“The first step in spiritual practice is to know ourselves to be lovable and allow ourselves to be loved."    - John Main, O.S.B.                                         

 

Zero Circle

Be helpless, dumbfounded,
unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
    to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we’re lying.
If we say No, we don’t see it,
that No will behead us
and shut tight our window onto Spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,
beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
we shall be saying finally,
with tremendous eloquence,      Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
we shall be a mighty kindness.

                                        Rumi 

What Is There Beyond Knowing?

What is there beyond knowing that keeps
calling to me? I can’t

turn in any direction
but it’s there. I don’t mean

the leaves’ grip and shine or even the thrush’s
silk song, but the far-off

fires, for example,
of the stars, heaven’s slowly turning

theater of light, or the wind
playful with its breath;

or time that’s always rushing forward,
or standing still

in the same—what shall I say—
moment.

What I know
I could put into a pack

as if it were bread and cheese, and carry it
on one shoulder,

important and honorable, but so small!
While everything else continues, unexplained

and unexplainable. How wonderful it is
to follow a thought quietly

to its logical end.
I have done this a few times.

But mostly I just stand in the dark field,
in the middle of the world, breathing

in and out. Life so far doesn’t have any other name
but breath and light, wind and rain.

If there’s a temple, I haven’t found it yet.
I simply go on drifting, in the heaven of the grass and the weeds.

Mary Oliver

Simple

I've been reading a book by Ken Segall about the culture at Apple under the direction of Steve Jobs. The book's title says it all: "Insanely Simple." This singular rule regarding the centrality of simplicity was the key to each decision Steve Jobs made when designing products or mapping strategy about the advertising of new products. (He famously kept sending the iPhone back to the designers with the edict: "one button" and nothing more.)

Steve Jobs understood that we just can't handle too much complexity. He understood that we need the deep value of complexity, but that accessibility needs to be simple in order to be utilized. (What Oliver Wendell Holmes called "simplicity on the other side of complexity.")

This, of course, is my attraction to bringing simplicity to prayer.

One Tender Breath.

One Tender Touch.

One Tender Word.

Slow, calm, rhythmic breathing.

Quiet, gentle touch (hand over hand or hand on forehead or hand on side of head or hands in lap).

One word mantra.

Dropping below thought and concept. Dropping deeper than our overly developed minds.

This past weekend I had the huge privilege of spending several days with 38 Jesuit Volunteers - young adults who have given this past year after college working with those struggling with poverty. Deeply committed, these JVC's carry such promise for our shared future. My only goal was to offer a pathway to spiritual practice that was accessible and simple.

One Tender Breath.

One Tender Touch.

One Tender Word.

To this end I made the suggestion that they begin each period of daily prayer or meditation with a simple prayer designed to touch into the nooks and crannies of their lives, allowing Spirit access through their permission to be Held in ways deeper than typical asking.

 I offer above, for your consideration, this simple prayer.

Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt

What I trust most: When my breathing allows me to include all three: Doubt, the Abyss, and Wisdom. This seems to be the only way I can avoid "absolute conviction," the defensive certainty that I can know what can't be known.

When a Tender Breath encompasses my doubt and my terror, wisdom emerges.

Wisdom, for me, is when unknowing rests into trust.