Abhishiktananda chapters 8-9

 

Well, I finished the book, Swami Abhishiktananda:  Essential Writings.  I don't know what held me up but I'm done now.  It's strange, I vacilate back and forth between the contemplative approach to prayer, and the charismatic approach (which I actually know very little about).  One night this week I had insomnia and felt drawn to Francis MacNutt's book, Healing.  Strange...

 

Anyway, back to the book.  These two chapters really are a nice way to bring the book to a conclusion.  The chapter on prayer is excellent.  I can see the connections with John Main's teaching very clearly.  I may even want to get A's book, Prayer.

 

Some key passages from Chapter 8 on prayer:

The mystery of God is first of all the eternal call of the Father to the Son -- the call in which the Father and the Son essentially are:  'You are my Son' (Ps. 2:7; see also Mark 1:1-11).  It is also the response to this call, the eternal cry of the Son; "Abba, Father!" -- the ceaseless prayer of Jesus both on earth and in heaven, a prayer which expresses both the source and the fullness of his love, his sacrifice, and his unending intercession (182).

This passage reveals the deep Trinitarian understanding of prayer that A has.  We are swept up into the conversation of the Trinity.

The very reason for the coming on earth of Jesus the Son of God was to share with mankind that divine experience which was eternally his (181).

I share this foundational understanding of prayer.  A also stresses God's omnipresence.  God is everywhere:  beyond form, present in Creation...

A has an interesting comparison between the Jesus prayer and the prayer of namajapa as it is called in India (184-187).  He suggests that the Christian prayer has an emphasis on forgiveness, while the Hindu prayer focus on adoration.  The Christian Jesus prayer isn't about a morbid focus on sin but

it is one way of expressing a deeply personal experience of the love of God and the realization that in forgiving us he reveals most fully his love and almighty power.

While the Hindu focus on adoration

is rather a sign of total self-forgetfulness and of lack of concern for all that affects them personally -- in Christian terms, the complete trust of a child who knows that his father is caring for his needs and whose only personal wish is to continue gazing at him (186).

The chapter ends with an excellent discussion of the prayer of silence.

the main thrust of spiritual discipline and ascetic life should be to prepare man for the stillness of his faculties where he can be at the full disposal fo the Spirit (192).

Chapter 9:  "Awakening" was much more challenging.  It is apparent that his heart attack in July 1973 was a powerful spiritual experience for A.

I lived my heart attack in the first place as a marvelous spiritual adventure (199).

A returns again and again to the limitations, even the hinderances of concepts, ideas, and notions.

All notions are burned in the fire of experience (198).

There is only one awakening.  A doubts whether or not he is truly a Christian any more because for him doctrine has become completely relativized.  It is the experience of awakening that matters.  The freedom from self, from all situations, reveals an indwelling Trinity.

The Trinity is the ultimate mystery of oneself.  But in the very depth of this discovery of the Self-Trinity there lies the paradox:  in the mystery of the non-source, who still speaks of the Source?  It is only at the level of the Source, of the trickle of water springing up, that we speak of what is beyond.  In the beyond there is not beyond.  It simply is, etad vai tad!  That, just that! (203).

The symbol of the Grail is also introduces in the chapter.  It would be interesting to hear more of how this symbol played in A's thought.  He was obviously a seeker after the Grail and it seems that he found it at the end of his life.

The final selection in the book is a nice summary:

One who knows several mental (or religious or spiritual) languages is incapable of absolutizing any formulations whatever -- of the gospel, of the Upanishads, of Buddhism, etc.  He can only bear witness to an experience -- about which he can only stammer (205).

A does more than stammer.  He bears witness to a powerful experience of God and speaks the language of both Christianity and Hinduism well.  However, it is the experience, not the formulations, that are important for him.

Abhishiktananda Chapter 7 "God" Notes

This short chapter takes a very apophatic approach. At times, A sounds like a Pantheist but he isn't because he always notes that God is beyond all things as well as the source of all things. The paradoxes abound in this chapter. It starts off well with

"God is beyond all notions. They are only the spring-boards to be used for
diving -- and the spring-board is not the lake" (169).

A makes the claim that God is more self evident than our selves. In fact, we flee God because His reality makes us aware of our own unreality.

"The absoluteness of being is as terrifying to him [our selves/souls] as
non-being, since it as surely destroys all that he wants himself to be, or
rather, wants to feel that he is" (170).

This fundamental reality of God is infinitely mysterious and transcendent, yet it is revealed through all created things. This reality of God is difficult to discover because

"God is too close to us. That is why we constantly fail to find him"
(175).

We fear this intimacy that strips us and threatens to destroy us. I am reminded of John of the Cross' description of the dark nights of the soul and spirit where we are blinded by God's presence and experience this presence as an absence. Again,

"We can only be distant from our conception of God, never from him" (173).

I wonder what this says about sin. From at least one perspective, sin does separate us from God. In fact, that is part of the definition of sin. And yet, to the degree that we continue to exist we are in relationship with God. All that exists is good, even us when we sin, although we are less "real" beings due to our sin.
A also writes about the contemplative call.

"A contemplative is not one who shuts himself away with the idea that he has
formed of God and takes pleasure in it. The real contemplative is the man
who has allowed the spirit of God to carry him off and to deprive him of every
kind of prop, even in what he calls his contemplation" (174).

The chapter ends with two very powerful prose poems: "Everywhere He Is, And Only He" and "Seek God." These would be great sources for contemplation and reflection and even discussion on the nature of our relationship with God.

Notes (3) Abhishiktananda Essential Writings

East meets West in chapter 3 of the Essential Writings of Abhishiktananda. My reading has slowed lately as work gets busier. Chapter 3, "East-West" presents some excellent selections for reflection. This section is tension filled as A is caught in the tension between the Eastern (inward experience) and Western (outward revelation) explanations of salvation and in this tension is driven deeper into mystery. In a letter written in 1966, A writes,

"What contrasts! I do my best to be at ease everywhere, but there is an inevitable tension. But it is precisely this being torn apart between India and Europe, between Vedanta and Christianity which enables me to live the fundamental experience and to express its mystery to some extent." (86)

He attempts to integrate this strain at the deepest level of his being.

"No exchange is truly profitable unless it takes place as communion at the deepest depths of people's beings" (79).

As a monk, A isn't primarily concerned about a conceptual integration at the level of the intellect, but about experiential integration at the level of being. He challenges Christianity to find a way to integrate the experience of the Vedantic tradition. This tradition does relativize the value of other religions, even itself.

"From a Vedantic point of view neither Hindu scriptures and worship nor Christian dogmas and sacraments have an ultimate value." (76)

Unfortunately, in my opinion, A does not engage the Christian mystical tradition here. Maybe it is simply this selection, but I kept asking myself as I read, "What about John of the Cross?" or other streams of the Christian mystical tradition.



However, the level of engagement with Hinduism becomes very clear in chapter 4, "Immersion in Hinduism." This chapter begins with a brilliant letter on inculturation (a term probably not used during A's time). Born out of his own experience of wanting to transplant the Benedictine way to India, this letter repeatedly calls for the individual coming to India to be "transparent," "open," "teachable," and "recpetive." I wish I would quote the entire letter. Here is a sample section:

"What we need are monks, souls who have opened themselves, in their very depth, to the life of the Spirit within, who have listened within to the voice of the Spirit calling to the Father, who have heard within the very silence of the Father. There is no need for transplanted trees' we need the seeds, the seeds which will be entrusted to the rich soil of India and which in time will bear a wonderful harvest, always provided the seed is good and the ground well chosen." (89)

The theme of "within" and "interiority" are keys to A's understanding of India. They are the gift that India has for the West which cannot be appreciated without an attitude of openness and receptivity.



This chapter continues with descriptions of the way A incorporated Hindu ritual into the worship of Shantivanam. For example,

"He [the priest] emerged from the chancel carrying the brass plate on which the flame was burning itself out. Each of the faithful approached and stretched out his hands respectfully over the flame. With his palms thus sanctified by the sacred touch, each one touched his own eyes and then taking a pinch of the holy ash reverently marked his forehead." (98)

The next section deals with the concept of the guru. This section shed new light on the Christian understanding of all people being made in the "image of God" and Christ dwelling in all people. There is a profound mystical theology embedded in this section. The guru is an instrument of the transcendent. They convey their own experience to the disciple and there is a non-dual relationship between the guru and disciple. Within Christianity, Christ is the true or essential guru (sad-guru) who dwells in the disciple's heart. The church, at its best, is a manifestation of Christ (his "body").

"The 'external' guru is only the temporary form taken by the essential guru to make himself recognized, and at the moment of that recognition there is no longer either guru or disciple. [I couldn't help thinking about the Emmaus story and Jesus' disappearance when the disciples recognized him in the breaking of the bread.] In Christianity it is the church -- i.e. individuals in the church and those whom God expecially brings into contact with himself -- that is the manifested guru, the form actualized in space and time which Jesus takes to reveal himself. The Christian guru is never anything but the manifestation of the Lord, and the moment he forgets this he becomes a thief, no longer a shepherd. (114)

Paula D'Arcy's statement that God comes to us disguised as our life also popped into my mind at this point. Maybe the experience of encountering Christ the specific person of the guru is a particular case of the general principle that God can be encountered in all things. Everything is a guru to the true disciple. Hmmm.



Anyway, that is as far as I got. More later...