So this explains why Americans vote the way they do!
Conscious Contemplation
I’ve been reading Robert Llewelyn’s perfectly wonderful book With Pity, Not with Blame: The Spirituality of Julian of Norwich and The Cloud of Unknowing for Today in preparation for my upcoming class on Julian at Central UCC in Atlanta. Yesterday I read Llewelyn’s comment that, when Julian used the word “contemplation” in chapter 46 of her long text, she doesn’t mean it in the sense we use it (as “contemplative prayer”) but rather as referring to “levels of awareness.” Of course, this brought to mind Ken Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness theory, as well as the ideas of an old meditation teacher of mine, Carl Clarke, who used to define meditation as “the art of managing consciousness.” Here’s the insight I received: perhaps we who practice contemplative prayer ought to see it as a form of sacrifice — not a painful, “giving something up” kind of sacrifice, but rather a joyful, “giving a gift to someone you love” kind of sacrifice. So, then, what is it we sacrifice — that is to say, give to God — in the act of contemplative prayer? (more…)
