The Daily Meditation with Brother Richard
Returning to Discursive and Passive Meditation
26 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back.
Chapter 2: What are the two modes of meditation discussed?
Previously, I mentioned that in the Christian monastic meditative tradition, meditation was often seen as having two distinct modes of practice. Discursive, in which the imagination, the will, the mind was active.
Chapter 3: Why are both discursive and passive meditation necessary?
And passive meditation, the relaxed finding of the practice of stillness that allows us to enter into the present moment and there to rest in the presence of God.
Chapter 4: How does the rosary illustrate the balance between meditation forms?
Both of these forms were judged to be equally necessary for the person who was developing the skill of meditation.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of coming to stillness in meditation?
One place traditionally in which they were seen to join and almost dance together was in the practice of the rosary.
The Rosary was seen as a school of meditative prayer, a way of encountering the discursive form through meditating on what were known as the mysteries, the different events in the life of Christ and Our Lady, and then also the passive forms by simply allowing the repetition of the Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Bees, the different prayers of the Rosary,
to pass through the practitioner's mind as a way of simply resting in the presence of divine love.
Chapter 6: How can one cultivate awareness through the hands during meditation?
In some ways, the rosary is a wonderful way of balancing both of these forms of meditation. And it even involves a third element, a somatic element, because when we pray with the beads of the rosary, it allows our body to have a focus as well the beads passing through our fingers, allowing the body to calm, to relax, to feel a tactile connection to the interior disposition of meditation.
Chapter 7: What role does intention play in meditation practice?
In the meditation today, while we're not going to pray the rosary per se, I'd invite you to enter into a practice that combines discursive, passive and somatic as a way of entering more fully into meditative practice. And so today, one direction we will give that we don't usually give is to sit with your hands turned upwards on your lap.
I'm warning you now so you'll be ready for it when it comes in the practice. Let's begin. Allowing ourselves to come to stillness. Allowing ourselves to enter once again with the intention of growing in meditative awareness. Awareness of the present moment as a place of divine encounter, as a place of love, peace, and spacious rest.
Holding that intention, we make our ritual gesture, whatever it may be. And we sit ourselves in stillness. The feet firm against the floor. The back supported by cushion or chair. The spine lengthened. The breath open. The hands resting, this time, palms upwards on our knees. For a moment, bring your awareness to the palms of your hands.
Notice any change in temperature, or perhaps you'll be able to feel the air moving over the bare skin. For a moment, we use these sensations as a way of drawing us into the present, into stillness, into peace. As you rest in this moment, bring your awareness also now to your breath. Breathing in and breathing out. Being with that wonderful, graced rhythm of life within you.
A rhythm that began with your first breath. A rhythm that will continue to the very moment you leave this world. The breath always located firmly, securely in the present moment. So with these two anchors now, the anchor of the hands upon your lap, the anchor of the breath, we can bring our mind to bear on the present moment. What is it like to feel your hands open
What is it like to feel the difference between your left hand and your right hand? What is it like to feel the movement of air or the temperature or the texture of your clothes beneath your hands? These gentle questions of inquiry allow us to anchor ourselves fully in the present.
And then, coming back to the breath, allow the sensation of the hands to fade for a moment, breathing in and breathing out. As you breathe, very gently begin to close your hands, folding them over until your fingers touch the palm of your hand. and your thumb is folded over your fingers, drawing the awareness of the body down into the hands, down into the sensations of the fingers.
And then gently, without forcing them open, allow your hands to open themselves Release your hands. And as they slowly open, notice any tiny sensations present in fingers, thumbs, palms of your hands, your wrists, even the inner sensations within your hands and arms. Some people feel tingling. Some people feel nothing at all. It doesn't really matter what you're feeling.
It matters that you are trying to feel Just notice. As the hands slowly expand and open, invite the intention of openness within your own heart and mind. An intention of openness to the divine as love and to whatever way you have encountered love in your life. For some, the divine is pictured most perfectly as father, for some as mother, for some as simply a creator, for some simply as love.
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