Praise for Ben Decker & Practical Meditation for Beginners

What I Believe

Hello, I’m Ben.

Many people have asked when I “began” my spiritual journey, or when my “interest” in meditation was initiated.

I don’t remember the first time I meditated, but my parents have pictures of me in early childhood meditating in the most unexpected places - like on our family boat and at the bowling alley. I was blessed to be born into a family who taught me about service, forgiveness, gratitude, and following guidance from the Holy Spirit.

My father’s side of the family has been members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since its founding in the mid 1800s. I grew up going on “family history” vacations to historical sites that were sacred to our family and our tradition. When we would go camping, we sat around the fire with my parents, aunts, uncles telling stories of personal miracles, messages from loved ones from beyond the veil, and testimony. At church, among many other things, we were taught that every living soul is of unfathomable value to God, and that there has never been a culture, civilization or nation that God did not love and speak to.

This prophetic lineage is the spiritual foundation from which I explored the world.

What began in childhood as an interest in spirituality, quickly grew into a serious study of world religions, indigenous practices, spiritual psychology, yoga, energy medicine, psychic development, the mind-body connection, and the convergence of science and spirituality.

At the time, there was a disconnect in my mind. I was afraid to really surrender my heart and passion to faith. I passed through dark initiations of heartbreak, drama, addiction, depression, and complicated grief. In the healing and learning that those many dark nights brought me through, I became more attuned to the pain and trauma in the world around me. My own suffering was connected to the suffering around me. I traveled the world on spiritual pilgrimages and mission trips, touring ancient sites and performing humanitarian aid work. I saw the subtle workings of the Spirit in every world religion, and I also saw the insidious workings of the forces of materialism there, too. There was no short cut to knowing the truth, it had to be experienced directly. I found my calling in meditation as a practical component of social activism.

I was called, like my ancestors, to learn about God through direct relationship, and meditation became the medium for that relationship.

• I believe that all that lives is sacred, and that we are together in an enormous cycle of spiritual and physical evolution.

• I believe that the spiritual and physical worlds are different aspects of the one Universe, and that both are equally valuable.

• I believe that through meditation, prayer, and consistent sincere willingness, the human individual is supernaturally transformed into an extension of divine forces.

• I believe that the great prophets, divine incarnations, saints, and sages of all world traditions have contributed wonderful benefits to the world, and that they metaphorically sit together in council in the heavenly realms, collaborating together through the positive deeds they inspire in the world.

To this day, I remain an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I am also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community of Los Angeles, I am the founding Spiritual Director of Full Circle in Venice, CA, and am a daily practitioner of A Course In Miracles.