Contemplify NonRequired Reading List Email for April 30, 2018
The April NonRequired Reading List
Contemplatives,
I was recently asked to share my approach on how I practice contemplation. Seeming like a fun exercise, I quickly hammered the keys to see what would come out before my ego took the project over. Below is the rough version of what arose, which feels authentic at 9pm on a Monday night. Like a cross between words that spill out after stubbing your toe in the kitchen and the joy of waking up one minute before your alarm goes off.
I wanted to share this with you in case it might be of some use...
I’ve been asked to offer a few, and I mean a few, words of reflection on contemplative practice. And to begin with, I find it best to share this from my adoptive contemplative grandfather Thomas Merton, ‘[Contemplation] can be suggested by words, by symbols, but in the very moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said, and denies what it has affirmed.’
So...with that in mind, how do I intend to talk about contemplation then? Briefly. My intention here is to grasp at words that give shape to the formless abiding, even if only for a moment. If we are lucky here today, I’ll communicate some semblance of that.
There are a whole host of contemplative practices and postures one can embody. Wisdom Teacher Barbara Holmes writes, ‘Contemplation can occur anywhere’. Today we will be entering just one such practice--a contemplative sit. For me, contemplative sit (watch your pronunciation) is practicing a posture of new perception. Of releasing what is fixating my attention, be it an attachment to an outcome or lovely spontaneous thought stream about my beloved Laura that appears in my mind’s eye...either way...the practice is relinquishing whatever form or object is blocking my abiding to the present moment of Divine Reality. This is no easy task, but a practice easy in theory. And what makes this an easy (and endlessly unfolding) practice is that it is a self-generating. It instantaneously creates opportunities for you to ‘fail’, and return to where you started in the first place. And this is one of jewels of the practice, the cultivation of beginner’s mind through moment-by-moment releasing of thoughts, *not* from resisting thoughts. With time and devotion, this release of thoughts and cultivation of beginner’s mind has the potential to shift your perception throughout the entirety of the day. So, without any more words...let’s dive into Divine Reality, with our feet on the floor and taking a deep breathe together as we enter this practice...
(I would love to read your reflection upon the question - what is your approach to contemplative practice? - if you are up for it).
Here is this month’s NonRequired Reading List...
The Ashokan Way: Landscape’s Path into Consciousness by Gail Straub (Get it at the Public Library or Indiebound)
I am a torn lover between landscapes. My primary loves are the lakes and trees of Minnesota, but I have also deeply fallen for the desert mountains and mesas of New Mexico. And if I drift into memories, I recall other landscapes that pierced my heart. When it comes to landscapes, Gail Straub is my people. Her latest book, The Ashokan Way, shares her meditations on the dance of landscape and consciousness. Each reflective passage is only a couple pages, but exquisitely drops the reader in Ashokan Reservoir right next to Gail on her daily walks. The rhythm of the walk through the seasons of the year opens up the bending of the interior landscape towards the exterior (and at times, vice versa). One of my particularly favorite passages is Gali’s reflection on Zen Master Dogen lines, ‘The mountains, unchanged in body and mind, maintaining their own mountain countenance, have always been traveling about studying themselves.’, she writes,
“Maintaining their natural character, the mountains travel about studying themselves. If I can find my own true identity and then journey to understand and fulfill my calling, I will have lived well...Elegant and sustainable, there is absolutely no waste or distraction in this path of maintaining my own countenance. This is the way--constant, simple, and sustainable--that I long to live. This is why the ancients felt that we could most clearly understand the deep structure of things when in the presence of a mountain landscape.” (p. 88)
This book states its intention from the very first line of ink in the introduction, ‘Attention is a form of devotion and a pathway to intimacy.’ (p. xxvii). This is the contemplative gift of The Ashokan Way, a generative model of how to attune to a practice that requires your focused and embodied attention to develop an intimacy with something larger than yourself.
The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb (Get it at the Public Library or Indiebound)
This cheeky book is an idea generator for altering your habits of consumption and thinking more creatively about where your energy goes. If you are game for up-ending your daily habits of how you eat, drink, recreate, work and live, this book will be grand fodder. There are dozens of chapters in The Art of Frugal Hedonism that offers perspective on a different modality of approaching the ‘freedom’ of choice. My favorite chapter title is ‘#40 Don’t be a Snooty Bum Bum’ which offers reasoned guidance on why one should not take themselves too seriously as connoisseur of fine items (studies have shown your ability to differentiate between high end and not-so high end consummables is not that accurate). But it is not all focused on consuming, take chapter 13 ‘Listen to the Habit Scientists. Yes, They Have Those Now’ which briefly unpacks the science of motivation and habituation to get you moving through any stuck places in your routine.
This book is for those who need a quick read to shake up their status quo. There are enough vapor trails of discovery that the curious reader will have ample opportunity to delve into the weeds of being an artful and frugal hedonist.
Contemplify Update
The three most recent episodes of Contemplify…
054: Contemplate Your Death Five Times a Day with Hansa Bergwall (Co-Founder of WeCroak)
053: Heartfulness in the Space Between Things with Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu (author of From Mindfulness to Heartfulness)
052: How Death Prepares You For Life: Buddhist Teacher Frank Ostaseski on The Five Invitations
(Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, Overcast, Google Play or Contemplify.com)
I raise a bold whiskey to you, friends. May your noise catch a waft of peat and wise aprophrisms spring to mind when the next courageous step of path shows itself. I hope the month of May is generous to your thought-provoking questions and your inner critic take an unexpected sabbatical. As always, thanks for tuning in and being a part of Contemplify!
Tossing another log on the Contemplify fire,
Paul
P.S. Do you like rating podcasts? Me neither, but perhaps your desire to help spread the contemplative word overrides that distaste of rating something. Please take a few seconds to rate and review Contemplify on Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast player. And thanks to all who have already done so!