A New, But Really Old, Software

From Richard Rohr:

A New, But Really Old, Software Meditation 42 of 52

The early but learned pattern of dualistic thinking can get us only so far; so all religions at the more mature levels have discovered “software” for processing the really big questions, such as death, love, infinity, suffering, and God. Many of us call this access “contemplation.” It is a non-dualistic way of seeing the moment.  Originally, the word was simply “prayer.” It is living in the naked now, the “sacrament of the present moment,” that will teach us how to actually experience our experiences, whether good, bad, or ugly, and how to let them transform us. Words by themselves invariably divide the moment; pure presence lets it be what it is, as it is. When you can be present, you will know the Real Presence. I promise you this is true. And it is almost that simple. Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, p. 12 The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . . Give a CAC Bookstore certificate, an invitation to transformation and peace.

"Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love.   Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer."

- Simone Weil, in An Anthology

The Wild Peace of Things

The Peace of Wild Things

// Posted on August 26th, 2013 // Category: Quotes, http://www.soulstream.org

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- from Wendell Berry in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Silence Quotes

I have been re-reading "Into the Silent Land" by Fr. Martin Laird and encountering so many wonderful quotes and poems about Silence. Here's a taste (these are just from the introduction):

"This self-giving God, the Being of our being, the Life of our life, has joined to Himself two givens of human life: we are built to commune with God and we all meet death." M.L.

"... we must fly to our beloved homeland. There the Father is, and there is everything." St. Augustine 

I look towards silence.

It is not, as I heard, a peak

with natural footholds and crampons

left

by better climbers.

........

Contrary to what they say there is no map

(they may be speaking of another place)

there is only surrender...

~ Pauline Matarasso

"The joy that is silent is already within us. Its discovery is precious beyond compare ." M.L.

Accept Prayers Limitations

"A compassionate community will not be achieved only through prayer; I pray myself, but I accept its limitations. We need to take action to develop compassion, to create inner peace within ourselves and to share that inner peace with our family and friends. Peace and warm-heartedness can then spread through the community just as ripples radiate out across the water when you drop a pebble into a pond." ~ Dalai Lama

Coffee With Jesus

I first saw this video when it was posted by my friend Brad Jersak on Facebook. Bishop Kallistos Ware quotes from "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander" by Thomas Merton, and I believe this Thomas Merton quote can also be found in part, in one on my favorite books "Palace of Nowhere" by James Finley (Amazon - http://ow.ly/nf4tG) and is one of my favorite quotes as well.

Quote:

"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness, which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point, a spark, which belongs entirely to God.

It's like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven.  It is in everybody!

I have no program to seize this.  It is only given.   But the Gate of Heaven is everywhere!" 

~ Thomas Merton                  

Video:

                 

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander" by Thomas Merton, Amazon - http://ow.ly/nf3VB