or ‘Buddha nature’.
Meditation is most often associated with Buddhists, for whom it is at 
the heart of their practice. It was through meditation that Gautama 
became Buddha, the Enlightened One. The Dalai Lama has written books 
which appeal to readers, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, the world over. 
In 
How to Practise, the Way to a
Meaningful Life
His Holiness explains 
three fundamental steps to happiness based on the Buddhist path: 
Morality, Concentrated Meditation and Wisdom, which lead from one 
to the other. First, self-awareness and compassion for all sentient beings is 
learned, then various types of meditation, the aim of which is calm 
abiding are explained. A summary for daily practice is given,
1. Choose an object of meditation and focus on it, trying to achieve and 
maintain stability, clarity and intensity. Avoid laxity and excitement.
2. Alternatively, identify the fundamental state of the mind, unsullied by 
thought, in its own state – mere luminosity, the knowing nature of the 
mind. With mindfulness and introspection remain in that state. If a 
thought arises, just look into the very nature of that thought; this will 
cause it to lose its power and dissolve of its own accord.
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The following accounts describe the experiences of a Christian who 
had taken up Buddhist meditation,
In silent prayer the experience of the presence of God is more frequent 
and expected. His presence is associated with a definite act of the will 
to place myself in the presence, and is accompanied by feelings of joy 
and peace. I practise a Buddhist form of meditation for 20 minutes 

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each day, in which the mind is stilled by maintaining awareness of the 
abdominal movements in breathing. During this exercise I feel that on 
occasion I am aware of a presence in the stillness, but not nearly as fre-
quently as in Orthodox Christian prayer.
In the summer of 1969 I began the practice of Buddhist Meditation 
described above. One afternoon about three weeks after I had started 
the daily practice, my whole being seemed struck down by a blinding 
flash of light. I was completely overwhelmed by the experience, which 
occurred shortly after I had begun the day’s stint of meditation. My 
feelings were a combination of ecstasy, terror and awe. The experience 
came utterly unexpectedly and I felt that God had given me a vision of 
his power. For two days afterwards everything I did, even what would 
normally be boring drudgery, filled me with the greatest delight. I felt 
it didn’t matter what happened to me; everything was very good. [from 
003519]
Here is an experience recounted by a Christian philosopher of religion, 
Revd Professor John Hick,
I have been practising meditation, in a faltering sort of way, for some 
years, using the mindfulness method that I learned from the Sri Lankan 
Buddhist monk Nyanaponika Mahathera . . . The one moment of 
breakthrough that I have experienced so far was only a few months 
ago. In normal consciousness I am here and the world is there, 
apart from me, surrounding me and so to speak hemming me in, and 
arousing all sorts of hopes and fears. But as I opened my eyes after 
perhaps ten minutes of meditating I was suddenly vividly aware of 
being an integral part of the world, not separate from it, and that that 
of which I am a part is a friendly universe, so that there could not 
possibly be anything to fear or worry about. It was the same world, 
and yet totally transformed, and for a short time – only one or two 
minutes – I was completely free and completely happy. I was by myself 
at the time; but if this new consciousness had continued into daily life 
I believe that my attitude to others would have been a liberation from 
self-concern making possible love and compassion for everyone I had 
to deal with.
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Within the Christian tradition, meditation was revived for Christians 
by Dom John Main, who was instructed in meditation in what was then 
Malaya (now Malaysia) by a Hindu monk. When John Main became a 
Benedictine monk, he was instructed to give up the practice. But through 

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his reading he discovered the forgotten form of prayer of the Desert Fathers 
and Mothers and of the Conferences of John Cassian and instigated a 
Christian form of meditation using the mantra ‘Maranatha’, meaning 
‘Come Lord’. Dom Laurence Freeman has taken over the mantle of lead-
ing the World Community for Christian Meditation, www.wccm.org.
Some Christians, particularly the Eastern Orthodox, use the Jesus 
Prayer, 
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
It is repeated over and over again like a mantra, responding to the idea 
that one should ‘pray without ceasing’. In this account, the practice 
brought great comfort at a difficult time,
During October of 1972 my father was dying after a long and painful 
illness. Towards the end, my mother was finding the strain very trying 
so I volunteered to sleep in the bedroom with my father. In fact he was 
in considerable pain, had lost the power of speech and every few min-
utes during the night he attempted to get out of bed. The whole experi-
ence of trying to make him as comfortable as possible during the night 
was like a nightmare to me. I found myself repeating the Jesus Prayer, 
‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’. As I con-
tinued to repeat the words silently, I began to feel wonderfully happy, 
and for the rest of the night what had been a terrible experience became 
a delight. I felt that my father and I cemented a bond which had been 
broken between us for many years. [from 003519]
Here is an experience based on this prayer, using a technique known as 
sanyama
, which brings together concentration, meditation and Samadhi – 
meditative absorption.
I found the Jesus Prayer . . . in Metropolitan Anthony’s book