Is the life of prayer and contemplation a luxury for the few?

Mitali Perkins is an old friend and a remarkable, spiritually aware writer. She writes about living between cultures and is particularly sensitive to the realities of race, ethnicity, and identity. About one of her many books, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, Publisher's Weekly says: "Perkins combines her fresh, unaffected prose with moving bits of Indian poetry and lore, rendering this well-thoughtout investigation of cultural identity doubly moving . . . A funny, honest, and homsepun story." In a comment on my recent post, Mitali says, "I spent the day today on a soul care Advent retreat and found myself once again in upper middle class white educated company. Could you point me in the direction of some reading that explores these spiritual practices for the poor, the oppressed, the uneducated? I certainly hope that the contemplative life these days isn’t a luxury enjoyed only by the (relatively) rich and powerful."

She puts her finger on an important question. Is the contemplative life a luxury enjoyed only by the relatively rich and powerful?

It's most definitely not a luxury for the few. Here's why . . .

In the West (and Westernized parts of the world), contemplative practices are in vogue. Stressed Western people are looking to contemplative practices for relief and enlightenment. These seekers practice things like yoga and read teachers like Tolle (not bad things). Many of them are white, upper-middle class disaffected Protestants. There are also large numbers of seekers from the affluent, “spiritual but not religious” tribe. Non-whites are increasingly among them as affluence shifts away from white America. Those seeking relief and enlightenment are responding to the bankruptcy of the Modern period. Modernity gave them ideas, but no real inner life. And so the affluent, who can afford therapists and chic conferences and retreats like the one Mitali attended, are also seeking a recovery of the contemplative life that sustained much of the world’s cultures for millennia.

So, we’re witnessing the awakening of the West and Westernized to the perennial Wisdom traditions. The chief practice in those traditions–whether those nurtured by the Buddha, Plato, Rumi, native shamans, the sages of Israel, and of course, Jesus—was the practice of contemplation, the inner eye, the prayer of the heart.

(to be continued tomorrow . . . )

Awaken to Advent through this simple spiritual practice

Awakening to the spiritual life after a long, raucous, and wandering path, a life full of many mistakes and painful episodes, a North African named Augustine lamented his spiritual dullness.  Augustine, later acknowledged as a doctor and saint in the truest sense of the word (doctor as healer; saint as holy one), points us toward the only place any of us can really meet God:

"Late have I loved You, Beauty, at once so ancient and so new!  Late have I come to love You!  You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself.  You were with me, but I was not with You."

As the world turns toward the mystery that is Christmas . . . God with us . . . you are awakening.  You are awakening to the God who is as near to you as the beating of your heart.

Here's a simple practice to move you from living all in-your-head, or "in the world outside," and instead into relationship with that "Beauty, at once so ancient and so new":

Quiet yourself, even for a moment before your computer.  Gently follow your breath (click here for suggestions on breathing) and the Breath/Holy Spirit will guide you from "the world outside" yourself and into the inner realm.  Gently repeat, "Come, Oh come, Emmanuel," and let the words ride on your breath.  The breath is the narrow gate into the heart, and the heart is the cradle of Christ, God-With-Us.

You touch eternity.  You brush up against heaven.  Now you know heaven's not up or out or somewhere other than where you are, nor is it waiting for you when you die.

It is in.

It is now.

It is here.

Return to this moment, over and over again

The spiritual life is a life of no illusions. Meet God here in the daily realities of this life, this place, the person or task or thing before you now. Meet God here or you'll not meet God anywhere. There's something deeply false and unspiritual in the temptation to want something else, be someone else, or go somewhere other that where you are now. Some people mistakenly think that spirituality is a flight into a different realm, a rejection of the world and ordinary things. There is no other world or place than this one. And if the incarnation of God in Jesus means anything at all (and I think it does), then this world, this place, the faces before us, the streets we walk, the chores we perform, these bodies of ours are all sacred. The truth is, matter matters. And an intentional spiritual life means you live fully awake to the wonder and sacredness of it all. A true spirituality is a united, undivided self--mind, heart, and body. I'm saddened when I realize how must of my life I've spent elsewhere. Elsewhere is always fantasy, illusion, unreality. I've spent too much of my life simply "in my head" and not really in my body, not truly present. It's little wonder, then, that true love has so often escaped me--except for those moments when I found myself drawn into the exquisite pleasure of the present, intensely awake to things like the allure of a rose's fragrant scent, the wonder of a child's innocent view of the world, the glory of a drop of dew trembling precariously on a leaf and looking as if it may burst at any moment.

The narrow gate into the spiritual life you seek stands before you . . . here, now . . . through practices like meditation, contemplative prayer, and the Jesus Prayer.  Many, Jesus said, will take the wide and easy road, undisciplined and nearly always pulled out of the present by the unruly thoughts in their heads. But there's nothing there for you but pain and disappointment.

• Enter through the narrow gate, walk the uncommon path.

• Plop down on the grass (or plunge into the icy, invigorating cold of a snowy field) and see and feel the world from as near the earth as you can get.

• Return to the moment over and over again and you will feel the spirit of life rising in your bones, the fire of the Spirit dancing within you saying, "Yes, Yes! More of that."

This beautiful photo comes compliments of Petra Oldeman Photography, the Netherlands.

Meditation techniques for the busy or impatient

Meditation is not limited to a particular religious tradition.  Across the world, people have practiced meditation for millennia, finding the practice not only a source of strength and inspiration for their spiritual growth, but a benefit to the whole of their life. Here's a helpful link to some meditation techniques for you if you practice meditation, or would like to, but find yourself distracted, busy, or impatient:

Meditation techniques for the busy or impatient

Whatever your religious orientation, these suggestions can help you develop a richer spiritual life and provide you with broader health benefits.

You may find yourself wary of techniques that don't overtly speak your religious language.  Let's say you're a Christian.  Then, consider the meditation techniques as the frame around the priceless painting that God is to you.  Remember, the Trinity is the focus of your attention; the meditation techniques are simply the frame leading to contemplation of the divine.  That the frame might highlight a Buddhist's or Muslim's or Native American's priceless painting doesn't mean you can't also use the frame.

The technique is just a frame.  It's to focus your worship not hold it.  And the sooner the frame's forgotten the sooner you'll be lost in wonder, joy, and love.

Something is Starting to Catch Fire

A friend calls me a spiritual arsonist.  She says I go around setting fire to peoples’ lives. “That doesn’t sound very safe,” I tell her.

“It’s not,” she says, “but that’s what makes it good.”

There are arsonists everywhere.  You're among them.  There's something starting to catch fire, and this spiritual awakening is reaching a tipping point.  It's a blaze that burns in the darkness and the darkness will never put it out (John 1.5)

Here's another witness to the growing blaze . . .