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greymatter
USA
28 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 27 2018 : 9:31:45 PM
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Hey all,
I've been reading a book, called "The Art of Memory" by Francis Yates. It's about how ancient peoples were able to recite long poems and scripture from memory. According to the Author, by imagining familiar places, such as a home or building of some kind, and filling it with statues of people and symbols, one can induce the visual spacial memory to recall passages of poetry or scripture.
The technique was once used by monks to memorize the bible, which helped fuel their understanding of it via the process of associating visual, spacial and linguistic memory.
I've been using the technique for a couple days, using the layout of the house I lived in as a child, and I have managed to memorize several passages of the gospel of Luke from the King James Bible. I find myself reciting what I've memorized quite frequently throughout my day, as the symbols continue to become more defined and concrete in my imagination.
Francis Yates admits that he never attempted to learn the art of memory for his self, so the book doesn't go into the effects of systematic memorization.
It seems like my foundation of deep meditation helps me with every step of this process. I've been meditating daily for around 4 years.
Anyway, I thought I'd share with you all what I'm doing. I'll post more as the process goes on.
PS: I mainly lurk on this forum, but its an amazing resource along with the lessons and books. I was very nervous when the forum went down for several days recently. This is such a unique community, I would hate to lose contact with all of you.
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Herb
Canada
111 Posts |
Posted - Jan 04 2019 : 11:29:30 PM
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Hi Greymatter
I like what you’re doing and encourage you to continue. The KJV is so poetic and has influenced the english language more than any other writing in history. Partly because of the number of Christian enthusiasts reading it, but also I think, because, in 1611 when it was completed, the english language was still in it’s infancy.
It’s great to see yet another Christian who is also a medatation enthusiast here. I avoided saying a “Christian Meditation” enthusiast because, as you might know, that is the name of a formal type of Contemplative Prayer. One other bit of trivia, the Bible calls the contemplation of Scripture “meditation” and the typical Christian term for their forms of meditation(Christian Meditation and Centering Prayer) “Contempative Prayer.” This makes it a bit confusing when a Christian talkes to other Christians about meditation: in english, “meditation” generally means what Yogi’s and Buddhist’s do, while “contemplation” generally means to ponder or think about something. In a perfect world the Bible would have called the thinking and pondering over of a Bible passage or verse “contemplation” and Christian’s would call Contemplative prayer “meditation.”
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Edited by - Herb on Jan 05 2019 02:17:42 AM |
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Memorizing the Bible
