Why Meditate? by Rev. Teresa Stuefloten M.Div. 8/3/2025

Why meditate? That is the question of the day. If you are not a regular meditator, you may ask, “Why should I use any of the limited time in my day to just sit and do nothing? After all, isn’t that what meditation is?”

If you are already a regular meditator, you may say, “Of course, my day goes so much better when I start my day with meditation.” You may have experienced the benefits of meditation, like more peace.

Meditation does have beneficial physical, emotional and cognitive benefits. So perhaps you would consider a meditation practice for these reasons.

An article from UC Davis Mental Health gives 10 Health Benefits of Meditation.

10 reasons to meditate:

Research has documented many health benefits of regular meditation practice:

1. Reduced stress: Meditation may decrease stress. It can also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and fibromyalgia.

2. Improved memory: Better focus through regular meditation may increase memory and mental clarity. These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia.

3. Increased attention: Meditation helps with attention span, allowing you to stay focused longer.

4. Enhanced willpower: Meditation develops the mental discipline needed to avoid unhelpful habits.

5. Better sleep: Meditation can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and improve sleep quality.

6. Less pain: Meditation can reduce pain and boost emotion regulation. Together with medical care, this may help treat chronic pain.

7. Lower blood pressure: Blood pressure decreases during meditation and over time in people who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and blood vessels and help prevent heart disease.

8. Less anxiety: Regular meditation helps reduce anxiety. It can also help with mental health issues like social anxiety, fears and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.

9. Less depression: Meditation can help reduce the occurrence of depression.

10. Greater compassion: Meditation can help you better understand yourself, find your best self, and increase positive feelings and actions toward others. (health.ucdavis.edu)

So these are all good reasons to meditate. But there is a deeper and more profound reason for meditating, and that is a deeper relationship with God, Source, Spirit, whatever you like to call it.

The great spiritual teacher and healer, Joel Goldsmith, published The Art of Meditation in 1956. The problems of the world that he speaks of have not changed much in all of that time. Our peace is not to be found in the physical world, with its strife and inharmony, due to the consciousness of humanity. Our peace is to be found within. Joel says in the first chapter:

“Most men and women are convinced that there is a divine Power of some sort operating in human affairs, but they are not sure what it is, nor do they know how to bring this divine Presence and Power into their daily experience. There was a time when many of these people were content to believe in a God dwelling in a remote heaven, a God whom they would not meet until after death. In this practical age, however, few are satisfied with that limited concept of God.

The world is full of discord. The question is asked again and again: Why, if there is a God, does this God permit sin, disease, war, famine, and disaster? How can all of these evils be, if God is good, if God is life, if God is love? How can there be that kind of a God and the horrors of human experience? People throughout time have attempted to solve this riddle, but there is no solution, there is no answer except that the world has not known God. We can never for a moment believe that if people in this world had a realization of God, they would have discord and inharmony, too. Discord and inharmony come into our life because of our ignorance of God. As we acquaint ourselves with Him, we find the secret of harmonious existence.

People throughout all time have sought freedom, peace, and plenty, but their search has been primarily through the feverish activity of the human mind. Pleasure and satisfaction have been artificially created, and because of their artificiality, they are neither permanent nor real. Living out from the level of mind, there must be a continuous round of new pleasures, new faces, and new scenes. There is rarely a truly joyous moment, nor are there periods of rest and relaxation.

Freedom, peace and plenty are not dependent upon circumstances or conditions. Men (and women) have been free in chains; they have been free under slavery and oppression; they have found peace in the midst of war; they have survived floods and famine; they have prospered in periods of depression and panic; when the soul of man (the soul of woman) is free, it carries him (or her) through Red Seas and desert experiences to the Promised Land of spiritual peace. Freedom is a condition of the soul. As we turn to the kingdom of our inner Self, we find the reign of divine Power in the outer world. As we seek peace within, we find harmony without. We reach the depth of the Soul, and It takes over our existence, providing activity and newness of life, a peace and serenity, the like of which we have never dreamed. We then have achieved the freedom of the Soul, the freedom of grace.” (End of quote)

It is through our own meditation practice that we discover the peace of God within and contribute to the awakening of humanity.

Some Christians do not meditate because they feel it is not Christian, but traditional Christianity has contemplative prayer, which is essentially meditation. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

There are other verses in the Bible that talk about being still:

Psalm 37:7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

Lamentations 3:25-26 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Going into the silence and communing with God in meditation, listening in the silence for God to speak to us, brings the peace that passes all understanding into our life. God provides all that we need and in meditation we feel that assurance. God lifts us up in meditation.

Isaiah 40:31 But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall grow wings as a dove; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come unto me. all you who labor and carry burdens, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and meek in my heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is pleasant and my burden is light.

Through our meditation practice we find a place of rest and peace in our daily life. We can let go of the burdens of the world. We cannot fix the troubling situations in the world by ourselves. But we can build a place of peace for ourselves amidst the worldly troubles. We can give God the burdens and troubles, and find rest within. And the peace that we find within will ripple out into our daily life, giving us a happier, more peaceful life.

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep us in perfect peace, for in thee we have trusted, Oh Lord, for ever and ever.

When we have a regular meditation practice we are nurturing the only thing we will take with us when we leave the physical body, our spiritual growth. All of the physical things we have built up in this lifetime, the stuff, cars, homes, jewels, clothing, etc. will remain in the physical realm. Some of it will be inherited by our family, and some will end up in the trash because others did not value it like we did.

Matthew 6:19-21

19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasure buried in the ground, a place where rust and moth destroy and where thieves break through and steal.

20 But lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not break through and steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there also is your heart.

Meditation is closing your eyes and going within, to your holy temple within you. Focusing your eyes on the center of the forehead, to the area that is sometimes referred to as the 3rd eye or the spiritual eye is helpful. When our eyes and head go down we are drawn into consciousness of the physical body and the thoughts of the mind.

Matthew 6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body; if therefore your eye be bright, your whole body is also lighted.

Focusing on your breath helps you to begin to interiorize your attention. The breath is always there as an easy focus. Just feeling the physical sensations of the breath begins to calm you. Feel the coolness of the breath as it enters the physical body. Feel the warmth of the breath that has been warmed by the body as it exits the nostrils. You can imagine that the breath is entering and exiting the forehead to assist in keeping the attention raised. Allowing the breath to drop down into the belly, the physical body begins to relax, which is conducive to meditation. We can’t meditate when we are tight and on edge. We need to begin to let go.

Matthew 6:6 But as for you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber and lock your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall himself reward you openly.

We want to begin to go within, but often we find it is difficult to control the mind, and a stream of thoughts interferes with our attempt to get quiet. This is where meditation techniques help.

One technique is often referred to as mantra. This is simply taking a word or phrase that helps you to concentrate, and repeating it inwardly until the mind begins to quiet. The word can be something like peace, love harmony, or any word that helps you to relax. You can coordinate a two-word phrase with your breath. For example, with the phrase “Om Peace” think “om” on the in-breath and “peace” on the out-breath. “Divine Love” is another possibility, inwardly repeating “Divine” on the in-breath, and “Love” on the out-breath. You can use a longer phrase, too, such as, “I am peace.” Or, “I am love.” Perhaps inwardly repeating “I am” on the in-breath and “Peace” or “Love” on the out-breath.

If you are devotional and like the word “God” you can use the phrase, “Om God” with “Om on the in-breath, and “God” on the out-breath. If coordinating the word or phrase with the breath seems too difficult, just inwardly repeat the word or phrase until the mind quiets and then let it go and rest in the silence.

When going within and getting quiet, the Om vibration may be heard within as a continuous sound, like an electrical current. Listening to and focusing on the Om vibration will lead you within in silent communion. You might also see light at the spiritual eye, and this can be used a a point of focus.

Guided meditation is helpful for many people. You can just relax and listen as the person leading the meditation uses phrases that help the mind to focus and lead you within. You experienced this in our service this morning with the earlier meditation, focusing on aspects of God and the wonder and beauty of God’s creation. We had only a short period of silence in our service, but the technique of allowing the mind to think of aspects of God can lead into a longer meditation time.

Meditating on the chakras, the energy centers in the body, can also lead into a time of meditation, allowing the energy to open and expand. On Wednesday evenings at 6pm Pacific time we have a guided chakra meditation, culminating in 10 minutes of silent meditation. The whole meditation, including the guided portion, is about 40-45 minutes. We invite you to join us live by calling (518)418-1389. You can still join the meditation even if you’re a few minutes late, so don’t let that stop you from calling in. It’s a great way to end your day in peace, and begin to quiet yourself for a night of peaceful rest, so you can be energized for the next day’s activities.

The chakras are all connected to the main energy channel of the body in the spine, called the Sushumna, with the channels of Ida and Pingala on each side of the main channel, so having a focus on the spine, feeling the energy rising from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, is also helpful.

Once your mind is relatively quiet, sitting in the silence for 5 or 10 minutes is a good amount of time in the beginning. Even 2 minutes of silence will bring benefits. You may conclude your meditation session with a prayer for all beings, “May all beings be healthy, happy, peaceful and free,” or whatever prayer you like. Over time you may want to increase your meditation time.

Joel Goldsmith, in another of his books, “A Parenthesis in Eternity” says of meditation:

“We need not hear an audible voice - we may, but it is not necessary. We need not see any visions - we may, but it is not important. What is necessary and important is that we enter the sanctuary, this temple of God that we are and in which the presence of God dwells. When we recognize this and go within, we then begin to commune with that Presence. Very soon we shall see fruitage in our life, and things will begin to happen for which we know we were not humanly responsible. Something has gone before us to make the way straight; Something has gone before us to prepare mansions for us; Something walks beside us to protect us from the discords and inharmonies of earthly living.

Only when we begin to understand that there is an inner kingdom, only when we can agree that there is a realm of knowledge unknown to “the natural man,” (the natural woman) only then can we begin our search. We must arrive at the point where we are able to perceive what the Master (Jesus) meant when he said, “My kingdom is not of this world… Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

The mystical way, the infinite way, is not the way of the sword; it is not the way of might or force: it is the way of stillness. Sooner or later we must see that within us there is an inner realm. It will answer every question. It will teach us in the only place where we can be taught - within. The still small voice will instruct us in whatever particular gift, talent, or field may be, whether in spiritual or mathematical, wisdom, art, literature, science or music.

So great a genius as Einstein was aware that there is a point in mathematics where the most brilliant mathematician comes to an end of reasoning and thinking and steps off into the intuitive. And so, if we wish to be limited by what everyone else has said about mathematics, or what everyone else has written about music, we will be, but we need not be.

All the art, science, mathematics and religion have come out of the Soul of man through his turning within and bringing forth glories that have never before been known on earth, and there are still greater things yet to be revealed. How far we are from tapping the inner resources of our being! This makes it clear why it is necessary in our age to attain the ability to meditate, to cogitate, and to commune with the inner Self.

It is not too difficult to learn to do this after we come into the awareness that there is a Presence that dwells within us. That was God’s gift to us in the beginning… We are only at the beginning, however, and just as the spider unfolds its web from within its own being, so we must unfold grace, divine wisdom, and divine power from within out own being.

The unillumined, unaware that they have recourse to an inner infinite Source, have to endure all the limitations of this world. The illumined who have touched the infinite Divinity at the center of their being, are never limited to time, space, place, or amount. There is no limitation when we realize that the whole kingdom of God is locked up within us. It does not have to be attained; we do not have to go to God for it; we have to loose it from within ourselves.

God, in the beginning, planted himself in us and breathed into us His breath of life. He did not breathe into us human life. He breathed into us his life. God did not give us a limited soul, but the Soul of God - infinite, eternal, and immortal - if we but go to that Center.” (end of quote)

We do not have to achieve divinity. We are already Divine expressions of God. But in order to contact our Divinity, we have to go within. In order to commune with our Creator, we have to go within. In order to have a true relationship with God we have to go within. In order to rise to our full potential we have to go within. We will never know what we could have done if we never go within. Have I convinced you yet to begin a meditation practice if you are not currently a meditator? If you are already meditator, keep going!

Again, I invite you to join us for a guided meditation on Wednesdays at 6pm Pacific time by calling (518)418-1389. We also have recordings of our meditations on our website, communityofinfinitespirit.org and on our YouTube channel, Community of Infinite Spirit.