Contemplative Practices

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

 

Contemplative practice is about connecting with the entire universe, but in an odd sort of way.  Without trying to we allow ourselves to identify with everything and then "see" that everything is us. It is our brain that creates a sense of separation through our various sense organs. It is also our brain that creates an identity for these aggregates of perception and sensation. We call this an "I" and our parents give it a name.

 

So, contemplative practice is about disentangling all these "mental formations" to come to oneness with the universe, indeed, oneness with God.

Various faith traditions have us approaching this in various ways, from Sufi's whirling to Zen students sitting still facing a wall, and everything in between. 

 

Judaism includes chants, repetitious prayers, gentle (and sometimes rapid) bowing from the waist, intention (kavenah)  in various daily practices such as washing our hands or lighting candles, and a practice of mindful attendance to daily perceptions such as a rainbow, a beautiful object, a powerful person, etc.

 

Through these and other practices we essentially gain humility, or rather, allow humility to take a front seat in our lives and place our sense of identity and pride in that identity on a far back seat. At some point, if we practice diligently, our ancestral teachers promise us that this "self" and its attendant worries will dissolve. We will have complete, unexcelled union with the Infinite, with God. This will be so, because we will have attained the realization that there is no "we" there is only the Infinite manifest in its various aspects.

I encourage each of you to establish and maintain such a set of  practices.  Begin with a practice of meditation, move to a practice of mindfulness, and transform yourself with a practice of compassionately identifying yourself with all beings, all things in every place. At some point this "self" will appear less and less important and less and less present. While, at the same time your experience of the universe will be made much more sharp and clear.

 

Be well.

 

On a personal note, we are looking forward to closing on our home today. It has been a long and tense period of waiting and working to make this all happen.  We are fortunate that things fell together such as son Jason moving here and leasing our condo for a year.  I felt very anxious through these months as one after another various economic tragedies befell the United States and the world.  Money is very tight, lenders are not as easy or free with their money, gasoline and other necessities are increasing in price. May we pray for wisdom in our nations and world's leadership as we navigate through these difficult times. 

May we also pray for the strength to create and accept additional regulation and oversight of our financial and housing industries who through abandonment of common sense and desire to make quick money, played a large part in creating this crisis.  But this oversight should not be limited to housing and financial industries.  I also note that people are apparently taking advantage of child labor, mistreating animals, and making more profitable, but less wise and certainly less moral or ethical decisions in their work practices.

 

It is clear to me that we have a lot of personal and social work to do.