[Spiritual Practice] Centering Prayer — The Contemplative Life.

Centering Prayer — The Contemplative Life.




Centering Prayer


“A naked intent toward God, the desire for him alone, is enough.”
“He is your being and in him you are what you are.”

– The Cloud of Unknowing and Book of Privy Counsel, 7:36-38, 34-35



Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer based on an anonymous 14th Century text called The Cloud of Unknowing, and has roots even further back in the writings of the Desert Fathers of Egyptian Monasticism. It has recently been popularized by the Trappist monk Thomas Keating. In The Cloud of Unknowing, the spiritual advisor describes a type of contemplative prayer in which one seeks to open themselves to the presence of God “beyond thought.” He believes that this "contemplative work of love" is the way to authentic inner transformation – and thereby the spiritual fruits of love, joy, and peace.

When practicing Centering Prayer, the goal is to calm the mind so that one can simply enter and remain in the presence of God, who is experienced within, at the deepest level of one's being. The method is designed to help take the practitioner to this deeper level of awareness, moving beyond the distracting and often chaotic stream of surface-level thoughts which are experienced in day-to-day life. In its deepest form, the prayer is apophatic, having no "content" and making no use of words, symbols, images, or ideas. The practice is often conceptualized as "resting in God."


Method





The method of Centering Prayer is unique when compared to most meditation techniques in that instead of working with the power of attention, the mind’s ability to focus intensely on one object, Centering Prayer works with intention – our willingness or desire to be open to the presence of God.

Thomas Keating describes the method as follows:



1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.

2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

3. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.


Thus one simply sits, introduces their sacred word, eventually gets caught up in their thoughts, and then uses the word to release each thought, returning again and again to an openness to God. By this process the mind quiets, and eventually becomes stilled. What happens in that stillness is open to a variety of interpretations.


The Divine Therapy


Different authors have different conceptual models for understanding what happens during Centering Prayer. One of the most famous models is Thomas Keating's Divine Therapy.

Keating's understanding of the Divine Therapy begins with the assumption that we all come to the practice with some form of emotional trauma in our past. For Keating, these traumas are anything that have threatened or wounded us in areas of our core psychological needs. As we experience wounding in these areas (for Keating, our psychological needs are summarized in the categories of power/control, esteem/affection, and security/survival), we develop attachments to people, places, and situations that bring us comfort, and aversions to people, places, and situations that lead to discomfort in the light of these wounds.

This collection of attachments and aversions results in what Keating calls "emotional programs for happiness."

A typical example:

A young child overhears his father saying, "I wish he was more like his brother," which attacks his core psychological need for esteem/affection. The incident then becomes buried in the boy's subconscious. He may not even remember the incident in adulthood, but, on a subconscious level, part of him continues to want to imitate his brother to achieve his father's affection. The emotional program for happiness of "needing to be like my brother" becomes a deep part of who he is. As a result, he develops attachments to things that make him more like his brother, and aversions to things that make him different. These attachments and aversions, at least in part, continue to drive his behavior throughout life.

On this model, each human being has a host of emotional programs for happiness running at the same time, each based on our unique traumas. These programs create anxieties as we interact with the world, and may even conflict with each other.








When we enter into deep states of meditation through Centering Prayer, Keating believes that these traumas are released from the subconscious and ultimately healed by God. He calls this process the Archaeological Dig. Thus, by the ongoing practice of Centering Prayer, one finds emotional healing as core needs become fulfilled in the presence of God.

Keating's Divine Therapy is one of several ways to conceptualize the effects of Centering Prayer. The translation of traditional "spiritual development language" into psychological terms makes this model popular and accessible to a wide audience. Others may interpret Centering Prayer as leading the practitioner through the traditional purgative, illuminative, and unitive spiritual stages and refer to the apex apophatic meditative experience as “Union with God.” Still others may view the technique from agnostic or even atheist viewpoints and refrain from using any theological language at all. As with all contemplative practices, any intellectual conceptualizations are tentative and one's understanding of the prayer may change over time.



Natural Effects




Whether or not one chooses to use theological language to describe Centering Prayer, there are several natural effects that many practitioners report after taking up the practice:


1. Control of the Mind: During the prayer time, one learns to recognize thought patterns and let them go, always coming back to God using the sacred word. Instead of being carried away by thought chains and ruminations, the ability to choose thoughts is developed and more control is gained over the mind. This ability continues in the course of day to day life.


2. Distance Between Core Identity and Thoughts: When developing the practice of recognizing thoughts and letting them go, a natural distance opens between "You" and your thoughts. You are not your thoughts. You have thoughts. This realization leads to an expanded sense of self.


3. Less Worry and Anxiety: This expanded sense of self and increasing ability to control the mind, coupled with the feeling of an inner-calm during the prayer, generally leads to less worry and anxiety in day to day life. During the prayer, one experiences that "everything is okay" despite outward circumstances. This feeling can continue, to varying degrees, in day-to-day activities. This effect, however, can come and go. Periods of intense inner turmoil, conceivably the result of what Keating calls "the unloading of the subconscious" as part of the Divine Therapy, are also often part of the Path of Centering Prayer.


4. Non-Attachment: Because core personal identity is no longer identified completely with experienced thoughts, one can become less attached to the content of those thoughts. Personal opinions, desires, and cravings can be held more loosely and can lose some of their force or power. Felt personal needs and desires can be experienced as "lighter."


5. Present Moment Awareness: Practicing the skill of returning to the most important thing (God) during prayer naturally leads to returning to the most important thing (the present moment) in daily life. Being trapped in one's thoughts a little less leads to living in the moment a little more.


The natural effects of Centering Prayer overlap significantly with other forms of meditation including Mantram, Zazen, and Vipassana.


The Cloud of Unknowing


The following are several extended excerpts from The Cloud of Unknowing, from which Centering Prayer is based:


The Contemplative Work of the Spirit





“This is what you are to do: lift your heart up to the Lord, with a gentle stirring of love desiring him for his own sake and not for his gifts. Center all your attention and desire on him and let this be the sole concern of your mind and heart. Do all in your power to forget everything else, keeping your thoughts and desires free from any involvement with any of God’s creatures or their affairs whether in general or particular. Perhaps this will seem like an irresponsible attitude, but I tell you, let them all be; pay no attention to them.

What I am describing here is the contemplative work of the spirit. It is this which gives God the greatest delight. For when you fix your love on him, forgetting all else, the saints and angels rejoice and hasten to assist you in every way – though the devils will rage and ceaselessly conspire to thwart you. Your fellow men are marvelously enriched by this work of yours, even if you may not fully understand how; the souls in purgatory are touched, for their suffering is eased by the effects of this work; and, of course, your own spirit is purified and strengthened by this contemplative work more than by all others put together. Yet for all this, when God’s grace arouses you to enthusiasm, it becomes the lightest sort of work there is and one most willingly done. Without his grace, however, it is very difficult and almost, I should say, quite beyond you.

And so diligently persevere until you feel joy in it. For in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing but a kind of darkness about your mind, or as it were, a cloud of unknowing. You will seem to know nothing and to feel nothing except a naked intent toward God in the depths of your being. Try as you might, this darkness and this cloud will remain between you and your God. You will feel frustrated, for your mind will be unable to grasp him, and your heart will not relish the delight of his love. But learn to be at home in this darkness. Return to it as often as you can, letting your spirit cry out to him whom you love. For if, in this life, you hope to feel and see God as he is in himself it must be within this darkness and this cloud. But if you strive to fix your love on him forgetting all else, which is the work of contemplation I have urged you to begin, I am confident that God in his goodness will bring you to a deep experience of himself.”



Be Passive: "Let That Mysterious Grace Move in Your Spirit"



“Contemplative prayer is God’s gift, wholly gratuitous. No one can earn it. It is in the nature of this gift that one who receives it receives also the aptitude for it. No one can have the aptitude without the gift itself. The aptitude for this work is one with the work; they are identical. He who experiences God working in the depths of his spirit has the aptitude for contemplation and no one else. For without God’s grace a person would be so completely insensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer that he would be unable to desire or long for it. You possess it to the extent that you will and desire to possess it, no more no less. But you will never desire to possess it until that which is ineffable and unknowable moves you to desire the ineffable and unknowable. Do not be curious to know more, I beg you. Only become increasingly faithful to this work until it becomes your whole life.

To put it more simply, let that mysterious grace move in your spirit as it will and follow wherever it leads you. Let it be the active doer and you the passive receiver. Do not meddle with it, but let it be for fear you spoil it entirely. Your part is to be as wood to a carpenter or a home to a dweller. Remain blind during this time cutting away all desire to know, for knowledge is a hindrance here. Be content to feel this mysterious grace sweetly awaken in the depths of your spirit. Forget everything but God and fix on him your naked desire…”





Resources

Print
Anonymous (William Johnston ed.), The Cloud of Unknowing. New York: Doubleday, 2005.
Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. United Kingdom: Cowley, 2004.
Thomas Keating, Intimacy With God. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1994.
Thomas Keating, On Divine Therapy. New York: Lantern, 2012.
Murchadh O Madagain, Centering Prayer and the Healing of the Unconscious. New York: Lantern, 2007.
Basil Pennington, Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form. New York: Image Books, 2001.
David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer. Boulder: Sounds True, 2012.
Anthony Coleman, An Introduction to Centering Prayer. Seattle: KDP, 2016.

Audio/Video
David Frenette on the Path of Centering Prayer
Cynthia Bourgeault on the Heart of Centering Prayer
Cynthia Bourgeault on Centering Prayer and Non-Dual Awareness
Thomas Keating on the Guidelines of Centering Prayer
James Wilhoit: Finding Quietness of Heart in Centering Prayer


For Centering Prayer workshops, retreats, groups, and events, visit Contemplative Outreach or find your local State Chapter.

[Spiritual Exercise] Lectio Divina Catholic — The Contemplative Life.

Lectio Divina — The Contemplative Life.




Lectio Divina


Lectio Divina is a method of prayer that uses Sacred Scripture to facilitate one's relationship with God. This form of spirituality is distinctly Catholic, but similar methods are found in other theistic religions. Traditionally, there are four steps in the process – lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio. Each step is often thought of as "rungs on a ladder" leading up to the pure "experience of God" in contemplatio. The process is also sometimes conceptualized as circular, with each step enhancing the experience of the others.





Lectio


The first step in the process of Lectio Divina is lectio – a slow, prayerful, deliberate reading and re-reading of Scripture. The passage used is generally a small section of Scripture, perhaps one verse or even part of a verse. In this step, the key is to slow down and focus fully on the passage at hand. The passage is read and re-read until one has entered fully into the text. An example of a short verse from the Christian Scriptures which may be used comes from Galatians 5:22-23:



"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."


Meditatio


After one slowly and deliberately reads and re-reads the text, they move to the next step – mediatio, or "meditating" on the text. In this step, one continues to "chew on" the text, pondering its meaning. In the passage above, one may meditate on the true meaning of "patience" or “goodness.” The practitioner focuses on whatever part of the text they are drawn to, and the specific section which grabs their attention is often thought of as being guided by the Holy Spirit. Throughout the entire process, one strives to be open to how the Spirit leads them through the text.


Oratio


Meditatio naturally leads to oratio – "praying the text." This step of Lectio Divina is often conceptualized as “having a conversation with God” about the text. The goal of this part of Lectio Divina is to discover what the text means to me, or how God addresses the individual through the text. Oratio is thought of as being deeper than simply thinking about a passage, and is conceptualized as a true relationship with God.


Contemplatio


The final step of Lectio Divina is contemplatio – "contemplation." In the Christian tradition "contemplation" doesn't mean "thinking deeply about something," but rather the opposite – moving beyond thought to an experience at a deeper level than the mind. In the process of Lectio Divina, contemplatio is often referred to as resting in God, beyond thoughts, beyond words, beyond images. One can dispose themselves to contemplatio by willingly opening themselves to the experience, but the experience itself is seen as a pure gift of God, which He gives at the times and in the measure He chooses.

Lectio Divina is often associated with the Benedictine monastic tradition of Catholicism. Although sometimes thought of as a method only suitable for monks, there has recently been a strong push in Catholicism to bring this type of prayer to all within the faith.




Resources



Print
Tim Gray, Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina. West Chester: Ascension Press, 2009.
Stephen Binz, Transformed by God’s Word. Notre Dame: Ava Maria Press, 2016.
Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1988.
Basil Pennington, Lectio Divina. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1998.
Michael Casey, Sacred Reading. Liguiri: Liguiri Press, 1996.

Audio/Video
James Martin on Lectio Divina
Friar Mark Toups on the Four Steps of Lectio Divina
Thomas Keating on Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer

[Spiritual Practice] Jhana samatha meditation— The Contemplative Life.

Jhana — The Contemplative Life.



Jhana


Jhana meditation, sometimes referred to as samatha meditation, is a concentration practice in which one moves through various mind states, called "jhanas," in a progression that leads to deeper and deeper absorption. The jhana states are sometimes referred to as "meditative absorptions," or simply "absorptions." This practice is notoriously esoteric and difficult to understand for the lay practitioner. Jhana meditation is the practice associated with "Right Concentration," which is the eighth branch of the traditional Buddhist Eightfold Noble Path.





Method


The initial instructions for Jhana meditation are fairly straightforward. After taking a traditional meditation posture, one chooses an object of concentration, often times the feeling of the breath flowing over the upper lip. When the attention wanders away, the meditator simply brings it back to the object of concentration – in this case the sensation of the breath.

One simply repeats this procedure, focusing the attention on the feeling of the breath on the upper lip, over and over again, reaching deeper levels of concentration. In this process, the jhana states are said to arise.


The First Four Jhanas (The "Material Jhanas")


Each jhana has its own "feeling" and is a distinct state of absorption. Traditionally, these states are deliniated by the presence or absence of what are called "jhana factors." The jhana factors include:



vitakka: initial attention or the willful act of bringing the attention to the object


vicara: sustained attention, more or less uninterupted attention on the object


piti: a feeling of joy or happiness in the body/consciousness


sukha: bliss, or a more refined state of happiness than piti – sometimes thought of as "gentle contentment"


ekaggata: "one-pointedness of mind" – complete, uninteruped unification of mind on the meditative object


upekkha: equanimity or calmness within sensation


First Jhana: All jhana factors are present. This is described as an excited and pleasant state. Piti is said to be the primary marker of this state.

Second Jhana: Piti, sukha, and ekaggata are present. Sukha is said to be more prevalent than piti in the second jhana, and the experience begins to calm.

Third Jhana: Sukha and ekaggata are present. Piti disappears and this jhana is marked by a calm contentment.

Fourth Jhana: Ekaggata and upekkha are present. Emotion disappears altogether and the mind is one-pointed and calm.


The jhanas are said to be successive and one must "master" each jhana (holding the state continuously, sometimes for several hours) before moving on to the next. In one sitting, the meditator has to enter the lower jhanas before reaching higher levels (i.e. you have to enter first jhana, then second jhana, to get to third jhana). As one continues their practice, they are said to have the ability to move through each state more quickly.


The Last 4 Jhanas (The "Immaterial Jhanas")


After a meditator has achieved the first four jhanas, they are sometimes led through a complex series of sequences in which they move through the first four jhanas using the breath as the object of meditation and then switch the object of meditation to certain elements of the body (there are 32 unique body parts that one must progress through) or kasinas (mental images of colored disks).

After completing this complex series of meditations, the meditator is ready to experience Jhanas 5-8, the "Immaterial Jhanas."


Fifth Jhana: The base of boundless space.

Sixth Jhana: The base of boundless consciousness.

Seventh Jhana: The base of nothingness.

Eighth Jhana: The base of neither perception nor non-perception.


The jhana states are not always described in the same way which leads to a lot of confusion in this practice. It is also not always easy for the meditator to recognize the jhana factors or what state they are in (i.e. "Am I experiencing piti or sukha?", etc.). Even more so than in other practices, the specific instructions for jhana meditation will differ based on the teacher. If a meditator is interested in this practice, they will likely need to seek our a teacher who is certified in a particular lineage.




Resources


Print
Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen, Practicing the Jhanas. Boston: Shambhala, 2009.
Richard Shankman, The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation. Oakland: New Harbinger, 2015.
Leigh Brasington, Right Concentration. Boston: Shambhala, 2015.
Bhante Gunaratana, Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2009.

Audio/Video
Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen on Jhana Meditation
Concentration as One Path of Meditation: Richard Shankman
Shane Wilson on Jhana Meditation
Leigh Brasington on the Jhanas

[Spiritual Practice] Dhikr —Sufism- The Contemplative Life.

Dhikr — The Contemplative Life.


Dhikr


Outside of daily ritual prayer, Dhikr is the primary spiritual practice of Islam, and is practiced especially within Sufism, the contemplative strand of the faith. The term itself means "remembrance" or "recollection," and the methods associated with Dhikr are used to bring the practitioner to remembrance of God.


Core Dhikr Practice


The fundamental practice that is typically associated with Dhikr is the repetition of a name or attribute of God. This practice is also sometimes called tasbih, and can be done audibly or silently, individually or collectively.

When performing Dhikr, the participant chooses a name of God, which has a specific meaning relating to one of His attributes. Traditionally, in Islam there are 99 names of God, each describing Him in a unique way. Examples include Huwa Allah alladhi la ilaha illa hu ("He is God, there is no God but He" – conveying God's uniqueness), al-Rahman ("Merciful"), al-Mu'min ("Faithful"), al-Rahim ("Compassionate"), etc. When picking a name to use for Dhikr, the meditator may choose a specific name that speaks to their current situation. For example, if someone feels the need for forgiveness, the may use the name al-Ghaffar ("Forgiver"). They then "invoke" the name (and thereby God's presence) by repeating it audibly or silently. A famous description of Dhikr comes from Muhammad al-Ghazzali, a famous 11th Century Muslim theologian and Sufi*:






"Let your heart be in such a state that the existence or non-existence of anything is the same – that is, let there be no dichotomy of positive and negative. Then sit alone in a quiet place, free of any task or preoccupation, be it the reciting of the Qur'an, thinking about its meaning, concern over the dictates of religion, or what you have read in books – let nothing besides God enter the mind. Once you are seated in this manner, start to pronounce with your tongue, 'Allah, Allah' keeping your thought on it.

Practice this continuously and without interruption; you will reach a point where the motion of the tongue will cease, and it will appear as if the word just flows from it spontaneously. You go on in this way until every trace of the tongue movement disappears while the heart registers the thought or the idea of the word.

As you continue with this invocation, there will come a time when the word will leave the heart completely. Only the palpable essence or reality of the name will remain, binding itself ineluctably to the heart. Up to this point everything will have been dependent on your own conscious will; the divine bliss and enlightenment that may follow have nothing to do with your conscious will or choice. What you have done so far is to open the window, as it were. You have laid yourself exposed to what God may breathe upon you, as He has done upon his prophets and saints.

If you follow what is said above, you can be sure that the light of Truth will dawn upon your heart..."



* Quotation attributed to Muhammad al-Ghazzali, from The Knowing Heart


Thus Dhikr is a way of bringing the mind to remembrance of God, and possibly leads the practitioner to an experience of God at a deeper level of consciousness. The description above is similar to how many describe both Transcendental Meditation and (especially) Centering Prayer.


Muraqaba


The term Muraqaba is often used to refer to a range of additional Islamic meditative practices. Muraqaba is sometimes spoken of as a form of Dhikr and sometimes spoken of as encompassing a group of practices preformed in addition to Dhikr.

The category of "Muraqaba" includes disciplines that are described as being similar to Lectio Divina, Vipassana, or even concentration practices such as Jhana meditation. Sufism is far from a unified movement within Islam and each particular Sufi order has their own unique practices, especially relating to Muraqaba (i.e. anything in addition to Dhikr). Dhikr is the most widely used practice across Islamic sects.


Fana


One way to look at the ultimate aim of practices such as Dhikr and Muraqaba over extended periods of time is in terms of the experience of fana – the complete annihilation of the ego in a state of "Union with God." Contemplatives from a variety of theistic traditions see this experience, and its effect on the character and inner-being of the experiencer, as a principle aim. Famous mystics such as Jalal ad-Din Rumi from the Sufi tradition are said to have reached this state.

Although the typical non-monastic practitioner may not reach the ecstatic states described by the mystics, these practices are often seen as ways to "polish off the rust on the heart," and slowly form a more God-honoring character.




Resources



Print
Kabir Helminski, The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart. Point Reyes: Golden Sufi Center, 1995.
Carl Earnst, Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
Robert Frager and James Fadiman, Essential Sufism. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Audio/Video
Shankar Nair on Sufi Meditation
”The Two Dimensions of Islam”
Muraqaba

[Spiritual Practice] Maintaining Silence — The Contemplative Life.

Maintaining Silence — The Contemplative Life.



Maintaining Silence



In monastic communities there is often an emphasis placed on maintaining silence throughout one’s day. A monk’s day is often filled with structured periods of manual labor, personal time for reading/study/personal practice, and communal spiritual practice. Various communities may place more or less emphasis on the degree of personal silence that must be maintained, but it is usually encouraged that most of the day is spent without speaking. The following is from the Rule of St. Benedict, a primary sourcebook for much of Catholic monasticism.













“Let us follow the Prophet’s counsel: I said, I have resolved to keep watch over my ways that I may never sin with my tongue. I have put a guard on my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words (Ps 38[39]:2-3). Here the prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence… Indeed, so important is silence that permission to speak should seldom be granted even to mature disciples, no matter how good or holy or constructive their talk…”













Thus, simply maintaining silence during extended periods of one’s day is considered a spiritual practice in many monastic traditions. Highly related to maintaining personal silence is the practice of extended solitude, for instance in a Hermitage or Poustinia, or for non-monks at a retreat house.

Anthony Coleman The Evangelical Experience

The Evangelical Experience: Understanding One of America's Largest Religious Movements from the Inside - Kindle edition by Coleman, Anthony. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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"Believers are light. Unbelievers are darkness. Real, complex, unique people, often people that the believer cares about deeply, have to be put into one of these two categories. Clearly, due to the fact that there are genuinely kind souls of other faiths or non-faith, the believer is eventually going to run into individuals who strain these categories of thought. Often these relationships can be the first 'crack' in the Evangelical framework of faith."

In The Evangelical Experience, Anthony Coleman gives the reader an inside look at the Evangelical movement in America. Having been a part of the faith during his formative and early adult years, Coleman shares his personal journey into, and out of, Evangelicalism, as well as observations on how accepting the Church's doctrine affects the believer in diverse ways. Coleman concludes by wondering aloud what life and faith look like after leaving conservative Christianity, and shares his thoughts on a tentative way forward.

Evangelicals will find much they relate to, non-Evangelicals will gain a better understanding of the movement, and former Evangelicals will find a companion on their journey.

Anthony Coleman holds a B.A. in Biblical Studies and an M.A. in Theological Studies from separate Evangelical institutions. He can be contacted at anthony@thecontemplativelife.org.

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"A debut book offers a concise introduction to Evangelicalism from an informed insider...The book is bifurcated into two parts: a scholarly account of the theology and history of Evangelicalism and a memoir recounting the author's grappling with his own doubts about his faith.  The first part is as lucid a précis as is available; Coleman patiently describes a widely misunderstood religious sect in accessible prose.  What emerges is not only an unambiguous account of what it means to be Evangelical, but also a picture of a church much less monolithic than is commonly thought.  Despite some basic theological commitments, Evangelicals are engaged in their own share of intramural disputes about scriptural exegesis, salvation, homosexuality and gay marriage, and a number of other significant topics.  In the autobiographical portion of the book, Coleman candidly discusses the crisis of faith he experienced as he discovered differences between his view of the Bible and most Evangelicals', and this interpretive dissonance ultimately birthed a philosophical skepticism that nearly destroyed his faith.  He found his way back to God, though no longer as an Evangelical, and counsels that its members rethink their relations to non-Christians...The book concludes with an actual entry from the author's journal that affectingly conveys the anguish he suffered from his trial of doubt.  Coleman writes under a nom de guerre, apparently so as not to challenge the faith of Evangelicals he knows, though it's not entirely clear why writing anonymously will diminish the volume's power to potentially nurture doubts.  Nevertheless, this is a moving and educational book that will resonate with all those in search of an authentically religious life.  A superb account of an increasingly important religious movement." - Kirkus Reviews

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I really appreciated this book, not only because it mirrors so closely my own experience of being very deep within and then journeying away from conservative/evangelical Christianity, but also because it was just a really good read. I actually devoured it in a single sitting. It is written so clearly, carefully and honestly that it is a great book not just for anyone wanting to learn about evangelicalism, but also -- and especially -- for those who find themselves, like the author, "de-converted" . This is the term the author uses, and it's an apt one, conversion being such an important element of evangelicalism. The author is a better person than myself, however, for he clearly harbors no ill-will toward evangelicalism per se or toward those who are still in it. (For myself, all I need is the reminder that 80% of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, and I'm disgusted with the entire program and the whole culture.) Interestingly, his goal is not to encourage others to get out of it. In fact, he worries about evangelicals reading his book and being lead into the same gut-wrenching experiences he went through in his own deconversion. Rather, his goal is to convey his own experience of evangelical religion, not, he says, to speak for evangelicals as a whole.....but in the process we are given a detailed, fair and emotionally nuanced picture of evangelical life. For this reason the book is highly recommended for the outsider. He puts his finger on the 2 really critical points about the culture, first its belief in the inerrant (or infallible) Bible -- to hearing God (having a personal relationship with Jesus) by believing and obeying the book -- and second its us/them mentality, the construction of the entire world of humankind into those who are saved and those who are lost. Along with that are numerous details that are very helpful for understanding them -- such as their obsession with sexual ethics. But he does an especially good job putting his finger on the most critical (and, in my opinion, toxic) features of evangelicalism, in a way only a former insider could do. And, perhaps unintentionally, he offers the most withering critique of evangelicalism, which is that if you follow it to the end, you will find yourself actually lead not into faith but away from it. There is a touching description in the book of the loss of meaning he experienced when he found himself -- really against his will -- actually going so far as this. He found out that the deeper thing people find in evangelicalism is not Jesus but a tremendous infusion of meaningfulness into their lives. The result is that if you leave it you end up in an existential crisis -- with terrible withdrawal symptoms after pulling away from its wonderful infusions of meaning. (I appreciated the author sharing this experience of meaninglessness, because I went through the same misery.) One other thing I should mention, I also appreciated the author pointing out the failed eschatology of (probably) Jesus and (certainly) the early Church. This realization had a big impact on me as well. As he points out, once you see it, it's obvious, and impossible to un-see. It's a problem that evangelicalism needs to grapple with, but cannot. It is too safely and happily ensconced behind the walls of its infallible "word of God" book, inside the borders of its sense of being saved. That's fine for them, but for the rest of us who have really read the Bible closely, it doesn't help much. At the end of the book, he grapples with the question of "what next?" also in a very careful and moving way. Recommended!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Insights and confusions

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018

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Coleman's book is part personal narrative and part accounting of the core beliefs and cultural norms of Evangelical Christianity. His "conversion" from a low-key UCC upbringing, by way of "on fire" Pentecostalism, is a great illustration of the intensity of feeling that I have seen described by other Evangelicals. His crisis of faith in discovering that people do not fit so neatly into "light" (born-again Christian) and "dark" (unbelievers) boxes, and in discovering that his "inerrant" and "authoritative" Bible was filled with paradox and contradiction - this, too, is authentic to the pain I have sometimes seen expressed by Evangelicals and former Evangelicals.

I have carefully placed in quote marks above some of the key cultural and theological factors that seem to most clearly define Evangelicalism. Coleman provides a list of the hallmarks of Evangelical Christianity. Of these, only two strike me to be truly distinguishing, compared to other branches of Protestantism: (1) the importance of the "conversion" experience, and (2) the priority placed on evangelism. Coleman's narrative is effective in showcasing how these go hand-in-hand. A non-obvious insight about Evangelicals is the special emphasis they place on the books of John and Romans.

The rest of the book is a bit of a muddle. For example, Coleman states that the ecumenical creeds are important to Evangelical churches. This is a curious assertion, because it contradicts the primacy and self-evidence of Scripture that is otherwise stated to be a core principle of Evangelicalism. (The ecumenical councils were convened to settle points of doctrine that could not be neatly wrapped up by Scripture, and so the Creeds are by definition "Tradition".) Evangelicals can be said to unwittingly embrace Tradition (the doctrines of hypostatic union and the Trinity, for example, are undisputed) even as they rail against it. The Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and the Confessional statements of the Reformation seem to be especially offensive to Evangelical sensibilities. (Some Fundamentalists even go so far as to reject sermons and devotionals as too much "of man, not of God" and insist that only direct personal communion with Scripture and the Holy Spirit is the true way of a Christian). Adherence to the ecumenical Creeds is even more defining of Catholic, Orthodox and Mainline Protestant Christianity -- all of which articulate the Creeds directly in their worship liturgies -- so why suggest that it is a characteristic of Evangelicals at all?

Another curiosity is the chapter on Evangelical Leadership, which purports to provide a list of "Evangelical celebrities." Among the influential "Evangelical" writers on Coleman's list are NT Wright and CS Lewis (Anglicans), GK Chesterton (Catholic), and Rachel Held Evans (who wrote about leaving the Evangelical church to become an Episcopalian). If these are all Evangelical thinkers, then the term loses all meaning.

By the end of the book, it was clear that what is most distinctive about Evangelicalism is not theology, but rather ethics and praxis. Evangelicalism is not a belief system, but rather a culture, and perhaps one that measures God's presence mostly in terms of the intensity of each individual's feelings and actions. (Why else would the author have felt the need to be baptized three or four times, just to make sure he really "got it right"? Can we not trust that God knew what He was doing the first time around?) I don't know if this was the author's intended message.

I hesitate to critique the author's personal journey, which is described with pain and authenticity. But I do have a suggestion to make for other Evangelicals who may find themselves on such a path. For reasons that are left vague, Coleman attended a Lutheran seminary for his Master's degree. There he was frustrated by his professors' unwillingness to provide tidy and authoritative answers to his questions, which ultimately furthered the death spiral of his Christian belief. But Lutherans are (in)famous for their willingness to hold paradoxes in an unresolved state, and to accept that some questions will remain in the realm of "mystery" to us. So my advice to others who may find their Evangelical beliefs untenable is to embrace the possibility that God asks us find our spiritual life more in the questions, than in the answers. As in Romans 11, who knows the mind of our God? How unsearchable are His judgements? How untraceable are His paths? Thanks be to God.

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My Books —Anthony Coleman - The Contemplative Life.

My Books — The Contemplative Life.




The Contemplative Life.
Exploring contemplative spirituality in the 21st Century...

Home
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Resting in the Ground


“...let us remind ourselves that another, metaphysical, consciousness is still available to modern man. It starts not from the thinking and self-aware subject but from Being, ontologically seen to be beyond and prior to the subject-object division. Underlying the subjective experience of the individual self there is an immediate experience of Being… It has in it none of the split and alienation that occurs when the subject becomes aware of itself as quasi-object. The consciousness of Being is an immediate experience that goes beyond reflexive awareness. It is not ‘consciousness of’ but pure consciousness, in which the subject as such disappears. Posterior to this immediate experience of a ground which transcends experience emerges the subject with its self-awareness.”

– Thomas Merton

“We are each like a well that has a source in a common underground stream which supplies all. The deeper down I go, the closer I come to the source which puts me in contact with all other life.”

– John Welch


Apophatic spiritual practice, and the experience that flows from it, is often seen as the pinnacle of the contemplative journey. Resting in the Ground is a comparison of various forms of apophatic practice as understood by practitioners from the world’s major contemplative traditions. “God as Ground of Being,” a phrase popularized by Paul Tillich, but attested to by religious texts throughout history, is used as a synthesizing interpretive concept for understanding what is being experienced during apophatic practice.

Major meditative practices and traditions explored include Centering Prayer and the Christian Contemplative Tradition, Mantram and the Vedanta Tradition, Yoga, Zazen, Jhana and the Buddhist Tradition, Dhikr and the Islamic Contemplative Tradition, Kabbalah and the Jewish Contemplative Tradition, and the Taoist Contemplative Tradition.

Also included are reflections on the potential of practicing with agnosticism toward the Ground of Being, how cataphatic experiences may be related to apophatic practice, the embedding of meditation within wider spiritual paths, interpretations of what is sometimes called the “Higher Self” or the “egoless-ego” potentially achieved through meditative practice, and a vision for religious community based on shared silence and the space to practice from within one’s own framework. Resting in the Ground is expected to be released in late 2023.

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A Great Tragedy


“Love makes the ego lose itself in the object it loves, and yet at the same time it wants to have the object as its own. This is a contradiction and a great tragedy of life.”

– D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism

Tony, unsatisfied with life, decides to leave for a new town.
Perhaps the road will help Tony figure himself out.

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The Evangelical Experience


I am a former Evangelical Christian. Although I am grateful for many ways this tradition has shaped me, I eventually outgrew this conservative brand of faith. In 2015, The Evangelical Experience was published. The book is broadly broken into two sections. In the first section I attempted to describe modern Evangelicalism from an insider’s perspective. Major topics include an overview of Evangelical doctrine, lenses through which Evangelicals view Jesus, uses and views of Scripture, matters of debate within the religion, and the primary marks of Evangelical culture. The effects of accepting Evangelical doctrine, both positive and negative, are also addressed here.

The second section of the book documents my own journey into, and ultimately, out of, the faith. Here I included the stories of my conversion, development, experience in seminary, deconversion, and thoughts on possible ways to move forward. As an appendix I included a journal entry written in the midst of my deconversion which details many of the reasons I felt forced to leave the faith.

Hopefully this book can be a resource for those outside the church who are looking for a better understanding of Evangelical Christianity. I also hope it can be a resource for current Evangelicals who have some of the same doubts and may be exploring other religious options.

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An Introduction to Centering Prayer




An Introduction to Centering Prayer is a short tract which introduces the reader to the discipline of Centering Prayer.

Topics discussed include: (1) The History of Centering Prayer, especially its connection to the anonymous 14th Century work The Cloud of Unknowing; (2) The Method of Centering Prayer as presented by Thomas Keating, including observations and commentary on each of the steps; (3) possible Theological Paradigms to understand the practice with including the Divine Therapy model, the "Union with God" model, and the True Self/False Self model; (4) Natural Effects of the prayer, including control of the mind, distance between "you" and your thoughts, decreased worry and anxiety, non-attachment, and present moment awareness; (5) Centering in the World and the use of the sacred word during the active life; and (6) The Shape of the Journey, especially emphasizing the possible experience of "dark nights" which are associated with this practice.

This tract is simply intended to provide a very brief overview of the practice and lead the reader to further study. A list of Centering Prayer resources is also included, and several of these resources are also found on the Centering Prayer page of this site.


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Jesus as Apocalyptic Prophet in the Gospel of Matthew




The topic addressed in Jesus as Apocalyptic Prophet in the Gospel of Matthew is extremely controversial. One position in Historical Jesus studies, arguably the dominant scholarly position, is that Jesus of Nazareth is best described as an “Apocalyptic Prophet.” Those who promote this position believe that when Jesus proclaimed the “Kingdom of God at hand,” he was expecting an imminent, universal final judgment followed by the arrival of the eschatological Kingdom of God – an eternal, idyllic existence which could be entered only by the righteous. On this view, a central part of Jesus’ message surrounded preparing oneself for this imminent final judgment.

In this tract, I present an eschatological reading of the Gospel of Matthew. Other topics addressed include: (1) defining the term “apocalyptic,” (2) the expectations of the early Church as demonstrated by various New Testament documents, (3) a reading list of scholars who have come to similar conclusions, and (4) potential implications for the life of faith.

This is a very personal subject for me. At one point in my life, it was the topic that drove me out of seminary. Although “Jesus as Apocalyptic Prophet” is a well-known position among scholars, it seems to be virtually unknown to the lay Christian. Whatever one concludes about the historical Jesus, I believe the search for truth entails engaging with this view.


*As of March 2022, my books have all been made Public Domain. Any individual or entity may reproduce my works for sale without my explicit permission. All ebook files and manuscripts are available free of charge here. If you are able, I do ask that you purchase a copy from my Amazon page to support my work on the site.

Aldous Huxley — Blog — The Contemplative Life.

Aldous Huxley — Blog — The Contemplative Life.

Aldous Huxley

Spiritual Training

June 05, 2021 in Aldous Huxley, Comparative Mysticism

“Paradoxical as it may seem, it is, for very many persons, much easier to behave selflessly in a time of crisis than it is when life is taking its normal course in undisturbed tranquility.  When the going is easy, there is nothing to make us forget our precious selfness, nothing (except our own will to mortification and knowledge of God) to distract our minds from the distractions with which we have chosen to be identified; we are at perfect liberty to wallow in our personality to our heart’s content.  And how we wallow!  It is for this reason that all the masters of the spiritual life insist so strongly upon the importance of little things…

The saint is one who knows that every moment of our human life is a moment of crisis; for at every moment we are called upon to make an all-important decision – to chose between the way that leads to death and spiritual darkness and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal and the eternal order; between our personal will, or the will of some projection of our personality, and the will of God.

In order to fit himself to deal with the emergencies of his way of life, the saint undertakes appropriate training of mind and body, just as the soldier does.  But whereas the objectives of military training are limited and very simple, namely, to make men courageous, cool-headed and co-operatively efficient in the business of killing other men, with whom, personally, they have no quarrel, the objectives of spiritual training are much less narrowly specialized.  Here the aim is primarily to bring human beings to a state in which, because there are no longer any God-eclipsing obstacles between themselves and Reality, they are able to be aware continuously of the divine Ground of their own and all other beings; secondarily, as a means to this end, to meet all, even the most trivial circumstances of daily living without malice, greed, self-assertion or voluntary ignorance, but consistently with love and understanding.  Because its objectives are not limited, because, for the lover of God, every moment is a moment of crisis, spiritual training is incomparably more difficult and searching than military training.  There are many good soldiers, few saints…

What is true of soldiers is also true of saints, but with this important difference – the aim of spiritual training is to make people selfless in every circumstance of life.”

– Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

The Age of Noise

November 06, 2020 in Aldous Huxley

"The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire— we hold history’s record for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our almost miraculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against silence. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than the ear-drums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of distractions— news items, mutually irrelevant bits of information, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music, continually repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but merely create a craving for daily or even hourly emotional enemas. And where, as in most countries, the broadcasting stations support themselves by selling time to advertisers, the noise is carried from the ears, through the realms of phantasy, knowledge and feeling to the ego’s central core of wish and desire. Spoken or printed, broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has but one purpose— to prevent the will from ever achieving silence. Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination. The condition of an expanding and technologically progressive system of mass production is universal craving. Advertising is the organized effort to extend and intensify craving— to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest obstacle between the human soul and its divine Ground."

 

Half of the battle is just turning off the radio, the TV, the podcasts.  I’m really trying to drastically reduce all of that.  Drive in silence.  Read.  Walk without listening to a podcast.  Most of the time we can’t even hear ourselves think.  The real solutions to our problems need to come from within.  We usually already know what we need to know.  

The Mystics are Boring

December 31, 2017 in Aldous Huxley

"Nevertheless, insofar as they are saints, insofar as they possess the unitive knowledge that makes them 'perfect as their Father which is in heaven is perfect,' they are all astonishingly alike. Their actions are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation to the universe and its spiritual Ground. Of even plain average people it may be said that their name is Legion— much more so of exceptionally complex personalities, who identify themselves with a wide diversity of moods, cravings and opinions. Saints, on the contrary, are neither double-minded nor half-hearted, but single and, however great their intellectual gifts, profoundly simple. The multiplicity of Legion has given place to one-pointedness— not to any of those evil one-pointednesses of ambition or covetousness, or lust for power and fame, not even to any of the nobler, but still all too human one-pointednesses of art, scholarship and science, regarded as ends in themselves, but to the supreme, more than human one-pointedness that is the very being of those souls who consciously and consistently pursue man’s final end, the knowledge of eternal Reality...

...Among the cultivated and mentally active, hagiography is now a very unpopular form of literature. The fact is not at all surprising. The cultivated and the mentally active have an insatiable appetite for novelty, diversity and distraction. But the saints, however commanding their talents and whatever the nature of their professional activities, are all incessantly preoccupied with only one subject— spiritual Reality and the means by which they and their fellows can come to the unitive knowledge of that Reality. And as for their actions— these are as monotonously uniform as their thoughts; for in all circumstances they behave selflessly, patiently and with indefatigable charity. No wonder, then, if the biographies of such men and women remain unread. For one well educated person who knows anything about William Law there are two or three hundred who have read Boswell’s life of his younger contemporary. Why? Because, until he actually lay dying, Johnson indulged himself in the most fascinating of multiple personalities; whereas Law, for all the superiority of his talents was almost absurdly simple and single-minded. Legion prefers to read about Legion. It is for this reason that, in the whole repertory of epic, drama and the novel there are hardly any representations of true theocentric saints."

                                               

                                                                                      – Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

 

Real Simplicity

December 24, 2017 in Aldous Huxley

"In the world, when people call anyone simple, they generally mean a foolish, ignorant, credulous person. But real simplicity, so far from being foolish, is almost sublime. All good men like and admire it, are conscious of sinning against it, observe it in others and know what it involves; and yet they could not precisely define it. I should say that simplicity is an uprightness of soul which prevents self-consciousness. It is not the same as sincerity, which is a much humbler virtue. Many people are sincere who are not simple. They say nothing but what they believe to be true, and do not aim at appearing anything but what they are. But they are forever thinking about themselves, weighing their every word and thought, and dwelling upon themselves in apprehension of having done too much or too little. These people are sincere but they are not simple. They are not at their ease with others, nor others with them. There is nothing easy, frank, unrestrained or natural about them. One feels that one would like less admirable people better, who were not so stiff. 

To be absorbed in the world around and never turn a thought within, as in the blind condition of some who are carried away by what is pleasant and tangible, is one extreme as opposed to simplicity. And to be self-absorbed in all matters, whether it be duty to God or man, is the other extreme, which makes a person wise in his own conceit – reserved, self-conscious, uneasy at the least thing which disturbs his inward self-complacency. Such false wisdom, in spite of its solemnity, is hardly less vain and foolish than the folly of those who plunge headlong into worldly pleasures. The one is intoxicated by his outward surroundings, the other by what he believes himself to be doing inwardly; but both are in a state of intoxication, and the last is a worse state than the first, because it seems to be wise, though it is not really, and so people do not try to be cured. Real simplicity lies in a just milieu equally free from thoughtlessness and affectation, in which the soul is not overwhelmed by externals, so as to be unable to reflect, nor yet given up to the endless refinements, which self-consciousness induces. The soul which looks where it is going without losing time arguing over every step, or looking back perpetually, possesses true simplicity. Such simplicity is indeed a great treasure. How shall we attain to it? I would give all I possess for it; it is the costly pearl of Holy Scripture. 

The first step, then, is for the soul to put away outward things and look within so as to know its own real interest; so far all is right and natural; thus much is only wise self-love, which seeks to avoid the intoxication of the world.

In the next step the soul must add the contemplation of God, whom it fears, to that of self. This is a faint approach to the real wisdom, but the soul is still greatly self-absorbed; it is not satisfied with fearing God; it wants to be certain that it does fear him and fears lest it fears him not, going round in a perpetual circle of self-consciousness. All this restless dwelling on self is very far from the peace and freedom of real love; but that is yet in the distance; the soul needs to go through a season of trial, and were it suddenly plunged into a state of rest, it would not know how to use it.

The third step is that, ceasing from a restless self-contemplation, the soul begins to dwell upon God instead, and by degrees forgets itself in Him. It becomes full of Him and ceases to feed upon self. Such a soul is not blinded to its own faults or indifferent to its own errors; it is more conscious of them than ever, and increased light shows them in plainer form, but this self-knowledge comes from God, and therefore it is not restless or uneasy."

– Francois Fenelon, quoted in The Perennial Philosophy

 

 

Island Universes

July 01, 2016 in Aldous Huxley

Ok, one more Huxley quote and I'll be done with him for a bit.  He's just such a fascinating writer.

Here he talks about how we can't ever truly share an experience with anyone.  We are "locked inside" ourselves, and there's really nothing we can ever do about that.  Just interesting to think about...

"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies – all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes."

– Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Agnostic Meditation

June 26, 2016 in Aldous Huxley

As I continue to develop this site, I am starting with the practices that I feel I know the most about.  My primary spiritual practice is Centering Prayer, what you might call "resting in God," beyond thoughts, images, ideas, and emotions.  You can check out the Centering Prayer page under the Spiritual Practice tab for more.

While I'm in my Centering Prayer writing mode, I wanted to include some extended quotations from an essay by Aldous Huxley entitled Symbol and Immediate Experience from his collection The Divine Within: Selected Writings in Enlightenment.  

What I find most interesting is not only his discussion of a certain type of mystical experience (which I find similar to what can happen during Centering Prayer), but also the idea that you don't have to hold certain religious beliefs to practice these disciplines.  The Transcendental Meditation movement has really moved in this direction and uses almost completely secular language, even though it comes from the explicitly religious Vedic tradition.

So, a few quotations.  Huxley starts by describing "the mystical experience":

 

"Very briefly, let us discuss what is the mystical experience. I take it that the mystical experience is essentially the being aware of and, while the experience lasts, being identified with a form of pure consciousness – of unstructured, transpersonal consciousness, lying, so to speak, upstream from the ordinary discursive consciousness of every day. It is a non-egotistic consciousness, which seems to underlie the consciousness of the separate ego in time. Now, why should this sort of experience be regarded as valuable? I think for two reasons: First of all, it is regarded as valuable because of the self-evident sensibility of value, as William Law would say. It is regarded as intrinsically valuable just as aesthetically the experience of beauty is regarded as valuable. It is like the experience of beauty, but so much more, so to speak. And it is valuable, secondarily, because as a matter of empirical experience it does bring about changes in thought and character and feeling which the experiencer and those about him regard as manifestly desirable. It makes possible a sense of unity, of solidarity, with the world. It brings about the possibility of a kind of universal love and compassion..."

I might alter his statement by saying that this is a mystical experience.  Huxley himself wrote about his experience on mescaline in The Doors of Perception, which he would take to be "mystical" but clearly a different sort of experience than he his describing here.  But "consciousness beyond thought" or "pure consciousness" is, in my opinion, a fair secular way to describe the state potentially reached by Centering Prayer, Transcendental Meditation, and Zen.  

Huxley goes on to discus a method of getting to this state:

 

"Now, very briefly, I must just touch on the means for reaching this state. Here, again, it has been constantly stressed that the means do not consist in mental activity and discursive reasoning. They consist in what Roger Fry, speaking about art, used to call "alert passivity," or "determined sensitiveness." This is a very remarkable phrase. You don't do anything, but you are determined to be sensitive to letting something be done within you. And one has this expressed by some of the great masters of the spiritual life in the West. St. Francois de Sales, for example, writing to his pupil, St. Jeanne de Chantal, says: 'You tell me you do nothing in prayer. But what do you want to do in prayer except what you are doing, which is, presenting and representing your nothingness and misery to God? When beggars expose their ulcers and their necessities to our sight, that is the best appeal they can make. But from what you tell me, you sometimes do nothing of this, but lie there like a shadow or statue. They put statues in palaces simply to please the prince's eyes. Be content to be that in the presence of God: he will bring the statue to life when he pleases.'"

This alert passivity or determined sensitiveness could easily describe what we're trying to do in Centering Prayer.  Although Huxley says he is discussing a method for reaching this state, he doesn't touch on an actual methodology.  Centering Prayer, Transcendental Meditation, and Zazen each, it seems to me, have their own ways of getting you there.  In Centering Prayer you are releasing thoughts and setting an intention to be open to God; in Transcendental Meditation you are focusing the attention on a mantra; in Zazen, you are typically focusing the attention on the breath.  These practices aren't "all just the same thing," but I do think each could potentially take you to this state of consciousness beyond thought.

Huxley concludes by stating that you don't have to have any particular religious belief to experiment with this type of meditation:

 

"And of course if anyone does not want to formulate this process in theological terms he does not have to; it is possible to think of it strictly in psychological terms. I myself happen to believe that this deeper Self within us is in some way continuous with the Mind of the universe, or whatever you like to call it; but you don't necessarily have to accept this. You can practice this entirely in psychological terms and on the basis of a complete agnosticism in regard to the conceptual ideas of orthodox religion. An agnostic can practice these things and yet come to gnosis, to knowledge; and the fruits of knowledge will be the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, and peace, and the capacity to help other people. So that we see then, there is really no conflict between the mystical approach to religion and the scientific approach, simply because one is not committed by it to any cut and dried statement about the structure of the universe..."

As we find ourselves in an increasingly secular society, this idea that you don't have to hold certain religious ideas to find a contemplative practice clearly removes a barrier for a lot of people.  I'm with Huxley in that I interpret contemplative experience in religious terms.  But I think we will continue to see contemplative practices "unbundled" from their religious contexts.  

The Perennial Philosophy: Review

June 25, 2016 in Book Reviews, Comparative Mysticism, Aldous Huxley

Drawing from primary texts across the spectrum of the world's religious traditions, in The Perennial Philosophy Aldous Huxley synthesizes mystic thought in a variety of areas.  Beginning with what the mystics believe about the nature of reality, Huxley goes on to show how this "Perennial Philosophy" plays itself out in their lives.  A fantastic springboard for exploring primary contemplative texts, there is no better book for an introduction to world mysticism.  

Overview:  Huxley begins by defining the "philosophy of the mystics," what has been called, since Gottfried Leibniz, the Perennial Philosophy because it shows itself in religious traditions across the ages.  In Huxley's words:

 

"Philosophia Perennis – the phrase was coined by Leibniz; but the thing – the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being – the thing is immemorial and universal."

Huxley's definition brings together Western personal/theistic thought and Eastern, mostly non-personal, thought into one statement.  To speak roughly in the languages of West and East: 

In Western terms: (1) There is a God who is the Source of existence, (2) God dwells at the core of each human soul, and (3) our ultimate destiny, if we choose it, is union with God.  

In Eastern terms: (1) There is a Spiritual Ground of existence, (2) the core of each human soul is identical with the Spiritual Ground, and (3) our ultimate destiny, if we choose it, is absorption in the Ground.  

Huxley spends his first two chapters, That Art Thou and The Nature of the Ground, expanding on this definition.  In true mystic form, the nature of the Spiritual Ground which lies at the core of each created being is a mystery.  

 

"What is the That to which the thou can discover itself to be akin? To this the fully developed Perennial Philosophy has at all times and in all places given fundamentally the same answer. The divine Ground of all existence is a spiritual Absolute, ineffable in terms of discursive thought, but (in certain circumstances) susceptible of being directly experienced and realized by the human being."

In other words, God can't be defined, He can only be experienced directly.  That, my friends, is mysticism.  The God whom the worshipper may have "known" through their religious texts, doctrine, and faith tradition, suddenly becomes "unknowable."  The mystics are concerned almost exclusively with direct experience of God and how that experience transforms them; theology becomes a secondary matter.  This has, historically, often put them at odds with the official religious institutions they come from.  

After defining and expanding on the core philosophy of the mystics, Huxley spends the rest of the book looking at how this plays out in their lives.  I'll briefly look at three of these chapters:

 

Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood:  The way to find God is to die to self.  The goal of the mystic is simply to become an empty vessel through which God may work.  Instead of identifying with the ego, the "I", the normal sense of self, the contemplative identifies with the divine "not-I," what is called the "Higher Self" in some traditions.  The life of the contemplative is thus a life of self-denial, not because self-denial is a good in and of itself, but because it is the ego, our self-will, that separates us from a life of union with God.

The Miraculous:  Here Huxley explores the existence of "miraculous events" and their connection to the mystics.  These type of events – supernatural healings, psychic powers, etc. – are often associated with contemplatives.  Surprisingly, their attitude towards the miraculous is one of indifference and can be summed up by a quote with which Huxley introduces the chapter:

 

"Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody."

– Ansari of Herat

It is salvation, deliverance, nirvana and how that experience can be lived out in the world that the contemplatives are interested in, not the cultivation of supernatural powers.  

Contemplation, Action and Social Utility:  The contemplatives believe that contemplation, the direct experience of God, is the ultimate end for which humanity is designed.  Action in the world (good works, etc.) may prepare the soul for contemplation, but action is not an end in itself.

 

"In all the historic formulations of the Perennial Philosophy it is axiomatic that the end of human life is contemplation, or the direct and intuitive awareness of God; that action is the means to that end; that a society is good to the extent that it renders contemplation possible for its members; and that the existence of at least a minority of contemplatives is necessary for the well-being of any society."

Ironically, it is also the contemplative, the one who has purified himself of self-will, that will naturally perform true positive action in the world:

 

"...action that is 'taken away from the life of prayer' is action unenlightened by contact with Reality, uninspired and unguided; consequently it is apt to be ineffective and even harmful."

In other chapters, Huxley delves into personal temperament and how it affects religious action, spiritual exercises, the role of ritual and sacrament, and various related topics.  

Personal Reflections:  Some critics think that Huxley finds too much commonality and not enough diversity in world mysticism, that he "makes the pieces fit" what he believes is a common core.  While there is certainly diversity in these traditions, I think Huxley does show that, while the mystics might not speak with one voice, they do often speak in harmony.

This book was life-changing for me.  As I was coming out of conservative religion, it helped me hang on to the belief that religion may, in fact, point to something real.  That even if all of my tightly held theology had been stripped away, I might still find God.  Nihilism works for some people, but it clearly wasn't going to work for me.  And that's where I would be if I hadn't found the contemplative versions of faith that are represented in this book.   

One of the more fascinating ideas that I come back to from The Perennial Philosophy is the idea that "knowledge is a function of being."  If we change ourselves by consciously "dying to self" and becoming selfless, we can change our "knowledge" or experience of the world.  Instead of interpreting the world through the tainted lens of our own needs and wants, our self-interest, we begin to see the world with different eyes.  And the mystics insist that if we can truly cleanse ourselves of our self-interest, the fruit will be a life of love, joy, and peace.  

I can't recommend this book, or Huxley as an author, enough.  If you are interested in world mysticism, start here.  

[Spiritual Practice] Inner Listening — The Quakers - The Contemplative Life.

Inner Listening — The Contemplative Life.



Inner Listening


Inner Listening is a form of spirituality practiced among adherents of most of the world's theistic faiths. Inner Listening is usually interpreted as "listening to God," and can be facilitated by methods such as Lectio Divina or Imaginative Prayer. This form of spirituality is perhaps most associated with the Quakers.


The Quakers


The Religious Society of Friends, more commonly called The Quakers, are a Christian sect stemming from religious revival in 17th Century England. This revival, led by George Fox, emphasized individual spiritual experience over conventional religious structures. Specifically, faith is placed in the leading of what the community calls the "Inner Light."

Quakerism was, and is, a diverse religious movement and includes branches which affirm traditional Christian theology as well as branches which do not promote any doctrinal beliefs. Individual Quaker congregations also often display this diversity, and commonly contain members who approach the faith from widely different theological, or perhaps non-theological, perspectives. The common tie that unites those within the movement is a commitment to the practice of Quaker worship.


Quaker Worship

In traditional Quaker worship, a group gathers and simply sits together in silence, awaiting the guidance of the "Inner Light." Most often, the Inner Light is experienced privately and is interpreted as speaking to one's unique personal situation. Occasionally, these long periods of silence are broken by a community member who feels led to share a message with the group. This action, again, is seen as being directed by the Inner Light, which is shared by each worshiper.

A modern service typically lasts one hour, though gatherings may have lasted up to three hours in the 17th Century.



Interpretation of The Inner Light


The concept of the Inner Light, which worshipers "listen to" during worship, is interpreted in a variety of ways within the faith. The most common way Quakers talk about the Inner Light is through traditionally theistic language. Terms used to refer to the Inner Light include "that of God" which is in everyone, "God within," the "seed of God," and the "light of Christ" (for those who hold conventionally Christian beliefs).

Others may not use theological language when describing this Inner Voice, and may conceptualize it as one's Deepest Self. There is no official Quaker interpretation of what happens during worship; the uniting factor is the practice itself.



Communal Decision Making


One other unique practice within Quakerism is communal decision making. When Quaker congregations make decisions affecting the group, they typically will not move forward without the consensus of the entire congregation. Business meetings are conducted in a prayerful way and often begin with formal worship. In this way, trust in the personal leading of the Inner Light flows into trust in the communal leading of the Inner Light. If there are significant dissenting voices to a potential decision, it is often interpreted as a sign that more discernment is required. Final decisions are usually delayed until consensus is reached.




Resources



Print
Philip Gulley, Living the Quaker Way. New York: Convergent, 2013.
Pink Dandelion, The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
George Fox (Rufus Jones ed.), The Journal of George Fox. New York: Friends United Press, 1976.
Jim Pym, Listening to the Light. New York: Ebury, 2010.

Audio/Video
What to Expect at a Quaker Meeting
Perspective on Quaker Worship
Quakers and the Inner Light
The Quaker Practice of Discernment


For more on Quakers in the United States, visit Quaker.org. Not all local chapters/communities are represented on the national site.

[Spiritual Practice] Meditative Kabbalah — The Contemplative Life.

Meditative Kabbalah — The Contemplative Life.

Meditative Kabbalah


Kabbalah, the mystical strand within Judaism, is arguably the most esoteric of the world's major contemplative traditions. While visions, the attainment of secret wisdom and powers, numerology, the practice of decoding texts to predict future events, etc. have a limited place on the fringes in most schools of mysticism, in Kabbalah these eccentricities are more front and center. The philosophy and forms of spirituality that have developed within Kabbalah are largely dependent on a group of writings called The Zohar, the movement's fundamental text.


The Zohar


The Zohar is an extremely large collection of writings that most likely originated in the 13th Century with a Spanish Jewish mystic named Moses de Leon. Although Moses claimed to be simply transmitting ancient texts (traditionally the bulk of the Zohar is attributed to a 2nd Century Rabbi – Simon bar Yochai – with some portions being attributed to Abraham or even Adam), most scholars believe that Moses de Leon himself, perhaps with a group of other kabbalists, authored most of the writings while drawing on earlier texts. The Zohar is primarily an imaginative story which uses the text of Torah as a springboard; in this regard it shares similarities with a method of Jewish commentary on Scripture called midrash. A primary focus of the Zohar is the Sefirot.


The Sefirot


The Sefirot are conceptualized as a description of the inner workings of God – a sort of "Divine map" that portrays various aspects of God's nature and, therefore, the nature of existence. The entire schema is often referred to as the Tree of Life, and consists of 10 Sefirot.




The Sefirot include:

• Keter – "crown" or "source," represents the unknowable essence of God
• Chochmah – "wisdom," represents the knowledge of God
• Binah – "understanding" or "empathy," represents divine motherly wisdom
• Chesed – "love" or "mercy," represents the compassion of God
• Gvurah – "judgment," represents the divine justice
• Tiferet – "beauty" or "harmony," represents the balance of love and justice
• Netzach – "creativity," represents the creative power of God
• Hod – "prophecy," represents creativity made concrete
• Yesod – "reproductive energy" or "foundation," the will of God to create
• Malchut – "kingdom," represents the material world

Meditative Practice: The Divine Names and the Hebrew Alphabet


Various methods of meditation have been used within the Kabbalistic tradition. Although no one single method can be said to be "normative," one of the most popular forms of meditation focuses on a Divine Name and/or a sequence of Hebrew letters.

The use of various Divine Names for meditation is strikingly similar to the Sufi concept of Dhikr. 

In this method, one chooses a name of God that is appropriate to their situation. A Kabbalist might use one of a variety of names for God in the Hebrew Scriptures such as Adonai ("Absolute Lordship"), El Shaddai ("The Almighty"), Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh ("I Am that I Am"), etc. The name is then repeated as a mantra, sometimes accompanied by various breathing techniques. 

 The interpretations of what happens during this type of meditation range from 

stilling the mind or "moving beyond thought to the experience of God" (i.e. similar to Centering Prayer, 

the Buddhist concept of Samadhi, etc.) to the acquisition of special powers.

 Kabbalists tend to be more prone to assigning, for lack of a better term, "magical powers" to the Divine Names or symbols than those from other contemplative faiths.

A unique meditative technique to Kabbalah is the use of Hebrew alphabetical characters as objects of concentration. In Kabbalistic cosmology, God creates the universe by combining various Hebrew letters. To create a tree, He simply combines the letters that spell "tree" in Hebrew; to create the sky, He combines the letters that spell "sky," etc. Thus it is thought that combining certain Hebrew characters as objects for meditation will produce different effects for the practitioner.

Devekut

One concept that potentially unites various practices in the Jewish mystical tradition is that of Devekut – "clinging to God." 

Through meditative practices, Torah study, following the Commandments, and the performance of good works, one seeks to join their soul to God's, or "cling to" God, both in times of prayer and in daily life.




Resources


Print
Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006.
Elizabeth Clare, Kabbalah. Gardiner: Summit Press, 1997.
Rav P. S. Berg, The Essential Zohar. New York: Three Rivers, 2002.

Audio/Video
Gnosis: Secrets of the Kabbalah