Meditation for Thursday 30th May 2022
Yehudi Menuhin was a world famous, American born British violinist and conductor. Born in New York City to a family of Lithuanian Jews, through his father he was descended from a rabbinical dynasty. The name Yehudi in Hebrew means “the Jew” He was given this name before he was born as his parents were incensed that when applying to rent apartments they were continually rejected because they were Jewish. Naming their soon to be born son Yehudi was a reminder to the world that their family was proud to be Jewish.
Yehudi Menuhin was a meditator.
In 1986 he wrote about his practice of meditation…….
“Meditation is an exercise, or, if you wish, the lack of exercise, the ‘minus’ exercise which repeatedly makes you acquainted with that secret emptiness, the apparent vacuum which is then irresistibly filled with the abundance of your life, of existence, of the whole life, of the whole of the Universe, the power of the sun, of love, the importance of the atom…..Meditation is for everyone, religious and those not claiming any particular religious label but apprehending and recognizing the ultimate Unknowable in the unity, the continuity, the interdependence within all creation.” ‘Light Within’.. Pub: Darton, Longman & Todd 1985.
Many artists whether they be painters, musicians, sculptors, etc. speak of their art as a form of meditation. Yehudi wrote that for him music, too, is a form of meditation. He says that music is a concentration and a release and an escape. It shares some of the qualities of meditation; and although it is not pure meditation it has given him moments of deep emotion, of ecstatic and almost mystical joy and moments profoundly moving, almost to tears.
Meditation
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