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AUSTRALIA
FROM THE HEART
Stephen Baggaley, Australia
    By my early twenties, stimulated largely by what I had read about the
    history of Christian spirituality, I found myself strongly attracted to a
    contemplative lifestyle. At first, I interpreted this as being a call to
    monastic life, a step I eventually took but with little satisfaction. The same
    was true of the time I spent time training for ordination because, in the
    seminary, as in the monastery, time was allocated each day for
    meditation but no one ever talked about what it was or how to do it.

    It took many more years and lots more reading before I finally
    encountered John Main's writings on meditation. At last, I thought, I've
    found what I was looking for. And in a way that was true: except there
    was still one major problem, learning how to do it. By which I mean that it
    is easy to read about something in theory; but putting it into application is
    another task altogether. And the problem was exacerbated because,
    despite all effort, I couldn't find anyone who was able to assist with this
    process.

    Finally, about ten years ago and quite by chance, I heard of a well-
    respected Buddhist teacher who was about to offer a course in
    meditation. So, I enrolled and came out the other end with a well-
    developed technique which I have been using ever since. Now I engage in
    30 minutes of meditation morning and evening. I also attend a weekly
    meditation session with a Christian-Buddhist group which meets in a
    nearby Catholic church. The group was formed many years ago and is led
    by a Vietnamese man who was trained by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is usually
    made up of about 40 people, most of whom are in their thirties or fourties,
    and with men and women represented almost equally. One of the parish
    clergy is a member of this group.

    Meditation has become for me the foundation on which everything else
    stands because if provides time to restore a sense of balance to things
    by cutting away the dross and reinstating the essentials. This is
    especially true when I am dealing with clinical depression, a condition I've
    had for many years but which has only recently been diagnosed. Even in
    the darkest of moments when all sense of purpose has been eroded, I
    have found that meditation has allowed me to ignore these delusional
    traits and I've been able to apply myself to the work that leads to recovery.

    During the last six years, I've led a number classes in meditation and I've
    engaged in conversation with endless numbers of individual who have
    raised questions about it. There have been many good outcomes from
    these situations and I am grateful that such opportunities have arisen.

    The surge of interest in meditation in Western society as a tool for
    spiritual development, along with scientific research that is supporting
    the idea that meditation is useful in areas such as medical intervention,
    stress management and prison-based rehabilitation, suggests that the
    work of many organisations, including WCCM and its affiliates, has a
    great deal to offer our society. My gratitude is that such organisations do
    exist, and that there are now so many people who allocate part of each
    day to the process of meditation.


    Stephen Baggaley
    June 2006
    Australia