Questions about the Spiritual Life
I received the following set of questions via email this morning; I’m posting them here with the permission of the author:
Hi Carl … I found centering prayer to be a draining experience. I was getting angry at God for not showing up. Should I keep doing it even if nothing ever happens? … I grew up Roman Catholic and all through my life I have felt guilty for not enjoying reading the spiritual “classics” that you mention on your blog. I come to those kind of books like a homework assignment. I like modern spiritual reading like Peter Rollins, Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, and some of Merton’s stuff. But the language of the classics bores me and puts me to sleep. I feel like I can’t be a mystic if I don’t like reading that stuff. Because you like reading that stuff it makes you seem like you are closer to God. … Those works seem austere and “hard to do.” Don’t I love God if I don’t want to suffer and do penance? One more question: Richard Rohr seems to imply that all religions are the same at the unitive consciousness or the mystical sense. Do you think they are the same at the mystical level? Is it patronizing or arrogant to say that? Shouldn’t mysticism be informed by our tradition?
Here is my reply:
Thanks for these great questions.
I think that it’s perfectly normal to find the classic mystics as challenging to read. Not only did they write centuries ago, but they lived in different cultures with different world-views, spoke different languages than ours, etc. I’m a bit of a geek, I enjoy slogging through challenging writing. But I don’t think God is so mean as to require a person to be a “scholar” in order to be close to God.
Have you tried reading Evelyn Underhill or the Cloud of Unknowing? Many people find them more accessible than, say, Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. I personally love Julian of Norwich, but she is very poetic and that is hard for some people to take. As always, trust your own uniqueness — God made you the way you are for a reason.
Frankly, I think Brian McLaren and Peter Rollins are perfectly wonderful spiritual writers. Why waste your time reading books that are no “fun” for you to read when you can read other writers more profitably? I say go with the ones you enjoy and leave it at that.
The fact that I am a “mystical geek” does not make me closer to God. I personlly believe my wife is much more faithful and holy than I am (and much more committed to contemplative prayer!) and she mostly reads fiction by writers like Jan Karon. So go figure.
The moral of the story: mysticism is about the love we cultivate in our hearts more than the facts we accumulate in our minds.
Now, as for your difficulties with centering prayer. First of all, remember that there is no “wrong” way to contemplate. It’s helpful to begin and end with a recognition that you are offering this time to God through Christ. But beyond that, if you feel bored, or angry, or just scattered, try to see this as offering aspects of your consciousness to God, just as they are, without trying to put your “best foot forward.” Spirituality is about healing, but just as you can never get physically healed if you don’t tell the doctor exactly what’s wrong with you, similarly spiritual healing requires being honest with God about all our “stuff,” even our anger and fear and distractions (incidentally, this is the same logic behind the sacrament of reconciliation, where we speak to God through the office of the priest). So contemplative prayer is a tool for learning how to be vulnerable before God – warts and all.
Can you gently investigate what is the source of your anger? Are you mad at yourself because you don’t think you’re “doing it right”? Are you mad at God because you think he should be giving you mystical experiences, rather than just silence? It may be helpful for you to understand exactly what the anger is all about. From there, two pieces of advice: 1) talk it over, as honestly as you can, with your spiritual director, and 2) take the time to forgive whoever it is you’re angry at: whether God, your self, or even someone else.
Finally, about the idea that mystical consciousness is the same throughout all religions: I’m not really an expert on scientific investigations into meditation, but I believe based on what little I’ve read, that meditation and the mental states it engenders is pretty much the same regardless of the practitioner’s beliefs or cultural background. So in that sense, I suppose mystical consciousness is pretty much a universal experience. But I do agree with you that context is always important. For me, I remain a Christian not because I believe non-Christians are going to hell (indeed, I don’t believe that), but because I find Christianity’s emphasis on love, grace and forgiveness to be, well, beautiiful — and, I believe, true and good. But of course, I’ve grown up in a Christian context, so naturally there’s also the appeal that Christianity feels like home to me. Of course, I try to be honest about Christianity’s many faults, but I also believe that all religions have their shadow side, so there’s no point in rejecting Christianity just because it’s imperfect; that’s a quality it shares with all faiths.
I’m the kind of Christian who tries to balance a deep and sincere devotion to Christ and the Christian tradition with an open-minded willingness to learn about, and learn from, other faiths. I think this is a very rewarding and spiritually wholesome way to approach faith. But I know that others feel like you should pick one faith and just stick with it. Well, that’s okay too. We each have to follow our conscience in this regard.
Whew!
The ever-vigilant Mike Morrell alerted me to this one. Whew! I’m glad he did. I was on the primrose path for sure…
The New Monasticism is Really Really Bad
News from John O’Donohue’s website…
Here’s some information from John O’Donohue’s website:
- In October of 2007, Krista Tippett interviewed John for her public radio show, Speaking of Faith. The program will air on public radio stations nationwide from Thursday, February 21 through Wednesday, February 27. To find stations in your area that broadcast the program, click here.
- Concerning John’s final resting place, in Co. Clare, Ireland: “There have been a number of enquiries about the location of John’s funeral service and about his gravesite. The church where John’s funeral took place is in Fanore, about 12 miles from Ballyvaughan on the coast road south. During winter months it is likely only to be open at weekends for Mass. John is buried in Creggagh graveyard, about two miles further south along the coast road, just beyond O’Donoghue’s pub on the lefthand side of the road. All of John’s friends hope that respect will be shown to his gravesite and to the community and environment that John loved so well.”
- Several memorial services in various locations here and abroad have been planned. Visit the website for details.
Atheism and Anger
I had a conversation with a friend last night — the same friend I’ve written about before — who is undergoing a crisis of faith. He told me last night that reading the “new atheists” — folks like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens — makes him so angry. “I came to see that I have been duped by the church, and that the church is in the business of duping people.”
My friend is a good and honest man, sincere in his zeal to find truth. Perhaps a bit too zealous, for I fear that he is trapped in modernist assumptions about truth (assumptions that go back to Plato). But as we talked, we looked at how the many atheists seem to have two messages:
- Religion is flawed;
- We should be really, really angry about this!
The first message strikes me as good and valuable. Even though religion is notoriously resistant to criticism, any perspective that shines light on its failings can only help to further the cause of truth (not to mention goodness and beauty). While I may not share all of atheism’s critique of Christianity, as a Christian who sincerely endeavors to love God with all my heart, mind and strength, I owe it to myself to have as accurate an understanding of my faith as possible — including an understanding of how others see (and disagree) with it.
But it’s the second part of the message that leaves me cold. There’s a level on which choosing to react to religion with anger, rage, hatred, or any other strong passion is simply to give religion power over our lives. And since the main beef of the atheists seems to be that religion seeks to expand its power over people, allowing it to trigger strong passion is, ironically, to play into its hands. The atheist who is consumed with anger and hatred toward faith is, in a very real sense, in hell. Not a hell of divine punishment so much as a hell of his own making. And that, it seems to me, is pretty much useless.
I’m certainly not saying that all atheists are trapped in such powerful negative passion. I can’t even say that the authors I’ve mentioned suffer in such a way, not knowing any of them personally. But I have met my share of pissed off nonbelievers over the years, and I see my friend on the brink of becoming one himself. If it’s his path to be a nonbeliever, so be it. I just hope he can embrace that path with joy and love, not bitterness and fury. After all, if you believe religion is an oppressive force from which you need to be liberated, then take responsibility for going all the way. As Bob Marley said, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
Meanwhile, speaking as a believer, those of us who choose to stay in the church need to take a similar responsibility for ourselves. It’s all too easy to fall prey to self-righteousness, xenophobia, chauvinism, or various other shades of spiritual pride. Such perspectives are the first cousin to the rage and fuming of religion’s fiercest critics. If you want to be in the church, do it with fearlessness, love and joy. And if you’re not there yet, make that your goal (after all, Christianity — and I suppose most other ethical religions — is meant to be a force for healing). There’s only one way to be a person of faith: and that is to be grounded in joy (or at the least, actively seeking to get there). Anything else seems to me to be missing the mark.
Quote for the Day
Like an ancient galleon that has spent ages at sea, Christianity is encrusted with customs and attitudes acquired on its voyage through the centuries and it is making the tragic mistake of confusing the accidents of theological and cultural history with eternal truth.
— Richard Holloway, Doubts and Loves:
What is Left of Christianity
Family Portrait
Here’s a snapshot of me and my family, taken by my brother-in-law Jerry last month.
Carl, Fran and Rhiannon; December 2007.
The “Rebate” Check
I’m no economist, and normally I don’t stray into the murky water of politics in this blog (I get into enough trouble writing about theology, mysticism and contemplative prayer), but on a purely intuitive level I feel like saying something about the so-called rebate checks that we middle class Americans are about to receive from our government, in anxious response to the fact that we have a stalling economy during an election year.
I am reminded that the last time we got such checks — in 2001, shortly after our current president took office. They amounted to a squandering of our budget surplus, which if I am correct was the first such surplus in many years. Within months of receiving these checks, our country suffered its worst major incident of terrorist activity in history and in response we hurled ourselves into two misguided and very costly wars. So much for the budget surplus. So the last time we got “refunds” from the government, it was like partying with a bonus check right before getting laid off.
But this time it’s even worse. As commentator Andrew Samwick said on Marketplace the other night, let’s call this “stimulus package” by it’s real name: deficit spending. Samwick notes that the chief cause of the current financial mess was bad loan practices in terms of sub-prime mortgages, so why are we using more borrowed money in an attempt to clean up the mess?
Particularly when the money is not going to those who most need it, but rather those most likely to vote.
I know the idea is to spend the money to get the economy revving again, but frankly, it feels like using a new credit card because the old one is maxed out. So allow me to be unpatriotic and suggest that we should save this money and not spend it.
Here’s what I propose Americans should do with their rebate checks: (more…)
Mystery of the Missing Camera
Here is a fun story about a couple in NYC who found a lost digital camera and located its owner — an Irishman living in Australia — merely by deciphering clues from the photos in the camera’s memory.
Think twice before you start deleting photographs from your camera.
Quote for the Day
Any wizard can defy nature; only the true miracle-worker can accomplish wonders in sympathy with it.
— John Carey, A Single Ray of the Sun: Religious
Speculation in Early Ireland
Protecting the Babes
But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Yesterday’s post (We’re looking for a few good contemplatives) inspired some interesting commentary, including further exploration of the question regarding whether beginners in the spiritual life ought to be exposed to contemplative prayer. Here is one opinion that was expressed yesterday:
The danger, I believe, is actually the risk of falling into quietism or illuminism. These errors have already been refuted hundreds of years ago and I see no harm and great benefit in protecting souls from falling into these dangers, especially beginners.
Few things bug me more than people who attack contemplation. In my mind it makes about as much sense as attacking a well-balanced diet. But people keep doing it (and, as evidence of my not-very-advanced spiritual state, I keep getting worked up over it). (more…)
We’re looking for a few good contemplatives
One thing I’ve found interesting: when I tell people I’m writing a book about Christian mysticism, a typical response I receive is, “Oh, that’s advanced, that’s beyond me, I could never be a mystic.”
Boo hiss.
A little while back I set up a page for The Cloud of Unknowing on MySpace. Recently someone emailed me and said:
In the author’s foreward he says of the book, “you are not to read it, write or speak of it, nor allow another to do so, unless you really believe that he is a person deeply committed to following Christ perfectly”, and goes on to reinforce this in several different ways. As I read this, I realized that by having “The Cloud of Unknowing” as a MySpace friend I’m advertising the book to the public; very, very, precious few of which are committed to following Christ perfectly, even among Christians. So, for this reason, I’m removing your account as a friend in hope to honor the intentions of the author, and I hope you would consider deleting the account altogether for the same reason.
In my response I respectfully declined, saying “I understand where you’re coming from, however, I believe that it’s more important for people to know about the contemplative tradition than for me to try to judge whether or not someone is worthy to learn about it.”
I love The Cloud and I think it’s one of the more important of the negative-mysticism texts. But I believe the author’s elitism is truly counterproductive, not just because it bothers random people on MySpace but because it has helped to contribute to this idea that mysticism is something only for the very few — the contemplative elite, as it were. From where I sit, here’s how it looks to me: if you’ve been baptized, you’re qualified to become a Christian contemplative (and if you haven’t been baptized, you still can explore contemplation as an inquirer or as a non-Christian). As for a “deep commitment to follow Christ perfectly” — such language reeks of purity rather than hospitality, and long-standing readers of this blog know how I feel when those two qualities face off. For newcomers, let’s just say that the Christ I worship and adore had a habit of inviting the most ragtag of folks to the feast…
I’ve talked about Ken Wilber and his principle of “greater depth, less span” as a way to understand why so few people actually do make the deep commitment that The Cloud author was looking for. It’s the same principle that differentiates the untold millions of people who love to play a game of football in the backyard versus the few who make it to the Major Leagues. But just because you’re never gonna play pro football is no reason not to play at all. I’m learning to play the bass guitar, not because I have any illusions of being the next Tony Levin, but because I’d like to have a little bit of fun with my wife and some friends who play guitar. And that’s okay! What bothers me about the idea that mysticism is only for the elite is that people who recognize that they aren’t called to be the next Julian of Norwich or John of the Cross come to the conclusion that they shouldn’t even bother with contemplation at all. Such an attitude is tragic. Maybe mysticism is only for the few. But I believe contemplation is for anyone and everyone who’s willing to sit down and shut up and allow God to love them. And the difference between mysticism and contemplation is one of degree, not kind.
LaserMonks
LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making
By Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008
Review by Carl McColman
Some years ago, the management world discovered Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War. This sixth-century Chinese treatise on military strategy considers not only the logistics of conflict, but also the psychology of winning; as such, it has transcended its soldierly origins to become a classic source of inspiration for the corporate boardroom as well as the battlefield. After all, if any metaphor can describe what business is all about, it’s that of warfare.
But maybe there’s more to working than winning — and this thought leads to a remarkable new way of envisioning and achieving success, as detailed by Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith in their insightful new book, LaserMonks. I never thought I’d be reviewing a business book here on my oh-so-spiritual blog, but I guess I didn’t see this one coming, either. I should have, though — I’ve known about and admired the LaserMonks web-based business for some time now. This new book not only tells the story of a uniquely successful business, but reveals how another ancient text — The Rule of Saint Benedict — can be applied to any business model, with truly impressive results. (more…)
Quote for the Day
[The Lord's Prayer], although it seems to contain the utter fullness of perfection inasmuch as it was instituted and established on the authority of the Lord himself, nonetheless raises its familiars to that condition which we characterized previously as more sublime. It leads them by a higher stage to that fiery and, indeed, more properly speaking, wordless prayer which is known and experienced by very few. This transcends all human understanding and is distinguished not, I would say, by a sound of the voice or a movement of the tongue or a pronunciation of words. Rather, the mind is aware of it when it is illuminated by an infusion of heavenly light from it, and not by narrow human words, and once the understanding has been suspended it gushes forth as from a most abundant fountain and speaks ineffably to God, producing more in that very brief moment than the self-conscious mind is able to articulate easily or to reflect upon.
— John Cassian, Conference 9, excerpted
in The Essential Writings of Christian
Mysticism edited by Bernard McGinn
GSR190
Last night I bought a bass guitar. It’s an Ibanez GSR190: a beginner’s bass. It’s “low end” not only in the sound it makes but in the money it costs. It’s strictly no frills, but I’m already in love with it.
Yes, I know: that hardly seems to be a very “contemplative” thing to do. Although within minutes of plugging it in and messing around with it (I’m musically illiterate, and won’t start lessons until March, so I basically have the next six weeks to gleefully make noise like a five year old would before I enter into the “adult” world of actually learning how to play the thing), I was mesmerized by the richness of its deep earthy tones and even my untrained capacity to keep a simple beat. Maybe it’s not a naturally contemplative instrument, but I think it could qualify as a shamanic one. In other words, already I can see how playing the bass can foster a nice alpha state. And for now, that’s good enough for me.
So why, you may be asking, did a 47 year old man who’s never played any musical instrument other than hand drums and who has devoted much of his adult life to the pursuit of silence suddenly go out and buy an electric instrument? Is this some sort of weird mid-life gambit, along the lines of “since I can’t afford the red Porsche, a black bass will have to do?”
Well, it isn’t actually “suddenly.” Although I haven’t been blogging about it, I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months now. (more…)
Whey Out Chocolate
My friend and business associate Joy Reid has just launched a new online store called Whey Out Chocolate. She is selling home-made “confections that are safe for people with food allergies and sensitivities.” Her website goes on to say:
If you have food allergies, then you know what it’s like to be excluded at parties because you can’t eat the cake or ice cream; or to walk down aisles of seasonal treats in the stores that look so delicious but are totally forbidden; or to look longingly at display cases full of desserts in restaurants that are strictly off-limits; or how difficult it is to simply find treats to enjoy just because…
Whey-Out Chocolate’s mission is to fulfill the “dessert void” in the lives of people with food allergies. We offer an ever-growing line of confections that are dairy-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, soy-free, and even gluten-free – so people with food allergies can finally indulge in delicious treats that have never been available before.
Since much of what Joy makes is vegan-friendly, it’s safe for me to eat, and so I have been blessed to be one of her “tasters.” Her goodies are wonderful (warning: they are highly addictive). I especially recommend the “P.S. I love you.”
Surf on over there now and buy yourself or someone you love a treat (and tell Joy I sent you).
Forbidden/Approved
A wise Episcopal priest once told me, “Most Christians believe that unless something is explicitly approved in the Bible, it is forbidden by God. But it makes just as much logical sense to say that unless something is explicitly forbidden in the Bible, it is approved by God.” Her words echo in my mind whenever I run across folks who attack mysticism or contemplative prayer because it is “unscriptural.” Not only do I believe the Bible is literally infused with mystical sensibility, but I’ve never found a compelling argument to support the idea that the Bible condemns meditation or contemplation. And if the Bible doesn’t condemn it, how dare anyone assume it is forbidden by God? To be honest, it boggles my mind that some people get so worked up over this.
Attacking contemplative prayer is like attacking vitamins or wholesome food. Nowhere does the Bible say “To be healthy, thou shalt be sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, making sure that thou dost ingest at least 20 grams of fiber every day.” By the logic of the anti-contemplatives, since the Bible doesn’t explicitly command it, therefore it is un-Christian to eat a healthy diet. After all, it is only because of non-Christian teachings (i.e., secular science) that we have come to believe in the importance of a healthy diet. Just as Christian mysticism is friendly to non-Christian wisdom (such as Neoplatonism or Zen), so too modern nutrition theory rests on the non-Christian wisdom of science. If it’s bad to dabble in one, it’s probably just as bad to dabble in the other. Some people might point to Genesis 1:29 (“God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food”) to say that the Bible does command a healthy diet. But by that logic, we should all be vegans (which works for me).
I know I’m arguing from the perspective of the absurd. But, hey, in all good conscience, I am convinced that only an absurd logic could lead people to insist that mysticism, contemplation and meditation are bad.
I seem to recall learning somewhere that it’s harder to frown than to smile; ie, it takes more facial muscles to make a frown than a smile. There’s a spiritual lesson in there. Anti-contemplatives are, it seems to me, trying to paint a frown over God’s smile. I wish these killjoys would stop working so hard at such a useless task.
Books are costly, blogs are cheap…
After making a wonderful allusion to Ireland, the Epiphany Girl notes, in response to The Prosperity Mongers:
This post is an interesting companion to the piece you wrote about those we leave behind specifically in terms of accepting the fact that mysticism is not for everyone while at the same time wanting to bring it to a broader audience … the path of the mystic appeals to so few (based on personality and inclination as you say), it seems an inherently difficult entity to effectively bring to the marketplace.
Herein lies the core dilemma of writing about mysticism. (more…)
La Peste
Here is a sobering article about the on-going threat of the bubonic plague. Even now, there are ten to twenty cases in America each year.
Many scholars speculate that Julian of Norwich may have lost family members to the plague. We know that she lived through several outbreaks of the pestilence. It’s important to remember that, despite the advances of science and technology and the comfort that first worlders can take in access to treatment, still on a very primal level the world we live in is not so very different from the world of the medieval mystics.
The Prosperity Mongers
I spoke with an editor of a large faith-oriented website yesterday; I had pitched a couple of ideas to this site and hadn’t had any luck getting a contract. We talked about how most of their readers were looking for breezy, self-help articles. He mentioned Joel Osteen more than once.
When I think about folks like Joel Osteen or Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret), I have deeply ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, no one can argue with the worldly success of such things as the Law of Attraction or the Prosperity Gospel: clearly, people are hungry for a message that provides hope and encouragement. As a writer, I would love nothing more than to author a book that will speak to millions of people. And it’s not just because of the royalty check (although that would be nice); it’s because I know how much effort goes into a book and I’d like that effort to be useful for others. So there is a temptation to join in the prosperity chorus. But it’s only a temptation — my editor friend and I joked about the absurdity of me writing to fit in with that genre: “Julian of Norwich wants you to be rich!” I don’t think so.
Meanwhile, it’s become fashionable to attack the Joel Osteens and Rhonda Byrnes of the world. But while I have my questions and concerns about the whole prosperity-consciousness industry, I am no more interested in attacking it than I am in just becoming part of it. I’m willing to assume good intentions on the part of the prosperity mongers (really, I am. I don’t think Osteen and Byrne and their cronies are out to get us, and I think even their obvious materialism is driven by belief in their message, and not the other way around). But I also believe their message is ultimately flawed, or perhaps a better way to describe it is, it’s incomplete. It’s spiritual junk food. It tastes great (“change your thinking, and health and wealth are yours!”) but it doesn’t satisfy. It leaves you hungrier than ever. Which is why the prosperity mongers stay in business: their incremental sales are guaranteed, ad infinitum.
When I’ve told people that I’m writing a book on mysticism, a common response I get is this: “Oh, that’s beyond me.” Mysticism is seen as too esoteric, too advanced, too elitist for the ordinary person. I want to challenge that notion. In fact, I think mysticism is the logical next step for the person who begins to see the limitations and weaknesses in the mainstream “change your thinking, change your life” message.
Here’s what I mean: I think the fatal flaw of the prosperity mongers is that their message typically seems to be this:
Change your thinking and you’ll get what you want.
Frankly, that’s just empirical nonsense, even though practically all of us can improve our lives somewhat by improving our thoughts and behaviors and attitudes. So yes, we need to do all we can to better ourselves, but then it’s time for the next step: not a huge leap, just a single step:
Change your thinking and let God get what God wants.
That’s when mysticism begins. Will it make us happy? Maybe, and maybe not. Will it “taste good”? Maybe, and maybe not. No guarantees in either of those categories. But it will nourish us. It’s truly satisfying — on a deep, soul, for-all-eternity level.
Quote for the Day
We could fill stadiums in every major city with people who have been burned or wounded by bad churches. But you never see them. You never hear them, because the first thing a leaver loses is her voice. In the corners of every city are believers who are no longer visible to churchgoers; they have no platform to speak from, no committee meetings to make their point heard, no friendship with the pastor to get a change made. They are isolated and unorganized. Yet they are an army. In my mind they represent the prophetic hope for the church because they understand perhaps as well or better than anyone what the church needs, where it’s failing and what can make it a place of life and joy again.
— Brian Sanders, Life After Church: God’s Call to Disillusioned Christians
The Ones We Leave Behind
I’ve been thinking about the relationship between contemplatives and others. What does it mean to pursue the mystical life, when so many people have no desire for, interest in, or aptitude for contemplative practice? Myers-Briggs personality type indicators suggest that only about 1% or so of the general population are “natural” mystics. Assume another 2 percent or so have enough of an interest in the contemplative life to pursue it, even without the inborn aptitude. Still, that leaves only 5% or so of the general population as contemplatives or aspiring mystics. What about the other 95%? Do we just dismiss that majority as lost to institutional religion (or consumerism or secularism or whatever)? Do we attempt to evangelize them? (“Have you made a decision for mysticism yet? Today is the day! John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart are calling you — yes, you — so don’t delay. Just come forward and give your life to contemplation. Do it now!”) or do we just give thanks that we live in a diverse universe and it’s really okay that not everyone wants to be a contemplative: after all, it would put a lot of DJs out of work if everyone eschewed house music for Gregorian chant.
That lost option is pretty much how I see things, but still, this relational question nags me. (more…)
The Butler, Tea, and Single Malt
I was poking around Beth Patterson’s Virtual Teahouse this morning, and found a link that led me to a link (!) to Jesse Kornbluth’s wonderful tribute to John O’Donohue at Headbutler. Probably the most wonderful and heartfelt tribute to the Connemara mystic I’ve yet to see. You’ll want to check out what O’Donohue said one morning after a bottle of single malt whisky had bested him.
And while you’re at it, take some time to get to know both the Virtual Teahouse and Headbutler. The Virtual Teahouse is a community forum “engaging the spirituality of everyday life;” readers are encouraged to submit their own stories of hope, healing, wisdom and dreams. And while I personally find the notion of a “head butler” just a little too vividly evocative of the dazed and confused days of my youth, the site itself has a neat concept, not entirely unlike what I’m trying to do with my book reviews here at the Website of Unknowing: Kornbluth, a former content editor at AOL, happily serves up his opinions of various cultural treasures (books, movies, CDs, etc.) that may have slipped pass the radar of the mainstream.
Plain as the Nose
Sometimes, things are so obvious that your humble servant here simply misses them altogether. This is one of the gifts of contemplative practice: when I slow down long enough to actually remind myself that I am a breathing organism who continues to live and love solely by the grace of God, among other things I’m giving my brain a chance to catch up with my normal speed-of-life distracted self.
This morning, just as my wife and I were chanting the words by which we begin our prayer every morning (“O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me”), I got this little insight that, once I thought about it, seemed so utterly obvious that I really felt like a dolt for not having noticed it before.
This is it: monasteries are house churches. (more…)
Quote for the Day
The Christian religion is primarily about a transformation of consciousness. This takes spiritual practice and the cultivation of wisdom. In another time this was called cultivating the supernatural organism, what Paul called “a new creation.” So the main thing is to be transformed into God, what the early church called deification, theosis, divinization.
— Thomas Keating, OCSO, Spirituality, Contemplation &
Transformation: Writings on Centering Prayer
N.B.: This is a quotation from a lecture that Fr. Keating gave to seminarians at the School of Theology of the University of the South, Sewanee, TN in October 2005.
