IN VIA LUMEN, LLC
  • Home
  • About
  • Assistance and Contact
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Body Presence Practices
  • Featured Programs
  • Reflections
  • North-Central CT ITMS Chapter (Thomas Merton Society)

Pray for Your Own Discovery - Chapter 6

4/28/2015

3 Comments

 
Our last Thomas Merton session covered a difficult chapter for many of us. As the evening started, I was struck by how different the moods of people were as expressed by the word or phrase they shared with the group after our time of silence. The mood of those attending ranged in feelings from being unsure and confused to grateful and appreciative. Yet, despite how varied it was that we came to the evening, we were able to engage in dialogue and share meaningfully with one another. It was also wonderful to see some folks who had so far been primarily listening, open up to the group and begin to share as a deeper sense caring and safety of community continues to develop. Finally, several folks shared the sense of being in sacred mystery that they are experiencing they open more deeply into contemplative living. I was particularly touched by one of our members who has opened up deeply to listening, trying to still his own thoughts and focusing on a presence to the lessons found in the world around him; the sacred mystery in which we are immersed.

As we began to explore Chapter 2, What Contemplation Is Not, I was moved by the realization that, though Merton uses many words to describe his experience of what Contemplation is and is not, that one of our group had a profound frustration with "Words, Words, Words" and through this, opened up to a deeper appreciation of Contemplation which cannot be expressed through words. This appeared to relate closely to an observation made by another member that Merton was a poet in his use of words. It has been my experience reading Merton, that it is not so much the contents of what he writes but the phrasing read with a certain cadence and pace that reveals his deep experience and equally deep realizations. Read that way, it may change how someone experiences what Merton writes about.

As we discussed Chapter 6, an observation was shared that Merton can (and should) be read at different levels:
  1. As someone who has advanced deeply along the spiritual journey and has profound realizations to share that are broadly applicable to anyone looking for more intimacy with God.
  2. As a man experiencing his own unique spiritual journey and sharing that with us. His unique journey reflects and is influenced by his own life experiences and my express a healing and awakening which is unique to Thomas Merton.
  3. As a monk, Thomas Merton is living a vocation dedicated to a pursuit of intimacy with God. There are certain aspects of his writing that are dedicated to those who have taken on a similar vocation.
For me, approaching Merton's writings aware of all these aspects adds a flavor to absorbing his writings that helps me better appreciate and apply them to my own life situation and the relationship with God I feel called to develop.

Though much was shared about Chapter 6, the notion that "We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us." was particularly meaningfully to me.  We discussed that to really "know God" requires an emptying of ourselves (the shedding of our false self) in (a true self) humility that finally realizes that we don't have the capacity to know God in our humanity. That it is only the part of God that dwells in us that has the capacity to discover and know God. Any attempt to rely upon our (false) self to know God will be "like a stone knows the ground upon which it rests in its inertia."

Finally, let me share a poem by Rumi, the Sufi mystic, which, to me summarizes this chapter to me. It speaks to consent, awareness and openness to God as we wait for Him to discover Himself in us. Perhaps the cynic is our own false self? The inexplicable longing is our desire for God which is God's longing in ourselves to discover Himself:

Love Dogs
One night a man was crying,
Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said, "So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever gotten any response?"

The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing you express is the return message."

The grief you cry out from draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs no one knows the names of.

Give your life to be one of them.
― Rumi

3 Comments
Paul Uccello
4/28/2015 11:02:50 pm

Here is the Sufi mystical wisdom that touched Paul to share during our Merton discussions:

In the beginning, I was mistaken in four respects.
I concerned myself to remember God, to know Him, to love Him, and to seek Him.
And, when I had come to the end,
I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him,
that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him,
His love towards me had existed before my love for Him,
and He had sought me before I sought Him.

--Abu Yazid Al Bistami

One day, she (Hazrat Rabia) was seen running through the streets of Basra carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When asked what she was doing, she said:

“I want to put out the fires of Hell, and burn down the rewards of Paradise. They block the way to God.
I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of God.

-- Rabia

Reply
Mike Kaczorowski
4/29/2015 10:42:57 pm

Paul - I have taken the liberty of copying these two gems of Sufi wisdom and sharing them with my fellow members of the Men's Club at Christ the King Church in Old Lyme, for it gives me peace and perhaps it will them - thanks for sharing, Mike

Reply
Paul
4/30/2015 07:11:08 am

Mike - very happy to be able to share these sayings with you and with others! Passing them on is even better! All the best, Paul

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Paul Uccello and I have been facilitating the Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton program at the  Spiritual Life Center in West Hartford CT since the Spring of 2013. I've begun posting reflections from these workshops here starting in Fall 2014.

    Archives

    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    Living Your Deepest Desires
    New Seeds Of Contemplation

    Latest Thomas Merton Workshop Participant page.

    RSS Feed

Divinely Inspired by the Holy Spirit..
Carefully designed, developed and maintained by In Via Lumen, LLC
email: msmoolca@invialumen.org
© 2023, In Via Lumen, LLC
Proudly powered by Weebly