Ways into Christian Meditation

Ways into Christian Meditation

Meditation has long been both a path to self-awareness and a way of consciously building a bridge to the spiritual world. Many of the most common techniques originated in Eastern traditions, but this book describes a decades-old approach that arose from Western Christianity.

The author starts by describing the steps needed to make meditation possible, drawing on ideas of Rudolf Steiner. He discusses various forms of meditation, including review of the day, meditations on specific words and images, and meditations for the deceased.

Finally he describes a specifically Christian approach, using a few words and sentences from the Gospel of St John that provide fruitful subjects for meditation.

This is a deep, insightful book from an experienced Christian Community priest.

C O N T E N T S:

Introduction

PART I: PRECONDITIONS FOR MEDITATION
1. Preparation for Meditation
2. Calm—How Is It Achieved?
3. Meditation and Daily Work
4. The Role of the Senses
5. Concentration, Contemplation, and Meditation
6. The Path of Most Resistance?
7. Schooling the Will
8. The Subsidiary Exercises
9. The Path and the Goal

PART II: FORMS OF MEDITATION
10. The Review
11. Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night
12. Word and Image Meditation
13. Prayer and Meditation
14. Ritual and Meditation
15. Meditations for the Deceased
16. The Golden Mean
17. The Art of Holding Back

PART III: SUBJECTS FOR MEDITATION FOUND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
18. Christianity and Meditation
19. Why the Gospel of St. John?
20. “I AM” in the New Testament
21. The Riddle of the “I”
22. I AM the Bread of Life
23. I AM the True Vine
24. Christ in Us

Notes
Bibliography

About the Author

Bastiaan Baan was born in 1949 in The Netherlands. After finishing Waldorf school, he studied to become a class teacher. He worked and studied for a year in Los Angeles, worked with teachers in Gandhi Schools in India, and then became a class teacher in a Waldorf school in The Netherlands. After seven years of teaching, he studied at the seminary of The Christian Community in Stuttgart. After his ordination as a priest in 1981, he worked in several congregations in The Netherlands until 2013, when he became the director of the priest training of The Christian Community in Spring Valley, New York. In 2019, he returned to The Netherlands, where he lives with his wife, four sons, and ten grandchildren. Several of his books on spirituality and religion have been published in English.