For what would be our lot had Adam and Eve not partaken of the fruit? We would still be in that childlike garden, just half a step more evolved than the rest of the animal kingdom. Our fall from that dreamlike existence of Eden provides us with our real humanity. We would have remained children in Eden, for children are those who are ignorant of the difference between good and evil. Would we wish our own children to remain ignorant of this distinction? Would we want them to grow up with no conscience, no knowledge?
By eating the fruit, Adam and Eve took a giant step forward, even though suffering became their lot. For they left behind the smothering nursery of the garden and walked forth into the world as adults.
Each of us has taken this step in our own life. When examine our lives in terms of this story, we can find that movement from the protected garden into the world. At some time, perhaps not traceable to any one event, we have fallen from the world of the child into that of the adult. And it is truly described as a fall, for we have indeed lost something important: the nursery and its comfort. Nor is it always obvious that we gain.
Richard Chilson, The Way to Christianity: In Search of Spiritual Growth, pp 62-63
TALK ABOUT IT
Can we get a glimpse of that fall in our own lives? When and where did the world of childhood close us to and force us into the less secure and frightening world of adults?
POST COMMENTS BELOW
THE "FALL" REVISITED, RICHARD CHILSON: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION
God loves... all that is lost and broken in everyone who lives. So, too, [through the practice of meditation] you begin to realize that you are falling in love with each and every person in the world. As you go on in this love for others, you fail in it again and again. This is no obstacle so long as your failure to be compassionate toward others is realized [as in the practice of meditation] as just the latest opportunity to renew your compassion toward yourself and others. What matters is that you have come to see a certain look of pain in the world's eyes. You know that look well, for [as you have seen in meditation] that look has been in your own eyes as well. It is the look of sadness and confusion in not realizing how loved and lovable one is in the midst of difficulties and shortcomings. You begin to appreciate that every time you compassionately engage with another person, your reason for being in this world is honored and expressed. For the world is the arena in which suffering continues to arise in the absence of love, and happiness continues to arise in the presence of love.
Meditation allows us to see the world through eyes of compassion. This compassionate vision of the world impels us to live in ways in which our words and behavior toward others embody compassion. Compassion forms the essential bond between seeking God in meditation and all forms of social justice. For the more we are transformed in compassion, the more we are impelled to act with compassion toward others.
~ James Finley, Christian Meditation, pp 285-286
TRY AND TELL ~ POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW
Choose to be present in the immediacy of the present moment by simply relaxing into being right where you are, just as you are. Settle into the intimate, felt sense of your bodily stillness. Settle into being aware of your breathing and whatever degree of fatigue or wakefulness you may be feeling in your body at the moment. Be aware of whatever sadness, inner peace, or other emotion may be present. Be aware of the light and the temperature in the room. In short, simply be present, just as you are, in the moment, just as it is. Cling to nothing. Reject nothing. Rest in this moment, in which there is nowhere to go, nothing to achieve, nothing to prove, nothing to tend to except being simply present.
You may discover yourself slipping away from the present-moment attentiveness into your customary round of thoughts, memories, and concerns. This is ego consciousness reinstating its accustomed position as our primary way of being in the present moment. The strategy of self-transformation at work in meditation is not to fight with the ego's efforts to reinstate its domain. The strategy is rather that of sitting in a circle of simple presence that continues expanding outward to include any and all aspects of ego that may arise within it... without judging, without evaluating, without clinging to or rejecting the way we simply are.
As we renew our present-moment attentiveness again and again, we can be reassured that we are renewing our awareness of the divine mystery that is manifesting itself in and as each thought that arises, endures, and passes away within us.
POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW
MEDITATION, JAMES FINLEY: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION
With Contemplative Exercises
We are the body of Christ alive in the world, and he is the human face of God. But to manifest Christ in our lives, to reveal him to the world, we must undergo a journey of transformation by which we become him, and he becomes us. Contemplative prayer, practiced with faith and patience, undertaken in the context of the church's life, takes us on this journey into Christ.
~ Brian C Taylor
PERSONAL NOTE: To contemplate means "to gaze upon". It is about waking up. It is to experience an event fully and deeply. In a fast paced world and a culture that emphasizes doing, contemplation seems too inefficient and unproductive to have much value. A contemplative person, however, recognizes that every experience offers more than meets the eye. In every religion, contemplation is an important practice on the journey of raising consciousness and transformation of being. Here are three contemplative exercises in the Christian tradition. POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW.
PALMS UP, PALMS DOWN
CONTEMPLATING JESUS:
- Take time to sit down and get comfortable. Put both feet on the floor and your hands in your lap. Breathe deeply and relax. Place yourself in the presence of Jesus.
- Turn your palms down. Drop your cares, worries, agendas, experiences into Jesus' hands. Let go of all that is heavy. Breathe deeply.
- Turn your palms up on your knees. Open your hands. Receive what Jesus is wanting to give you.
- When you are ready, tell Jesus what this was like. Writing it down, if possible, is best.
CONTEMPLATING PEOPLE:
- Take time to truly notice someone today. Listen to them with your heart. See them through God's eyes. Be intentionally present to them.
- Tell Jesus what you think you know about them, as well as what is mysterious to you about them. Writing it down, if possible, is best.
AIMLESS WANDERING
CONTEMPLATING "WHAT IS"
- Prepare by choosing a general location for your aimless wandering - beach, woods, back yard, city street, labyrinth, neighborhood. Establish no goals, destinations, or agendas. Be free of intention.
- Be as present as possible to your wandering. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do.
- Let go of the need to keep track of anything whatsoever. As the mind seeks to set a course or recollect, drop the internal tracking and bring your attention to whatever is occurring.
- Allow yourself to appreciate whatever arises. Pause and carefully observe anything that attracts your attention. Give your curiosity free rein with sights, sounds, smells, and physical feelings that spontaneously guide your wandering.
- Be responsive to environmental cues: a bird bathing, a breeze blowing, colors, sounds, nature — all are permitted to capture and lead your attention.
- Explore surprises and seeming coincidences. Notice and appreciate any excitement that may arise but refrain from embellishing it.
- Make no deliberate mental notes but simply disown experience as it arises. Quickly drop the tendency to overdramatize contemplative insight.
- Open yourself to the absolute freedom of having nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Simply marveling is a good way to conclude.
'I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (John 14.6). Faith is our way, contemplation is the truth and the life. 'For now we see in a mirror dimly' (I Corinthians 13.12). This is faith. 'But then face to face.' This is contemplation. Paul says again: 'Christ dwells in our hearts according to the inner man by faith.' That is the road along which we can catch glimpses only. But he adds: 'You will know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge and you will be filled with all the fullness of God' (cf. Ephesians 3.16-19). Contemplation is this fullness . . . 'You have died,' he says again, 'and you life is hid with Christ in God.' That is faith. But 'when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory' (Colossians 3.3-4). That is the vision of God.
'Beloved,' John says, 'we are God's children; it does not yet appear what we shall be.' That is faith. But he goes on: 'We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' (1 John 3.2). That is contemplation.
~ Augustine of Hippo, Sermons, 346,2 (PL 38,1523-4)
TALK ABOUT IT The Greek word for faith - pisteuo - means to trust or to entrust. The Greek word for contemplation - theoria - means to look at things through the eye of the soul. Both are considered divine gifts as well as human effort. After reading Augustine, what would YOU say is the relationship between faith and contemplation?
NOTE Allow for some flexibility in the definition of these words in our discussion and practice. In other contexts, the word theoria is used as a counterpart to praxis - theoria (a spiritual idea or teaching) vs praxis (spiritual experience or practice). This can be confusing since contemplation (theoria) is often considered a practice.
PRACTICE IT (INWARD) Where are you on your spiritual journey relative to faith and contemplation? Where do you feel called to be? Who can help you make progress toward your goal?
PRACTICE IT (OUTWARD) How do/can you practice entrusting others to God and looking at them through the eye of your soul?
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO ON FAITH AND CONTEMPLATION: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION
