"As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul." - "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions"
Someone once said that health is the natural state of all living things. To maintain our health, we have the immune system, which fights off all kinds of disease, often without the aid of antibiotics or other drugs. But when the immune system is weakened, the body becomes vulnerable to infection and illness and must rely on medication or other treatments to recover.
In addition to the body's immune system, we have a spiritual immune system that works much the same way. When it is strong, it defends us against spiritual illnesses like resentment, worry and self-centeredness. It does this without the dubious aid of spiritual "drugs" like alcoholic drinking, overeating (or undereating), compulsive shopping, hyperactivity or [insert your own].
As a bonus, a strong spiritual immune system works without the painful side effects of guilt, shame, fear and remorse that accompany our compulsive thoughts and behaviors.
I know that in order to keep my physical immune system strong, I need to eat well, exercise and get adequate sleep. And while these disciplines are also very helpful in boosting my spiritual immune system, there are others that have a more direct impact.
The most important of these spiritual disciplines, in my view, is meditation. The book "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions," a foundational text for 12-step recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, says that "when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we deprive our minds, our emotions and our intuitions of vitally needed support." The positive inverse of this statement is that when we turn toward meditation, we provide our minds, emotions and intuitions with the nourishment they need. When our spirit is well nourished, it will function at a higher level.
There are many ways to meditate, some developed recently and others that have been around for centuries or even millennia. My own practice is a contemporary form with an ancient heritage. Developed by the late spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, passage meditation is a method for training the mind by focusing with complete attention on the inspirational words of saints and scriptures from all religions. The reason for training the mind in this way is, as Easwaran often said, that we become what we meditate on.
To use an example familiar to many, a mind that is completely focused on the words of the 23rd Psalm will learn gradually to rest in the trustworthiness and care of a higher power. In the same way, a mind steeped in the verses of the Dhammapada will begin to reflect the serenity of those transforming words.
When I focus my attention and energy on maintaining a healthy spiritual immune system, primarily through meditation, I experience increasing freedom from the bondage of my obsessions and compulsions. That freedom brings me joy and the chance to be a blessing to those around me.
L.B. Blackwell has been practicing Eknath Easwaran's passage meditation for more than 10 years. He lives in Chattanooga with his wife and two daughters. He blogs at mundaneway.blogspot.com.