Random ponderings on a tired morning.
Ahimsa: I love this term, this thought. Doing no harm to others. I'm sure the deepest meaning is love, compassion, giving, serving. But in an apophatic way of moral theology, take it at what it says: do no harm. So I'm a lousy father, husband, worker, faster, Orthodox Christian, etc. I can sit in my loft when it's 30 degrees out, and just sit. Call it meditate, pray, whatever; I didn't hurt anyones feelings sitting there freezing, I didn't piss anyone off, I didn't hurt the environment, I didn't rape, pillage, steal, lie, kidnap, I didn't go to Liturgy this morning but I didn't argue with wife and kids about getting ready, what to wear, why are we going, etc. I sat. I prayed. I thought of God.
Humility: Read Anthony Blooms "Beginning to Pray." He talks about humility, how it comes from humus, which means the earth, the ground. What a great analogy. As the ground soaks up rain, snow, refuse, trash, pounding, mistreatment, and just takes it, absorbs it, and returns life, so should we.
The sun was shining into the southern window, creating beams of light. I saw tiny, miniscule dust particles floating around. Invisible to the naked eye. Doing nothing. Being humble dust particles practicing ahimsa in the loft. But at a certain angle, in a moment of time, they would reflect the sunlights beams and shine like a star in the heavens. They are what we create them to be in our minds: miserable dust particles, or shining stars in the heavens.
Thank you Lord for abiding within. God is in that loft, in those dust particles, in the sunbeam, in the freezing cold (my toes especially), in the silence, in the solitude. Sure, he's at Liturgy in the Eucharist. But he's within also.
Miserable little consolations of God. When I first read this term in "Seeds of Contemplation" by Merton a few years ago, I put the book down mid chapter and didn't read it for several days. I was scandalized by it. How can you call a gift of God, the awareness of His presence, a miserable little consolation? He was talking about detachment. I started reading this book again this week, and now I know. They can be miserable little consolations if we mistake them for the real thing. The real thing, the real purpose of contemplation is not a contemplative moment. It is realizing every moment, and especially the present moment, is God, is nada, is life, is contemplation. Celebrate the present moment by accepting God's will in peace and joy. Obedience in the present moment.
"Do nothing out of selfish amibition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearence as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross."
Time to go back in. Time to walk away from miserable little consolations. Time to open presents, eat lots of food, watch dogs play and fight, play and fight ourselves, and try to do no harm.
Ahimsa: I love this term, this thought. Doing no harm to others. I'm sure the deepest meaning is love, compassion, giving, serving. But in an apophatic way of moral theology, take it at what it says: do no harm. So I'm a lousy father, husband, worker, faster, Orthodox Christian, etc. I can sit in my loft when it's 30 degrees out, and just sit. Call it meditate, pray, whatever; I didn't hurt anyones feelings sitting there freezing, I didn't piss anyone off, I didn't hurt the environment, I didn't rape, pillage, steal, lie, kidnap, I didn't go to Liturgy this morning but I didn't argue with wife and kids about getting ready, what to wear, why are we going, etc. I sat. I prayed. I thought of God.
Humility: Read Anthony Blooms "Beginning to Pray." He talks about humility, how it comes from humus, which means the earth, the ground. What a great analogy. As the ground soaks up rain, snow, refuse, trash, pounding, mistreatment, and just takes it, absorbs it, and returns life, so should we.
The sun was shining into the southern window, creating beams of light. I saw tiny, miniscule dust particles floating around. Invisible to the naked eye. Doing nothing. Being humble dust particles practicing ahimsa in the loft. But at a certain angle, in a moment of time, they would reflect the sunlights beams and shine like a star in the heavens. They are what we create them to be in our minds: miserable dust particles, or shining stars in the heavens.
Thank you Lord for abiding within. God is in that loft, in those dust particles, in the sunbeam, in the freezing cold (my toes especially), in the silence, in the solitude. Sure, he's at Liturgy in the Eucharist. But he's within also.
Miserable little consolations of God. When I first read this term in "Seeds of Contemplation" by Merton a few years ago, I put the book down mid chapter and didn't read it for several days. I was scandalized by it. How can you call a gift of God, the awareness of His presence, a miserable little consolation? He was talking about detachment. I started reading this book again this week, and now I know. They can be miserable little consolations if we mistake them for the real thing. The real thing, the real purpose of contemplation is not a contemplative moment. It is realizing every moment, and especially the present moment, is God, is nada, is life, is contemplation. Celebrate the present moment by accepting God's will in peace and joy. Obedience in the present moment.
"Do nothing out of selfish amibition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearence as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross."
Time to go back in. Time to walk away from miserable little consolations. Time to open presents, eat lots of food, watch dogs play and fight, play and fight ourselves, and try to do no harm.
posted by Athanasios at
8:01 AM
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