The UUCW Nugget

September 14, 2016

Office Hours

(Sept 6, 2016 -

June 29, 2017):

Mon, Tues, Wed:

9 am - 3 pm

Thur. 9 am - 2 pm

Congregational Mission Statement

"The members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist

Church of Worcester covenant to be a congregation of love, hope and justice inspiring people to take on the challenges of a changing world."

Welcoming Church

Mission Statement

The LGBTQI and Allies of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester strives to further the affirmation and celebration of LGBTQI individuals in all aspects of the church community. We also seek to increase the visibility of UUCW as a Welcoming Congregation within the greater community.

What Is This Meditation Business Anyway?

Laura Secor

Do you meditate? Do you think of yourself as having a meditation practice?

I have been known to meditate from time to time, but I don't have a regular practice. I've been feeling the lack lately, feeling a need that I suspect meditation would fill. Being a child of western civilization, I tackle this problem by reading about meditating, rather than actually diving into meditation. I realize that reading will not bring me to the grounded and calm place I am seeking, but I think of it as a warm up. This morning I warmed up with a book by Lorin Roche.

Loren Roche has been a meditation teacher since the 1960s. When people came to him looking for instruction, he asked them to tell him about their natural "meditative" kinds of experiences: "When have you felt peaceful, glad to be alive?" His belief is that meditative attention occurs spontaneously. Learn to shift your attention slightly, and you will find any one of many pathways into meditation. The life force flowing through your body invents techniques as needed - you need only tune into your body.

Ask yourself "when have you felt peaceful, glad to be alive?" My first thoughts were of energized times I was glad to be alive, like hurtling down a roller coaster with my daughter at Canobie Lake. It was harder for me to pin down moments of pleasure that were also peaceful. The first one that came to mind was napping. I do love a Sunday afternoon nap.

But then I realized that my most meditative times are the ones when I'm doing yoga. For years, I did yoga as a physical practice, focused on my body but almost more as a sport than a meditative practice. A focus on form, on the external appearance of the postures. But then I found a teacher who spoke frequently of the energy lines of the practice, the flow of energy as we moved from posture to posture. She would ask us to feel the energy spiraling from our inner thigh across our quad to anchor on the outer edge of our knee. And the funny thing was, I could sort of feel this. It sounded loopy, but at the same time I had some feeling that corresponded to the lines she was indicating.

This was my introduction to what they call the subtle body.

My yoga practice shifted from externals to internals. But it was still very much about the physical acts, physical movement. And my moment of insight this morning was the moment of claiming my physical movements as a form of meditation, that my awareness is not so much a mental effort, as it appears to be in so many meditation manuals, but a physical one. I have tried very hard to sit still and feel meditative, but it has rarely felt natural to me. And by "rarely" I'm afraid I mean "never."

But Loren is encouraging me to reconsider meditation, to give credence to the feelings that arise during the physical effort of my yoga practice. He has translated one of the Indian sutras, a meditation manual called the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. It begins with the Goddess asking the God how she can sense the life of the spirit, rather than living as only a creature of physical form.

She says:

I have been listening to the love songs of

Form longing for formless.

What are these energies

Undulating through our bodies,

Pulsing us into action?

And this "matter" out of which our forms are made -

What are these dancing particles

Of condensed radiance?

Isn't that beautiful? The line that strikes me most intensely is "Form longing for formless." I am a being of form, but I know what it's like to long for the formless. It's what I feel when I look up at the stars, or feel the rocking of the ocean under a sail boat, or smell the pine needles in an autumn forest.

And he answers:

With one sweep of attention,

Gather in the whole universe

And remember it

As your body of bliss.

The deep rhythms of life,

Pulsating,

Stir an ambrosia

Flowing and overflowing everywhere.

Drink the nectar

Of all-pervading joy

From the radiant cup

That is this very body.

What does he mean? He means, perhaps, that all of nature leads you back to your own physical existence. That your form has itself a formless energy, a pulsating life beyond the physical. You are more than matter, more even than chemical and electrical impulses. You are also a subtle body of energy, whether you call it the vibration of your atoms or the life force of the universe. And we can each find our own way to feel that subtle energy, and that can be our meditative practice.

LAST CALL FOR TICKETS AND ENTREE ORDERS!!!! If you are planning to attend the Fall Community Barbecue Dinner on Saturday, please purchase your tickets through the link below, or if wishing to pay at the door, please email your entree preference (Chicken, Ribs, or Veggie Burger) to arpayson@charter.net no later than midnight, Thursday, September 22.

Looking for a great meal and some fun? Join us for a finger-licking good, fundraising dinner. We'll be cookin' up some genuine Southern style ribs, barbeque chicken, veggie burgers, German coleslaw, beans, cornbread and watermelon at this fundraising feast. There will be tea and lemonade. BYOB if you want. Tickets are $15.00 for adults and $10.00 per child with a family max of $50.00. Purchase your tickets by by CLICKING HERE or reserve your spot by emailing arpayson@charter.net with your entree preferences (see above).

Not only will there be great food, but there will be great entertainment. The Hip Swayers will be playing from 6:00 - 7:00.

We look forward to a great time. Invite your friends and neighbors. Just make sure you let us know in advance if you will be here. We need to order the right amount of food.

If you can help set-up, serve or clean up, contact: Dianne Mann at djmann@charter.net.

Any questions contact: Aaron Payson at arpayson@charter.net or Dianne Mann at djmann@charter.net.

Dianne Mann

Contact Information

Phone:	508-853-1942	Email:	office@uucworcester.org
Fax:	508-853-2065	Website:	www.uucworcester.org
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