I would have a better attitude, know more joy, be more loving. But I learned that one could be a ‘monk’ and stay removed from this world or ‘participate’. The idea of ‘detach with love’ expressed the notion of wearing life as a ‘loose robe’ rather than a tight fitting straight jacket.
All the character defects and addictions are about being attached to this world. CS Lewis says ‘stop looking for the architect in the wall’. I’m just amazed at the wonder and beauty of creation. In the Celtic Christian tradition one knows God through the trinity of scripture and gospel, the message of nature and science, so called creation theology, and guided spirituality.
St. John of the Cross was St. Theresa, the great Christian mystic’s ‘spiritual director’. Dr. James Houston who taught Christian Spirituality at Regent College emphasized the need for a spiritual director. My deeply wise and loving friend, Kirk has Prem as his spiritual guide. Alcoholics Anonymous and the other 12 step spiritual programs recommend each person have a sponsor. This is essentially a ‘buddy system’. The Catholics call the other, the great ‘mystery’. The Cloud of Unconsciousness refers to the inner world of grace and mystery. We joke and say our minds are bad neighbourhoods and we shouldn’t go there alone.
Trungpa the Buddhist spiritual leader describes the western mind as grasping and damaged by ‘consumerism’ hence approaching spirituality as ‘spiritual consumerism’. Alone one can be a ‘fool on the hill’. Thomas Merton, the catholic monk who studied with the eastern monks noted they were never alone but always lived in loose community like the early mystical Desert Fathers of the Christianity. The church is a ‘community’ of fellow travellers. Pilgrim’s Progress is an early sometimes humorous tale of the Christian path.
The mystical experience has been called the Way, the Flow, the 4th dimension. Dr. Carl Jung called it the latter and Spiritual Followers of the 12 steps described the natural high that came from being released from the ‘bondage of self’ and ‘addiction’ to the ‘false god’ of ‘attachment to the things of this world’ as ‘rocketed into the fourth dimension. A natural high is best seen in the joy of a baby.
Buber described the journey from “I and It”, to “I and you” to “I and Thou”. To the spiritual all is God and I am but an observer. The sacredness of creation is always there to be seen in its beauty and wonder if only one humbles oneself and lets oneself be lifted, as on ‘eagles wings’.
I like photography. I like even more sketching and painting. When I have more free time I love to sketch. These ‘states’ of mind are different from the ‘monkey mind’ of day to day creation, doing , and struggling, being like the Martha of the of the Martha and Mary of the Bible. It’s so easy to forget leave enough time for reflection and joy. Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God.
Anxiety has been said to be ‘a measure of one’s distance from God , and equally a measure of one’s humanity’. I pray, Thy will, not my will be done but very quickly I’m grabbing the steering wheel. Paramahansa Yoganada taught that there were many ways to get on a plane but unfortunately most didn’t involve a pilot. I always think of that when addicts tell me ‘they got high’. I much prefer the military pastors depiction of Jesus as the ‘sky pilot’.
Beauty is uplifting. It gives me a positive feeling to see the wonders that God has made. The miracle of this existence is so intelligent and sacred. I like to capture pictures of nature and those around me that have as such ‘touched my soul’.
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