Readings week of August 31st.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, August 31st

Reading: “The ego is the interior movement we experience when we do not get what we want; it is also the experience of near uncontainable highs when we do get what we want. Obviously the ego is the experience of extremes—extreme feelings, that is—and for this reason it can easily imbalance the whole psyche or consciousness.... The ego is the experience of self-will, a will turned solely on itself that seeks its own fulfillment and benefit.... Thus the ego is a particular self-energy or power that can go either way—negatively toward what is not good for self, positively toward what is good for self. If we believe that the divine is our highest good, then the ego (self-energy or self-will) goes in pursuit of the divine, and this pursuit is the ego's true, proper, developmental direction. The ego is, therefore, basically good; it is only bad when it goes against its own highest good.”

— Bernadette Roberts 

Chant: We were born of the light, there where light is born of light — Susan Latimer

Tuesday, September 1st

Reading: “Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Chant: The earth is full, full of your [wonder, joy, goodness, mercy, despair, wonder] the earth is full, full of you, your [wonder, joy, goodness, mercy, despair, wonder] fills the whole earth  — Darlene Franz 

Wednesday, September 2nd 

Reading: “It is indeed fair to say that if I wish to be a conscious participant in the greater cosmic exchange while still physically living in World 48, I must realize my citizenship in World 24, for that is where authentic human consciousness actually begins. But this realization is not in order to "leave" this world, but rather to fully occupy it; to stand awake and present in that mi-fa gap and there make my offering to the greater cosmic ecology.”

— Cynthia Bourgeault, Eye of the Heart, p. 53-54

Chant: We were born of the light, there where light is born of light  — Susan Latimer 

Thursday, September 3rd

Reading: The contemplative way is not that of striving for some far-off goal that we may or may not attain but rather is a way of discovering a secret hidden deep within our hearts.

— James Finley

Chant: Sink into the taproot of your heart  — Heather Ruce

Friday, September 4th

Reading: "When I am quiet, I feel strongly that I am one, that I am whole. I begin to feel that behind all the movements of my ordinary "I" there is something in me that remains stable, like an axis maintaining a certain balance. I have an intuition of a vibration that is totally different in its intensity. It is difficult to attune myself to its resonance, to attune the slow and incoherent vibrations that are moving me. But I listen, and am sensitive to these different qualities. And the more I listen and am sensitive, the more the resonance appears like an underlying sound, a fundamental sound as if in the background, which becomes irresistible. The other vibrations undergo a change, as though the discordant notes attune themselves and the movement quickens by itself. Here, nothing will take place unconsciously. I can only consent and wish consciously — will consciously — to be the site of this metamorphosis.

“This is what I serve, the purpose of my life. To understand this brings the act of letting go, a quieting of all my tensions to correspond to the essential vibration. I need to understand what I wish. I need an awakened sincerity for this blending to take place. Something has to make room.” — Jeanne De Salzmann, Reality of Being

Chant: At the still point of the turning world, there I will know as I am known

Sunday, September 6th 

Reading: “The harmonic of the universe is wholeness, not perfection; more specifically, it is wholeness that involves differentiation. Fusion is a union that sacrifices differentiation; wholeness retains differentiation. Without wholeness, we hear only the cacophonous noise of the various parts of our selves, clanging together. Without differentiation, we hear only the pure sound of a single tone, but not its harmonics...

How do you know if you are on a path that leads to increasing wholeness and involves living out of wholeness? You will hear harmony, not simply the cacophony of a fragmented self. You will also sense the energy of the larger whole—an energy that goes beyond your own. You will, at least occasionally, experience the thrill of being simply a small part of a large cause, the thrill of being a tool, seized by a strong hand and put to an excellent use. You will be comforted by knowing that we are all interconnected. In a very real sense, therefore, what you do for another, you do for yourself. Love passed on to others becomes the most meaningful form of self-love, and care of the earth and its inhabitants becomes care of self. — David G. Benner, “Perfection and the Harmonics of Wholeness,” “Perfection,” Oneing, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 62‒63

Chant: Love one another, as I Love you,  Love one another, as I Love you

— Henry Schoenfield

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