He who binds to himself a Joy
Doth the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.

[He Who Binds to Himself, by William Blake]

I had seen the Ikebana video a while ago; it spoke to me, and so I saved the link in my drafts.  Recently, one of Lucy’s posts had me thinking deeply, and the video came back to mind.  Then one of those serendipitous events occurred.  Lucy had quoted Anne Morrow Lindbergh in her post:  “The most exhausting thing you can do is to be inauthentic.”   I didn’t know the source of the quote, but I had more than a few passing thoughts that I would like to read more of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s writings.  A couple of days later I was in the thrift shop looking for a small wicker basket and I took the time, as I usually do, to browse through the books.  Generally, I only look at the hardcover books, because the paperbacks are usually all genres which don’t appeal to me.  But for some reason I scoured the racks of paperbacks as well, and lo and behold, what did I see but Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s “Gift from the Sea.”   And what a gift it was (and I’m not referring to the 49 cents I paid for it).  Now, I know I’m probably coming late to this book; many of my American online friends here, particularly the women, probably read it years ago, but “better late than never” certainly holds true in this case for me.  (Kristin, it is this book to which I was referring in a comment where I said it was helping me to centre and rebalance).

I know I’m making this post overly-long by doing so, but I’d like to share with you a couple of paragraphs from the book (I will be sharing more later) that coincide nicely with the Ikebana video in terms of how the artist was asking us to be curious about the weight and the fullness, to ask ourselves “where is the space, where is the line?”  Becoming aware of the weight, the fullness, the space and the lines in our day-to-day existence and doing whatever it takes to simplify and bring things into balance and harmony will lead to the same thing interiorly.  Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes:
 
“For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms.  Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant – and therefore beautiful.  A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of the sky.  A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side.  A candle flowers in the space of night.  Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting, the rest of the page bare.

My life in Connecticut, I begin to realize, lacks this quality of significance and therefore of beauty, because there is so little empty space.  The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled.  There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself.  Too many activities, and people, and things.  Too many worthy activities, valuable things, and interesting people.  For it is not merely the trivial which clutters our lives but the important as well.  We can have a surfeit of treasures – an excess of shells, where one or two would be significant.”
[Gift from the Sea; pgs. 114-115]

“What actually is not needed, in order to see what is essential?” 

“…I see and am with the fears that hook me into wanting things to be different from the way they are, fears that pull me into the belief that a different location or situation – a more creative job, a home in a more natural setting, more money or time or other resources, a relationship with someone who has the same “spiritual” goals or daily practice – is needed if I am ever to find deep abiding peace, if I am ever to learn how to love well.  These beliefs are rooted in deeper if intermittent fears:  the fear that I am not now and never will be able to hear the call at the center of my life accurately or fully enough to know how to consistently live who and what I am; the fear that the Beloved, tired of my inability to get it right, will simply stop calling, stop sending out the voice that can guide me home…

This is what I learned on my quest:
There is simply no place, no location or situation, that cannot be used to wake up to and live all of what and who you are, if you are willing to show up, to be present in the only place you ever have access to:  here.”
[pgs. 77-78]

“And you can’t trick the universe into giving you what you want by pretending to be at peace with how things are, by imitating what you think it would look like to be fully present where you are, all the while looking over your shoulder to see if some higher power has noticed and is about to deliver you from where you are and put you where you really want to be.”  (pg. 82)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Do not take on too much the suffering of the world, for the concept is not only too large to understand but is now beyond us. Trusting is part of your role; trusting in high hope, in peace and confidence. Wear these garments of joy without fearful anticipation, look upon the quiet of the hills, of a candle untroubled by the wind; be very, very simple, very uncomplex, very natural in the eternal sense. Keep in the storm center, safe, a power for victory, healing and peace.”

[From: Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood, edited by Mary Strong, 1948]

[Excerpt from:  "The Priest Is Not His Own", by Archbishop Fulton Sheen]:

“A personal equation must be established between the soul and the Crucifix.  Sins of pride are understood through the crown of thorns; sins of lust, through the torn flesh; sins of avarice, through the poverty of nakedness; and sins of alcoholism, through thirst.  Moreover, sin must be seen as resisting the Spirit of Love (Acts 7:51), as stifling the Spirit of Love (1 Thess 5:19) and as distressing the Spirit of Love (Eph 4:30).

Conscience is always enlightened when sin is seen as hurting someone we love.  No sin can touch one of God’s stars or silence one of His words, but it can cruelly wound His Heart.  Once the penitent understands this truth, he can see why he has such emptiness and desolation in his soul; he has hurt one he loves.

Many who approach a priest still try to conceal their conscience.  They offer spurious reasons to explain their actions.  The priest who remains on a purely psychological level cannot always see through such deceits, and, in consequence, he cannot help the one who has come to him.  It takes a spiritual X ray to penetrate such a mind.”

Direct to YouTube for this video is here.

Or I can postpone guilt until tomorrow.  The eye that looks at me fixedly always says “today.”  “It is now that I want to be loved.”  But I lower my eyes and say:  “I will love you tomorrow.  Tomorrow you’ll see what I’m capable of doing for you.  You’ll see the sacrifices I’ll bring to you.  Tomorrow I’ll pay you twice over if you’ll only grant me this one hour today.  I must yet pluck the rose before it fades away, but the rosehips I’ll bring you for sure.  Give me the spring and I’ll let you have the autumn, maybe even late summer.  Just for today turn away your gaze, and starting tomorrow you’ll be able to look at me all you like.”  “I’m coming now, I’m coming right away!” the child cries up to his mother when she calls him in, and he finishes playing his game, thinking that surely obedience includes a certain period of grace – a human margin.  Who could all at once make a clean break with his life?  Why, God, do you want to jump steps in my case?  You want the whole thing all at once:  one’s whole heart, whole soul, whole mind – all my strength…

Excerpt from:  Abandonment to Divine Providence (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

“It is true that a canvas simply and blindly offered to the brush feels at each moment only the stroke of the brush.  It is the same with a lump of stone.  Each blow from the hammering of the sculptor’s chisel makes it feel – if it could – as if it were being destroyed.  As blow after blow descends, the stone knows nothing of how the sculptor is shaping it.  All it feels is a chisel chopping away at it, cutting it and mutilating it.  For example, let’s take a piece of stone destined to be carved into a crucifix or a statue.  We might ask it:  What do you think is happening to you?  And it might answer:  Don’t ask me.  All I know is that I must stay immovable in the hands of the sculptor, and I must love him and endure all he inflicts on me to produce the figure he has in mind.  He knows how to do it.  As for me, I have no idea what he is doing, nor do I know what he will make of me.  But what I do know is that his work is the best possible.  It is perfect.  I welcome each blow of his chisel as the best thing that could happen to me, although, if I’m to be truthful, I feel that every one of these blows is ruining me, destroying me and disfiguring me.  But I remain unconcerned.  I concentrate on the present moment, think only of my duty, and suffer all that this master sculptor inflicts on me without knowing his purpose or fretting about it.”

What I am interested in, and desire to share, is anything that can bring the truth and the teachings of Catholicism into better focus for people.  The media can label Eckhart Tolle any way they please, but there is no question in my mind that he is a mystic.  One of my pet peeves (well, deep frustrations, actually) is that, because the secular media and also many “spiritual practitioners” themselves have no knowledge of our Catholic contemplative/mystical tradition, they have no foundation, no basis, no frame of reference in which so-called “new” knowledge and practices can be properly placed.  Ultimately, everything and everyone gets slotted into ”New Age”.  It would be laughable if it weren’t so very sad.

Quite frankly, and I am not ashamed to admit it, I had never heard of Eckhart Tolle before I accidently came across some sound clips, which prompted me to check for YouTubes.  I had no idea he was even popular let alone famous, and I had no idea he was being touted by the celebrities as the “new” spiritual guru, because I don’t watch television and rarely frequent anything other than Catholic bookstores.  I simply recognized him as a mystic; I recognized the Catholic contemplative/mystical teachings within his message, and realized he was someone I could “use”.  I have no qualms about using a teacher from any religious tradition or even no religious tradition if I can do so to elucidate our Catholic faith.  If celebrities are embracing Tolle, so be it; perhaps it is an indication that their spirits are crying out for a deeper relationship with the Divine.  Perhaps, through Tolle, they may experience a conversion of heart, experience metanoia; perhaps even find their way to Christ our Lord.  I cannot even say that I would embrace Tolle’s message in its entirety, because I do not know it in its entirety.  What I have used on my blog I have used for a specific purpose.

I did a bit of googling late last night, afraid that perhaps I had gone offtrack, been deceived, and was perhaps leading others to be deceived.   Many places I looked, Tolle popped up with the label “New Age”.  But not everywhere.  For instance, we can find Eckhart Tolle’s, “The Power of Now”, listed on the Basilian Fathers’ website as Recommended Reading.  They write:

“This book is quite similar in concept to “Practicing the Presence of God” ; however, it does approach our ability to live in the “now” using a more intellectual and scientific method.  It could best be summed up like this:  Start with Brother Lawrence for the spiritual understanding, then turn to Tolle for the “how”.”

The Redemptorists also list Eckhart Tolle’s, “A New Earth”, on their website under Recommended Reading.

I opened my previous post with quotations from The Cloud of Unknowing and from Abandonment to Divine Providence.  I did not use these Catholic writings in order to validate Eckhart Tolle.  I used Eckhart Tolle, because he is here and now and available on YouTube, to help explain our own Catholic contemplative/mystical teachings.

“For at each moment our hearts are at peace in God and completely abandoned to all creation.  Therefore each of these moments contains all things.”  (Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

The Momentum of “No”  (Eckhart Tolle)

The direct link to YouTube for this video is Here .