A Path Toward Inner Peace

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

The labyrinth, an 800-year-old form of meditation, is making a comeback.

Charlotte’s Bob Haden travels across the country with a labyrinth design that comes from the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. Unfolded, the huge fabric took up the entire floor of St. Luke Episcopal Church’s Parish Hall in its recent two-day visit to Salisbury.

From a distance, the labyrinth design on the floor resembles a maze of circuitous patterns. But a maze tries to fool its user with many entrances, exits and dead-end paths.

A closer inspection of the labyrinth reveals only one path – a path that takes turn after turn until it reaches the center of the design. The only way out is to follow the same path from the middle to the start.

Labyrinth enthusiasts believe the path becomes a metaphor for their own spiritual journey. Turn after turn, at their own pace, they shed everything and feel God’s presence, moving from the world’s clock time to spiritual time.

‘‘If you don’t quiet the mind, it’s hard to hear that small voice (which is God’s),’’ Haden said while visiting St. Luke’s.

Farfetched? The popularity of labyrinths seems to be growing. A hospital in San Francisco has its cardiac patients walking a labyrinth as a healing exercise for both the body and mind. Churches are using indoor and outdoor labyrinths. Communities are creating labyrinths in their parks. Airports and prisons plan to try them. People are building labyrinths in their back yards.

‘‘I’ve become intrigued with the healing powers of circles,’’ Haden says, noting how Alzheimer’s patients, when walked in circles, are more at ease. Labyrinths also have been successful tools for children with attention deficits.

The blind sometimes use a labyrinth board, where they trace a path with their finger from the start, to the middle and back out again. Therapists use the same kinds of labyrinth boards for their clients to help them find an inner peace.

But the use of labyrinths goes way back. For example, at the Chartres Cathedral, a pilgrimage church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the labyrinth was meant to be walked by pilgrims in lieu of the dangerous journey to Jerusalem.

And the labyrinth cuts across theology and cultures. Forms of labyrinths are prevalent among the Vietnamese, Tibetan monks and American Indians, for example. They are ‘‘hooked up with spirituality’’ across the world, Haden says.

Haden laughs when people ask him if his labyrinth is New Age: ‘‘ ‘No,’ I say, ‘this is Middle Age.’ It’s new, see, to us, but it’s 800 years old spiritually.’’

Haden adds that the labyrinth is older than most religious traditions practiced today.

People who have walked the labyrinth say it’s like taking a thoughtful walk or going on a symbolic journey or pilgrimage. Haden believes a participant is always a tourist the first time, ‘‘and only later do we become a pilgrim.’’

Usually – and the same was true at St. Luke’s – participants take off their shoes because it’s the equivalent of walking on holy ground. Quiet music is optional. At St. Luke’s, the lighting was kept low, and candles were lighted during a Saturday night meditation. Talking was discouraged.

There’s no right or wrong way to follow the path, but believers in its healing powers say there are three definite phases to the labyrinth: moving inward, centering and moving outward.

The moving inward state – until one reaches the center – is a shedding, casting off, discarding and forgetting experience. You let go of the details of life and quiet your mind.

On reaching the center, you are supposed to open up to illumination, taking time to listen for an inner voice or enjoy the silence and simplicity. Here, in the center, people often stay for longer periods of time, using it as a stop for meditation and prayer.

Following the path back out again is a time for new direction, satisfaction, comfort and new energy. More religious participants join with God or find healing through peace and faith. The whole journey can take 30 minutes or more.

When used, the labyrinth becomes as unique as a fingerprint. No two people walk it the same way. Haden says each person finds something different.

He recalls a politically minded woman who wanted the rest of her family members to share her views. When they all walked the labyrinth, Haden says, it occurred to her that everyone was on her path, but at different spots. The labyrinth helped her to accept their differences.

Haden also remembers a bank executive who started on the path and immediately wanted to cut across the fabric and reach the center. By walking the labyrinth and staying on its ever-turning path, he realized how task-oriented he had become and how he was ‘‘missing all of this stuff,’’ Haden says.

Haden advises users of the labyrinth to go with a purpose, look for a metaphor and follow up the experience by writing down their feelings. For children, he says, the experience is like writing a letter to God.

Haden heads the Haden Institute in Charlotte. Besides traveling with his labyrinth, he teaches a two-year spiritual class, counsels, leads retreats and writes poetry.