Show Notes
A contemplative reading of the story of the Parable of the Prodigal Son can yield a rich teaching for the practice of meditation and the cultivation of attention.
Perhaps the most famous Christian teaching on ‘coming home’ is the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Jesus speaks of a son who asked his father to give him the share of the property that he was due to inherit, left home, and went to a faraway country. In that distant place, the younger son squandered what he’d been given.
The original Greek, however, offers a far deeper meaning. The Greek word commonly translated as ‘property’ (οὐσίαν) can also mean ‘substance’ or ‘essence’ or ‘being’ – the deepest reality of something. And the word commonly translated as ‘squandered’ (διεσκόρπισεν) can also mean ‘scattered’ or ‘dispersed.’
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In the first Beatitude, Jesus points to the wellspring from which all the Beatitudes flow: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is not speaking about the economically poor, but of those who know their utter dependence on God, who no longer need to exercise power and control over others and the world in order to sustain their sense of identity.
A member of our practice community recently emailed and said:
There is a beautiful story of a young monk so eager to do his tasks correctly that he was oblivious to what was hiding in plain sight.
In his excellent book The Beatitudes of Peace, the prominent peace activist Fr John Dear recalls visiting Gandhi’s ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in India.
A theme that comes through very clearly in many of the emails we receive is how important it is to know that to practice this way of meditation is to participate in an ancient tradition; and that this ancient way of silent prayer doesn’t just benefit us individually, but benefits all people, all beings.