Good day good people,
As we continue to create moon in ourselves by directly working with what Keating called the “false self system” and using this material for transformation, we as Cynthia Bourgeault says, "turn lead into gold." Of the false self system, Thomas Keating has said, “Our emotional programs for happiness formed in early childhood and fossilized into energy centers as a source of motivation for our thoughts, feelings, reactions and behavior manifest themselves at every level of our human functioning. And… they manifest themselves in desires for the symbols of whatever our particular emotional program is as crystallized in the culture. For instance, a materialistic expression of our desire for security might be expressed in money, power, insurance policies, houses – or whatever is the symbol of security in the particular culture that this human being might be in. You might think that once we begin the spiritual journey, then, and have bought into the values of the Gospel and the work and practice of the spiritual journey, then we would be safe. Not at all. The abstract, intellectual, conceptual or decision to buy into the Gospel values doesn't touch the unconscious motivation which is firmly in place by the time we reach the age of reason and probably even firmer in place by the time we hear the invitation of the Gospel to repent; that is, change the directions in which you are looking for happiness” (The Spiritual Journey, False Self in Action Part 1).
Part of the process of turning lead into gold, as Cynthia talks about, is letting ourselves fall into a negative state and then engaging, working with, and not repressing it while also allowing it to shift. Her teacher Rafe “had come to trust, that a much more powerful spiritual alchemy occurs when one allows oneself to “fall down and get up again” -- i.e., to be briefly overtaken by a negative state and then emerge out the other side through a powerful interior u-turn. Rather than merely sublimating his inner demons, he actively used them as raw material for his transformation” (Spirituality & Practice ecourse, Spiritual Gifts from the Imaginal Realm, Session 8).
For those of us engaging this practice right now, it is important to get specific and choose one way we go on automatic pilot in our false self system. I invite us to choose something that is relatively unthreatening to work with and to explore this part or ‘i’s mechanical habits, conditioning, inner commentary, mental pictures, desires, body postures, tones of voice, etc. We explore all of this from the deeper place inside that can see with non-judgmental strength, gentleness, and curiosity. Let's keep at this alchemical work, knowing that our individual work is fed and nourished by our collective work and vice versa.
With love,
Heather
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, August 26th
Reading: “...the stunning conclusion is that there is no lack. That primordial hunger for intimacy and belonging we so frantically project onto others in our attempt to find fulfillment is fulfilled already, there in the "infinity of love" already residing holographically in our own hearts, once we have truly learned to attune to its frequency and trust that with which it reverberates. In this sense, our physical heart is the quintessential "treasure buried in the field." — Cynthia Bourgeault, The Heart of Centering Prayer, p.211
Chant: Do not give your heart, do not give your heart, do not give your heart that which does not satisfy your heart (by Susan Latimer)
Tuesday, August 27th
Reading: “Presence, or as Simeon [the New Theologian, a Greek Orthodox spiritual master of the late tenth century] calls it, "attention of the heart," is the capacity to be fully engaged at every level of one's being: alive and simultaneously present to both God and the situation at hand.
"Developing attention of the heart is all-important, Simeon maintains, because without it, it is impossible to acquire sufficient inner strength to fulfill the beatitudes…Simeon clearly sees that ordinary awareness per se is incapable of carrying out the gospel. Only when the mind is "in the heart," grounded and tethered in that deeper wellspring of spiritual awareness, is it possible to live the teachings of Jesus without hypocrisy or burnout. The gospel requires a radical openness and compassion that are beyond the capacity of the anxious, fear-ridden ego.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, p. 117
Chant: Put the mind in the heart, put the mind in the heart, stand before the Lord with the mind in the heart
Wednesday, August 28th
Reading/Lyrics: “I Am Here in the Heart of God”
I am here in the heart of GodGod is here in the heart of meLike the wave in the water and the water in the waveI am here in the heart of God
I am here in the breath of GodGod is here in the breath of meLike the wind in the springtime and the springtime in the windI am here in the breath of God
I am here in the soul of GodGod is here in the soul of meLike the flame in the fire and the fire in the flameI am here in the soul of God
I am here in the mind of GodGod is here in the mind of meLike the earth in my body and my body in the earthLike the flame in the fire and the fire in the flameLike the wind in the springtime and the springtime in the windLike the wave in the water and the water in the waveI am here in the heart of God
— Erin McGaughan and arranged into call and echo by Chanda Rule, who also added several verses to the original
Thursday, August 29th
“The eternal inward light does not die when ecstasy dies, nor exist only intermittently with the flickering of our psychic states. Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the divine touch, lies at the basis of mature religious experience. Let us explore together the secret of a deeper devotion, a more subterranean sanctuary of the soul, where the light within never fades, but burns, a perpetual flame . . . The ‘bright shoots of everlastingness’ can become a steady light within, if we are deadly in earnest in our dedication to the light and are willing to pass out of the first stages into mature religious living.” — Thomas Kelly, Testament of Devotion, p. 5
Chant: with you is the well of life, and in your light, we see light (by Susan Latimer)
Friday, August 30th
Reading: “The anonymous monastic author of The Cloud of Unknowing “states emphatically throughout his teaching, “Any thought is between you and God”— by which he means comes between you and God. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a good or worthy thought; any thought gets in the way because, as he puts it, “The eye of your soul opens on it and is fixed on it just as the eye of an archer is fixed upon the target he is shooting at.” In other words, your attention has just been captured in subject/object polarity, whereas God can only be directly perceived through an entirely different kind of awareness, to which he gives the name “contemplation.” The work of contemplation, as he sees it, lies in training your mind to resist this centrifugal pull of attention, and the state of contemplation is attained as one progressively learns to “keep within,” resting within an undivided field of awareness.” — Cynthia Bourgeault Practical Nonduality: Session 6, Spirituality & Practice eCourse
Chant: Just be here, let go be here, keep within, within your heart, just be here, let go be here, keep within, within God’s heart (by Heather Ruce)
Saturday, August 31st
Reading: “In Centering Prayer a thought is defined exactly as it was in The Cloud of Unknowing — as anything that brings your attention to a focal point, period. And just like his medieval forbearer, Thomas Keating emphasized that all thoughts are to be let go of, even the most holy, because what is at stake here is not the worthiness of the object, but the configuration of your attention. His well-worn teaching mantra — “resist no thought, retain no thought, react to no thought, return ever so gently to the sacred word” — directly mirrors that core insight from The Cloud of Unknowing and gives Centering Prayer practitioners…daily practice in disentangling themselves from default subject/object dualism. (In Centering Prayer language, this is known as “consenting to the presence and action of God.”)”
"Many people find this aspect of the Centering Prayer teaching initially confusing. They try frantically to swat away all thoughts to keep the mind in the state of emptiness they imagine to be the goal. But once you see that the real goal is about learning to release attention when it is captured in a familiar but lower-order operating system, the method begins to take on a whole new perspective. Centering Prayer then becomes an active laboratory for the slow and patient rewiring (both neurologically and attitudinally) that will gradually transform those occasional mystical “glimpses and visions” into a steady viewing platform.”” — Cynthia Bourgeault Practical Nonduality: Session 6, Spirituality & Practice eCourse
Chant: bind my head and my heart in you, Holy One, Holy One, Holy One (by David Kelly)
Sunday, September 1st
Reading: “What happens during Centering Prayer when you succeed in letting go of a thought? Typically it is immediately replaced by another, and then another. A restless period ensues. But as you patiently repeat the letting go motion, things quietly settle down again — and then for a few timeless moments you rest in something you know is neither emptiness nor mental dullness but a more intense aliveness quietly pervading the entire relational field. As Thomas Keating spoke of it so powerfully toward the end of his life, “Silence morphs into presence”—and in that presence there is finally a taste of the real thing.
“This presence, once established in our inmost being might be called spaciousness. There is nothing in it except a certain vibrancy and aliveness. You’re awake. But awake to what, you don’t know. You are awake to something that you can’t describe and which is absolutely marvelous, totally generous, and which manifests itself with increasing tenderness, sweetness, and intimacy.” — Cynthia Bourgeault Practical Nonduality: Session 6, Spirituality & Practice eCourse
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