In Yoke

The Spiritual Path of Jesus (Taken from the Journal of Contemplative Reflection, Vol. 2, Issue 2, September 1999) Something of great value has not only been hidden from us in modern Christianity, but has also been stolen away from us (and from the many who would find it if they could) by institutional guardians of the faith.  To use Jesus' sharp words about this thievery, "Woe to you, religious leaders, you pretenders. You lock the doors of the kingdom of heaven before all human beings. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you allow access to those who seek entrance" (Matt. 23:13). The spiritual path of Jesus was aimed at something far higher than the perpetuation of institutional religion or theological dogma. His work was about something revolutionary and transformative. It was about finding the way to that transformation. Those drawn to the spiritual path of Jesus throughout the centuries have intuitively known that this was so. It was not extraneous dogma or the inst...

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. -Mark Twain From Easwaran: Often, when a low mood is coming on, sometimes it is because the mind has started to brood upon itself. The things that formerly seemed exciting now elicit no response. In a sense,we have closed down. A friend can talk to us and we will not hear; we can go to a movie and may not even follow the plot.We are utterly absorbed in a hall of mirrors inside, in which we and everyone around us are pushed, pulled, and twisted into fantastic shapes. There are a number of effective ways of treating these dark moods where they start, within the mind. What helps is to do what your mind is crying out not to do: be with other people, work with them, make yourself take an active interest in what they are doing and saying. This turns attention away from yourself by directing it outward. Once you are more concerned with others, your melancholy is gone; you are alive again. Leslie and I have for the 30+ ...

O Enlightened One Life Giving Spirit May I bear Your Image, and Be a Child of Light . ~ Sciretti I am drawn to the analogy and the words of scripture that describe the influence of Holy Spirit in my life as "light". The concept of what it means to be "enlightened" is a compelling mystery to me as I continue to study and seek to follow the Lord Christ, thereby being transformed into a different person. Last evening, in three year old choir at Calvary, we sang "This little light of mine"...(and we sang it quite well, and most enthusiastically, I might add.) ...on Tuesday in my "brothers of the rule"group, where Mike led us in the chant I restated above, we were reminded that each of us has an essential self, a little Child of Light baby, that must be fed, nurtured, cared for, and "grown" in order for it to be strong and capable of being the primary source of our individual self's decisions and insight. This Essence--"this little...

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.  -Brother Lawrence The mind has a tremendous natural capacity to dwell on things, and in repeating the mantram we are channeling this capacity to train the mind. It is the same capacity, only we are giving it a different focus. There is a story in the Hasidic tradition of Judaism in which a man asks his zaddik or spiritual teacher, "Do you mean we should remember the Lord even in the give-and-take of business?" "Yes, of course," the rabbi replies. "If we can remember business matters in the hour of prayer, shouldn't we be able to remember God in the transactions of our business?" ~Easwaran That's fair. I incessantly pray for God to bless our business.  It remains for me to pr...

My heart is like a garden, or so says the Master, Jesus, in Luke 8:1-15. The parable of the sower gives evidence of the organic nature of the sowing of seeds, some of the seeds of the world, some of the evil one(perhaps these are the same), some of the word of God. As I continue to consider this mystical Word of God, the Logos, which is not just the scriptural word, but the living Word or the living, active Spirit of Christ in my life, it is quite intriguing how this truth continues to burrow into my consciousness. Before my heart is really ready to receive the seed of the Word, my heart garden needs cultivation. This occurs over a gradual period of time. I know that the weeds begin to be pulled and cut out through a constant application of the prayer of Jesus--"not my will but Thy will be done". Also, I am convicted that an application of the scriptures to my mind and into the soil of my heart-helps to cut out the sprouts of the 'bad' seeds. You know, the word of ...

He insulted me, he cheated me, he beat me, he robbed me - those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. -The Buddha Resentment is nothing more than compulsive attachment to a set of memories. If you could peek through the window of the mind when you feel resentful, you would see a production line turning out the same emotion-charged memory over and over: "He did that to me in 1993, he did that to me in 1993 . . ." You are dwelling on something that took place in the past - or, more likely, on how you misunderstood that event and reacted to your misunderstanding. When you keep pumping attention into an event in this way, a limp little memory gets blown up into a big balloon of hostility. When you withdraw your attention by repeating the mantram , the balloon is deflated. It's as simple as that. ~ Sri Easwaran I am definitely synchronous with Sri Easwaran's position, in that my own personal mantra is the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy...

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. -Saint Francis de Sales In a village on the Blue Mountain in India, the local bank had  a very neighborly arrangement for collecting funds from the villagers.  Poor villagers have very little to save, only a few copper pennies at most. To encourage them to deposit even these few pennies every day, the bank employed a boy with a bicycle to go into the village to their homes, collect their few coppers, and enter the total in their account.  In meditation it is the same: when the Eternal Self comes, we can say, "We are no great saint, but a few times today we have tried to be patient. A few times today we have tried to put our family first. A few times today we have resisted some little craving for personal satisfaction."  This is how most of us are going to make progress for a l...