Contemplify Nonrequired Reading List Email for May 30, 2017

The May NonRequired Reading List

“The rhythm of life is a jazz rhythm, honey.”

Langston Hughes (Lenox Avenue: Midnight)

Contemplifyers,

Been thinking a lot about rhythm this past month. What does a healthy rhythm look like for me? How does it engage my head, heart and body? The focus of so much of my energy goes to my head and heart, creating disembodiment from the flesh and bones that have treated me kindly thus far. This alignment of self is no simple care bear stare, but an enfleshment of contemplative flow in my day-to-day. I’ll let you know when I accomplish this (don’t hold your breath)….This theme, rhythm of life, came to mind as I looked back at the books that were catching my eyes recently; and thus, is the focus of this month’s NonRequired Reading List. 

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The Rule of St. Benedict by St. Benedict (Book)

This little book has been a helpful measuring rod for many within the Christian Tradition the last 1500 years. A resurgence of The Rule has come with books like Benedict’s Dharma and The Benedict Option, but I’d recommend first dipping into the original, The Rule of St. Benedict. Benedict was seen as a master teacher and his Rule was created as a pathway for seekers to be under an obedience to a rhythm of life that fostered the spiritual craft. This craft finds its tools in stability, humility, prayer, work, hospitality and freedom by attending to these instructions ‘with the ear of your heart.’ If you take the opportunity to step into the world of Benedict, you will find a wide range of instructions from the 12 steps of humility, to the sleeping arrangements of the monks, to the appropriate amount of wine a day for a monk (half a bottle if you’re wondering). I recommend this book because of the way it still speaks to those of us living outside monastic walls. A freedom that can be found by putting yourself under an obedience to a rhythm of life. No doubt you will want to filter this book through the lenses of your unique life conditions to harmonize work and prayer/meditation alone and with others. A line that occurs throughout, ‘according to one’s own needs,’ should be seen as the permission slip to modify the execution of the spiritual crafts to align with your own livelihood. If you’ve ever stayed in a monastery, no doubt you’ve over-romanticized the life of the monks (I’m certainly guilty), but the deeper invitation that I am finally seeing is to enact a rhythm of my own in the conditions that my life offers me. I’m testing this out now, to see what fits…

The Buddha Walks into the Office by Lodro Rinzler (Book)

Do you dread going to work? Apparently 70% of Americans do (Read about it here). This is a complex statistic with many factors that are beyond a nonrequired reading list. But the relevant question here is, is there anything one can do change their approach to their working life? Lodro Rinzler, meditation teacher and author, offers a helpful approach - view the workplace as an opportunity to cultivate virtue. You might think this would be tough to tackle if your boss is a blowhard, the work tasks don’t align with your interests or perhaps the work makes you the blowhard boss because of the enormous pressures you face on a daily basis, but there is hope. Rinzler humorously, and with great empathy to any work environment, offers guidance, tips and practices for seeing the office as the path of bodhichitta (‘experience of opening your heart, or being awake enough to allow your heart to be available to any experience, good or bad.’ p. 62). There is no great escape or perfect job, but know that your work life is an opportunity for transformation. I forget this on a daily basis, but after reading this book and talking to Lodro (you can listen to that conversation here), I am gratefully sobered that what is in the way, is the way.

His Holiness, the Bill Murray by David G. Allan (Article)

Bill Murray is a holy fool. I am a fan of his films, but I’m a bigger fan of his approach to life. There is a wink and a wry smile to every encounter. There are dozens of stories of Bill Murray surprising people with out of the ordinary shenanigans. It came as no shock to me that he has studied the philosopher and mystic, G.I. Gurdjeiff, who taught that most of us walk around in a sleeping state not understanding our potential to ‘wake up’. Perhaps you’ve seen the video clips of Murray crashing a kickball game or engagement photos, inviting a stranger to the Cubs playoff game, the impromptu speech to a bachelor party or the Gurdjeiffian response he gave when asked, ‘What is it like to be Bill Murray?’. Bill Murray seems to be in the business of waking us up, to remind us that this life is not a dress rehearsal. 

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Contemplify Update

The three most recent episodes of Contemplify…

032: Lodro Rinzler: When Work Becomes Meditation Practice

(Bonus! Practice Episode) Contemplating the Universe

031: Becoming Esteemed Ancestors with a Cosmic Vision – Nancy Ellen Abrams (author of A God That Could Be Real)

These episodes are available from Contemplify through these fine outlets: iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, Overcast or Google Play

Listen well + read often,
Paul

P.S. If you’re digging the podcast, please consider rating and reviewing it on iTunes. If the day is already too full or you have water boiling, better to just attend to those tasks.