Laurence Freeman as Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation opens the Meditatio Seminar on Meditation and Mental Health.
He discusses the meaning of the soul’s health by exploring the ancient term for this: ‘apatheia’ from the desert tradition. Is health entirely a relative and subjective term? We usually understand health by contrast with its opposite, what causes distress. So we need to consider the states of mind – such as distraction, isolation, compulsion and fear – that unbalance the condition of health. If indeed health is essential to human nature and even an absolute experience we need to integrate the spiritual into our understanding. Meditation as a way to ‘apatheia’ can be understood at all these levels and it is for us to choose how we prioritise them.
