Contemplify NonRequired Reading List for May 4, 2020
April NonRequired Reading List in May
(i lost track of the days and April passed without its usual NonRequired Reading missive. So this one is coming in a bit hot and a bit late.)
Contemplative Friend,
The evening colors the western sky, a cooling lavender traces the sun's last known whereabouts. The heat of the day retreats behind the horizon, no doubt concocting nefarious plans to make further gains tomorrow. The half drunk moon shows up early and stretches for its position in the cloudless sky. My son sleeps and my daughter is on her way to that playground of dreams. The first star of the night winks at me. I wink back. Always a flirt when I think I don’t have a chance, that is how I met my wife. I eulogize the day from a lawn chair on my front porch.
The days of pandemic waffle between the heat of suffering and coolness of rest. So far I am lucky, me and those I belong to are healthy. My friends on the frontlines are getting tanned by the fire but not yet burned. And because of that, a stream of gratitude runs through my daily mumbles. The suffering from the virus and other snares in my field of relationships call me to prayer. A litany of petitions fall from my lips; for my folks who just lost a dear neighbor, for a friend of relentless encouragement who has discovered that both colon cancer and bone cancer have resurfaced, for the Black men wearing protective masks being escorted out of stores by ‘security’ guards, and for the tear-stained faces behind the unemployment numbers, and for all those touched by death related to Covid-19. The suffering on the planet is experienced more than the numbers and charts convey. It has got me asking, what unique post does a contemplative hold in times of crisis?
“The contemplative life is a primarily a life of unity...Contemplation must not be confused with abstraction. A contemplative life is not to be lived by permanent withdrawal within one’s own mind…[A contemplative] is the one who is best attuned to the logos of humanity’s present situation, immersed in its mystery, acquainted with its deepest suffering, and sensitive to its most viable hopes. She is the one who is in harmony with the Tao. Hence she cannot help but look at the world attentively and with much more understanding than the politician who thinks himself in command.” (Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, pp 147-8).
Contemplatives do not hideaway in quarantine or behind monastic walls, we touch the root of suffering through attention and prayer. Contemplatives do not let fear eat our souls or wither our hearts, we go through the fear to embrace the suffering. The trauma may steal our sleep, but our sacred dreams lay dormant beneath the floorboards of the body, lying in wait to wake with the morning chores at first light.
A maxim of John of the Cross steps into my mind, “The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.” We cannot pretend that suffering has not nicked us with its blade. This conscious participation in suffering is a surrender into a Mystery that pierces what is shielded or hidden. O Great Mystery, reach in through the breaks of certainty and attend to the vulnerable places. May we not excuse ourselves from Reality.
There is a lot of unknowing still ahead, trust that way of knowing until we wake into a new morning.
This month’s NonRequired Reading List takes us to the kitchen and new monasticism: Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life That Matters and New Monasticism: A Feminist Perspective From a Woman, Yogi, Mother, and Spouse (excerpt).
April's NonRequired Reading List
Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life That Matters by Bernie Glassman & Rick Fields (Get it at the Public Library or IndieBound)
Did you know that Zen Master Dōgen and St. Francis of Assisi walked the planet at the same time? They were not neighbors, pen pals, or influences on one another, but it is so enjoyable to know that these two lineage tenders were planting new gardens in old soil around the same time. St. Francis was first to influence me through his incarnational and woodsy mysticism. I am just discovering Dōgen and walking slowly in his direction out of respect for a tradition other than my own. I’ve read and listened to Roshi Joan Halifax and Kaz Tanahashi’s teachings on Dōgen and this eventually led me to Instructions to the Cook. Sometimes a book takes the backroads to reach your shelf.
Instructions to the Cook is about creating the most sumptuous meal out of your life. Early on Bernie Glassman relays the story of Dōgen encountering a Zen cook who had just walked 12 miles in hopes that Dōgen might have the mushrooms he needed to serve in his monastery the following day for a holiday celebration. Dōgen is taken by this monk’s presence of being and is surprised by his seriousness in the lowly task that could have been sloughed off onto a lower monk. The Zen cook laughed at Dōgen’s lack of understanding of Zen practice and invited him to visit his monastery. The lessons that Dōgen received by apprenticing himself to this Zen cook have been passed down and served generations. Glassman takes Dōgen's framework and retells it with a focus on creating a more just world through engaged Buddhism.
Glassman invites you to begin from whatever swampy conditions you find yourself in.
“The pure lotus growing in muddy waters is a metaphor for enlightenment. The lotus arises from all its impediments. It actually needs the impurity of the water for its nourishment. In the same way, in our own personal development, we can’t just work with what we like about ourselves. We have to work with our problems and hang-ups because that’s where the action is.
Very few--if any--ingredients are garbage. Whatever work someone is doing is the feast that person is offering. Usually we don’t see that because we are blinded by our own ideas of what the other person should be doing.” (p. 110-111).
Glassman humorously demystifies the work of an enlightenment through insight and story. Practical stories are seeded throughout each chapter on his experiences of starting businesses, working with the formerly incarcerated or homeless, governance issues, income inequailty, family problems, and an everclear commitment to contemplative practice no matter what arises.
Instructions to the Cook is for any seeker hoping for a skeleton on how to live justly and deeply in a limping world. There are plenty of stories and laughs to put the skin on that skeleton to see what it looks like walking around the city streets.
New Monasticism: A Feminist Perspective From a Woman, Yogi, Mother, and Spouse by V.K. Harber (Read it at Kosmos)
There is a sweet joy in the discovery of a kindred soul walking a parallel path in another tradition. If you have been kicking around the Contemplify basecamp for awhile you know that I don’t hide my context as the grounding of my contemplative work; white, male, heterosexual, father, spouse, son, brother, and Christian. The gifts and limitations of my identities rear up in daily life. The arts and conversations with those who embody another human experience unlock doors to the divinity hidden in those who are ‘other’ than me. What a gift. I should get on my hands and knees and kiss the earth for the diversity of the divine image all around. V.K. Harber’s article inspires such an earth kissing moment and my lips are imprinted with soil. We are all in this together and contemplatives from all ilks actually seem to believe it. Harber raises the questions many of us our asking from our different spiritual neighborhoods in the spirit of a new monasticism.
“Why am I drawn to this movement? How does this affect the way I live my life? What kind of presence am I in this world? What do I want to embody? How does commitment to the transformative process manifest in my life?”
In her frustration of the commodification of the yoga tradition for the goal of well-being, she heard the calling for deeper embodiment of her yoga tradition as a source of healing and non-violence. Take heart and heed this call from whatever tradition mothered you. There is a veil that seems to part the first leg of a spiritual journey from the wilds of the further journey. Love of God and Others is the energizing force that lures us through that veil with the echoing question - how can I be helpful? Harber expounds on why her contemplative practice is the ground for her becoming a healing presence in the world.
“It is this daily practice that helps me to be at ease, a prerequisite for being present in the world in a positive way. If I am distracted by physical discomfort, if my energy is depleted, if my mind is overactive or sluggish, if I am not paying attention to wisdom as it is revealed to me, and if I am not feeling connectedness I cannot and will not be a healing presence in the world.”
This presence to self and the world is a tincture for healing the world. There is a person behind the question - how can I be helpful? -- and that person is you. It is me. It is V.K. Harber. And as committed agents of love and healing we must engage in the practices that cultivate a contemplative presence in our relationships, homes, bodies, and ourselves.
“If my Yoga practice happened only in my home or on my mat and never motivated me to teach, to engage with a community, what purpose would it serve beyond my own personal joy? And would I truly be able to experience joy if I were not involved in this work? I can recite Yoga sutras and I can talk endlessly about yogic philosophy, but what good is any of it if I am not using it to build relationships, to facilitate healing (my own and others)? While traditional monastics have chosen to live sequestered, literally or figuratively, as a new monastic I am compelled to use the wisdom I’ve gained from my practice to engage deeply with the world.”
This article is for the contemplative practicing their practices for their transformation in the life of God to reveal their empowered presence for the healing of the world. Good people, steady on in the practices that seem so mundane and commonplace, we need your contemplative presence. (h/t to Poff)
Arts, Articles, & Practices
‘Good Bones‘ by Maggie Smith (Poetry Foundation) : Some poems are meant for a pandemic. And some poems are meant for parents in a pandemic. And then some poems are meant for parents in a pandemic attempting to encourage a deep love for the world to their children. ‘Good Bones‘ by Maggie Smith is such a poem.
Chanting with Taize Community (Big Ol Facebook): Good contemplatives, good news. Taizé, the international community in France known for their chants, equity, and incredibly fun name to say are broadcasting their prayer services live at 8:30 pm (Central European Time). Go to their Facebook page to tune in. If you are ethically opposed to Facebook, but want to participate…I feel your pain. (h/t to Gigi)
‘This 1,000-Year-Old Mill Has Resumed Production Due to Demand for Flour’ (Food & Wine): When dismissed technology is put to use, and good use, I think of Dōgen’s Instructions for the Cook. To hold this story of the mill metaphorically, what is most important is oft hidden in plain sight. What neglected or hidden elements of you need to be reintegrated into your life?
Contemplify Update
The three most recent episodes on Contemplify…
These episodes are available from Contemplify through these fine outlets: iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or Overcast
May you make this place beautiful...
“Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.”
(from ‘Good Bones‘ by Maggie Smith)
In Viable Hope,
Paul
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P.P.S. The daily postings to kindle the examined life in a quarantined world are still being sticky taped to the kitchen wall at Quarantined Qontemplative just between the ladles and the spatulas.