John Main

John Main (1926-1982) has been acclaimed as one of the great spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. He became a Benedictine monk after diplomatic service in the Far East and then teaching law at Trinity College, Dublin. By his life and teaching, John Main has helped restore to Christianity its own tradition of meditation and enabled many to discover its transforming power for themselves. He founded an open Benedictine community in Montreal from which sprang The World Community for Christian Meditation, a worldwide spiritual family linked by the daily practice of meditation.

When thoughts come to mind

Whatever thoughts come into your mind, 

whether they are good thoughts or religious thoughts, 

holy thoughts or bad thoughts, let them go and say the mantra. 

 (John Main, The Hunger for Depth and Meaning)

Meditation is the way of learning to be

Meditation is the way of learning just to be. To be who you are in the presence of God; to be who you are in complete simplicity. And that’s what the mantra leads us to when we learn to be faithful to it.  (John Main, The Hunger for Depth and Meaning)

Essence of Meditation

The essence of meditation is not the technique but what John Cassian called ‘purity of heart’. (John Main, The hunger for depth and meaning).