{"nodes":[{"node":{"title":"Easter Sunday","created":"1364692430","teaser":"

\"\"The Resurrection is described - not as an event that might have been recorded if there had been a cameraman around at the time - but as an experience in the people to whom he appeared.<\/p>

This was a simultaneously intensely personal and powerfully communal experience. It changed the individuals who felt it and created a confident, other-centred community out of a group of frightened, broken-hearted self-doubters.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"The Resurrection is described - not as an event that might have been recorded if there had been a cameraman around at the time - but as an experience in the people to whom he appeared.<\/p>

This was a simultaneously intensely personal and powerfully communal experience. It changed the individuals who felt it and created a confident, other-centred community out of a group of frightened, broken-hearted self-doubters.<\/p>

The person who manifested to and among the disciples was evidently the same one whom they had previously known and loved. He had then died and been buried. The space of his absence was painful and unfillable. Now he was present to them again. Uniquely, he expanded their idea of plenitude beyond any limit they had known before.<\/p>

He did not explain himself or describe where he had been or what it was like over the horizon of biological life. He was simply among them, with their fears and doubts, energising them without rhetoric and giving them, without compelling them, a new purpose for living. He did not say what Resurrection meant. If they didn\u2019t know it in their own experience, words couldn\u2019t communicate it. He was only himself \u2013 without doctrine but with an immediate intensity and clarity that pulled them irresistibly into a new level of existence.<\/p>

Seeing a dead person might be scary. It is a universal fear that the resentful dead might haunt us in order to exact revenge on us. Every culture including Hollywood tells such creepy stories.  But this is not a ghost story. They did not see a dead person. A fully alive, unblaming, wholly free person vitalized them.<\/p>

Here on Bere Island this week we have seen the sun in blue clear skies some of the time and a lot of cloud-cover most of the time.  But even when the sun was hidden its light penetrated the cloud, soaked into the earth and made Spring happen.<\/p>

Chlorophyll is a biomolecule essential for the photosynthesis that allows plants to absorb energy from light. Resurrection, both like and unlike the cyclical seasons of life, happens within the deep structures of nature where all levels of existence are connected.<\/p>

The Risen Jesus, who empowers us for a new way of living, is not the chlorophyll. That element is already in us, our capacity for life in a fullness beyond even the wonderful material form of the body.<\/p>

He is the light we absorb that in time makes us as glorious as he is.<\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Holy Saturday","created":"1364601960","teaser":"

\"\"\u2018Something strange is happening today\u2019. A second century Christian writer in a beautiful teaching once tried to express the experience of absent presence that fills the emptiness after the burial of Jesus.<\/p>

Everyone who has buried a loved one has felt this strangeness that follows the rituals and the companionship of family and friends. In the jokes and stories at the gathering after the service, there is permission, within the social conventions, to step aside briefly from the sense of loss and emptiness.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"\u2018Something strange is happening today\u2019. A second century Christian writer in a beautiful teaching once tried to express the experience of absent presence that fills the emptiness after the burial of Jesus.<\/p>

Everyone who has buried a loved one has felt this strangeness that follows the rituals and the companionship of family and friends. In the jokes and stories at the gathering after the service, there is permission, within the social conventions, to step aside briefly from the sense of loss and emptiness.<\/p>

But soon after, when the plates and glasses have been cleared away and the family have returned with some relief to their own lives, the strangeness of being a survivor descends. Life carries on but at its centre there is a felt absence that at moments calls the meaning of everything into question.<\/p>

The ancient author peered deep into this absence and with the eyes of faith saw a purpose in the collective experience of nothing. \u201cGreatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve.\u201d Something is at work in the netherworld of grief. A process is being enacted that touches into the pre-consciousnes of the human race. Something is being touched and freed in a place that seemed too deep and dark ever to be understood and so remained a primal source of fear.<\/p>

\u201cRise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form one undivided person and we cannot be separated.\u201d Out of the ultimate separation there is now the daring prospect of eternal union.<\/p>

Meditation is often a Holy Saturday. The feeling of failure or loss or disconnection has to be endured. But, at a deeper level, there is a certainty that has not yet broken the surface of consciousness that is hope.<\/p>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Good Friday","created":"1364517480","teaser":"

\"\"Under most legal systems through history death has been both the greatest crime and the greatest punishment. It is irreversible, absolute, and that is one reason why it is so terrible.<\/p>

Another, of course, is that it is the loss that laces all losses. In anything we have ever had taken away from us by force or accident the fear of death has been aroused. When death finally comes it seems to prove that this fear is justified: eventually everything goes; so everything is ultimately meaningless.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"Under most legal systems through history death has been both the greatest crime and the greatest punishment. It is irreversible, absolute, and that is one reason why it is so terrible.<\/p>

Another, of course, is that it is the loss that laces all losses. In anything we have ever had taken away from us by force or accident the fear of death has been aroused. When death finally comes it seems to prove that this fear is justified: eventually everything goes; so everything is ultimately meaningless.<\/p>

Jesus would have died anyway at some point. The conclusion of birth is death. It is not only that he died, but also how and why he died that makes this Friday good. How is his death different from that of the two thieves crucified on either side of him or of the other people who died on the same day in the course of nature?<\/p>

Firstly, there is the extraordinarily lucid light that the accounts of his death shine into his mind and heart. We don\u2019t see everything because no one can know everything that passes even in his or her own mind, let alone in that of others. But we see enough to know that he suffered the rending loss of his connection with the beauties of the world. He underwent the ultimate separation from those in whom he found human companionship and who had walked on this lovely earth with him as their shared home.

He knew death as every human being knows it. It had to be accepted and he surrendered to it. \u2018Into your hands I commend my spirit.\u2019 We are not told that there was a voice that whispered, \u2018don\u2019t worry this is all just for show, you\u2019ll be ok\u2019. It was for real, the shutting down of everything he knew and was. To surrender everything does not mean to be certain that everything given will not dissolve into nothing but will be transformed and returned.<\/p>

Yet in the climax of this particularly terrible and lonely death we see - because he experienced - something that didn\u2019t prevent his dying but illuminated it. As the light of life flickered and expired another light shone more strongly from another source. The love that he had known in his deepest knowledge of himself during his life was proved to be real, more real than death. We know this because at the moment of ultimate loss he gave himself in love to those who were taking his life from him. He gave and forgave and the for-giving puts ancient death in a new light. What this light is, we have to wait and see.<\/p>

 <\/p><\/div>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Holy Thursday","created":"1364431260","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.<\/em><\/p>

At the last ritual meal which Jesus shared with his friends he threw himself into it with such passion that he became it. The symbols of bread and wine, common fruits of the earth and staples of the daily local meals, occasioned both nourishment and celebration.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.<\/em><\/p>

At the last ritual meal which Jesus shared with his friends he threw himself into it with such passion that he became it. The symbols of bread and wine, common fruits of the earth and staples of the daily local meals, occasioned both nourishment and celebration.<\/p>

When we celebrate what nourishes us we express deep and wholehearted contentment with what is. We don\u2019t dream about anything else beyond our grasp or project our hopes for happiness into the future. And, if we go further to share equally and equitably all we have, we make the distinctive human happiness of true fellowship. It is a contentment that is both embodied and transcendent. In that happiness we feel the anxiety of the human heart transcended, with all its fears and cravings, in an ultimate, intimate reassurance that we are secure in the love of the people we are with.<\/p>

As he performed the simple ritual that identified his own people and culture, the crusty bread and table wine became all he felt and all that he was. What more can we say to those we love than \u2018I give you my body and all it means about who I am for you\u2019? In this transmission of self, in a ritual made mystically real by the whole-heartedness of its focused intensity, the local becomes universal. The event bounded by a particular moment moves into an eternal present. A sacrament.<\/p>

After that first last supper the successors of the apostles continued the transmission. The agape<\/em> meal was born. In a reciprocal act of love and sharing of self the communal meal became a replay in real time of that transmission of self which transfigures time in space. Somehow or other it later became a source of pride and division, a clinging to a protected identity, rather than a sharing of self. Jesus gave the bread to Judas. Later we were told that we had to be in a state of grace to receive it. The intimate meal became a hierarchical event. The medicine became a placebo for those who thought they were healthy.<\/p>

Meditation restores the meaning of this meal that celebrates what nourishes us. The presence in the food on the altar is the same as the food of the presence in our heart. The inner and the outer become one. We are healed because the presence is real.<\/p>

The meal is the key to the meaning of the Cross.<\/p>Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Wednesday of Holy Week","created":"1364344560","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

\u2018Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, \u2018Not I, Rabbi, surely?\u2019 \u2018They are your own words\u2019 answered Jesus.\u2019<\/p>

There are several revealing aspects around the theme of betrayal in the Passion story. Jesus is the one betrayed, most obviously by one particular disciple. But Jesus is also the one who foresees it and exposes it almost clinically. Judas plays innocent and says \u2018not I surely\u2019 and Jesus says \u2013 not for the first time \u2013 \u2018you said it not me\u2019.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

\u2018Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, \u2018Not I, Rabbi, surely?\u2019 \u2018They are your own words\u2019 answered Jesus.\u2019<\/p>

There are several revealing aspects around the theme of betrayal in the Passion story. Jesus is the one betrayed, most obviously by one particular disciple. But Jesus is also the one who foresees it and exposes it almost clinically. Judas plays innocent and says \u2018not I surely\u2019 and Jesus says \u2013 not for the first time \u2013 \u2018you said it not me\u2019.<\/p>

As with Pilate or the religious authorities who ask him loaded questions, he avoids being trapped in their duplicity and lets their own words serve as their answer.<\/p>

He appears very poised in the midst of the betrayal and the false accusations that lead to his destruction. Judas\u2019 motivation remains a mystery \u2013 like that of Iago in Othello<\/em> who seems to take pleasure in mischief for its own sake. But the obvious betrayal of Jesus for a symbolic thirty pieces of silver seems to be so integral to the meaning of the destiny of Jesus that he accepts it without bitterness or blame. He is simply open about it and accepting. We can imagine the sadness and hurt of being betrayed by one close to you but Jesus himself does not betray the closeness between them. There is no bitter blame or even a vindictive counter-rejection of the betrayer.<\/p>

John Main said that one of the priorities of education is to prepare us to deal with the experience of betrayal. Our hopes and plans often betray us. The weather lets us down on the day of the planned picnic. Planes get delayed when we are on a tight schedule. People in whom we have placed high expectations often fail to fulfill them. In our most vulnerable formative years as children we need to be protected from the early effects of life\u2019s unavoidable betrayals and disappointments. There is something awful about letting down a child\u2019s hopes or not keeping a promise. We know that we have confronted them with a harsh fact of life. We hope it has not been too soon, that it has not done too much damage, too early, to how they deal with the world. Life depends on trust.<\/p>

Judas and Jesus seem to have a strange intimacy in this story. At least they are open with each other. The other disciples betray passively or just run away. When we are betrayed like this we usually react instinctively \u2013 as victims, as the injured party, as the one who therefore enjoys a moral superiority. <\/p>

Jesus however responds intuitively from a different place, deeper than the predictable complex of psychological reactions. He is truthful, frank and yet un-blaming. His compassion has a patient, uncomplicated detachment. He forgives without the need for tears or dramatic reconciliation. As if he forgave before the offence was even committed.<\/p>

Who is this person revealed in his reaction to a very deep form of human suffering, so distant from us and yet so close?<\/p>


Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Tuesday of Holy Week","created":"1364308560","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

There are plenty who sit and talk. Fewer walk the talk. Even fewer are able to make the walking the ultimate and complete expression of the talking. By their actions they express everything that their words once meant. In this they acquire the pure eloquence of silence.<\/p>

This point is a culmination of all that has been anticipated and understood in the past \u2013 a fulfillment of a prophecy. It is like walking towards the edge of a cliff and seeing it approach you as you walk towards it.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

There are plenty who sit and talk. Fewer walk the talk. Even fewer are able to make the walking the ultimate and complete expression of the talking. By their actions they express everything that their words once meant. In this they acquire the pure eloquence of silence.<\/p>

This point is a culmination of all that has been anticipated and understood in the past \u2013 a fulfillment of a prophecy. It is like walking towards the edge of a cliff and seeing it approach you as you walk towards it.<\/p>

Is it coming to you or are you walking towards it? You cannot see what lies immediately below the edge but you can see what lies in the far distance beyond it \u2013 the vast Atlantic in the case of the cliffs of Bere Island.<\/p>

Or, it is like preparing for an examination, which looms more and more ominously as the final day comes closer. Or, like the awesome evening before a solemn vow or ritual commitment, a marriage or monastic profession. The mind can handle big things while they are at a distance. It is easy to postpone a decision or deny the imminence of the moment coming. But when the moment does come everything changes.<\/p>

The day has come. The die is cast. No more time to prepare or reconsider. You can still resist and deny reality, but at a major cost of losing your sanity. The only sane thing is to surrender to the event that is now happening, to the eventuality of the inevitable outcome.<\/p>

However long it has been thought about, at this moment reality makes us gasp. Fear dissolves into the past. It becomes simply part of what has been. Anxiety about the future shrinks to nothing. All that matters is what is, what is happening. In English the word happen comes from the word, \u2018hap\u2019, that means chance or good luck. However well-prepared for what happens has the feeling of something gratuitous, something accidental or purely given.<\/p>

The consequences of past events that led to this moment are already contained in what will come from it, as the flower is in the seed. And at the core of the seed is a vast, pregnant emptiness. This is the present moment, the only reality. Being in touch with this is peace. Surrender and acceptance is the passion of Jesus. This explains the building presence we can feel throughout Holy Week and the deepening equanimity of Jesus at every stage of his last days.<\/p>


Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Monday of Holy Week","created":"1364170200","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

Our Holy Week retreat began on Bere Island yesterday. There are people here from different parts of the world as well as locals from the island and the Beara Peninsula which is an area of great natural beauty, both gentle and rugged. <\/span><\/p>

Many around the world will also be participating by internet. To a great degree today space has been conquered by technology. There\u2019s a difference of course between virtual and physical presence, but presence it is either way.<\/div>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Our Holy Week retreat began on Bere Island yesterday. There are people here from different parts of the world as well as locals from the island and the Beara Peninsula which is an area of great natural beauty, both gentle and rugged. <\/span><\/p>

Many around the world will also be participating by internet. To a great degree today space has been conquered by technology. There\u2019s a difference of course between virtual and physical presence, but presence it is either way.<\/div>

What really matters is attention. A person physically present can be absent because they doze through a talk and a listener from the other side of the world can be fully present because they are listening with full attention. <\/p>

Time is more difficult to conquer. We can speed up the process of travel but we cannot physically be in two places at once. The time it takes to pass between them reveals an inescapable aspect of basic human existence. To be human is to be limited. Only in the spiritual dimension are we fully here and now.<\/div>
 <\/div>
We enter the spiritual through the power of pure attention transcending the ego\u2019s limitations. For us, during these days, the story of the Passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord is the portal to this realm. The power of attention is the key that opens it. In the spirit, the power of all limitations is lifted. \u2018Where the spirit is there is liberty\u2019. Certain mental states can mimic this freedom of the spirit. Many people crave for the freedom of these states and use artificial means to induce them. But by these means the limitations of space and time are weakened or bent, not transcended. The way to the spiritual respects the laws of nature.<\/div>
 <\/div>
When the spiritual dimension opens to us \u2013 in us \u2013 it throws a new light onto the worlds of space and time in whose limitations we still live. We remain human \u2013 limited \u2013 but the limitations do not prevent the full aperture of our being to the divine. We become divinely human. <\/div>
 <\/div>
The Easter mysteries are like what the ancient world called initiation rituals. The ultimate transformation is yet to come. But here and now \u2013 if we don\u2019t doze off, if we take the attention off our limitations and the suffering they cause \u2013 we begin the process and taste the new wine that Jesus drinks with us in the Kingdom.<\/div>
 <\/div>
The first step is to enter the story and let it work on us. Meditation helps us to listen to it but also opens us to the unlimited realm of the spirit which is the meaning and purpose of the story. <\/div>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div><\/div>

 <\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Passion Sunday","created":"1364169960","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

Without passion there\u2019s no compassion. In the same way there has to be eros in the mixture if there is to be agape as well. If there\u2019s no force of attraction there\u2019s nothing to propel us into transcendence.<\/span><\/p>

Passion can however break loose of this formula and become autonomous \u2013 just serving its own appetite and self-interest. It morphs into a rogue force in our psyche that causes devastation in the world around us. We bounce wildly from desire to exhaustion before we start looking for another object to desire.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Without passion there\u2019s no compassion. In the same way there has to be eros in the mixture if there is to be agape as well. If there\u2019s no force of attraction there\u2019s nothing to propel us into transcendence.<\/span><\/p>

Passion can however break loose of this formula and become autonomous \u2013 just serving its own appetite and self-interest. It morphs into a rogue force in our psyche that causes devastation in the world around us. We bounce wildly from desire to exhaustion before we start looking for another object to desire.<\/p>

<\/p>

Our Holy Week retreat began on Bere Island yesterday. There are people here from different parts of the world as well as locals from the island and the Beara Peninsula which is an area of great natural beauty, both gentle and rugged. <\/div>
 <\/div>
Many around the world will also be participating by internet. To a great degree today space has been conquered by technology. There\u2019s a difference of course between virtual and physical presence, but presence it is either way. What really matters is attention. A person physically present can be absent because they doze through a talk and a listener from the other side of the world can be fully present because they are listening with full attention. <\/div>
 <\/div>
Time is more difficult to conquer. We can speed up the process of travel but we cannot physically be in two places at once. The time it takes to pass between them reveals an inescapable aspect of basic human existence. To be human is to be limited. Only in the spiritual dimension are we fully here and now.<\/div>
 <\/div>
We enter the spiritual through the power of pure attention transcending the ego\u2019s limitations. For us, during these days, the story of the Passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord is the portal to this realm. The power of attention is the key that opens it. In the spirit, the power of all limitations is lifted. \u2018Where the spirit is there is liberty\u2019. Certain mental states can mimic this freedom of the spirit. Many people crave for the freedom of these states and use artificial means to induce them. But by these means the limitations of space and time are weakened or bent, not transcended. The way to the spiritual respects the laws of nature.<\/div>
 <\/div>
When the spiritual dimension opens to us \u2013 in us \u2013 it throws a new light onto the worlds of space and time in whose limitations we still live. We remain human \u2013 limited \u2013 but the limitations do not prevent the full aperture of our being to the divine. We become divinely human. <\/div>
 <\/div>
The Easter mysteries are like what the ancient world called initiation rituals. The ultimate transformation is yet to come. But here and now \u2013 if we don\u2019t doze off, if we take the attention off our limitations and the suffering they cause \u2013 we begin the process and taste the new wine that Jesus drinks with us in the Kingdom.<\/div>
The first step is to enter the story and let it work on us. Meditation helps us to listen to it but also opens us to the unlimited realm of the spirit which is the meaning and purpose of the story. <\/div>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Passion Sunday","created":"1364084160","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

Without passion there\u2019s no compassion. In the same way there has to be eros in the mixture if there is to be agape as well. If there\u2019s no force of attraction there\u2019s nothing to propel us into transcendence.<\/span><\/p>

Passion can however break loose of this formula and become autonomous \u2013 just serving its own appetite and self-interest. It morphs into a rogue force in our psyche that causes devastation in the world around us. We bounce wildly from desire to exhaustion before we start looking for another object to desire.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Without passion there\u2019s no compassion. In the same way there has to be eros in the mixture if there is to be agape as well. If there\u2019s no force of attraction there\u2019s nothing to propel us into transcendence.<\/span><\/p>

Passion can however break loose of this formula and become autonomous \u2013 just serving its own appetite and self-interest. It morphs into a rogue force in our psyche that causes devastation in the world around us. We bounce wildly from desire to exhaustion before we start looking for another object to desire.<\/p>

Any addiction soon teaches us the misery this involves. How this happens is a complex story. But the way out of it is simple: to allow yourself to be loved.<\/p>

It might seem you don\u2019t need passion to let yourself be loved. Passion is all in loving and seeking the object of desire. But the Passion of Jesus that begins Holy Week today takes us to a more concentrated point of truth where this duality between loving and being loved, the dualistic source of all egotism, is dissolved.<\/p>

With the dissolution of self-centredness comes the dispersal of karma. The Scriptures look at this collectively as well as personally. The story we are starting to re-tell again today is so inexhaustible and universal because of this.<\/p>

All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God.<\/em> (Heb 10:15)<\/em>)<\/p>

That\u2019s a religious and biblical way of expressing it. The point however is universal: in Jesus a cyclical repetition is snapped and karma is transcended. We do not need to seek \u2018temporary relief\u2019 medication any more. This medicine really works a cure.<\/p>

We should be sceptical about this at first hearing.<\/p>

The gospels however just tell a human story and leave it to us to make sense of it. This turns scepticism into faith. This happens as the story becomes us.<\/p>

Then he withdrew from them, about a stone\u2019s throw away, and knelt down and prayed. \u2018Father,\u2019 he said \u2018if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.\u2019 Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength. In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. (Lk 22:41ff)<\/p>

This is no fairy tale. For any mature person it resonates with our own experience. Aloneness, anguish, fear, physical symptoms, the unexpected angel of mercy. But at the heart of it is the love he felt holding him, which empowered him to love those he did not even, at that instant, consciously know.<\/p>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Saturday of Lent Week 5","created":"1363997220","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

John Cassian, the 5th<\/sup> century master of the spiritual life, advises us to say the mantra, continuously revolving it in the heart, \u2018in prosperity and adversity\u2019.<\/p>

The global economy illustrates the often dramatic ups and down of life. Boom periods where expectations and greed run amok lead to bust. Then times of austerity follow and, as always, inflict most hardship on the most vulnerable members of society. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

John Cassian, the 5th<\/sup> century master of the spiritual life, advises us to say the mantra, continuously revolving it in the heart, \u2018in prosperity and adversity\u2019.<\/p>

The global economy illustrates the often dramatic ups and down of life. Boom periods where expectations and greed run amok lead to bust. Then times of austerity follow and, as always, inflict most hardship on the most vulnerable members of society. <\/p>

Personal careers and fortunes can also ride high and then be smattered over the newspapers in a moment.  Our moods and physical health have their cycles, too, of prosperity and adversity.<\/p>

It is hard not to grab at the prosperous times and fool ourselves into thinking that we have made it for good and that all will always be well. Fantasy \u2013 escapism - is the great enemy of moderation. The downturns in life or fortune can also mire us in despair and isolation. Yet we fear moderation because it seems tepid and boring; and we want to feel life as something thrilling and adventurous. If we don\u2019t have the courage to live it this way ourselves, we do it vicariously through films and stories.<\/p>

Actually the middle way is a knife-edge, a high-wire balancing act. It takes many stumbles and falls from great heights to learn how to walk it well. Moderation is the way and in the deepest sense the goal.  The centre of reality exerts the force that holds us in balance as we walk across the ravine of life. When we relapse into thinking that it is achieved by our own willpower or cleverness, it won\u2019t be long before we have another fall.<\/p>

Personal, interior balance and sharpness of mind is what Cassian is talking about in his asceticism of the mantra. That is where the universal centre is connected with: in our own personal centre.<\/p>

All prayer that is not an indulgence of the rollercoaster of fortune is the prayer of the heart. The more personally balanced, deeply-centred people in the world there are, the greater the level of justice in all institutions. The more the gulf between rich and poor narrows, the closer we all come to reality.<\/p>

Soon we will be contemplating the Cross with particular intensity. What does it say to us of balance, rootedness and compassion? What does John Main mean when he says that every time we meditate we enter into the dying and rising of Jesus?<\/p>

Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Friday of Lent Week 5","created":"1363906440","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

Recently an unmanned research vehicle plunged to the deepest level of the ocean, seven miles down I think. To the scientists\u2019 surprise they found abundant life there feeding on the detritus that had sunk down from higher levels of the ocean.<\/p>

The emotional and neural patterns which determine our behaviour and responses to events run very deep too. We can be aware of a process of change starting when we undertake a spiritual practice deep enough to address these patterns of our mind and lifestyle. But real change happens slowly. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Recently an unmanned research vehicle plunged to the deepest level of the ocean, seven miles down I think. To the scientists\u2019 surprise they found abundant life there feeding on the detritus that had sunk down from higher levels of the ocean.<\/p>

The emotional and neural patterns which determine our behaviour and responses to events run very deep too. We can be aware of a process of change starting when we undertake a spiritual practice deep enough to address these patterns of our mind and lifestyle. But real change happens slowly. <\/p>

<\/p>

Real change means irreversible as well as positive. When it happens we no longer snap back like an elastic band to our old settings when we are under pressure or when off our guard.<\/p>

There are two levels of motivation then that we have to cultivate. At the first level, for example, we accept that there are patterns that it is not desirable to continue. We eat or drink too much. We indulge fantasy too often. We cannot control our anger. Sadness overwhelms and disables us. We push away the people we love and need, preferring to be isolated. Aware of these patterns a motivation develops to change. We probably thought of these five weeks ago as Lent began.<\/p>

Then we find hope from sources and we trust that change is possible. And we start to do something about it. Meditation is a major catalyst for change.  It is rather like the unmanned research vehicle.  Unmanned because the ego \u2013 what we think we are and what we are when we think \u2013 is not in charge. Someone else is pulling the levers. We entrust ourselves to the spirit.<\/p>

But it is a long journey and it gets murky. (I won\u2019t push this analogy any further.) What happens is that we notice changes in ourselves or others point them out. But things look and seem to remain pretty much the same. The patterns may shift and reduce but they still click in. I once had acupuncture on a bad knee.  The intrusive and over talkative acupuncturist seemed to want to find a childhood trauma to explain it. But he was my best hope at the time and eventually during the treatment I noticed change \u2013 the pain persisted but it only moved further down my leg. The tropical sun, my next stop, finished the job more silently.<\/p>

It is when we see a change in the patterns but we are disappointed that they are still there, that the second level of motivation needs to be cultivated. This is where we move from technique to discipline in the practice. And when faith becomes evidently the power of transformation and healing. \u2018Your faith has healed you\u2019. And it is by faith \u2013 this powerful but elusive quality of consciousness \u2013 that we see the one who once taught this and continues to be the source of deep motivation. <\/p>

 <\/p>

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\"\"Life comes in many shapes and sizes and from unexpected directions. It is irrepressible. The denial of life, however, is rampant too. The denial often begins with fear because life presages change and so it demands that we adapt. If this demand scares us too much we attempt to diminish the potential of the new life and to limit its energy so that we can better control it. Before long all we have done is succeed in stifling it. And then we complain because life seems to have got boring or feels unfulfilled.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"Life comes in many shapes and sizes and from unexpected directions. It is irrepressible. The denial of life, however, is rampant too. The denial often begins with fear because life presages change and so it demands that we adapt. If this demand scares us too much we attempt to diminish the potential of the new life and to limit its energy so that we can better control it. Before long all we have done is succeed in stifling it. And then we complain because life seems to have got boring or feels unfulfilled.<\/p>

One characteristic of life is change \u2013 we call this growth. Life is also self-communicating and brings to consciousness the relationships it establishes. An important question for human beings - especially in a culture like ours that relies so much on virtual reality for its stimulation - is do we feel really alive? Are we aware of change as growth or merely as challenges to our attempts to be in control. As beings-in-relationship do we see these relationships as the sacred ground of our existence or as adjuncts, add-ons to the ego\u2019s quest for happiness on its own terms?<\/p>

Such questions can of course also become life-denying if they make us too self-centred. Life radiates outwards from the mysterious centre of its origin. It is that<\/em> centre with which we most need to feel connected, not the shadowy centre which is our ego. Meditation shifts the centre in the right direction.<\/p>

Two days ago we opened our new Meditatio Centre in London. It is a sign of change and expanding relationships that has evolved from the Meditatio program in the community that we started three years ago. Many people came to the centre to celebrate this new life and to wish it well. The beginnings of new things \u2013 babies, books or centres \u2013 are naturally joyful and pulse with optimism and potential. They remind us what life means.<\/p>

Meditation makes this kind of experience of the beginning of a new life-form continuous. It stays fresh because we learn to be more alive day by day, less frightened of growth, less in denial. \u2018I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness.\u2019 This translates into personal experience. Or rather it is not translated. It is discovered on the way that is life.<\/p>

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\"\"Sophistication is a dangerous quality and often very deceptive. What looks sophisticated \u2013 refined, subtle, intelligent, worldly - can actually be remarkably stupid and na\u00efve.<\/p>

The word suggests wisdom (sofia). <\/em> But when it was applied to the sophist school of philosophy it was associated with making money out of teaching wisdom and with complicating and adulterating the purity of truth.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"Sophistication is a dangerous quality and often very deceptive. What looks sophisticated \u2013 refined, subtle, intelligent, worldly - can actually be remarkably stupid and na\u00efve.<\/p>

The word suggests wisdom (sofia). <\/em> But when it was applied to the sophist school of philosophy it was associated with making money out of teaching wisdom and with complicating and adulterating the purity of truth.<\/p>

Many of our higher institutes of education today, too, are very sophisticated and complex organizations. They have huge budgets and are run by financial motivation but they no longer arouse and cultivate the love of truth and learning in their students.<\/p>

Religion has the same fate as education when it becomes too sophisticated. Theological hair-splitting, pharisaical worship of rules, depersonalised ways of worship replace true spirituality.<\/p>

In these last days of Lent, the scripture readings take us deeper into the markedly unsophisticated and genuinely wise self-awareness of Jesus. It was this that made him the extraordinary yet empathically human being whose experience has such universal, trans-cultural significance. We listen with attention to his words and look with wonder at his life and death not because he was a polished, smooth talking sophisticate but for other reasons..<\/p>

Sophistication often conceals strong self-doubt and confusion. Jesus is a universal teacher because he knows himself and is clear. He therefore conveys the personal simplicity and authenticity associated with any experience of truth itself. Such people are conspicuous because they deserve to be trusted.  The over-sophisticated by contrast are cynical, trusting in nothing. The simple are warriors whose only weapon is love. For that very reason they are seen - and rejected - as foolish or dangerously radical.<\/p>

Meditation is not for sophisticated people. To learn to meditate we need to trust ourselves to the pure simplicity of truth found within our own experience. Even more than the force of other people\u2019s wise ideas or words, and far deeper than smart worldliness, it is the integrity of our own experience that brings us to life.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

Ken Wilber once wrote a very moving account of caring for his newly wed wife through her last illness. As those who know his other writings will appreciate, he is a born intellectual with a huge appetite for acquiring and integrating knowledge and understanding. His books get longer and longer. But as it became clear that his wife\u2019s cancer was terminal he abandoned all his other activities and interests to concentrate on caring for and being with her. <\/span><\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Ken Wilber once wrote a very moving account of caring for his newly wed wife through her last illness. As those who know his other writings will appreciate, he is a born intellectual with a huge appetite for acquiring and integrating knowledge and understanding. His books get longer and longer. But as it became clear that his wife\u2019s cancer was terminal he abandoned all his other activities and interests to concentrate on caring for and being with her. <\/span><\/p>

As the stress of the role increased he began to crack under the strain. Ominous shadows began to appear until a friend told him to take at least an hour or two each day for his intellectual work, which he wisely did.<\/p>

We are who we are, and we cannot change ourselves by will or thought alone. Being is all we are most deeply meant to do. It is complete fulfillment and happiness and allows for the fulfillment of our responsibilities. The first step in being ourselves is to accept who we are even \u2013 especially \u2013 if we think we should have had other features written into our software from the moment of our creation.<\/p>

\u2018In meditation we accept the gift of our being\u2019. John Main\u2019s short definition rings truer each stage of the journey of meditation. Its meaning can be explored ever more deeply. Yet this work of self-acceptance is a great deal harder and more demanding than the merely self-help mentality appreciates. Therefore, accepting and being who we are should consciously start as early as possible, before the encrustation of imaginary selves becomes too thick. Many of these selves are sources of suffering and complexity because they set us up for patterns of failure and so often lead to self-rejection, the very opposite of what is natural.<\/p>

Shedding these layers of identity is like refusing unnecessary clothing. We need some clothes, for warmth or protection or to be respectful to our neighbours on the subway. But, on the spiritual journey, as few as possible.<\/p>

Jesus would have been crucified naked. In the Resurrection clothes were no longer an issue.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

In a time of crisis people look around for someone who seems to know what is happening and what should be done. This often leads to disaster. A country is falling apart and people see someone who is supremely confident and full of noble sentiments. In fact his confidence comes from opportunism. He knows that this is his moment to seize power and he has a sure intuition about how to do so. He is not concerned so much with leading people to a better place as just to take charge. Probably this assuages a deep anxiety and insecurity in himself that is only bearable when he can dominate and control.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

In a time of crisis people look around for someone who seems to know what is happening and what should be done. This often leads to disaster. A country is falling apart and people see someone who is supremely confident and full of noble sentiments. In fact his confidence comes from opportunism. He knows that this is his moment to seize power and he has a sure intuition about how to do so. He is not concerned so much with leading people to a better place as just to take charge. Probably this assuages a deep anxiety and insecurity in himself that is only bearable when he can dominate and control.<\/p>

Soon people realise they have put the wrong person in power but he clings to it at any price \u2013 including their lives. How many fallen dictators are determined to drag their country down with them into the ruins of their own ego? Unrestrained egotism inevitably destroys.<\/p>

Calmness in a storm is a powerful force in itself. Sometimes it can even calm the storm. But we have to discern where the calmness comes from \u2013 the ego cynically seizing an opportunity or a wisdom and compassion that sees through the present turmoil to the centre where the energy of peace resides.<\/p>

There is only one great teacher and leader, the spirit. Some people carry a strong measure of the spirit in themselves and can be trusted. But such people, hands-on people not wafflers, discourage projection and do not seek acclaim. This self-knowledge was a characteristic of Jesus as he came to the crisis of his life.<\/p>

One of the best leaders I have known was Sr Margaret Collier from Cork, a soft spoken woman, working always with great clarity and gentleness. She had the rare gift of inspiring, empowering, pushing from behind and then deftly stepping aside to let her prot\u00e9g\u00e9s run things and take the credit. She left a strong and well-run community behind her.<\/p>

People who build new things that last and can guide others through crisis are filled with the spirit. There\u2019s always some ego at work in the available memory of our operating system. No one is perfect, even the very good and not many are very good. But, better concentrate on the good in people than the bad in order to avoid the ego in ourselves from seizing power.<\/p>

With good practices embedded, our lives become attuned to this dimension of reality. Gradually, there is less and less space for the secret, crippling self-doubts of the ego.  The doubts that do remain active are not destabilizing. They keep us grounded and ready to learn.<\/p>

There is only one leader and we are all disciples. \u201cCall no one on earth your teacher because you have only one teacher.\u201d It\u2019s strange how quickly the practice of meditation reveals the meaning of this and changes our values and way of living.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

As all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them..<\/em> Then <\/em>Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, \u2018If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.\u2019 Then be bent down and wrote on the ground again\u2026<\/em> (Jn 8:1-11)<\/em><\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

As all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them..<\/em> Then <\/em>Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, \u2018If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.\u2019 Then be bent down and wrote on the ground again\u2026<\/em> (Jn 8:1-11)<\/em><\/p>

Like Socrates and the Buddha, Jesus taught by the spoken word. He left no books or treatises and all we know of his teaching is in translation. That might seem to put a great distance between him and us. In a sense it does. In his time he moved people by his words to the core of their being while we don\u2019t even know the exact words he used.<\/p>

But in another sense this silence of Jesus brings us dangerously close to him. The words we have are hints, pointing fingers. They communicate his ideas. But what engages the heart and develops the bond of love that becomes discipleship is a living presence - more than either a historical memory or a literary legacy that we have to deconstruct.<\/p>

The words of the gospels are important and precious but even they pale by comparison with the spirit of his presence. How powerful this presence is can be glimpsed in this story of the woman caught in adultery (and the invisible man who got away with it). If it seems archaic we have only to remember the vindictive justice in which the Taliban deals out the same kind of punishment today.<\/p>

We have all been caught in adultery at times. At least, the adultery that Jesus identified as residing in imagination and fantasy, not only specifically sexual but any form of escaping reality or responsibility. The ego, in a rage of shame or self-rejection, has often wanted to stone our weaker selves or, by projection, others to death.<\/p>

It is not words that save us from this terrible fate but pure presence. This presence is not dispelled or exiled by even the worst we can do or think. Its words are written in the ground of our being, the dust of which we are all made. But what turns the anger aside and deflates it is the power of a true, gentle and undeflectable, undeniable love.<\/span>Want to receive our Lent Daily Reflections in your mailbox? Subscribe HERE<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>"}},{"node":{"title":"Saturday of Lent Week 4","created":"1363390920","teaser":"

\"\"<\/p>

Habemus papam. Lent is given a new dimension. May Francis be blessed.<\/p>

Not so long ago it would have taken days or weeks to spread the news of a new Pope. Today we are all there in the Square as the news breaks. First impressions are made globally and instantly. He seems to have the gift of making an impression without trying to, which is called humility. Within minutes he has been googled by millions and predictions and evaluations are piling up from experts.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Habemus papam. Lent is given a new dimension. May Francis be blessed.<\/p>

Not so long ago it would have taken days or weeks to spread the news of a new Pope. Today we are all there in the Square as the news breaks. First impressions are made globally and instantly. He seems to have the gift of making an impression without trying to, which is called humility. Within minutes he has been googled by millions and predictions and evaluations are piling up from experts.<\/p>

Yet there were also many thousands there physically, standing in the cold and indeed singing in the rain. The joyfulness of the crowds in St Peter\u2019s Square was a very different thing from the commentaries of pundits and the cautious response of distant observers. It is a ritual and rituals require physical presence and participation. There is a kind of knowledge and insight that comes only to those who are taking part in the ritual, even if they don\u2019t get a good view or clearly hear his name pronounced. Theirs was the immediate knowledge of relief \u2013 no one likes to be on a ship without a captain. But also of hope.<\/p>

Pope Francis reawakened that hope in many by a wonderful economy of gestures \u2013 his humour, his choice of name, his asking to be blessed before he gave a blessing, his stillness before the cheering crowds and his bowing low in silent prayer.<\/p>

We cannot live well without hope and this key virtue of life can be eroded and sapped over time. We are eager to have it reawakened by our leaders and indeed that is part of their work and service. But then we easily project unrealistic expectations on them. We may even mythologise them as they stand before us. That is why Francis\u2019 gentle and gracious words about his predecessor were hopeful too \u2013 the resignation of a pope re-humanizes the office. And Francis\u2019s first symbolic gestures seem to want to remind us of the humanity of Christ - and therefore of our own.<\/p>In this sense the election of Pope Francis is not a distraction from the season of Lent but a magnification of its meaning.<\/div>

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\"\"<\/p>

The anguish of loss today can become the joy of deliverance tomorrow. We don\u2019t really understand the nature of the attachment that caused the pain when separation or loss came until the operation is over and the trauma subsides.<\/div>
 <\/div>
 Either we breathe a sigh of relief as we realise we have been delivered \u2013 from an addiction or a compulsive delusion, for example. Or we see that what we have lost has become a genuine death experience that drags us into a vortex of surrendering to something vaster than we can control. <\/div>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

The anguish of loss today can become the joy of deliverance tomorrow. We don\u2019t really understand the nature of the attachment that caused the pain when separation or loss came until the operation is over and the trauma subsides.<\/div>
 <\/div>
 Either we breathe a sigh of relief as we realise we have been delivered \u2013 from an addiction or a compulsive delusion, for example. Or we see that what we have lost has become a genuine death experience that drags us into a vortex of surrendering to something vaster than we can control. <\/div>

<\/p>

If we lost something we are better off without, we pick up life again quickly with renewed enthusiasm. We had so many assets tied up in a bad investment but now they are liquid again and can be invested in life with much better returns than before.<\/div>
 <\/div>
There are pain and periodic twinges of regret. Like the Hebrews in the desert who regularly rebelled against their deliverance from Egypt and could only think of the \u2018fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Here we are wasting away, stripped of everything; there is nothing but manna for us to look at!\u2019 Oh no, not that supernatural manna again. No addiction ends instantly. No time of imprisonment ends at the moment the door is unlocked.<\/div>
 <\/div>
But the deeper losses of life are different. The difference is revealed when, as our attachments weaken, in their place a dark void opens all around us. The first is like going to the dentist. Forgotten when it\u2019s over. This is major surgery with a strong anaesthetic that puts us out. There is so much that is new and unwelcome that we have no choice but to accept and integrate.<\/div>
 <\/div>
Seeing the distinction between these two kinds of loss makes for living wisely. The perception needed is gained through the micro-losses we freely undergo by dealing with distractions during meditation.<\/div>

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\"\"<\/p>

Soon Lent will be transitioning into one of the greatest and deepest of all reflections on the nature and meaning of suffering. Let us hope we are ready for it this year.<\/p>

 There are many forms of suffering, as there many manifestations of love.  Maybe in the great cosmic secret they are exactly proportionate.<\/p>

When the mind is confused, doubt-stricken, divided and agitated we experience a particular kind of suffering. It may not appear \u2013 yet \u2013 on the surface of our lives and in our interactions with others.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Soon Lent will be transitioning into one of the greatest and deepest of all reflections on the nature and meaning of suffering. Let us hope we are ready for it this year.<\/p>

 There are many forms of suffering, as there many manifestations of love.  Maybe in the great cosmic secret they are exactly proportionate.<\/p>

When the mind is confused, doubt-stricken, divided and agitated we experience a particular kind of suffering. It may not appear \u2013 yet \u2013 on the surface of our lives and in our interactions with others.<\/p>

That depends on our measure of self-control or on our ability to put on a good face. But, eventually, there is nothing hidden that will not be exposed. Few secrets go to the grave - or stay there long.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Mental suffering is often said to be worse than merely physical pain; although comparing degrees or forms of suffering is an abstraction, the luxury of those who observe but don\u2019t experience. Mental anguish, however, may indeed be worse because it is particularly isolating; and to outsiders \u2013 even those who have solutions and solace to give you \u2013 it often seems exaggerated. You feel they will listen with empathy but are secretly thinking (as you may be too), \u2018why don\u2019t you just get on with it and make up your mind?\u2019 <\/p>

The problem is that the mind cannot make up itself. Thinking about something doesn\u2019t solve it. To resolve a dilemma and decrease the suffering of confusion we need insight, wisdom, the intelligence that cannot be measured by cognitive tests. It is there, like a pure spring under muddy soil, ever-flowing.<\/p>

Perhaps we follow politics and show-business so avidly because we see reflected there, at a safe distance, the inconclusive arguments and self-indulgent distractions that beset our own minds and life-styles.<\/p>

Yes, it\u2019s hard to put meditation into such a confused picture. The laying aside of thoughts. Faith in the pure spring. The patience of regular practice that itself involves suffering of a kind \u2013 but of a redemptive kind.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

When the blackbird  flew out of sight<\/em>
It marked the edge<\/em>
Of one of many circles<\/em><\/p>

(Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird)<\/em><\/p>

There are many ways of looking at anything. In Wallace Stevens\u2019 poem the verse above is the ninth way he had found of looking at a blackbird.<\/span><\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

When the blackbird  flew out of sight<\/em>
It marked the edge<\/em>
Of one of many circles<\/em><\/p>

(Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird)<\/em><\/p>

There are many ways of looking at anything. In Wallace Stevens\u2019 poem the verse above is the ninth way he had found of looking at a blackbird.<\/span><\/p>

Great poetry often shocks us to a new level of wakefulness by drawing our attention to something so obvious we can\u2019t understand why we hadn\u2019t seen it for ourselves before. But when we try to put this new perception into our own words we come up with very flat sounding clich\u00e9s.<\/p>

True insights are delivered and interpreted in the package they come in. Truth is always embodied, however hard we try to make it abstract and pin it down like a dead butterfly in an exhibition case of \u2018timeless truths\u2019. Truth is as embodied and temporal as we are \u2013 but also lives in the transcendence that makes us fully alive, fully awake.<\/p>

What is Stevens describing here? Perhaps the sense of a residue or a remnant of experience that remains after the main event has passed. The blackbird has gone out of sight but the person watching it is left with a vivid sense of the circle it had made in its flight. A presence in absence, in the empty air there is an invisible edge. But also there is the awareness of it being one of many circles in the air which were there and are still there.<\/p>

This sensitivity of perception is not esoteric. It\u2019s just not always awakened. Meditation awakens perception and insights into ordinary life. It delivers the sense that not everything that is present is always visible and also that there is the vision of things unseen that we call faith<\/em>.<\/p>

Another subtle consequence of this awakened perception is an experience of beauty. If we\u2019re lucky, the refining and humbling process of Lent, given the reflective time it needs, should have produced a few of these by now.<\/p>

 <\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

I was talking to someone about another person who had offended her. She said \u2018I can get on with her now alright. But I will never forgive her\u2019. It was revealing: the \u2018will never\u2019, rather than \u2018can\u2019t ever\u2019.<\/p>

I was struck by the sense of defiance even of pride in that resolution never to forgive. It was as if she knew she had the ability to forgive, let go and move on. But, for whatever, reason she preferred to stay with the bittersweet chemistry of resentment and anger.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

I was talking to someone about another person who had offended her. She said \u2018I can get on with her now alright. But I will never forgive her\u2019. It was revealing: the \u2018will never\u2019, rather than \u2018can\u2019t ever\u2019.<\/p>

I was struck by the sense of defiance even of pride in that resolution never to forgive. It was as if she knew she had the ability to forgive, let go and move on. But, for whatever, reason she preferred to stay with the bittersweet chemistry of resentment and anger.<\/p>

Maybe it brings us a satisfying sense of moral superiority \u2013 \u2018I am the offended party so I am always in the right as long as I act out of that resentment\u2019.  Maybe too there isn\u2019t as much freedom in the choice not to forgive as we might think.<\/p>

Why on earth would we prefer the pain and negativity of the past than to grow through it and move on with the balm of wisdom, compassion and new depth? No good reason; and yet we can always find reasons. Whoever did something consciously bad without building a defence or justification for it?<\/p>

It is always easy to dress up the irrational and self-destructive as rational and healthy. Allowing anger and resentment to cling to us, however, merely obscures who we are and diminishes what we are capable of becoming. In the person I was with I sensed this contraction. Her remark \u2013 accompanied by a slightly crazy, if not demonic look in her eyes - was an expression not of badness but of diminished responsibility.<\/p>

Like the younger son in the parable, when we indulge ourselves and then get sick on excess we think we deserve to be punished \u2013 by our bodies or other people or by God. It seems we don\u2019t deserve to be forgiven and restored to the relationship we have offended. Not surprisingly, we apply the same primitive standard of justice to others. The measure we give to ourselves will be the measure we give to others.<\/p>

In fact - as every meditation can reveal to us - love is boundless and overflowing. Forgiveness is on tap. \u2018The kingdom of heaven is close at hand\u2019 \u2013 the refrain of each day of Lent.<\/p>

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\"\"Life is a story with many stories and people who love life like stories. It\u2019s a bad sign when no story stirs, amuses or saddens you. John Main taught meditation simply because he wanted to share with others what he had found: the gift of meditation to vitalize us and lead us continuously to a fuller experience of life and its meaning.<\/p>

He was a great storyteller. I can remember him telling this one to a meditation group one evening:<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"Life is a story with many stories and people who love life like stories. It\u2019s a bad sign when no story stirs, amuses or saddens you. John Main taught meditation simply because he wanted to share with others what he had found: the gift of meditation to vitalize us and lead us continuously to a fuller experience of life and its meaning.<\/p>

He was a great storyteller. I can remember him telling this one to a meditation group one evening:<\/p>

The Indian God Shiva was sitting with his wife, looking down on the world when his wife said to him, \u2018\u2019Why don\u2019t you go and grant salvation to some of your devotees?\u2019 Shiva said, \u2018Very well\u2019 and so they went down to a town and sat in the market place. The word got around that a great prophet was there and then the holy people of the town came out.<\/p>

The first of them came up to Shiva and said, \u2018I meditate three times every day, in winter I meditate for two hours in cold water, in summer I meditate for two hours in the heat. When will I get salvation?\u2019 Shiva looked at him and said, \u2018Three more incarnations\u2019. You can just imagine the story as this man goes back to his friends, shaking his head and saying, \u2018Three more, three more\u2019. So it goes on with others. Another person comes and he is told that he has ten more incarnations. Finally a little man comes and he says, \u2018I am afraid I do not do much but I do try to love everyone around me and I try to love creation. Can I get salvation?\u2019 Shiva scratches his head and the little fellow gets a bit nervous and asks again, \u2018Can I get salvation?\u2019 Shiva looks at him and says, \u2018A thousand incarnations\u2019, at which the poor fellow jumps around for joy and starts shouting to everyone \u2018I will<\/em> get it, I will get salvation! A thousand, only a thousand more!\u2019<\/p>

At that, he bursts into flames and so does Shiva and his wife and they all become one flame and they are gone. Then his wife says to him, \u2018How did that little old man get salvation immediately when you had said a thousand incarnations?\u2019 He said, \u2018Yes, that was my ruling; but his generosity overruled my ruling and so he was saved immediately.\u2019<\/p>

The point? If you don\u2019t get it and feel better about your own limited efforts, read it again. Remember yesterday\u2019s story of the two brothers.<\/p>

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\"\"Fear and resentment are two of the most corrosive forces in the human heart. When we are in their grip we are convinced they are justified. Each wreaks their harm throughout all dimensions of our life because they grow, or fester, in the conviction that we are not loved simply for ourselves. We may know love, even be in love, but its light takes time penetrate to the darkest depths of our mind. Salvation, redemption, enlightenment, liberation - consist in the light of love dispelling all the remaining darkness.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"Fear and resentment are two of the most corrosive forces in the human heart. When we are in their grip we are convinced they are justified. Each wreaks their harm throughout all dimensions of our life because they grow, or fester, in the conviction that we are not loved simply for ourselves. We may know love, even be in love, but its light takes time penetrate to the darkest depths of our mind. Salvation, redemption, enlightenment, liberation - consist in the light of love dispelling all the remaining darkness.<\/p>

Consciousness is so much the consequence of love we could say that consciousness is love. Where we do not experience love we are as yet unredeemed, unconscious.<\/p>

Today\u2019s gospel of the prodigal son should be called the story of the two brothers. We focus on the younger one who sows his wild oats. He seems like us or what we would like to be, young, profligate and fun-loving. Then he runs out of resources and creeps home with his tail between his legs. He is frightened of his father\u2019s response. His brother is apparently less attractive, less popular; the obedient one who stayed at home doing what his father expected. But now his father expects him to celebrate his wayward brother\u2019s return and this is too much. He is resentful. The two brothers are the two sides of the ego, fear and anger, low-level consciousness, unable to understand love.<\/p>

The father is everything we don\u2019t expect a patriarchal tyrant to be like. God is never what we imagine. He ignores the young boy\u2019s pious apologies. He is moved by pity when he sees him, embraces him warmly and kisses him tenderly. To the older son\u2019s bitterness he shows not anger but patience and kindness, reminding him that everything he owns belongs to the boy as well. Neither son seems to get the point. They are loved for who they are.<\/p>

 Words can only persuade so far. Actions speak louder. Meditation is pure action. Something happens when we become silent and still, letting go of thoughts and of the fears and resentments they carry. In silence and stillness, when the mind finds its natural condition of equanimity, we can no longer project these corrosive and mistaken perceptions onto reality. There is a brief moment, the blink of an eye, when we lose everything including our selves. Then love appears, a light illuminating all reality as the sun brings out colour, never to be forgotten. <\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

An inexperienced gardener at this time of year in the northern hemisphere struggles against pruning the branches and hedges that are just beginning to bud. Cutting the branches back seems like an offence against the life-process  that is breaking into its new cycle; and there is the fear that you will stunt growth for the new season.<\/p>

It needs a more experienced mentor to start the cutting and slicing on your behalf; and then, trusting him, you join in. Jesus liked to uses images of growth and expansion from the natural world to illustrate his teaching but he also spoke of the need for pruning the vine of life. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

An inexperienced gardener at this time of year in the northern hemisphere struggles against pruning the branches and hedges that are just beginning to bud. Cutting the branches back seems like an offence against the life-process  that is breaking into its new cycle; and there is the fear that you will stunt growth for the new season.<\/p>

It needs a more experienced mentor to start the cutting and slicing on your behalf; and then, trusting him, you join in. Jesus liked to uses images of growth and expansion from the natural world to illustrate his teaching but he also spoke of the need for pruning the vine of life. <\/p>

It is hard to do this to ourselves because understandably we are looking for expansion and enrichment. We expect to get fruits from the meditation as soon as we start. When at first we feel reduction rather than release and a quiet deepening rather than a mighty blast-off, we rebel against nature and try to take control again. <\/p>

Soon however the grace that works in nature makes itself felt as a subtle energy of hope and vision. In our peripheral vision we start to see that a process of transformation is in fact underway \u2013 something new is coming into being. Then the pruning knife becomes a friend and the mantra sinks into the rich soil of the heart.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

\u2018He instructed them to take nothing for the way beyond a stick. No bread, no pack, no money in their belts. They might wear sandals but not a second coat.\u2019 I often think of this as I pack my second bag for a long flight and throw in books I won\u2019t have time to read and all the many last minute \u2018just in case\u2019 items that defy common sense.<\/p>

From the first traumatic separations of our human existence the psyche craves predictability, security and control. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

\u2018He instructed them to take nothing for the way beyond a stick. No bread, no pack, no money in their belts. They might wear sandals but not a second coat.\u2019 I often think of this as I pack my second bag for a long flight and throw in books I won\u2019t have time to read and all the many last minute \u2018just in case\u2019 items that defy common sense.<\/p>

From the first traumatic separations of our human existence the psyche craves predictability, security and control. <\/p>

<\/p>

This craving is often in contest with a much deeper elemental drive, of the spirit, to growth, expansion and transformation in union. The age-old battle between ego and self.<\/p>

Modern social conditioning massively favours the former. Our social economy is geared to acquisition and private ownership rather than towards sharing and simplicity. The hoarding instinct becomes rampant in some individuals and cultures, but few of us are quite free of it. Meditation is such a potential social revolutionary force because it exposes the deceptions of this conditioning and shows us from within what it means to be free. Free not to consume ad nauseam but to give with joy.<\/span><\/p>

The mantra reveals the joy of non-possessiveness that is the meaning of the first Beatitude, the program for sustainable happiness in Jesus\u2019 teaching: Happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the reign of God.<\/p>

The poverty of the mantra is all we need. Discovering it is awakening to life lived in the presence of God with the mindfulness of Christ.<\/p>

Discovering this is the essential discovery of life, the personal equivalent to discovering the human genome, a new continent or a new dimension to the universe. Such discoveries call for celebration. The problem with religion is that we remember and pass on the celebrations but forget the discovery. Meditation is the exploring, life is the celebrating. Religion is no more than the ritual reminder of this.<\/p>

 <\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

A friend who is expecting a baby in a few months had just come back radiant from her first scan. As she was leaving she saw a lemon on the kitchen counter and picked it up and said \u2018it is this size now.\u2019 It<\/em> is still an it.<\/p>

Great oaks from little acorns grow, naturally. But the idea of a baby \u2013 and all the changes it has begun to bring into the life of the family from conception. And all the expansion of life that is to come \u2013 the idea is different from the actual thing as it has developed up till now. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

A friend who is expecting a baby in a few months had just come back radiant from her first scan. As she was leaving she saw a lemon on the kitchen counter and picked it up and said \u2018it is this size now.\u2019 It<\/em> is still an it.<\/p>

Great oaks from little acorns grow, naturally. But the idea of a baby \u2013 and all the changes it has begun to bring into the life of the family from conception. And all the expansion of life that is to come \u2013 the idea is different from the actual thing as it has developed up till now. <\/p>

<\/p>

The lemon brought home how big an event a small thing can be. But even more strange is the resilient purposefulness of life and growth. Such an ordinary and yet inexplicable wonder as an emerging human being the size of a lemon silences the chattering mind.<\/span><\/p>

St Paul uses the image of a developing foetus to describe his relationship to the community in Galitia that he loved and cared for so intensely. These local churches were perhaps composed of no more than thirty or forty followers. He extended the metaphor of the living womb to the process of their spiritual growth as bearers of the person of Christ. \u2018My children, I am again suffering labour pains for you until Christ is formed in you.\u2019 <\/p>

Like the lemon it is a striking reminder of how real and incomplete the process is. How odd it is to assume that we are \u2018Christian\u2019 when we hardly yet know what it means. The present moment is announced at each tick of the clock, each movement of the countdown button. But the moment cannot be grasped. Time cannot be frozen except in virtual reality. In real life we are an arrow shooting through time and space.<\/p>

This is perhaps why we need seasons, to differentiate the continuous passage of time. They remind us that we must learn to travel consciously, even if we don\u2019t know what we are conscious of. Just be conscious becomes the rule. And let the objects of consciousness present themselves sequentially; and see what stays, and for how long, and also what passes. For this growing consciousness we need the clarity and calmness of mind that comes with the focus that discipline and Lent and meditation brings.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

The human spirit yearns to breathe the air of liberty. We rankle under impositions and restrictions placed upon us by people or institutions, by parents, pharaohs or presidents. We defend our ancient liberties with great rhetoric. We bomb, torture and lie in the defence of freedom.<\/p>

For many of us today  \u2013 especially Roman Catholics in the seedy limelight at the moment  - religious institutions and their leadership have failed to understand and witness to the essential meaning of liberty.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

The human spirit yearns to breathe the air of liberty. We rankle under impositions and restrictions placed upon us by people or institutions, by parents, pharaohs or presidents. We defend our ancient liberties with great rhetoric. We bomb, torture and lie in the defence of freedom.<\/p>

For many of us today  \u2013 especially Roman Catholics in the seedy limelight at the moment  - religious institutions and their leadership have failed to understand and witness to the essential meaning of liberty.<\/p>

Without that understanding there is no genuine witness, just pious or pompous posturing. How, for example, can we proclaim and defend liberty while denying open discussion of the questions that the majority of us are talking about daily? How can we not recognise that genuine equality in areas like gender, sexual orientation and status in the institution are non-negotiable adjuncts of liberty? <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

Institutions, religious or political, fail and anger us with their intractable power-structures and their blithe assumption of the right to govern. So we distance ourselves from them. But then we find we are alone. Liberty cannot be defended or enjoyed only by individuals. We need community and community needs sem measure of organization as St Benedict understood. Spiritually our contemporary crisis throws many homeless people on the streets and forms many wandering tribes. And some, of course, run back to the failed institutions surrendering their liberty in return for security. <\/p>

The Christian stories that nourish and teach us daily during Lent keep returning to the myth of the desert. They ask us have you found your desert yet? Have you accepted it as your place of learning? Do you know the disciplines that ensure survival in the desert? Have you learned to wander freely in it recognizing the pattern formed by the different directions you have taken? <\/p>

Has your meditation taught you yet that liberty is not just a right we exercise. It is a country of its own. An ecosphere of its own. Where the spirit is there is liberty.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

\u201cI have nothing, I want nothing, I know nothing.\u201d The refrain of the medieval mystics might sound a touch negative to our ears and the personal pronoun perhaps suspiciously highlighted. Too much I in the assertion of no-self.<\/p>

So: those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know. This is an old challenging wisdom. But not so practical. In Maximus the Confessor we are told there is a half-way place The person who knows has a short window of opportunity to speak while the experience is still fresh. <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

\u201cI have nothing, I want nothing, I know nothing.\u201d The refrain of the medieval mystics might sound a touch negative to our ears and the personal pronoun perhaps suspiciously highlighted. Too much I in the assertion of no-self.<\/p>

So: those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know. This is an old challenging wisdom. But not so practical. In Maximus the Confessor we are told there is a half-way place The person who knows has a short window of opportunity to speak while the experience is still fresh. <\/p>

<\/p>

But when the scent of the newly-baked bread has gone, better keep quiet about it. This is relevant not only to spiritual writers but to all of us in a culture that speaks before it thinks and rarely listens deeply to what others are saying.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

It is very difficult to find the words to describe the deepest experiences on our journey through the Desert to the Promised Land, through life to Life. We have to be restrained and not jump on every weakness or apparent contradiction. In the case of a receding horizon it is hard to keep perspective; yet we need to keep going, looking and moving ahead. Otherwise, like every committee ever set up for whatever cause, we easily get stuck in the disputatiousness of the ego. Arguing our own point of view from attachment to our own version of reality. Egotism loses sight of the big picture which these empty \u2013 or anyway less acquisitive \u2013 days of Lent help to bring into focus again.<\/p>

What is implied in the triple medieval refrain is a conclusion left silent: I am nothing<\/em>. The I is swallowed up in the nothingness and can no longer speak or think about itself or its favourite subjects. This sounds pure negativity outside of the experience of prayer. In the pure prayer of meditation \u2013 the thinner, unpolluted atmosphere of the high mountains where rock meets air \u2013 the edge of nothing is felt as the beginning of the full promise of being. The nothingness is understood, deeper than words, as the thing that gives fullness to our emptiest days.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

Small adjustments can make a big difference. Imagine the vast distances involved in a minor error in a spacecraft\u2019s compass settings. Or the brief experiences in childhood that set a pattern for decades before their effect can be corrected.<\/p>

So with the attitudinal settings with which we start the practice of meditation. Because some people have an allergy to all things religious, the physiological, psychological or pragmatic approach can seem best at the beginning. It is like the spacecraft being focused on the next planet in its path. \u2018I\u2019ll meditate in order to get these proven benefits.\u2019 <\/p>

","body":"

\"\"<\/p>

Small adjustments can make a big difference. Imagine the vast distances involved in a minor error in a spacecraft\u2019s compass settings. Or the brief experiences in childhood that set a pattern for decades before their effect can be corrected.<\/p>

So with the attitudinal settings with which we start the practice of meditation. Because some people have an allergy to all things religious, the physiological, psychological or pragmatic approach can seem best at the beginning. It is like the spacecraft being focused on the next planet in its path. \u2018I\u2019ll meditate in order to get these proven benefits.\u2019 <\/p>

<\/p>

Benefits certainly follow from practice. But, once achieved, they push the horizon further and the spiritual or more integral dimension of meditation swims into view. <\/span>Horizon becomes a symbol of the infinite rather than a short-term goal. Thus begins a contemplative setting that provides a new burst of energy for the whole voyage of discovery.<\/span><\/p>

The problem at the beginning can be that we think of contemplation merely as a means of getting new information. So we cling to the mind\u2019s pre-existing patterns and limitations and try to fit the boundless into it. When this fails we think we can\u2019t meditate. Hopefully we finally get the point \u2013 that contemplation is not a way of adding to our knowledge. It is the opening of a wholly new way of knowing that is inexpressible in the earlier ways we have been used to before. This is really puzzling and frustrating to the mind but makes deep sense and speaks directly to the heart.<\/p>

At first the mind says all this is meaningless but, in fact, it is supported by the purest logic. To sail across a vast ocean we have to lose sight of our home shore. To open the new way of perception, to \u2018purify the eye of the heart\u2019, we have to let go of our familiar ways of knowing and cognition and to enter a light so bright that it seems utter darkness. <\/p>

I once was being examined by an eye surgeon for a detached retina and was scared of losing my sight. He shone a bright light into my eyes and when he removed it I was shocked and terrified when I realised I could no longer see anything. I told him this with some anxiety at which he laughed and casually reassured me.<\/p>

To learn to meditate is learning daily that life is a journey of discovery. Whoever wants to learn this needs to have something of the explorer in them.<\/p>

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\"\"The world is worldly. But being worldly isn\u2019t as exciting as it was. For the majority of people life is routine.

Even when life is driven by faithful love or a quest for truth or a passionate cause, no one can escape the humdrum. So, we escape a world that is repetititious and unchallenging by becoming voyeurs of the dramatic and sublime. We watch sport, action movies, hyper dramatic soaps. And we love royal weddings and papal funerals.<\/p>

","body":"

\"\"The world is worldly. But being worldly isn\u2019t as exciting as it was. For the majority of people life is routine.

Even when life is driven by faithful love or a quest for truth or a passionate cause, no one can escape the humdrum. So, we escape a world that is repetititious and unchallenging by becoming voyeurs of the dramatic and sublime. We watch sport, action movies, hyper dramatic soaps. And we love royal weddings and papal funerals.<\/p>

<\/p>

Modern life with its accent on health and safety, is paranoid about risk. It tries to make people and work-teams run like computer programs. The media feeds on the domestic secrets of celebrities. Life is disenchanted. Something magical has gone. We have secularized, analyzed and demythologized what used to enchant. Only the vast interstellar spaces or the mystery of dark matter are left.<\/p>

Yet so much of the enchantment was misinterpretation or self-deception. As the Oscars and celebrity still are. Robbie Williams recently admitted what perhaps his fans didn\u2019t want to hear, that his stage self is a totally false construct.<\/p>

Then a Pope resigns and the disenchantment seems complete. The chain of power upheld by the office\u2019s mystique is rattled dangerously. What happens to infallibility if you can resign it? What about our own inner weakest link? <\/p>

But is there something genuinely enchanting revealed in such self-disempowerment? Something extraordinary in the simple acceptance of being human. Something that the Easter story passionately conveys. Something that does not need makeup or special effects. <\/p>

A way of being in the world that rejects showiness and celebrity, wealth, power or mystique. Something glorious and authentically affirming in our nature that breaks the heart open as no soap opera can. A burning bush we encounter on the way to work that, however long we contemplate it, never dies.<\/p>

 <\/p>

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