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The central prayer in Judaism is the Shema or Sh’ma. The Sh’ma proclaims the singular nature of God. It translates to: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” The first word, and the name of the prayer, Sh’ma, means hear, or listen. In order to really listen, one must quiet oneself. It’s interesting, then, that “Sh’ma” starts with the sound of “Shhhhhh!”
Shortly before her death, Maya Angelou famously tweeted, “Listen to yourself and in that quietude, you might hear the voice of God.” But, how do you listen to yourself and hear only quietude and not the multitude of thoughts that clutter our minds from moment to moment? How do we listen, in the way suggested by the Sh’ma, with a shushing of our minds?
Some faiths encourage the use of props. Many practitioners of Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Hinduism utilize prayer beads to quiet the mind and focus on the components or repetition of a prayer or mantra.
The techniques of mindfulness, derived from the practice of Buddhism, have as an intended consequence the quieting and focusing of the mind. A very simple way to get started on a path of mindfulness is to sit quietly and pay attention to the mechanics of your breathing; label the activity of breathing as it occurs, thinking, “This is my in-breath … This is my out-breath.” Notice the pause between breaths. The idea is that mindful practices will spill into the rest…
