I have come to believe
that the true mystics are not those who contemplate holiness in isolation,
reaching godlike illumination in serene silence, but those who manage to find
God in a life filled with noise, the demands of other people and relentless
daily duties that can consume the self…. If they are wise, they treasure the
rare moments of solitude and silence that come their way, and use them not to
escape, to distract themselves with television and the like. Instead, they
listen for a sign of God’s presence and they open their hearts toward prayer.
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Showing posts with label inner life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inner life. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
True Mystics
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Darkness, uncertainty
Calling
Out to God
The secret essence of the soul that knows the
truth is calling out to God: Beloved … strip me of the consolations of my
complacent spirituality. Plunge me into the darkness where I cannot rely
on any of my old tricks for maintaining my separation. Let me give up on trying
to convince myself that my own spiritual deeds are bound to be pleasing to
you. Take all my juicy spiritual feelings, Beloved, and dry them up, and
then please light them on fire. Take my lofty spiritual concepts and plunge them
into darkness, and then burn them. Let me only love you, Beloved. Let me
quietly and with unutterable simplicity just love you.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Dangerous Activity
Contemplation is a very dangerous activity.
It not only brings us face to face with God.
It brings us, as well, face to face with the world, face to face with the self.
And then, of course, something must be done.
Nothing stays the same once we have found the
God within.
We carry the world in our hearts: the
oppression of all peoples, the suffering of our friends, the burdens of our
enemies, the raping of the Earth, the hunger of the starving, the joy of every
laughing child.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Spirit in Our Life
Have we ever kept quiet, even though we wanted to defend ourselves when we had been unfairly treated? Have we ever forgiven someone even though we got no thanks? Have we ever been absolutely lonely? Have we ever tried to love God when we are no longer being borne on the crest of the wave of enthusiastic feeling? Let us search in our life. If we find such experiences, then we have experienced the Spirit.
Karl Rahner
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Deep Dive (reprise)
We cannot know the God of the guts and the gutters unless we have traveled deep enough within ourselves to touch and experience our own guts--where God lives, and unless we have reached out far enough beyond ourselves to smell and sit in the gutters--where God squats.
Edwina Gateley
I Hear a Seed Growing
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Glory and Wretchedness
"Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”
- Pema Chodron
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Worry
About what do you worry?
You know, the sort of stuff that keeps you awake or wakes you up at night.
What's on that list for you?
I'm hoping your list is short and your anxiety level low.
But, we all worry. . .and there's lots about which to be concerned these days.
Of course, I have a very personal worry list that relates to my family, my friends, etc. No need to go there, at least not here.
Most of the list I have in mind today rises out of my day-to-day experiences in the community.
I worry about. . .
School children staying in school, not dropping out and then being prepared for higher education once they graduate high school.
Parents who face a battle every day to keep their children and themselves fed, clothed, and housed.
Men, women and children who have no home to return to at night and little prospect of finding one.
People who want to work and can't find a job.
People who work very hard but don't earn a decent wage.
People who are very ill with no or limited access to the health care that they need.
People who finally manage access to health care too late.
Women and children who need protection from abusive and dangerous people and situations, often very close to home or at home.
Young people who want to go to college but can't.
Young folks who gravitate to the street and to gangs out of a sense of powerlessness and disconnection.
People who stand in line to receive food from us.
Keeping things moving and sustainable in my work world, a task that is harder and harder to accomplish.
Injustice in public policy matters, especially in regard to providing for the weak, the ill, the abandoned and the cast out and cast aside.
The responsibility of wealth, privilege and over arching advantage.
The erroneous perceptions and assumptions people operate out of when it comes to "the poor."
Barriers between and among people that block communication and understanding.
Hate in the name of faith/God/religion.
Hopelessness that emerges from feeling left out.
People who receive limited respect or consideration in the normal course of daily life.
Blindness to racism.
Targets of racism.
The unrelieved grief of so many people who live in poverty.
You know, the sort of stuff that keeps you awake or wakes you up at night.
What's on that list for you?
I'm hoping your list is short and your anxiety level low.
But, we all worry. . .and there's lots about which to be concerned these days.
Of course, I have a very personal worry list that relates to my family, my friends, etc. No need to go there, at least not here.
Most of the list I have in mind today rises out of my day-to-day experiences in the community.
I worry about. . .
School children staying in school, not dropping out and then being prepared for higher education once they graduate high school.
Parents who face a battle every day to keep their children and themselves fed, clothed, and housed.
Men, women and children who have no home to return to at night and little prospect of finding one.
People who want to work and can't find a job.
People who work very hard but don't earn a decent wage.
People who are very ill with no or limited access to the health care that they need.
People who finally manage access to health care too late.
Women and children who need protection from abusive and dangerous people and situations, often very close to home or at home.
Young people who want to go to college but can't.
Young folks who gravitate to the street and to gangs out of a sense of powerlessness and disconnection.
People who stand in line to receive food from us.
Keeping things moving and sustainable in my work world, a task that is harder and harder to accomplish.
Injustice in public policy matters, especially in regard to providing for the weak, the ill, the abandoned and the cast out and cast aside.
The responsibility of wealth, privilege and over arching advantage.
The erroneous perceptions and assumptions people operate out of when it comes to "the poor."
Barriers between and among people that block communication and understanding.
Hate in the name of faith/God/religion.
Hopelessness that emerges from feeling left out.
People who receive limited respect or consideration in the normal course of daily life.
Blindness to racism.
Targets of racism.
The unrelieved grief of so many people who live in poverty.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Someday
No matter from where we've come. . .
No matter our culture, background, ethnicity or status. . .
We share basic aspirations. . .common pains. . .similar fears. . .predictable defeats, no matter who we are.
Not long ago I heard Ol' Possum, George Jones hammering away on his classic tune, "Someday My Day Will Come."
As I listened, it struck me that the lyrics, not so much the melody or the style, but the message could be applied almost universally to us all.
Listen and see if you agree.
No matter our culture, background, ethnicity or status. . .
We share basic aspirations. . .common pains. . .similar fears. . .predictable defeats, no matter who we are.
Not long ago I heard Ol' Possum, George Jones hammering away on his classic tune, "Someday My Day Will Come."
As I listened, it struck me that the lyrics, not so much the melody or the style, but the message could be applied almost universally to us all.
Listen and see if you agree.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
On doing the "right" thing
People often ask me, "How did you know what to do as Central Dallas Ministries developed?" Or, "How did you decide what to do to realize the growth that CDM has experienced over the past 15 years?"
Good questions, I suppose.
With a very simple answer: we didn't!
I guess you'd have had to have been here pretty much full-time to understand.
One thing I've learned here is that at least 80% of everything related to progress is found in simply "showing up."
I like what Bernie Glassman says in his stimulating little book, Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters. Consider his wisdom:
Many people won't take a step until they think that they know what the right thing is. There is an expression, "Do the right thing." But how do we know what the right thing is? We can't know for sure. Maybe we should just say, "Do the next thing." And if we do that--whatever it is--to the best of our ability, chances are it will turn out to be the right thing as well." (135)
My experience tells me that Bernie is right.
On to the next thing then, okay?
.
Good questions, I suppose.
With a very simple answer: we didn't!
I guess you'd have had to have been here pretty much full-time to understand.
One thing I've learned here is that at least 80% of everything related to progress is found in simply "showing up."
I like what Bernie Glassman says in his stimulating little book, Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters. Consider his wisdom:
Many people won't take a step until they think that they know what the right thing is. There is an expression, "Do the right thing." But how do we know what the right thing is? We can't know for sure. Maybe we should just say, "Do the next thing." And if we do that--whatever it is--to the best of our ability, chances are it will turn out to be the right thing as well." (135)
My experience tells me that Bernie is right.
On to the next thing then, okay?
.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
The importance of solitude for community
Years ago, a good friend commented to me that "our children live in a very noisy world." He was speaking of the life environment of inner city families and children.
Of course, he was correct.
Here is a paradox we would do well not to ignore: communities of health and strength are built and maintained by individuals who understand the importance of the "inner life." The ability to go inward, to find times for quiet reflection, to pray and to meditate--this is essential to the growth of authentic, life-sustaining groups.
Community development depends on the "soul-development" of each member of the community.
I read Heron Dance as a tool for journeying inward. The latest on-line edition contains the water color I've posted here, along with these words:
Writing at its best must come from deep within, for often that is where truth and originality lie; none comes entirely from the upper tenth of gray matter. It is when one reaches down into the dark realms of the past that great ideas surge forth.
—Sigurd F. Olson from Reflections From The North Country
When we follow the symbolic discipline of moving into the well of our Self, we find that we develop an increased capacity of inward perception. This capacity seems to be inherent in human beings and is a natural mode of awareness. Since it is inward, however, it tends to be little used in cultural situations where the individual’s attention is constantly being pressured by the outer environment. When, on the other hand, we establish an atmosphere that makes is possible for the attention to be turned inward in a quiet way, this capacity shows itself to be very actively and strongly present in persons who would have thought they did not possess it at all.
—Ira Progoff, from At a Journal Workshop
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