Readings week of August 11th.

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Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, August 11th

Reading: “It's difficult to let God act under all circumstances. Letting go and not reflecting on what you are doing is the correct way to conduct yourself in this prayer. The method doesn't consist in how you sit or in the length of time you give, but in how you handle the thoughts that arise. I think it can be said that the essential point of all the great spiritual disciplines that the world religions have evolved is the letting go of thoughts. Everything else is subsidiary to that. The goal is to integrate and unify the various levels of one's being and to surrender that integrated and unified being to God.” — Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, p.87

Chant: I surrender – Heather Ruce

Tuesday, August 12th

Reading: "Self-knowledge in the Christian ascetical tradition is insight into our hidden motivation, into emotional needs and demands that are percolating inside of us and influencing our thinking, feeling, and activity without our being fully aware of them. To give an example: When I was an abbot, which is a father image in a monastery, I was struck by the fact that some of the younger members of the community were unconsciously treating me as their real father. I could see that they were working out emotional hassles with authority figures from their early childhood. They were not relating to me as me. When you withdraw from your ordinary flow of superficial thoughts on a regular daily basis, you get a sharper perspective on your motivation, and you begin to see that the value systems by which you have always lived have their roots in prerational attitudes that have never been honestly and fully confronted. We all have neurotic tendencies. When you practice contemplative prayer on a regular basis, your natural resources for psychic health begin to revive and you see the false value systems that are damaging your life. The emotional programs of early childhood that are buried in your unconscious begin to emerge into clear and stark awareness." — Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart

Chant: And love says, I will, I will take care of you – The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

Wednesday, August 13th

Reading: “The universe is saturated and suffused with a natural holiness that is rising up to meet us. The spiritual realms are not way beyond us, but rather their deep, natural, intelligent energetic support is always available….Your whole body is built to be a sensing antenna for divine realities, to receive the beauty and intricacy and the help that is there all the time….We need to open to sensation, grounded in the earth, allowing the heart to open as the electromagnetic receiver it is meant to be.” — Cynthia Bourgeault

Chant: Open my heart, open my heart — Ana Hernandez

Thursday, August 14th

Reading: "Beneath the surface there is a deeper and vastly more authentic Self, but its presence is usually veiled by the clamor of the smaller ‘I’ with its insatiable needs and demands." — Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, p.10

Hummed along to this Song: The Essentuki Prayer

Friday, August 15th with LeMel

Reading: Seventy-Two

A Song of Release

Call us again to gather our children,

Hurrying, hurrying to get in line;

Call us to pack in bundles and baskets,

Only essentials, what we can carry.

Challenge us each day, Eternal One,

To cast off piled high hordes

Of self-absorption;

Let us pack our lives lightly.

Call us as you called in Egypt,

To set out from grief to unknown;

Call us today to abandon unwillingness,

To open hands clenched around fear.

Let us go, let us walk forward,

Away from lost dreams

To a world spun of youthful hope,

A world we can rebuild for Your sake.

Let us find, walking forward, a freedom

Created by our efforts,

A freedom of heart no longer burdened

With meanness and narrowness.

Call us to walk forward toward You,

Freed from the weight of inconsequentials.

Lightened, released, cloaked with Your affection,

We walk on.

From Debbie Perlman in Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing & Praise, former Psalmist-in-Residence at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue

Chant: Lightened, released, cloaked with Your affection, You call us toward You. We walk on. – LeMel Firestone-Palerm

Saturday, August 16th

Reading: "The person I normally take myself to be—that busy, anxious little ‘I’ so preoccupied with its goals, fears, desires, and issues—is never even remotely the whole of who I am, and to seek the fulfillment of my life at this level means to miss out on the bigger life. This is why, according to his teaching, the one who tries to keep his ‘life’ (i.e., the small one) will lose it, and the one who is willing to lose it will find the real thing. Beneath the surface there is a deeper and vastly more authentic Self, but its presence is usually veiled by the clamor of the smaller ‘I’ with its insatiable needs and demands.

This confusion between small self and larger Self (variously known in the traditions as ‘True Self,’ ‘Essential Self,’ or ‘Real I’) is the core illusion of the human condition, and penetrating this illusion is what awakening is all about.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, p.10

Chant: Come to me, you heavy burdened ones, and I will give you rest – Henry Schoenfield

Sunday, August 17th

Reading: "We human beings come into existence with a certain operating system already installed in us. We can make the choice to upgrade. 

"The system already installed in us is a binary operating system. It runs on the power of “either/or.” People frequently call it the ego, but I prefer to stick with my metaphor and call it the “egoic operating system.” This dualistic “binary operator” is built right into the structure of the human brain…

"Like the great wisdom teachers of all spiritual traditions, Jesus calls us beyond the illusion: “Hey, you can upgrade your operating system, and life is going to look a whole lot different when you do it.”

"I think [this binary operating system] does have some real importance in the cosmic role we are asked to play; it’s not a mistake. But… most people get stuck in it. That’s who we think we are. We walk through our lives perceiving, reacting to, and attempting to negotiate the world “out there” on the basis of this operating system. It’s like being lost in a mirage. A system based in duality can’t possibly perceive oneness; it can’t create anything beyond itself—only more duality and more trouble. So the drama goes on and on.

"But we do have the capacity, if we so choose, to shift to a whole different basis of perception. We come into this life with another operating system already lying in latency, and if we wish to move in this direction, we can learn to steer by it, understand through it, and ultimately discover our deepest sense of identity within it.” – Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, p.33-35

Chant: Come to me, you heavy burdened ones, and I will give you rest – Henry Schoenfield

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