Jan

23

We’re looking for a few good contemplatives

Christian mysticism / Contemplation

One thing I’ve found interesting: when I tell people I’m writing a book about Christian mysticism, a typical response I receive is, “Oh, that’s advanced, that’s beyond me, I could never be a mystic.”

Boo hiss.

A little while back I set up a page for The Cloud of Unknowing on MySpace. Recently someone emailed me and said:

In the author’s foreward he says of the book, “you are not to read it, write or speak of it, nor allow another to do so, unless you really believe that he is a person deeply committed to following Christ perfectly”, and goes on to reinforce this in several different ways. As I read this, I realized that by having “The Cloud of Unknowing” as a MySpace friend I’m advertising the book to the public; very, very, precious few of which are committed to following Christ perfectly, even among Christians. So, for this reason, I’m removing your account as a friend in hope to honor the intentions of the author, and I hope you would consider deleting the account altogether for the same reason.

In my response I respectfully declined, saying “I understand where you’re coming from, however, I believe that it’s more important for people to know about the contemplative tradition than for me to try to judge whether or not someone is worthy to learn about it.”

I love The Cloud and I think it’s one of the more important of the negative-mysticism texts. But I believe the author’s elitism is truly counterproductive, not just because it bothers random people on MySpace but because it has helped to contribute to this idea that mysticism is something only for the very few — the contemplative elite, as it were. From where I sit, here’s how it looks to me: if you’ve been baptized, you’re qualified to become a Christian contemplative (and if you haven’t been baptized, you still can explore contemplation as an inquirer or as a non-Christian). As for a “deep commitment to follow Christ perfectly” — such language reeks of purity rather than hospitality, and long-standing readers of this blog know how I feel when those two qualities face off. For newcomers, let’s just say that the Christ I worship and adore had a habit of inviting the most ragtag of folks to the feast…

I’ve talked about Ken Wilber and his principle of “greater depth, less span” as a way to understand why so few people actually do make the deep commitment that The Cloud author was looking for. It’s the same principle that differentiates the untold millions of people who love to play a game of football in the backyard versus the few who make it to the Major Leagues. But just because you’re never gonna play pro football is no reason not to play at all. I’m learning to play the bass guitar, not because I have any illusions of being the next Tony Levin, but because I’d like to have a little bit of fun with my wife and some friends who play guitar. And that’s okay! What bothers me about the idea that mysticism is only for the elite is that people who recognize that they aren’t called to be the next Julian of Norwich or John of the Cross come to the conclusion that they shouldn’t even bother with contemplation at all. Such an attitude is tragic. Maybe mysticism is only for the few. But I believe contemplation is for anyone and everyone who’s willing to sit down and shut up and allow God to love them. And the difference between mysticism and contemplation is one of degree, not kind.

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Jan

22

LaserMonks

monasticism / Reviews

LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making
By Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008
Review by Carl McColman

Some years ago, the management world discovered Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War. This sixth-century Chinese treatise on military strategy considers not only the logistics of conflict, but also the psychology of winning; as such, it has transcended its soldierly origins to become a classic source of inspiration for the corporate boardroom as well as the battlefield. After all, if any metaphor can describe what business is all about, it’s that of warfare.

But maybe there’s more to working than winning — and this thought leads to a remarkable new way of envisioning and achieving success, as detailed by Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith in their insightful new book, LaserMonks. I never thought I’d be reviewing a business book here on my oh-so-spiritual blog, but I guess I didn’t see this one coming, either. I should have, though — I’ve known about and admired the LaserMonks web-based business for some time now. This new book not only tells the story of a uniquely successful business, but reveals how another ancient text — The Rule of Saint Benedict — can be applied to any business model, with truly impressive results.

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Jan

21

Quote for the Day

Christian mysticism / Prayer / Quotations

[The Lord's Prayer], although it seems to contain the utter fullness of perfection inasmuch as it was instituted and established on the authority of the Lord himself, nonetheless raises its familiars to that condition which we characterized previously as more sublime. It leads them by a higher stage to that fiery and, indeed, more properly speaking, wordless prayer which is known and experienced by very few. This transcends all human understanding and is distinguished not, I would say, by a sound of the voice or a movement of the tongue or a pronunciation of words. Rather, the mind is aware of it when it is illuminated by an infusion of heavenly light from it, and not by narrow human words, and once the understanding has been suspended it gushes forth as from a most abundant fountain and speaks ineffably to God, producing more in that very brief moment than the self-conscious mind is able to articulate easily or to reflect upon.

— John Cassian, Conference 9, excerpted
in The Essential Writings of Christian
Mysticism edited by Bernard McGinn

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Jan

20

GSR190

Bass Guitar / Music

Ibanez GSR190 BassLast night I bought a bass guitar. It’s an Ibanez GSR190: a beginner’s bass. It’s “low end” not only in the sound it makes but in the money it costs. It’s strictly no frills, but I’m already in love with it.

Yes, I know: that hardly seems to be a very “contemplative” thing to do. Although within minutes of plugging it in and messing around with it (I’m musically illiterate, and won’t start lessons until March, so I basically have the next six weeks to gleefully make noise like a five year old would before I enter into the “adult” world of actually learning how to play the thing), I was mesmerized by the richness of its deep earthy tones and even my untrained capacity to keep a simple beat. Maybe it’s not a naturally contemplative instrument, but I think it could qualify as a shamanic one. In other words, already I can see how playing the bass can foster a nice alpha state. And for now, that’s good enough for me.

So why, you may be asking, did a 47 year old man who’s never played any musical instrument other than hand drums and who has devoted much of his adult life to the pursuit of silence suddenly go out and buy an electric instrument? Is this some sort of weird mid-life gambit, along the lines of “since I can’t afford the red Porsche, a black bass will have to do?”

Well, it isn’t actually “suddenly.” Although I haven’t been blogging about it, I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months now.

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Jan

18

Whey Out Chocolate

Hospitality
Just Gimme the Chocolate and nobody gets hurt…

My friend and business associate Joy Reid has just launched a new online store called Whey Out Chocolate. She is selling home-made “confections that are safe for people with food allergies and sensitivities.” Her website goes on to say:

If you have food allergies, then you know what it’s like to be excluded at parties because you can’t eat the cake or ice cream; or to walk down aisles of seasonal treats in the stores that look so delicious but are totally forbidden; or to look longingly at display cases full of desserts in restaurants that are strictly off-limits; or how difficult it is to simply find treats to enjoy just because…
Whey-Out Chocolate’s mission is to fulfill the “dessert void” in the lives of people with food allergies. We offer an ever-growing line of confections that are dairy-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, soy-free, and even gluten-free – so people with food allergies can finally indulge in delicious treats that have never been available before.

Since much of what Joy makes is vegan-friendly, it’s safe for me to eat, and so I have been blessed to be one of her “tasters.” Her goodies are wonderful (warning: they are highly addictive). I especially recommend the “P.S. I love you.”

Surf on over there now and buy yourself or someone you love a treat (and tell Joy I sent you).

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Jan

18

Forbidden/Approved

Contemplation / Mysticism

A wise Episcopal priest once told me, “Most Christians believe that unless something is explicitly approved in the Bible, it is forbidden by God. But it makes just as much logical sense to say that unless something is explicitly forbidden in the Bible, it is approved by God.” Her words echo in my mind whenever I run across folks who attack mysticism or contemplative prayer because it is “unscriptural.” Not only do I believe the Bible is literally infused with mystical sensibility, but I’ve never found a compelling argument to support the idea that the Bible condemns meditation or contemplation. And if the Bible doesn’t condemn it, how dare anyone assume it is forbidden by God? To be honest, it boggles my mind that some people get so worked up over this.

Attacking contemplative prayer is like attacking vitamins or wholesome food. Nowhere does the Bible say “To be healthy, thou shalt be sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, making sure that thou dost ingest at least 20 grams of fiber every day.” By the logic of the anti-contemplatives, since the Bible doesn’t explicitly command it, therefore it is un-Christian to eat a healthy diet. After all, it is only because of non-Christian teachings (i.e., secular science) that we have come to believe in the importance of a healthy diet. Just as Christian mysticism is friendly to non-Christian wisdom (such as Neoplatonism or Zen), so too modern nutrition theory rests on the non-Christian wisdom of science. If it’s bad to dabble in one, it’s probably just as bad to dabble in the other. Some people might point to Genesis 1:29 (“God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food”) to say that the Bible does command a healthy diet. But by that logic, we should all be vegans (which works for me).

I know I’m arguing from the perspective of the absurd. But, hey, in all good conscience, I am convinced that only an absurd logic could lead people to insist that mysticism, contemplation and meditation are bad.

I seem to recall learning somewhere that it’s harder to frown than to smile; ie, it takes more facial muscles to make a frown than a smile. There’s a spiritual lesson in there. Anti-contemplatives are, it seems to me, trying to paint a frown over God’s smile. I wish these killjoys would stop working so hard at such a useless task.

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Jan

16

Books are costly, blogs are cheap…

Contemplation / Mysticism / Spirituality / Writing

After making a wonderful allusion to Ireland, the Epiphany Girl notes, in response to The Prosperity Mongers:

This post is an interesting companion to the piece you wrote about those we leave behind specifically in terms of accepting the fact that mysticism is not for everyone while at the same time wanting to bring it to a broader audience … the path of the mystic appeals to so few (based on personality and inclination as you say), it seems an inherently difficult entity to effectively bring to the marketplace.

Herein lies the core dilemma of writing about mysticism.

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Jan

15

La Peste

Current events

Here is a sobering article about the on-going threat of the bubonic plague. Even now, there are ten to twenty cases in America each year.

Many scholars speculate that Julian of Norwich may have lost family members to the plague. We know that she lived through several outbreaks of the pestilence. It’s important to remember that, despite the advances of science and technology and the comfort that first worlders can take in access to treatment, still on a very primal level the world we live in is not so very different from the world of the medieval mystics.

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Jan

15

The Prosperity Mongers

Spirituality

I spoke with an editor of a large faith-oriented website yesterday; I had pitched a couple of ideas to this site and hadn’t had any luck getting a contract. We talked about how most of their readers were looking for breezy, self-help articles. He mentioned Joel Osteen more than once.

When I think about folks like Joel Osteen or Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret), I have deeply ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, no one can argue with the worldly success of such things as the Law of Attraction or the Prosperity Gospel: clearly, people are hungry for a message that provides hope and encouragement. As a writer, I would love nothing more than to author a book that will speak to millions of people. And it’s not just because of the royalty check (although that would be nice); it’s because I know how much effort goes into a book and I’d like that effort to be useful for others. So there is a temptation to join in the prosperity chorus. But it’s only a temptation — my editor friend and I joked about the absurdity of me writing to fit in with that genre: “Julian of Norwich wants you to be rich!” I don’t think so.

Meanwhile, it’s become fashionable to attack the Joel Osteens and Rhonda Byrnes of the world. But while I have my questions and concerns about the whole prosperity-consciousness industry, I am no more interested in attacking it than I am in just becoming part of it. I’m willing to assume good intentions on the part of the prosperity mongers (really, I am. I don’t think Osteen and Byrne and their cronies are out to get us, and I think even their obvious materialism is driven by belief in their message, and not the other way around). But I also believe their message is ultimately flawed, or perhaps a better way to describe it is, it’s incomplete. It’s spiritual junk food. It tastes great (“change your thinking, and health and wealth are yours!”) but it doesn’t satisfy. It leaves you hungrier than ever. Which is why the prosperity mongers stay in business: their incremental sales are guaranteed, ad infinitum.

When I’ve told people that I’m writing a book on mysticism, a common response I get is this: “Oh, that’s beyond me.” Mysticism is seen as too esoteric, too advanced, too elitist for the ordinary person. I want to challenge that notion. In fact, I think mysticism is the logical next step for the person who begins to see the limitations and weaknesses in the mainstream “change your thinking, change your life” message.

Here’s what I mean: I think the fatal flaw of the prosperity mongers is that their message typically seems to be this:

Change your thinking and you’ll get what you want.

Frankly, that’s just empirical nonsense, even though practically all of us can improve our lives somewhat by improving our thoughts and behaviors and attitudes. So yes, we need to do all we can to better ourselves, but then it’s time for the next step: not a huge leap, just a single step:

Change your thinking and let God get what God wants.

That’s when mysticism begins. Will it make us happy? Maybe, and maybe not. Will it “taste good”? Maybe, and maybe not. No guarantees in either of those categories. But it will nourish us. It’s truly satisfying — on a deep, soul, for-all-eternity level.

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Jan

14

Quote for the Day

Christianity / Quotations

We could fill stadiums in every major city with people who have been burned or wounded by bad churches. But you never see them. You never hear them, because the first thing a leaver loses is her voice. In the corners of every city are believers who are no longer visible to churchgoers; they have no platform to speak from, no committee meetings to make their point heard, no friendship with the pastor to get a change made. They are isolated and unorganized. Yet they are an army. In my mind they represent the prophetic hope for the church because they understand perhaps as well or better than anyone what the church needs, where it’s failing and what can make it a place of life and joy again.

— Brian Sanders, Life After Church: God’s Call to Disillusioned Christians

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