Contemplfiy NonRequired Practice - Quarantine Edition #5
Contemplify NonRequired Practice | Quarantine Edition #5
Contemplative Friend,
There is a passage stuck in my teeth. I cannot remove it, only work on it. It goes like this...
“Staying put and venturing forth. The wisdom that comes from living deeply into a place; and the kind of knowledge that can only be acquired by leaving one’s place, and risking the unknown. The early Christian monks understood both of these “ways” or “paths” as potentially fruitful responses to the call to relinquish everything for the sake of the Gospel. Nor did they see them as contradictory to one another. Both were part of the unfolding character of their lives. But what did it mean in practice to give oneself over to the “work of the cell,” or to “go away for God’s sake?” What kind of life was this?” (p.103)*
I feel the tension of the ‘work of the cell’ and the ‘go away for God’s sake’ when I stretch my contemplative ligaments. Place and belonging are themes that I walk around with daily. Risking the unknown and searching for the true are regulars at my thinking spot. The torches of the early Christian monks are lit within me and I acknowledge the interior shadows they cast too.
In this pandemic, what options of contemplation can you put into operation? The wish I dropped in the well for you and for me is that we pause, listen, and breathe. I know the simplicity of it is nauseating. But no matter the circumstances you find yourself in; suffering unjustly, courageously on the front lines, or quarantined in privilege - stop, listen, and feel. The noetic poetics of the Christian contemplative traditions speak of a Divine presence found in a stillness that births revelation. The lives of contemplatives throughout the ages bear witness to this stillness. This stillness can radicalize your way of life.
As Douglas E. Christie has written above, “these ‘ways’ or ‘paths’ [are] potentially fruitful responses to the call to relinquish everything for the sake of the Gospel.” (bold is me). An audacious call such as this must rise up from the mucky bottom of the wishing well. This faint call is heard by those actually present to this moment, not rushing to the future or dragging their knuckles in the past, but those rare people who are alive right now...even in the midst of a pandemic. Their aliveness is not dependent on the ‘work of the cell’ or stepping ‘away for God’s sake’ because their way is animated by a response to a particular call heard in the stillness of love.
Pause.
Listen.
Breathe.
Pay attention to the call springing forth from within your well -- what is it asking of you? What do you need to shed? Pause, look, and breathe with more of your whole self.
May the whispers (or shouts**) of a call find you and get stuck in your teeth. In that spirit I offer a few more practices for a contemplative approach to quarantined life in shady times.
*This passage arrives from a very fine book, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas E Christie
** Now go into your cell and move away from the shackles of cultural expectations for God’s sake!
Find Your Quarantine Patron Saint
I’ve deputized Henry David Thoreau as my patron saint of this quarantine. Not just because it gave me an excuse to grow a gnarly beard in his honor, but the man was an expert at thriving while also social distancing. Rereading Walden under the confines of quarantine has sparked new thoughts. Sure, Thoreau had supper at the houses of his friends and family, but he wrote a passage about the joy of having a conversation with a friend from opposite ends of Walden pond. He states that a conversation of such density could not have been had any other way for being close to each other would revoke the permit of intimacy. Today, may you have a conversation with a beloved across a screen, a driveway, the veil, or a pond. Don’t stick to the surface, listen to ol Davey Thoreau and embrace the distance as ample space for vulnerability.
Shameless Self-Recommending Contemplation
Oh get ready for a self-referential invitation. I released the first Contemplify podcast episode in about 5 months. It is a ramble on the joy of music when it joins your soul for a cold one. It is called ‘Kitchen Music Society of Sorrow and Delight‘. I hope you’ll join this society, the fees are drinkable to keep the riff riff in and the contemplative hearts light.
Resurrection & The Stranger
I am finding solace in returning to what I know. Watching the clouds without a weather forecast. Walking without a destination. A friend sent me this dharma talk by the Venerable Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn. I was so smitten by this message of life, death, and resurrection that he shared with his sangha on Easter Sunday six years ago that I felt completely at home. The dharma touched me and moved me in remembrance of Christ. Watching clouds, walking, returning to what I know. (h/t Chris)
Open the Pocketbook (if you can)
If you have a few dimes you can rub together, consider supporting those whose suffering is most hidden in this pandemic. Maybe that means picking up eggs for your cranky neighbor, supporting a domestic worker struggling to make ends meet, or bailing a stranger out of jail. Shedding money can be a useful practice. And don’t go shouting about what you have done, instead tie an unspoken prayer to your receipt as an offering of healing to an unknown sibling.
May this find you in a generous step and with a burning heart whispering sweet nothings from within your deep well. May you touch the aliveness calling out to you in these deadening times.
Off my cell but in my cell,
Paul
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P.P.S. The daily postings to kindle the examined life in a quarantined world are still being tacked to the crusty cork board at Quarantined Qontemplative.