The Last Post, Hurrah! Starting with closing comments....(#8)

 

and proceeding from there, naturally...

Again, this blog is simply being put out there (wherever "there" is) as food for thought on the validity/necessity of the contemplative prayer experience, and to provide a few resources for its practice. You may, and can, bulk out these resources near endlessly, but truly the resouces listed provide nearly all which is needed. There is the nice compact overview in "Common Mystic Prayer", the very concise and relatively short beginners-to-adept instructional work of "The Cloud Of Unknowing/Book Of Privy Counselling", and the incredibly detailed "Sancta Sophia/Holy Wisdom" which should handle any difficulties/sticking points encountered along the way. There are certainly other/numerous extremely fine works. Only recall that one never meets God by reading about it. Finding and experiencing God is not an intellectual pursuit, but rather, one of the "heart". One only does by doing, and you will never read or theorize your way to answering those deepest yearnings, or find happiness and peace by only reading. Taste and see that the LORD is good.

I have already expressed distress over the necessity of using the blog format. This writer is not tracking stats in hopes of popularity or boost of ego, there is no commercial aspect (at least at my end) nor is it any attempt at a debate club, social club, or an implying that the writer is any manner of spiritual guide or guru able and willing to play answer-man to all of life's problems. It is written only as a seeker passing along what he found, where ultimately what he found is so far beyond words as to make even the finest words only pebbles rattling on a rusty tin roof. The cited works speak for themselves, if only the reader will read them, and more importantly, practice them. My advice to any reader of this blog is to completely ignore the comment section, same as this writer will be doing, totally. Which means it will not be policed in any way, and no telling WHAT one may find there posted by trolls/robots/whatever, but it likely will end up cluttered with all manner of the ugly and/or inane and/or insane as do all wide open comment sections...now, on with the show...

The Judeo-Christian view is that God made us to seek him. To that end, one sees the universality of religion in mankind. Those various religions have managed to answer this call in assorted ways, some of these ways coming closer to the truth, some quite far away. Those with contemplative/"meditation" traditions within them have always approached closest to the truth and shared in the most as for basic insights/experience, while those most self/greed-centered and manipulative in spells, magic etc. furtherest away, but there have been, and are, critical differences. Whether any ancient (or modern) Zen/Ch'an master, in experiencing satori/kensho, or even supreme enlightenment, experienced the identical ultimate reality same as a dedicated Christian contemplative mystic, nobody is qualified to say. My suspicion based on own experience of many many years back says the answer is "no", as this writer found Zen lacking in something, and that critical thing was the Judeo-Christian determination of the ultimate principle being Love as personified by the Christ rather than Void or Mind, but in truth, only God knows that answer ....and so we come to that cultural wall once again. In fact, adepts from both cultures MIGHT experience the same loving union, but, there truly is no way to know unless one was immersed for all of their life in that other culture and steeped in all of its language, religious and cultural nuances, which manner of double-being is impossible.

Which brings me again to the purely practical matter of Westerners adopting Eastern religion....minus that impossible double-life, a Westerner generally will never be able to say they "get it", and that be true. This is stated to make clear that the mention of the following Eastern-themed sources is no endorsement of taking up their practice...not at all. They are interesting from several standpoints, the first in showing the near universal instinct for mankind to undertake The Search and end up employing remarkably similar means, across cultures separated vastly by both time and distance, and past that, them describing remarkably identical dangers in this Quest, and finding remarkably similar answers as we push towards what appears a manifest destiny (or at least the intended destination) of the species, all this mentioned in hopes of jogging the religious skeptic into admission that there might actually be something to all of this, after all. The second reason for mentioning them is as a support to the seeker who intuits that there must be more to things than as postulated by the Western scientific culture, and where it seems there must be some way of directly knowing and experiencing things past only talking about and thinking about possibilities, in short, real answers rather than only numerous theories as to the why and meaning of things.

Both of these following sources are also a scathing indictment of the West in failing to pass along its own heritage, especially of those who are supposed to be in charge of preserving and passing along their religious heritage. I cannot help but think of the poor late/former Father (my recollection he was censured in some manner, not that modern Jesuit biography sources would mention such) William Johnston of previous mention who apparently was given only his Ignatian Exercises for nourishment and ended by turning muchly to Zen for answers and finding a false equivalence as was becoming so fashionable in his time and into our own, and amazingly despite being obviously familiar with "The Cloud Of Unknowing" and seemingly missing the rather blatant centrality of Love which surely is absent in Zen. Plus, in Zen you are looking at the problem of ego trying to do away with ego, while in Christianity it truly is God doing the work where we simply cooperate. If he was able to clear up any "misunderstandings" as to his orthodoxy and allegiance, that would be wonderful to know, however, that it could happen in the first place and seems endemic today, especially within his religious order, shows what a truly terrible job superiors within his order and Church have done in knowing and promoting their own spiritual riches.

One work is by an Austrian/American who needed to look for answers in the East, the other is by an American who found no answers to his questions and ended fleeing the "rat race" for Japan and then back home as essentially a missionary. The answers they sought were right here, but they were anything but easily accessible and apparent. Even more scathing an indictment of Western religious leaders in their not providing answers, and even deaf to the questions, is the fact that both books have sold VERY well and through numerous editions. The first work cited was for sure a best-seller, all showing there are a great many people out there struggling for answers.

This first work is a fascinating typical paperback-sized book by physicist Fritjof Capra titled , "The Tao Of Physics", which despite the title of Chinese philosophy, delves across the board into Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu views on the nature of reality, and where he shows utterly remarkable parallels with findings of modern physics. Note that the author seems completely ignorant of the existence of Western Christian mysticism. Printed through numerous editions starting back in the mid-1970s, he has updated the text over the years to include later and even more startling findings in physics, none of which has done anything but support his original thesis. For the religious skeptic, have fun trying to explain away the above book.

The second more encyclopaedic work is by Philip Kapleau titled "The Three Pillars Of Zen", initially published in the mid-1960s, where he gave it the old college try in seeking to explain near everything in a single volume, detailing his experience of moving to Japan and his studies there, interviews with other students on their encounters with their teacher, profuse instruction and illustration on posture, breathing techniques, detailing what really happened on rigorous retreats, etc etc, him trying heroically to strip away the mystery for consideration by Western minds. This writer's personal hope is the reader will see just how daunting cultural immersion can be, with no guarantee of success. Kapleau, in fact, was approved by his teacher to be a teacher in his own right, but there later was a falling out when Kapleau wished to Americanize his teaching methods for Westerners, with Kapleau going on to "do his own thing". The primary reason I am mentioning this work is for one section of the work where Kapleau transcribed his teacher's generic introductory lectures for new students. If you read those lectures and then read "The Cloud Of Unknowing", or read them in reverse order, you will be shocked, even when so forewarned, on just how similar they are, and if nothing else, this might prompt you to take the warnings in "The Cloud Of Unknowing" most seriously.......if you ever looked into Buddhism and noted just how common-sensical its tenets and solutions (put forward as a doctor diagnosing an illness and prescribing treatment), and wondered why Christianity could not be so straightforward, well, it is, if you know where to look, and "The Cloud Of Unknowing" is an answer to your prayers. Beyond that, from a totally practical standpoint, and spoken by someone who seriously studied Japanese martial arts from the Japanese, the section on breathing is worth taking to heart, proper breathing will aid both your prayer (with better focus) and even your balance. (If you doubt the latter, stand on one leg with supporting leg slightly bent. After trying that your own way, then try the same thing except with your fingertips pressing lightly a couple of inches below the navel, while trying to feel your breath going in and out down to that point. All just to show you can learn some things from unexpected sources.)

And, with that, seeing as how closing remarks started this blog entry, goodbye for now, and may we meet in eternal loving union with God and get caught up on things....remember, DO, don't read.

(above photo compliments of Jason Strull at Unsplash.com)