I have been teaching a class called “Contemplative Spirituality” for a few years now. It is one I love doing. Normally, the students who sign up for it have little, or no, clue what it is going to do---or do to them. If they know anything about the word, contemplate, they assume it means to think something over or to think rather deeply. I agree that this is the way it typically is used by people in the world. I don’t quarrel with that meaning of the word.
In the spiritual realm, however, it comes to mean something a bit more precise. It is also like a number of things in the world of spirituality, that it can be rather slippery to nail down a particular meaning. In some regards this is because spirituality begins with human experience, rather than doctrines or beliefs. And we all know human experience can often be difficult to describe. That points to the real difficulty. If we are trying to describe something that may be as much mystery as clearly revealed, it can be tough to be articulate. In this sense it is a little like explaining love.
I invite you, therefore, to begin thinking about contemplative spirituality as a way of orienting your life to some sense of the Spirit pulsing though you. Starting here may sound like utter nonsense. And maybe it is! After all, spirituality is not something we are going to prove---or disprove. So, don’t spend time arguing about it. It may be a helpful or not helpful discussion. It may be attractive or unattractive as a way of seeing life and choosing to live in a particular way. What I do think makes sense is to choose with some awareness and thought the way you live. Too many of us are living rather robotically. That is not much fun ultimately.
Usually, I offer some beginning words from the 20th century Trappist monk who chose to live his life in a monastery committed to contemplative living. Merton describes this contemplative life in his wonderful book, New Seeds of Contemplative, as “spiritual wonder.” (1) He continues, “It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being.” I remember reading this the first time many years ago. It spoke deeply to me and had the effect of pulling me in the direction of wanting that kind of life for myself. I knew it did not mean joining that monastery in Kentucky or anywhere else. It meant figuring out what living contemplatively looked like in my own chosen vocation with kids, cars and responsibilities that were anything like monastic responsibilities!
I wanted that sense of life being sacred. I wanted to experience a spontaneous awe. I am sure there is no switch that can be flipped and automatically awe drops from the heavens like dew drops on your heart. I don’t think it means you do nothing and hope to get lucky. I do think there is much we can do to prepare ourselves for this kind of gift---indeed, this kind of contemplative life.
This is where I find the book, I use for my class so helpful. Roger Walsh, an Australian psychiatrist and writer on spirituality in his book, Essential Spirituality, has divided that book into seven practices. One of the practices is called “Awaken Your Spiritual Vision.” Ok, I thought, let’s do awaken my spiritual vision. As usual, much of the early part of doing this is to become aware. That sounds easier said than done. Anyone who begins meditation or goes to a silent Quaker meeting for worship quickly realizes how out of control our minds are. We start to try thinking about God and before long we discover we are thinking about goals for the rest of the day. Our attention has been hijacked!
One of the things Walsh encourages us to do is cultivate what often is called the eye of the soul. This is a term Christians have used over the centuries. Even the philosophical tradition we know as Platonic thinking uses the same language, so this contemplative quest is not necessarily religious---although I think it is spiritual. Other religious traditions have their own language for this spiritual eye. The Taoist talks about the “eye of Tao” or “inner eye.” Tao means the way. The Sufis describe it as the “eye of the heart.” All of these phrases are ways to talk about becoming aware. With this awareness we can begin “to see.” And this is how our spiritual vision begins to become clear.
I like how Walsh describes the emergence of awareness in our spiritual senses.” He says, “This potential awareness penetrates far below the ego’s restless turmoil to the sacred core of our being.” (196) This awareness leads us away from fully participating in whatever our ego wants. Our ego is not necessarily bad; but it is not all there is. Our egos often override any sense of our souls---our deeper spiritual place of connection with God, others and our natural world.
To become aware allows us a chance to choose what to do with ego---if anything. Sometimes, becoming more fully aware takes us away from ego’s desires to see with that “inner eye” something better, but deeper. I appreciate Augustine when he teaches, “It is with the eye interior eye that truth is seen…Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.” (197)
When we begin to seek that way of life, we touch base with the sacred within and start a whole new way of living.
In the spiritual realm, however, it comes to mean something a bit more precise. It is also like a number of things in the world of spirituality, that it can be rather slippery to nail down a particular meaning. In some regards this is because spirituality begins with human experience, rather than doctrines or beliefs. And we all know human experience can often be difficult to describe. That points to the real difficulty. If we are trying to describe something that may be as much mystery as clearly revealed, it can be tough to be articulate. In this sense it is a little like explaining love.
I invite you, therefore, to begin thinking about contemplative spirituality as a way of orienting your life to some sense of the Spirit pulsing though you. Starting here may sound like utter nonsense. And maybe it is! After all, spirituality is not something we are going to prove---or disprove. So, don’t spend time arguing about it. It may be a helpful or not helpful discussion. It may be attractive or unattractive as a way of seeing life and choosing to live in a particular way. What I do think makes sense is to choose with some awareness and thought the way you live. Too many of us are living rather robotically. That is not much fun ultimately.
Usually, I offer some beginning words from the 20th century Trappist monk who chose to live his life in a monastery committed to contemplative living. Merton describes this contemplative life in his wonderful book, New Seeds of Contemplative, as “spiritual wonder.” (1) He continues, “It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being.” I remember reading this the first time many years ago. It spoke deeply to me and had the effect of pulling me in the direction of wanting that kind of life for myself. I knew it did not mean joining that monastery in Kentucky or anywhere else. It meant figuring out what living contemplatively looked like in my own chosen vocation with kids, cars and responsibilities that were anything like monastic responsibilities!
I wanted that sense of life being sacred. I wanted to experience a spontaneous awe. I am sure there is no switch that can be flipped and automatically awe drops from the heavens like dew drops on your heart. I don’t think it means you do nothing and hope to get lucky. I do think there is much we can do to prepare ourselves for this kind of gift---indeed, this kind of contemplative life.
This is where I find the book, I use for my class so helpful. Roger Walsh, an Australian psychiatrist and writer on spirituality in his book, Essential Spirituality, has divided that book into seven practices. One of the practices is called “Awaken Your Spiritual Vision.” Ok, I thought, let’s do awaken my spiritual vision. As usual, much of the early part of doing this is to become aware. That sounds easier said than done. Anyone who begins meditation or goes to a silent Quaker meeting for worship quickly realizes how out of control our minds are. We start to try thinking about God and before long we discover we are thinking about goals for the rest of the day. Our attention has been hijacked!
One of the things Walsh encourages us to do is cultivate what often is called the eye of the soul. This is a term Christians have used over the centuries. Even the philosophical tradition we know as Platonic thinking uses the same language, so this contemplative quest is not necessarily religious---although I think it is spiritual. Other religious traditions have their own language for this spiritual eye. The Taoist talks about the “eye of Tao” or “inner eye.” Tao means the way. The Sufis describe it as the “eye of the heart.” All of these phrases are ways to talk about becoming aware. With this awareness we can begin “to see.” And this is how our spiritual vision begins to become clear.
I like how Walsh describes the emergence of awareness in our spiritual senses.” He says, “This potential awareness penetrates far below the ego’s restless turmoil to the sacred core of our being.” (196) This awareness leads us away from fully participating in whatever our ego wants. Our ego is not necessarily bad; but it is not all there is. Our egos often override any sense of our souls---our deeper spiritual place of connection with God, others and our natural world.
To become aware allows us a chance to choose what to do with ego---if anything. Sometimes, becoming more fully aware takes us away from ego’s desires to see with that “inner eye” something better, but deeper. I appreciate Augustine when he teaches, “It is with the eye interior eye that truth is seen…Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.” (197)
When we begin to seek that way of life, we touch base with the sacred within and start a whole new way of living.
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