In Yoke

In tribulation, immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.------Saint John of the Cross This testimony is lifted from the writings of Eknath Eswaran, one of the English language's foremost teachers of meditation, whose systematic methods I have studied for the past ten years: **** I confess that I have always been sensitive to pain. When I was a little boy, I hurt my leg playing soccer. It became infected, so my granny took me to our doctor. He washed the wound as gently as he could while I winced. Then he told me apologetically, "I'm going to have to apply tincture of iodine." Now, I had heard many stories about how much it hurt to have iodine applied to a wound. So I closed my eyes. I felt the doctor's touch on my leg, and then a wave of pain across the wound. I think my yell must have lifted the roof. Then I noticed the pain had subsided, so I opened my eyes. "Is it over?" I asked...

In short, it is the work of a steward. What is a steward? A steward is-via the dictionary: A person who manages the property or affairs for another entity. A ship's officer who is in charge of making dining arrangements and provisions. A flight attendant, especially but not exclusively a male flight attendant. Often as "air steward", "airline steward", etc. A union member who is selected as a representative for fellow workers in negotiating terms with management. [syn:...a shop steward ] A person who has charge of buildings and/or grounds and/or animals. [syn: a custodian, a keeper] In IT, somebody who is responsible for managing a set of projects, products or technologies and how they affect the IT organization to which they belong. All these contemporary definitions refer to managing the possessions or properties of another, a 'higher up'. I believe that it implies servanthood. It implies obedience. The analogy of the Kingdom of God, and our role in...

Hugh Prather, in his book, "Spiritual Notes to Myself" comes to a rather interesting conclusion about our own desire to engage in the development of our own contemplative practice, or in his simple way of cancelling religious sounding words--our own "capacity for stillness"... Prather quips, "If you love your inner peace, you must learn to "break with the situation". If you need to pray, then PRAY NOW. "Oh, but that might be awkward", or "that is too much trouble", we say to ourselves. However, just think about it--if you have diarrhea, don't you do everything possible to "break with the situation"? We will get up from the meeting. We will get out of line. We will pull the car over to the side of the road. We will excuse ourselves from the dinner table. We will put down the phone." As my former Pastor Julie PR would say when she began to sense herself becoming overwhelmed by a situation-- "I need to set this...

"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...

"It is I, do not be afraid." John 6:20. Christ is the Great "I am". He reassures Peter and the disciples who are shivering in fear in the boat on the sea as he approaches on the water. They are overwhelmed by the circumstance of the storm, raging all around them. In this state of fear, they are shocked by the apparition they see in the maelstrom--an image of a man walking on the raging waves! As an entrepreneur, dependent on the whims of clients and new business, I live in what to me is sometimes a storm of uncertainty. Life's circumstances seem to me to be engulfing my fearfilled self. For me, I am in a state of doubt and anguish. The three basic needs of life seem to be out of my ability to achieve--1.power and control, 2.security and survival, 3.esteem and affection. The present storm is washing away my sense of security and survival: I can hear my small self/"ego" saying--"you are not going to make it!", or it is threatening my own abil...

"Criticism and polemic ism are mortal enemies of the spiritual life." - Valentin Tomberg In "Meditations on the Tarot", Tomberg, in the role of the anonymous friend, expounds on the meanings of the stories(arcana) within the fascinating icons called the Tarot cards, the ancient mystical divining rods of hermits and soothsayers. Within this book are myriad nuggets of truth, waiting for those who would but mine them. "A complete change of of the inspiring and motivating source of will takes place when a person or spiritual movement becomes engaged in the way of rivalry--and with it the criticism and polemic ism that it comprises." "There is no authentic spirituality which owes its origin and existence to opposition or rivalry." As I ponder on these issues, I realize that it has effect on my own spiritual life and development. I grew up in East Texas in the fifties and sixties, when "Southern Baptist church ways of working and worshipping...