Becoming real

The embrace of suffering baffles most of us.  We view it as weakness---for in our modern world suffering is an enemy. But suffering is reality, and to suffer is to be human.  So embracing suffering is about embracing your humanity---becoming real.

This is beautifully put in the children's tale, The Velveteen Rabbit, when the toy Skin Horse says to the toy rabbit : "When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt."

Suffering's not about becoming a doormat, letting people do cruel things to you, ignoring your rights or the rights of others. Instead, suffering is about letting go of the outrage that only strengthens your ego.  For when you mind being hurt your ego feeds on the resentment you feel.  And when it's fed long enough and has gotten big enough your suffering, turned to resentment will, in turn, inflict suffering on others.  You become part of the cycle of violence.

You will suffer, no matter what you do to try to keep yourself from suffering.  What you do with your suffering will either damn you to a life of anger turned to festering resentment toward others, or it will humble you and make you real---that is, human, and deeply compassionate.  You may no longer have what you thought you needed to live the life you wanted.  You may have to let go of what you thought you could not live without.  But you are still alive, still breathing, still capable---in fact, more capable---of true love.

"When you're Real, you don't mind being hurt."  That's an extraordinary freedom---a freedom that woos us this Holy Week.

United with Christ

To be united with Christ in his Passion means to suffer with him. To be united with him, you cannot wield power as most others do. Anger has no place. Controlling others is excluded. Leadership is inverted. The ways of worldly leadership are unmade. You learn to suffer rather than protect yourself, to serve rather than be served, to lose rather than win.

But to what end? Does the "end" even matter? Is not interest in outcomes an invitation to arouse the ego?

To simply live as Jesus does, rather than to live conditionally, calculatingly---this is the center. You are to wield only the power of secret prayer. It is this glorious humiliation of yourself, this holy emptiness, that runs with---not against--the true grain of the universe, the real current of creation's flow.

Breathing Prayer

Following up the last post on the distraction of thoughts and multitasking and the power of the breath, here's a breathing prayer from Christine Sine's Godspace site (see also Jonny Baker's site in the UK).  She uses it in groups and alone.  "I suggest that people sit with their hands in their laps," she writes, "palms up while they say the first line and take a deep breath then turn palms down and breathe out as they say the second line."

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your cares and concerns

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your doubts and despairs

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your fears and frustrations

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your tensions and turmoil

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your haste and hurry

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your work and worry

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

A life worth following

Stories show us how to live, and in her writing, Nora Gallagher does just that. Here's a link to a book that is proof that "the road to the sacred is paved with the ordinary"--precisely what I try to point to in all my writing.

Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith Nora Gallagher

So, I recommend this little tale of faith about which Booklist says, "Gallagher's account is more than that of a woman rediscovering faith in God.  It is also a glimpse into a sort of practical mysticism."

On this Palm Sunday, I invite you to open wide the gate of your heart and welcome the Mystery, Who comes in such ordinary ways that others are quite likely to miss or dismiss Him.

Do one thing

Your thoughts distract you. They lure you out of yourself and render you spiritually passive. If you don't stand at the center---your core or heart---and choose which thought to follow and why, you'll find yourself pulled in many directions at once. You'll continue to live a life that's driven by unceasing multitasking, unable to live the focused, meaningful, happy life you seek. It's the same with tasks. Do you scan your email inbox while you're talking on the phone---giving neither task the attention each deserves or requires? Do you jot notes on your to-do list while you're talking with a colleague or friend---your mind flitting to and fro, largely unconscious of what's going on right before you?

Do one thing. Choose to give full attention to a thought, task, or person. Practice watchfulness. Move toward monotasking. Ask yourself, "Am I here, now, present to what is before me?"

When you find you're not, when you become aware that you're multitasking again, simply breathe. Then follow your breath down into your heart.

When you breath---and are aware of your breathing---you come back to the present. And if you join a little prayer to your breath, you become conscious of God again. God is always near you. In fact, God is within you waiting to meet you and guide you.

Breathe and pray, and you're on your way from unceasing multitasking to the unceasing prayer which is the flame of the life you're made for (1 Thessalonians 5.17).