Contemplative Haven

“If no one told me who I was, who would I be? Quietly meditate on this by spending some time in the spaciousness of not knowing. Imagine that your subconscious mind is nonexistent and there is no storage receptacle for excuses during your life. There’s just an open and inviting clear space inside of you [...]

Yes, it’s what I want.  We’ve talked here often of contemplative prayer and its peeling away the layers of the false self.  We’ve talked of Holy Detachment.  Along with the question I placed in the previous post, another line from the video spoke to me:  “…nothing should ever be placed in such a way that [...]

Ikebana, with Alexandra Shenpen.

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

The following video is a discussion between Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O., and Ken Wilbur, of Integral Institute, on aspects of contemplation and contemplative prayer, particularly in terms of the false self and spiritual stages.  Note, at approximately 6 minutes into the video, the little gasps and murmurs from the audience as they recognize the truth of what Father Keating has just said:  “And [...]

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 [...]

I have absolutely no interest in pop psychology, nor the latest “gurus” being touted by the media.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen even a segment of Oprah’s show, for instance.
What I am interested in, and desire to share, is anything that can bring the truth and the teachings of [...]

“Therefore, be attentive to time and the way you spend it. Nothing is more precious…God, the master of time, never gives the future. He gives only the present, moment by moment, for this is the law of the created order, and God will not contradict himself in his creation.”  (The Cloud of Unknowing, Anonymous)
“For at [...]

Quelque chose pour un ami qui n’a pas dix minutes.  En tout cas…
A sound clip from Eckhart Tolle’s, “Through the Open Door to the Vastness of Your True Being.”
This, and my prayers.

Mystical Landscape (Johannes Tanner)

“Contemplation presupposes a dying to self: a dying to one’s own will and to all of the gifts of understanding and seeing bestowed on man. To desire to exist, not in the I, but in the Thou; without restriction, without a measuring of distance, without a feeling of one’s own unworthiness, and [...]

Wall Painting from Pompeii
Just who exactly is this person beside me?  Any of us who are, or have been married, may have asked ourselves this question from time to time.  Our spouses have undoubtedly wondered the same thing.
I once heard a standup comic say that men were really silly, because they married a woman thinking she [...]