Realm of quietude

One of the most important things we can do in life is to remember that God, the Great I AM, the Ultimate Mystery, dwells within the depths of every one of us, and to recognize that reality in our own very being. This is a place where our deepest Self resides and is always already at rest, whether we are aware of that on the surface of ourselves or not.

In speaking of this place, Benedictine monk, spiritual counselor and psychologist Anselm Gruen reminds us, "Mystics – like practitioners of transpersonal psychology [and I would add contemplatives, spiritual directors, and all types of psychologists from across traditions] – believe that there is a space within us to which other people cannot gain access, and which the considerations of the super-ego cannot reach or affect. This is the quiet space, the realm of quietude, where God Godself dwells in us. Where God lives within us, other people can have no power over us."

Part of our task is to allow our most real sense of Self to come from this space. Gruen says, "Many people, however, never realize that they have this area within them, because they are cut off from it by a stratum of rubbish and rubble. This is a layer packed with worries and problems, thoughts and plans, that have intervened between their conscious minds and their real selves. The way to that inner area of silence is the way of prayer and meditation."

When we realize we have this place within us and can reside there for longer, we taste the truth that other people, circumstances, and our own internalized societal and parental standards of right and wrong—which end up punishing us through guilt or rewarding us with pride—cannot impact this Self. The real identity of the Self, which is rooted where God dwells within us, is a unique manifestation of God in physical form. As we spend time in practices that support us in re-collecting our sense of identity here and familiarize ourselves with that inner land of silence, we can be present to more of our super-ego messages, other people, and life circumstances without being unnecessary troubled by them. We can keep within the un-perturbable inner climate of trust, with our deepest sense of Self and with God, radiating from within our own ecosystem with a greater clarity of what is needed for the greater ecosystem we find ourselves in at any given moment.

This makes a difference in how we go about our lives and how we interact with Life. May we make our way through life from that real Self grounded in the inner land of silence rather than the other way around.

With Love,

Heather

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Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, July 21st with LeMel

Reading: “When I write, I let go of the anger and the fright…These words strengthen my faith in my ability to weave a lasting thread in the pattern of holiness, bound tightly to God’s design.”

Fourteen

You turn the spindle to form me

To a fine and glistening thread,

Shining in the dawning light

Of Your compassion for me.

Free me from the knots of pain;

Unsnarl the fears that catch

The slender cords

And smooth them as they wind to You.

Fill Your needle

With the strands of my life,

Many hued, many textured,

As You stitch my days.

Unfolding, the tapestry moves to You.

Unraveling, the petit point of my worries

Obscures the pattern of Your concern,

Conceals the fabric of Your plans.

Shake out this cloth and hang it, unfinished,

To catch freshening breezes;

Then renewed, return it to Your hand

To complete the design.

– Debbie Perlman (former Psalmist-in-Residence at Beth Emet The free Synagogue), Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing & Praise

Chant: You stitch my days, With the thread of your shining compassion, Renewed by freshening breeze, The tapestry of my life sings – LeMel Firestone-Palerm

Tuesday, July 22nd with Chris

Reading: "Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. [And] as you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What’s it like, this intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.

And if the world shall cease to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

And to the rushing water, speak: I am.

– Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. by Joanna Macy

Widening Circles

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I’ve been circling for thousands of years

and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?

– Rainier Maria Rilke, trans. by Joanna Macy

Chant: Deeply descend into I Am, deeply descend into One — The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

Wednesday, July 23rd with Chris

Reading: "Attend and Remember—Lord Have Mercy" by Lee Van Laer, 11/9/24 Morning Five

What is great and true and beautiful is not far away.

It is already here in everything,

In the flowers, the plants, the trees, the birds,

Even here in me.

The great force of nature is all here together.

Even in the rocks and stones

And in the air and the sky.

And all of it is a single note in a song that spans the galaxy

And says, I am.

I am the Lord, it sings.

and I say in response,

Hear my prayer,

Help me to become open to dwell in this new emptiness of being

So that your goodness flows into me

And your truth is known again

In this new attention within me.

Lord, hear my prayer.

Every molecule in my body begins to point towards Thee.

Every cell is listening

Every breath is attentive.

Today,

I hope to remember to come back to the stillness

And the silence of this goodness

That lies at the heart of creation.

To remember to come back

And touch the heart of Being

And to give thanks again and again

For this life,

This truth,

This great prayer that flows into everything.

And celebrates the truth of being itself.

I live on the edge of joy.

I live filled with your presence.

I give thanks in every moment.

For the opportunity to be here,

To live,

To love,

To make a new effort of relationship in my life,

To overcome the negative thoughts and impulses I have

And to look forward into a new dawn

Where hope and love fill my action in every moment.

And I do my best to manifest the good

Which you have given so generously to everything that exists.

I wish to be baptized in the waters of your peace.

Help me to attend and to remember.

Lord have mercy.

Chant: Oh Mercy, I entrust myself to you, that I may be transformed

Thursday, July 24th with Chris

Reading: 'What I Know of Love When Times Are Dark'

 And if you can’t find a candle,

then light the wick of your wonder.

And if you can’t find your wonder,

then now might be a good time

to pray. And if you don’t

know how to pray,

then perhaps you are doing it right.

What do I know of prayer?

Only that every prayer that has saved me

is a prayer that has found me

instead of the other way round—

a prayer that comes through me,

as if I am nothing more

than flesh in service to a prayer.

And if there is a candle, then light it.

And if there is a candle, ask it

to be your teacher. And if there is

a candle, notice how far its light

can reach. See if you, too, can touch

the world as generously as a candle,

just that far, holding back not even

the tiniest measure of love.

 —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Chant: With you is the well of life and in your light we see light – Susan Latimer 

Friday, July 25th with Heather

Chant: In love alone, I take my rest, I dwell, [as I am] – Kirsty Christian

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