De Mello to Br. Roger - What a transition

A week or so ago I finished the volume of the Modern Spiritual Masters on Anthony de Mello and now I'm reading the volume on Brother Roger of Taize.

What a change!

• De Mello is full of humor and spiritual "shock and awe" with short stories and exercises packed like dynamite to jar a new insight.  Br. Roger is like a smoldering fire or a deep pool.  The insights are profound and invite the reader to the depths of the heart.
• De Mello invites the head to new understanding, Br. Roger invites the heart to new feelings.
• De Mello's writings are never about himself or his own experience.  They invite the reader to experience something new for themselves.  Br. Roger lays out the way his own heart sees the world and invites the reader to see the world with his eyes.
• De Mello focuses on the individual.  Br. Roger focuses on the person in community.
• De Mello is a thinker.  Br. Roger is a feeler.
• De Mello invites laughter.  Br. Roger invites tears.
• I'm reminded of the saying "life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
• De Mello seems light.  Br. Roger, heavy and profound.

Both of these men are spiritual masters, but their approaches could not be more different.  They each have come to know and communicate the God of Jesus Christ in powerful, life-giving ways.  I thank God for each of them.  I can imagine myself being healed through laughing with De Mello and weeping with Br. Roger.  Both men offer a way to God in freedom and love.

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.

Abhishiktananda Notes Chapter 6 - Christianity

This chapter develops A's thought on Christianity. It has a strongly mystical thrust with a focus on experience. It also places the doctrine of the Trinity at the center of A's worldview.

"There is but one Reality and one alone, the community of life which exists at
the heart of Being, between the Father and the Son, in the unity of the
Spirit. That alone is; and it is within this community of life that the
man who is has his existence." (150)

This central reality is radically mysterious. The entire creation points to this Mystery at the heart of creation and as the individual soul awakens to this ultimate reality, this soul percieves the mystery signified more and more clearly but all things and even in the soul itself. Ultimately, the soul is united with this Mystery,

"... there is no place left, no spot in which she may declare "I, Me."
Before ever this "I" is evidenced within her the abyss is already resounding
with the I which God utters to himself from all eternity." (152)

The Christians task is simply to radiate this ultimate reality more and more clearly to the world.

"He has no other raison d'etre in this world than to recieve and transmit to all
his powers of body and soul and extend through them to the whole world the
radiance of this glorious awakening-to-being in the depths of the self in the
blessed place of resurrection." (153)

This is a profound vision and I share it. The challenge I see is the individualism inherent in it. It is the individual soul which awakens to ultimate Reality. I think this is because it is, like all of A's work, an experiential approach. The individual experiences himself as an individual which as gradually drawn into the abyss of community.

The rest of the chapter spins out this vision in various ways. He uses the example of Francis of Assisi as someone who lived this vision by responding the the radical call of the Gospel. I struggled with this because, while Francis is clearly an example of following God's radical call, it is difficult to see how "normal" men and women can respond to this call. This example limits the applicability to a select few and I believe that is its fatal flaw. He does move beyond the example in stating that

"Only the one who has been reborn in the Spirit and has allowed himself in the
same Spirit to sound the very depths of God can bear witness to the mystery of
the Father and the Son, and can pass on the consuming fire of the Christian
message, which speaks at once of God's inaccessibility and of his nearness."
(156)

This broadens the vision to include anyone who takes the Gospel call seriously, no matter what there state in life.

This chapter also approaches the question of the uniqueness of Jesus and relativizes the question.

"If, as non-Christians maintain, Jesus is only a man, then whatever natural
endowments he possesses must necessarily be available to every man. And if
he is the Son of God, as Christians believe, then they must not forgete that,
according to their faith, Jesus shares with them by grace all that he possesses
by right of his divine Sonship." (158)

In other words, the theoretical question of Jesus ontological status doesn't matter on the practical level. The important thing is to follow His teaching and have a spirit of discipleship.

There is also much discussion in this chapter of Saccidananda (Sat=Being, Cit=Consciousness, and Ananda = Bliss). This provides a new perspective on Trinitarian doctrine. A states,

"... just as Judaism and Hellenism have made their contributions, so the divine
preparation of India in its turn will serve to lead believers to contemplate the
mystery in a new depth." (164)

The chapter concludes with a description of Mass celebrated with a friend on the banks of the Ganges.

First Private Post

Well, I made this blog private yesterday. I am the only reader now. I did start "Exploring the Kingdom" for developed reflections and essays, but I wanted this to be a place for my own notes, etc. and a place to experiment.

That said, I don't know what else to say. I do my longhand writing every day, so that is not what this is for. I think continuing to take my reading notes and other things I discover from the web and my own thoughts.

As I read Abhishiktananda, I am challenged by the idea of interreligious dialogue. I experience the same tension - although to a much lesser degree - that A did. He found truth, beauty, and goodness outside of Christianity, in particular in the religions of India. While I haven't travelled to the far East, I've also found resonances with my own soul in the teachings of their religion. However, the tension isn't so great for me, because I am pretty confident that Jesus would have appreciated their insight as well. He does not seem like a dogmatic teacher, but a wise man who was open to truth, beauty, and goodness wherever he found it. The issue isn't as acute for me because I have been taught a less exclusive view of Christianity. Catholic, after all, means "universal."

The other challenge I find is the individualism of this path A describes. It is ultimately done for the good of the world, but seems very much like it is something one achieves. One works their way to holiness. Now, that I write that, it is not that simple. The path is through the heart and is always a response to God discovered there. Service does come, but as a fruit of the Spirit found in the heart. Any other form of service is incomplete, and can even be destructive.

I am struck by A's courage. He was a little cooky, but he took the Gospel with ultimate seriousness. There is no doubt that God was the central reality for A and that he discovered God in his Sad-guru Jesus. I have a similar temperament. I am at times obsessed with God. All that ultimately matters to me is doing God's will, or even better, becoming and instrument for God's goodness and love.

As the book comes to a conclusion, the basic insights remain the same. Dialogue of experience at the depth of the soul is the key to this path. Experience, experience, experience. The thing that sets A apart from other Empiricists is the type of experience he allows. He is more interested in inner, or spiritual experience (what Lonergan would call the "data of consciousness" than in outward experience. He is interested in the soul and spirit more than in the body. I also share these interests. I admire A a lot, and more than admiring him, I want to follow a similar path in my own life.

Lord, grant me a joyful, gentle, grateful heart that knows and does Your Will.

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...

Notes (2) Abhishiktananda Essential Writings

I finished the first two chapters yesterday. They are intense and Abhishiktananda was an intense fellow.

The first chapter is "Benedictine Monk" and gives some excerpts of A's writings before he went to India in 1948. The short snippits under vocation made me pause and think about my own vocation. A seemed to hear God's call clearly and to follow it without hesitation. His one desire was to give himself completely to God. I admire his clarity and simplicity.

In his letter to Fr. Jules Monchanin who was already living in India, A lays out his plans for his mission. His primary idea was to inculturate the Rule of Benedict in India, especially by founding monasteries. He wanted to maintain the "non-clerical" character of Benedict's rule and incorporate Hindu chants into the prayer of the monastery. Adapting the Western monastic lifestyle to that of a Hindu sannyasi while also maintaining the focus on the interior life of the monk was A's vision for a new asceticism. The monks' work was to be both physical and intellectual. A admits that he is primarily attracted to the intellectual work of beginning "a rethinking of Christian dogma in Hindu terms, and a Christian reinterpretation of Hindu thought" (51). This is a task which he seems to embody as well as articulate. A also spells out his desire that any usefulness to the work of the monk or the monastery is simply a fruit of the love of God, and not a goal to be sought for its own sake.

This chapter contains A's thoughts, after living in India for 11 years, on the relationship to Christianity to Hinduism and reflects a "fulfillment theology" where Christ fulfills all the aspirations of Hinduism. The editor notes that this view would soon change,

"However, he was soon to change and to become one of those most sensitive to the realization that there is one inexpressible mystery beyond all names and forms... " (52).

The second chapter "Advaita" presents a profound mystical theology born from the dialogue of Hindu and Christian thought. Advaita or non-duality, has much in common with the via negativa, or negative way within the Christian tradition. I also saw close connections with the theological concept of "communio."

The chapter begins by recounting A's encounter with Ramana Maharshi who taught mainly through silence.

"The way that the Maharshi recommended is essentially positive. It consists in trying to find out at every instant, in every act, who in truth it is that lives, thinks, and acts, and in being attentive to the see-er in the act of seeing, the hearer in the act of hearing, and so forth. It is a matter of constantly, relentlessly pursuing this consciousness of oneself which hides behind the phenomena and the events of the psychic life, of discovering it, seizing it in its original purity before anything else has covered it over or adulturated it" (59).

Ramana Maharshi only recommends one practice which is "to fix the attention on the act of breathing and consciously to follow the process of inhaling and exhaling" (60).

Reading this I was starkly reminded of Merton's teaching on the true self and even of Lonergan's emphasis on attending to experience. This section goes into deep water very quickly. Levels of being, or experience are discussed (69), liberation and detachment are discussed (67-68). The Paschal Mystery of Jesus and the Mystery of the Trinity provide the Christian concepts that are put in dialogue with adviatic thought. At the heart of this experiential teaching is an understanding of eternity and the present moment. "Eternity is not in the time that lasts but in the indivisible moment" (71). The quest for that which is unchanging and eternal finds its fruit in the present moment, the self which discovers itself in God.

I'll conclude these notes with a prayer of "eternal offering" found on p. 71 and excerpted from A's diary.

"Make the offering of this moment and receive the gift of this moment. The gift of this moment to me is the reality no other than the gift to the Son of the eternity springing up from the heart of the Father.

To accept it is to offer it.

To know it is to rejoice with the Bliss of the Spirit.

To accept it: faith;

To know it, rejoice in it, is to love with the Spirit's love.

It is to be fulfilled, to let oneself be fulfilled in the inbreathing of the Spirit,

and to be fulfilled in the Spirit is to fulfill God,

who without fulfillment through us at this moment in the Spirit

could not be fulfilled in himself in eternity, in his Spirit.

For my moment is God's eternity."

The idea of my fulfillment in some way fulfilling God is a challenging concept to understand. It is disturbing to my sensibilities of God's sovereignty and freedom. However, I am not quite ready to dismiss it. I think it does point to God's love for us and desire for our completion in Him. For true communion to be complete, both parties must be fulfilled. Hmmm. He gives me much to think about.

Notes: Swami Abhishiktananda Essential Writings

I was struck with the picture on the cover of the essential writings of Abhishiktananda. There is something about the picture, maybe the small grin on his face or the tilt of his head or the wisdom in his eyes. This man is joyful. The obvious poverty (I was reminded of the pictures of the dustbowl) does not destroy but uncovers an inner joy to this man.

Reading the story of his life that begins this volume revealed a man who was exceptionally passionate and sensitive. He loved everything good, true, and beautiful and was willing to hold the tension that this love required. Instead of solving these tensions superficially and being satisfied with that, Abhishiktananda allowed this tension to drive him deeper into his own soul. It was the inner conflicts and tensions that shaped this man. He was trying to live the VCII teaching of rejecting nothing that is true and holy in other religions (NA 2) before VCII proclaimed it. It was the tension of loving the other, in this case other religious traditions, that drove Abhishiktananda's spirit.

I am also fascinated by the mysteriousness of A's call to India. It seems like there was no obvious thing to attract him except a deep, inner call. Much like Mother Teresa's strong sense of call, A seemed to have a clarity that few of us have about where we are to go and what we are to do.

I'm excited to read A's actual writings. Reading the first entry I found this beautiful sentence in a letter to his friend in France.

"You make me dream, relive those things which I usually push into the background in order to be able to live my life in peace." (p. 43)

A never stopped loving something he once loved. He refused to compromise. Writing of his monastic calling he wrote,

"a monk cannot accept mediocrity; only extremes are appropriate for him."

I hope that I can catch some of this monastic passion.

Engaging the "Modern Spiritual Masters"

The practice of spiritual reading goes back to the origins of Christianity. So does the idea of sitting at the feet of a spiritual master. In the 4th century, John Cassian went searching for a teacher of prayer and spirituality in Egypt. I've decided to use this blog, "Exploring the Kingdom" to engage in the practice of these ancient spiritual explorers (while still exploring the Kingdom in other ways).

Orbis books, beginning in 1998, produced a series of books called the "Modern Spiritual Masters."This series brings a great variety of spiritual authors ranging from well know authors such as Henri Nouwen to nearly unknown spiritual figures such as Mother Maria Skobtsova. Also included in the series are authors I would not have classified as "spiritual writers" at all like Flannery O'Connor and G.K. Chesterton. Not all of the authors are Catholic or even Christian (Thich Nhat Hanh and Gandhi being examples).

The writings are chosen because they address the "concerns of our age." These concerns include "modern science, religious pluralism, secularism, and the quest for social justice." I am excited to begin this exploration at the feet of the Modern Spiritual Masters.
You can find reviews of each of the books, as I finish them, at Exploring the Kingdom's sister blog EKTreviews at:

http://etkreviews.blogspot.com/