In Yoke

"That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love." -Mechthild of Magdeburg There is nothing on earth like meditation, or the cultivation of stillness, as Prather puts it. Each day it has the potential to be new and fresh. Why doesn't everyone "take to it"? Millions dedicate their lives to art, music, literature, or science, which reveal just one facet of the priceless jewel hidden in the world. A life based on meditation penetrates far beyond the multiplicity of existence into the indivisible realm of reality, where dwells infinite truth, joy, and beauty. In the cu...

I have a special love for a little book called "Spiritual Notes to Myself", by Hugh Prather, published in 1998. It is written in a contemporary conversant style, but is laced with the thoughtfulness, depth and eternal wisdom of a great mystic. One passage that is special and significant to me is his little vignette about nurturing the silence of the heart(which he, in his non religious style, calls "stillness") to foster remaining true and vigilant to listen to the still, small voice of the Spirit in our lives. "No matter how small, any daily problem is sufficient to effectively "rob" us of stillness. Don't wait until you are in the middle of the event to remember stillness. Remember stillness first; go through the problem with stillness; and afterwards, look only to stillness for the outcome. Stillness is a baby I carry in my arms. Nothing in the world can tempt me to abandon it." Prather reminds me that this quality of life--living contempl...