Mastication, Rumination and Meditation

The same substance composes us - the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star - we are all one, all moving to the same end. ~ from Mary Poppins, by Pamela Lyndon Travers

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Cows in a Birch Forest, by Victor Westerholm, public domain

When we’re consciously severed from portions of ourselves we cannot thrive. When we lack essential communion with aspects of ourselves, approaching our lives creatively is a struggle. As Henry David Thoreau said in his work, Walden; or Life in the Woods:

How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down? (1)

When severed from integral aspects of ourselves and from Nature, we are like birds whose groves have been cut down. It’s difficult for us to be, to do, and to live in the ways for which we’ve been designed and equipped.

Here at Whisperia, I often encourage readers to set aside time to go within, even if just for a few moments out of an entire day. By going within, we can reconnect with our eternal selves and experience communion with various parts of ourselves. By “going within,” I mean meditating.

In essence, meditation is about attention. Largely, our attention is fixed on outer material things. Or, our attention is arrested by the unending blaring chatter going on within our heads. To go within means veering from an outward focus to an inward one and venturing beyond the endless chatter, going deeper than the ceaseless noise. Going within involves placing one’s attention on the quiet, even silent, landscape at the core of ourselves.

However, we moderns are so outwardly focused, it’s often difficult to know how to find one’s way to that essential core of being-ness within. But, there are practical steps we can take to facilitate movement on an inward path. In previous Whisperia columns, we’ve discussed some of them in articles such as A Thing of Perfect Beauty, link just below)

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Today, I’ll share some down-to-earth strategies I employ to facilitate other-worldly states of mind.

Realtors are known for the slogan: Location! Location! Location! This applies to meditative practice as well. The setting or location in which we meditate is important. And, beyond the setting or physical place where we’ll meditate, we have the issue of method. Shall we focus on our breath? Or, should we focus on thought? Or, should we be concerned about the placement of our hands and our bodily position? Should we follow steps as outlined by particular religions?

The great spiritual teacher, Krishnamurti (1895-1986), maintained that such things were not important, that the only important thing was attention. However, for many of us, solutions to these problematic issues are what enable us to become attentive.

Yet, we don’t want to get bogged down with issues regarding setting, method or form and allow ourselves to become discouraged before we even begin. Instead, we can take a practical view of these things while bravely making a start. Above all, setting aside a few moments for contemplation and solitude must be made practical and readily accessible.

For instance, many mornings, I incorporate meditation in my bath. My bathtub is my chosen location. (For most of my adult life, I didn’t meditate in a bathtub, but while lying down on the floor, or a couch, or a bed. I only fortuitously fell into this particular method in the past couple of years, since we moved to our present home where we’re lucky to have a marvelous large bathtub.) I keep an hourglass sand timer on the shelf beside the tub. The sands take about 15 minutes to pass through the glass. This amount of time works well within the parameters of a typical day for me. The tub acts as a kind of sensory deprivation tank, as I’m submerged in warm water, while in a quiet atmosphere. Because of the buoyancy of my body in the warm water, no pressure is exerted upon any of my limbs or joints. In this comfortable situation, it’s easy for me to forget about my body. If I submerge myself far enough beneath the surface of the water, I can’t really hear much. So, any kind of noise is easily muffled or softened. With outer stimuli dampened or nearly blocked, the only other obstacle is my mental focus.

To be sure, mental focus is not a small obstacle. For many, especially those newly on the meditative path, the noise from within one’s head may be the greatest challenge to overcome.

Here, I’m going to digress about a matter that may initially seem unconnected to our discussion. If you’ll bear with me, my digression may yield helpful fruit.

When cows or sheep are pastured, they “chew cud.” This phrase has a specific meaning in connection with ruminant animals. Ruminant animals have a series of stomachs that are involved with different stages of their digestion. Cows and sheep regurgitate plant material they’ve already chewed and swallowed. Upon regurgitating it, they chew it again. This enables them to extract maximum vitamins and nutrients from the plant material. So, once they’ve torn leaves and stems from plants on the ground, they don’t chew and swallow it just one time. They chew it and swallow it. Then, they bring it back up, to chew upon it, again. Upon swallowing it again, the material goes to the rumen. This is a stomach that operates like a fermentation barrel. There are specific bacteria that live within this rumen (stomach) that further break down the plant material. Because of this symbiotic relationship between cow and bacteria, cows are able to derive protein from plant life!

Why am I mentioning this here? I mention it, because in order to enter into a meditative state, it can be very helpful for us to do something analogous to chewing cud. Right away, I’ll address a misapprehension that may immediately arise: I am NOT suggesting that we regurgitate our most recent meal before meditating! No, what I’m suggesting is that we utilize some phrase, line of poetry, fragment of a prayer, a quote - any such thing that we don’t have to try and remember. This will be our “cud.” Upon this, we may repeatedly chew and ruminate. This phrase or quote must express something that is eternally true. Statements that may be deemed true today, but could be discovered false tomorrow or ten years from now will not be helpful.

(Some of us who are a bit older may have an advantage, at least as far as this is concerned. Students used to be required to memorize things such as exquisite poetry, important passages from profound documents, prayers and quotes, among many other things. Some of this material may be just the thing to aid in our meditation!)

Again, no matter what the statement, it must be something that was, is, and will always be true. Such an example could be:

Love is patient and love is kind. (I Corinthians 13:4)

Throughout eternity, this statement will always be true. This will never change. This statement is short and easily remembered. We don’t have to exert energies trying to memorize it. So, we could utilize this statement to aid us in focusing our attention inward, while inwardly repeating this statement and while inwardly reflecting upon it. This is like a cow chewing cud. Just as the cow doesn’t have to repeatedly find more grass to chew for each mouthful, we don’t have to try to find the words that express this particular eternal truth. We already have the words within us. We can simply place our attention on the idea, again and again, over and over. In such a way, we can extract the maximum amount of meaning from the words, just as the cow extracts maximum vitamins, nutrients and protein from the grass.

River Landscape with Cows, by Aelbert Cuyp, public domain

Following, is another example that some might find helpful. It’s a translation from the Sumerian by Annie Besant (1847-1933), a former international president of the Theosophical Society. Sometimes, I use this as a springboard for my own meditation. It’s not long, can be easily remembered, and then readily used as “cud,” on which anyone may ruminate:

More radiant than the Sun;

Purer than the Snow,

Subtler than the Ether,

Is the Self,

The Spirit within my heart.

I am that Self,

That Self am I. (2)

By knowing the words without having to think about them, we can get beyond the words to the idea that they express. Getting beyond words is very helpful. These words - words with which we are so familiar and which we don’t need to try to recall - act as a framework upon which we can hang or focus our attention.

Once our attention is so focused, we may allow ourselves to be engulfed in silence. This is where we’d like to stay...

So, am I asserting that one must submerge themselves in a bathtub to meditate effectively? Certainly, I am not. Am I saying that one must memorize particular passages to enter a meditative state? Emphatically, no, I am not. There are no formulae. There are only suggestions. I share with you just a few of the practical steps I take in facilitating my own meditative practice. Perhaps, something will resonate with you. Or, one of these suggestions may quicken within you a completely different strategy that will be practical and helpful for you.

Whatever steps you may take - whether focusing on words, sound, music, or an image - I encourage you to chew on truthful ideas. Ruminate, contemplate, and reflect upon a truth. Meditate on the eternal.

And what of you? Have you discovered steps whereby you can achieve a peaceful and meditative state? I’d love to know, so please feel free to share in the comments section!

Until next time,

K. M. Anderson

PhD, Metaphysics

PhD, Spiritual Counseling

Whisperia

NOTES

(1) Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or Life in the Woods, (Xist Publishing, 2016), 139.

For a digital version, free of charge, see: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm

(2) Rudolph Steiner, Start Now! A Book of Soul and Spiritual Exercises, (Great Barrington: SteinerBooks, 2004), 53.