In stark contrast to enlightenment, there are moments when we can find ourselves in a situation where meditation and contemplation are not possible.

I have on just a very few occasions where have I found myself in direct contact with heavy disturbing energy, usually experienced as the “sense” of a particular place or situation.  In all cases, it involved a choice that I had to make.  

Once, while driving to the interior of Mexico from the Midwest United States with my wife and four small children, we arrived late on a Friday night at a motel that acquaintances had arranged for us to stay.  

After viewing our room and the surroundings, I had a strong sense of despair and heavy disruptive energy.  We all sat on a curb in front of the motel and I insisted that we did not stay there but we had nowhere else to go.  

I remembered a listing for a Carmelite convent that I had seen before the trip and decided to call.  The Nuns said they could put us in two rooms usually reserved for priests for the weekend but then we would have to leave.  

On Sunday night, after we had spent the weekend looking for a rental home, the Nuns offered to rent us a section of the convent with rooms including a small living room, kitchen, and several bedrooms strung out around a garden. 

We ended up spending the entire six months of our stay in Mexico with the Nuns, though cloistered, who became like family.  A couple of weeks later some Mexican friends told us of some rituals that had taken place in the same area as the motel, possibly but not for certain, that is what I had sensed.

I share this story to illustrate the importance of paying attention to your intuition and feelings about a space or a place—think back to places where you have felt a change in the energy—you may feel calm when walking in the park but then get a sense of discomfort or overwhelming stress when you visit a place where painful things have happened in the past.

Often it is our choices, even our unconscious choices, that advance or inhibits our ability to meditate.  The Convent was the perfect setting for me to find silence and solitude for meditation, and time to write, while the family adjusted to life in a different culture.

In your own life, can you find a “sacred space” at home or at work?  Can you find the quietude and time to practice meditation daily?  Have you chosen a mantra or sacred symbol to assist in avoiding distraction?  Do you have scriptures or other sources to inspire reflection?  Have you begun the hard work of letting go of those emotions of anger, depression, anxiety, grief, and other personal issues that we tend to bury deep inside?

Until we are ready to confront these issues within ourselves and begin a healing process, we are unlikely to progress far in meditation and contemplation.

Check out Obstacles to Meditation and Contemplation: Part 1 and Obstacles to Meditation and Contemplation: Part 3 and Obstacles to Meditation and Contemplation: Part 4