Really enjoyed this, so well articulated. This definitely speaks to me personally, accepting disappointment has been the key theme for me this past year. It's been such a wondrous process, seeing as I'm in such a better place now than I would have been if I'd gotten my own way.
Mark- This is beautiful. We live in a time of recovery. I mean that in both senses, i.e. a time of recovery of the fullness of contemplative life, and the recovery from the trauma of its absence aka modernity and consumer capitalism. We are living during an unfolding catastrophe, but one where we are given the option to gather things up again in a different way, a new/old way. Which was always available to us, but the urgency of which is now far more difficult to deny.
Thank you Jack! I like your framing of our time as a time of recovery. It's quite the paradox, isn't it - to be witnessing so much unravelling, and a significant movement of restoration and renewal taking place at the same time.
I've been involved in retreat facilitation for about two decades. Looking back, in the first decade the most common obstacle people were facing was being caught up in the excess, success, and striving of the modern world. In the past decade, I'm increasingly seeing the primary challenge people are facing is the fear and despair that rises as the whole system progressively implodes. The contemplative invitation is the same, I suppose, but the obstacles to entering in are changing.
I wonder if a good part of the despair many of us feel is that our normal patterns of understanding, and therefore of appropriate response, have been disrupted. Many of us have tried to keep up by consuming more information and more commentary yet in the end are both narrowly opinionated and increasingly confused.
As I have largely, though not entirely, disconnected from the torrent of information I find I have far less to say, at least with the confidence I had a short time ago. I am more inclined now to just remain in silence and wait. My anxious problem solving mind has proven itself woefully inadequate, yet I sense the temptation in myself to believe that *this time* it will figure it out--just one more chance! Rather flee the world of distraction, be silent in silence, dwell in stillness. I don't have anything else to suggest anymore. Maybe a deeper response will arise from that. Or not.
I experience this more and more. Lately though, my enthusiasm to consume more information has fallen off a cliff - and not from apathy or hopelessness or anything like that. In fact to try to pin down ‘why’ would be to disturb the flow of whatever is emerging, to miss its real form by preconceiving what ‘it’ is.
So I’m consuming less. That includes stories - my other escape (that actually isn’t an escape but often more commentary on our situation in the form of a story). I just can’t muster the enthusiasm for the stories that I have either loved or know that I typically would really enjoy. So I retreat more and more into silence and feel more and more at peace.
That said, Murakami’s Hard boiled Wonderland, Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled and Bilano’s 2666 have been revelatory in their ability to capture how I’m feeling right now. Especially, The Unconsoled.
Micah- The growing aversion to consuming information may be a sign of health. That's how I am reading it. I believe I have reached a limit in any belief that it is efficacious to help us deal with what we are facing. As Blake said, "A fool who persists in his folly would become wise". Maybe not wise, but hopefully less able to be fooled. There is a need, I think, to turn to deeper and less information-based ways of knowing and being in the world. Very much like what Mark is writing about in this post. They are just waiting for us to rediscover them and start putting them into practice. The hour is late, but I find great hope in this.
And maybe when we do the better stories and explanations will emerge from our silence and contemplation rather than from the information machine that churns nonstop. Maybe in these new/old stories we can find the desire to come together in person and start building something good and beautiful in the world. Like Mark is doing. I hope so.
Thank you Jack and Micah for these clarifying explorations!
I have similar experiences. I find that taking in a great deal of information and trying to 'figure it all out' can easily become a hiding place from God, and from entering into a fuller, more soulful relationship with reality as it unfolds around me.
That said, I do remain convinced that some degree of cultivating mind and understanding is valuable as a bridge between the in-finite Divine Presence and the day-to-day navigation of my physical existence. But it's a relatively small aspect of the whole. I do find I need to keep this aspect contained (limiting how much time per week I read, etc), and I've observed I'm more likely to get swept up into the world of endless words when I'm tired, under-slept, or under-prayed.
For me, the first surrender was in young adulthood when dating and flirting were all around me. I clearly understood that God was asking me to be content and not pursue relationships including a specific one that I was attracted to. It was a deep struggle and the greatest blessing. It is just as you have written, that these big moments have the ability to re-orient our vision and then we may see God at work in the ordinary and daily "micro surrenders". I just read this to my husband and we both feel nourished on the journey.
Really enjoyed this, so well articulated. This definitely speaks to me personally, accepting disappointment has been the key theme for me this past year. It's been such a wondrous process, seeing as I'm in such a better place now than I would have been if I'd gotten my own way.
Yes! It's amazing, and humbling, how can be made whole by our losses.
Thank you Mark, this was gently persuasive and soothingly reassuring. It is much appreciated and very timely.
You're welcome!
Mark- This is beautiful. We live in a time of recovery. I mean that in both senses, i.e. a time of recovery of the fullness of contemplative life, and the recovery from the trauma of its absence aka modernity and consumer capitalism. We are living during an unfolding catastrophe, but one where we are given the option to gather things up again in a different way, a new/old way. Which was always available to us, but the urgency of which is now far more difficult to deny.
Thank you for this. -Jack
Thank you Jack! I like your framing of our time as a time of recovery. It's quite the paradox, isn't it - to be witnessing so much unravelling, and a significant movement of restoration and renewal taking place at the same time.
I've been involved in retreat facilitation for about two decades. Looking back, in the first decade the most common obstacle people were facing was being caught up in the excess, success, and striving of the modern world. In the past decade, I'm increasingly seeing the primary challenge people are facing is the fear and despair that rises as the whole system progressively implodes. The contemplative invitation is the same, I suppose, but the obstacles to entering in are changing.
I wonder if a good part of the despair many of us feel is that our normal patterns of understanding, and therefore of appropriate response, have been disrupted. Many of us have tried to keep up by consuming more information and more commentary yet in the end are both narrowly opinionated and increasingly confused.
As I have largely, though not entirely, disconnected from the torrent of information I find I have far less to say, at least with the confidence I had a short time ago. I am more inclined now to just remain in silence and wait. My anxious problem solving mind has proven itself woefully inadequate, yet I sense the temptation in myself to believe that *this time* it will figure it out--just one more chance! Rather flee the world of distraction, be silent in silence, dwell in stillness. I don't have anything else to suggest anymore. Maybe a deeper response will arise from that. Or not.
Thank you for referencing the Welcoming Prayer. I have been using it quite a bit these past few days. I am ready to wait for the deeper response.
I came across this and offer it for what it is worth. It points in the right direction.
The Heart-and-Mind,
free from desire,
turns inward,
to true knowledge,
to the Knowledge,
that knows without knowing.
Then action is eschewed,
and all is accomplished,
through non-action,
Through the pure Breath-Energy,
of the Tao.
--Magister Liu.
I experience this more and more. Lately though, my enthusiasm to consume more information has fallen off a cliff - and not from apathy or hopelessness or anything like that. In fact to try to pin down ‘why’ would be to disturb the flow of whatever is emerging, to miss its real form by preconceiving what ‘it’ is.
So I’m consuming less. That includes stories - my other escape (that actually isn’t an escape but often more commentary on our situation in the form of a story). I just can’t muster the enthusiasm for the stories that I have either loved or know that I typically would really enjoy. So I retreat more and more into silence and feel more and more at peace.
That said, Murakami’s Hard boiled Wonderland, Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled and Bilano’s 2666 have been revelatory in their ability to capture how I’m feeling right now. Especially, The Unconsoled.
Micah- The growing aversion to consuming information may be a sign of health. That's how I am reading it. I believe I have reached a limit in any belief that it is efficacious to help us deal with what we are facing. As Blake said, "A fool who persists in his folly would become wise". Maybe not wise, but hopefully less able to be fooled. There is a need, I think, to turn to deeper and less information-based ways of knowing and being in the world. Very much like what Mark is writing about in this post. They are just waiting for us to rediscover them and start putting them into practice. The hour is late, but I find great hope in this.
And maybe when we do the better stories and explanations will emerge from our silence and contemplation rather than from the information machine that churns nonstop. Maybe in these new/old stories we can find the desire to come together in person and start building something good and beautiful in the world. Like Mark is doing. I hope so.
I also hope you are well. -Jack
Thank you Jack and Micah for these clarifying explorations!
I have similar experiences. I find that taking in a great deal of information and trying to 'figure it all out' can easily become a hiding place from God, and from entering into a fuller, more soulful relationship with reality as it unfolds around me.
That said, I do remain convinced that some degree of cultivating mind and understanding is valuable as a bridge between the in-finite Divine Presence and the day-to-day navigation of my physical existence. But it's a relatively small aspect of the whole. I do find I need to keep this aspect contained (limiting how much time per week I read, etc), and I've observed I'm more likely to get swept up into the world of endless words when I'm tired, under-slept, or under-prayed.
Thank you, Mark. You nailed it. --Clara
For me, the first surrender was in young adulthood when dating and flirting were all around me. I clearly understood that God was asking me to be content and not pursue relationships including a specific one that I was attracted to. It was a deep struggle and the greatest blessing. It is just as you have written, that these big moments have the ability to re-orient our vision and then we may see God at work in the ordinary and daily "micro surrenders". I just read this to my husband and we both feel nourished on the journey.
Glad to hear it Clara - and thank you for sharing a great example of that surrender.