Meditation Bringing Me Closer to God

We are now in the month of Elul, the month prior to the High Holydays in which we can start taking stock of our lives, reviewing the past year and thinking about changes we might want to make for the coming year. The Hebrew word for repentance, t’shuvah, literally means “returning.”

In my own life I have recently been focused on mindfulness, trying to be present in the moment, so that I am living every minute of my life, rather than being bogged down in the past or anxiously awaiting the future. Reading, meditation, and practice are some of the tools that I have been using. I have recently completed reading Mindful Jewish Learning by Rabbi Jonathan Slater, who is a senior program director at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. (I have a link to that fine organization on this website.) He wrote about how a meditation practice can lead you to God, which I found fascinating.

Most mindfulness meditation involves a focus on the breath, because it’s always available. The task is to notice when your mind has wandered and bring your attention back to your breath, over and over again. You can’t prevent your mind from wandering – that’s how they work – but the practice is in turning back to task repeatedly. Turning back again and again – that’s t’shuvah, repentance.

Rabbi Slater also pointed out that we learn compassion from a meditation practice. First you learn to be gentle with yourself – “Yes, I have stray thoughts that have distracted me yet again, but I know that’s how it happens and I am now aware of them and can let them go and return to focusing on my breath.” And then you start to realize that others are the same – everybody else who’s meditating is also getting distracted – everybody else is having good days and bad days like you are – everybody else faces the same challenges that you do.

Returning again and again, experiencing compassion for others – either one of these can lead you to God. This realization really entranced me. I have been trying to make more space in my daily life for God. But, like so many others, I’m also trying to increase healthy practices in my life – meditating more, exercising more, eating better – and the thought that my recent meditation practice can also lead me closer to God is truly lovely, especially at this time of year when my focus is more consciously in that direction already. I hope that these insights are also of value to you.