"The Busy Trap," idleness, prayer, and the creative spirit

Okay, so everybody's talking about The Busy Trap, and opinion piece published in the New York Times last weekend.  It went viral. Struck a chord.  People resonate with it.  We don't want to be busy.  But as Rachel Dodes in the Wall Street Journal says about "The Busy Trap," we don't have the foggiest idea what to do about it. Busyness is a distinctly modern epidemic.  Untethered to the wisdom of the spiritual traditions, modern people haven't the foggiest idea how to get free.  But the contemplative traditions teach us that idleness is a sacred path, while busyness is, well, stupidity, and frankly, may be the height of laziness.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.

All this reminds me of a book I read years ago by Catholic philosopher, Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture.  It's a sustained meditation on classical, medieval, and modern culture.  Here's a link to a helpful introduction to his thinking.

So, pray . . .

Idly.

Silently.

Uselessly.

Contemplatively.

Leisurely.

St. Seraphim of Sarov once said, "Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will find their salvation."  You're not just saving yourself, but helping to pull all the world to safely along with you.

Jesus, The Teacher Within: An Invitation to Prayer

In the past, I've suggested a few important books on contemplative prayer, including: John Main's Word Into Silence (which I reviewed here), and

Cyprian Consiglio's Prayer in the Cave of the Heart (reviewed here),

Here's another I'm reading now.  Fr. Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk and the director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, following the path set out by John Main (above).  And he'll be in Fresno this coming February 8-10, 2013, as part of our annual Prayer of the Heart Conference!

I strongly urge you to read this extended meditation on the person of Jesus as the one who prays within us.  Freeman extricates Jesus from centuries of doctrinal debate that's left us with very little of the Jesus who seeks a genuine relationship with us at the core of our beings, that is spiritually.  It's this relationship that we're most hungry for--not an idea to be debated, nor an ideology to be defended, but a living presence to be befriended with more than our brains.

This book does what my teaching on my site aims to do:

• to reach and empower those who seek "a deep and continual experience of intimacy with God,"
• those who long to awaken "to the fire of the sacred in every day life and walk continually in it through unceasing, interior prayer."
• those who wish "to pray in such a way that we live with a nearly continuous sense of the Holy no matter what we’re doing or where we are."

How prayer can make you whole

Prayer is ultimately about relationship.  It's so much more than asking things of God, or even saying things to God.  It's a participation in the relationship shared by the Trinity and the relationship shared between the Trinity and humanity.  It is, in two words, about becoming whole. Neuroscience offers us some marvelous insights into the power of relationships to make us whole (they can also wreck us).  And interpersonal neurobiology, a branch of contemporary psychology, teaches us about the power of safe, secure attachments to literally remake the brain.

Here's a recommended book exploring all this.  I've been researching this area for the past year and exploring the implications for spirituality.  I've just started this book, but a perusal suggests it's just the right book to bring the primary sources (Allan Schore, Dan Siegal, and so many others...see the Norton Series for source materials) into conversation with Christian spirituality.

Dr. Thompson's book is short, well-written, and deeply immersed in the wellspring of Christian spirituality.

See also Thompson's useful website for more.

Will you let me love you?

Maundy Thursday is largely forgotten today. It commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his followers, and his command that we, his followers, are to love each other. Love is not only tough to give, it's sometimes tougher to receive. At the Last Supper Jesus washed his disciples' feet, an expression of deep love. The foot washing is a sign of the Cross, a symbol of its deep meaning. Here's a Maundy Thursday video meditation. It'll take a minute to let the video load...so don't give up too early. Sit for 4 minutes today and let this message invite your own deep response to love.

Nourish the spirit in beauty and nurture justice

To create beauty is to testify to God's restoration; living beautifully facilitates justice. Check out this testimony from an artist exploring the role of spirituality, art, and justice:

A video from workofthepeople.com