Daniel
05-19-2009, 08:07 AM
Spiritual practice has been talked about on other threads at various times and by various parties, but I don't believe we've devoted a single thread to te topic. With that in mind, I would like to share two practices that have been helpful to me. Both are 'heart' practices.
Please add your own.
by Pema Chodron from When Things Fall Apart:Heart Advice for Difficult Times
The Practice of Tonglen
Each of us has a "soft spot": the place in our experience where we feel vulnerable and tender. This soft spot is inherent in appreciation and love, and it is equally inherent in pain.
Often, when we feel that soft spot, it's quickly followed by a feeling of fear and an involuntary, habitual tendency to close down. This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and cling to pleasure. In practice, however, covering up the soft spot means shutting down against out life experience. Then we tend to narrow down into a solid feeling of self against other.
One very powerful and effective way to work with tendency to push away pain and hold onto pleasure is the practice of tonglen. Tonglen is a Tibetan word that literally means "sending and taking." The practice originated in India and came to Tibet in the eleventh century. In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness; anything that encourages relaxation and openness.
In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal stuckness happens to be at that moment. At that point, you can change the focus and do tonglen for yourself , and for millions of others just like you, at that very moment, who are feeling exactly the same misery.
I particularly like to encourage tonglen, on the spot. For example, you're walking down the street and you see the pain of another human being. On-the-spot tonglen means that you just don't rush by; you actually breathe in with the wish that this person can be free of suffering, and send them out some kind of good heart or well-being. If seeing that other person's pain brings up fear or anger or confusion, which often happens, just start doing tonglen for yourself and all the other people who are stuck in the very same way.
When you do tonglen on the spot, you simply breathe in and breathe out, taking in pain and sending out spaciousness and relief. When you tonglen as a formal practice, it has four stages:
1) First,rest your mind briefly in a state of openness or stillness.
2) Second, work with texture. Breathe in a feeling of hot, dark, and heavy, and breathe out a feeling of cool, bright, and light. Breathe in and radiate completely, through all the pores of your body, until it feels synchronized with your in-and out-breathe.
3) Third, work with any painful personal situation that is real to you. Traditionally, you begin by doing tonglen for someone you care about. However, if your stuck, do the practice for your pain and simultaneously for all those just like you who feel that kind of suffering.
4) Finally, make the taking in and the sending out larger. Whether your doing tonglen for someone you love or for someone you see on television, do it for all the others in the same boat. You could even do tonglen for people you consider your enemies--those who have hurt you or others. Do tonglen for them, thinking of them as having the same confusion and stuckness as your find or yourself.
This is to say that tonglen can extend indefinitely. As you do the practice, gradually, over time, your compassion naturally expands-- and so does your realization that things are not as solid as you thought. As you do this practice, at your own pace, you'll be surprised to find yourself more and more able to be there for others, even in what seemed like impossible situations.
Centering Prayer
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6778842031221962408
This video gives straightforward instructions on how to practice for 20 minutes. You can practice along with the video, which gives new meaning to spirituality in the digital age!
Here is more on Centering Prayer
http://www.meditationspot.com/christian.html
CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
Thomas Merton was a Catholic monk who lived from 1915 to 1968. Having studied Eastern meditation techniques, he is credited with reviving an interest in Christian meditation and contemplative prayer. He wrote: "Some people may have a spontaneous gift for meditative prayer, but this is unusual. Most people have to learn how to meditate. And meditation is sometimes quite difficult. But if we bear with it and wait patiently for the time of grace, we may well discover that meditation is a joyful experience."
Speaking to fellow monks, Merton recommended silent contemplation, writing: "Contemplative prayer has to be always very simple, confined to the simplest of acts and using no words or thoughts. This prayer of the heart introduces us into deep interior silence so that we learn to experience its power. We seek the deepenst ground of our identity with God - a direct experiential grasp just like St. Augustine sought when he prayed, 'May I know you, may I know myself.'"
James Finley was a student of Merton's and is a contemporary teacher of Christian meditation. He gives detailed meditation instruction and also advises finding a contemplative community for support. He writes: "A single log in a fireplace does not burn as easily or as intensely as several logs burning together. And today, the same impetus toward contemplative community is expressing itself in a movement in which Christians are gathering in small groups to practice meditation and contemplative prayer together."
Finley also writes: "To practice meditation as an act of religious faith is to open ourselves to the endlessly reassuring realization that our very being IS the generosity of God. For God is creating us in the present moment, loving us into being, such that our very presence in the present moment is the manifested presence of God. We meditate that we might awaken to this unitive mystery in every moment of our lives." In his book, Christian Meditation, Finley offers instructions and guidance about developing a personal meditation practice. He writes: "As you settle into your own meditation practice, you will, with God's grace, settle into the method that is most natural and effective for you. In learning to grow into your own evolving meditation practice, you will continue to embody your own unforseeable journey into God."
Father Thomas Keating puts Christian meditation into spiritual and historical context in his book, Open Mind Open Heart. He writes: "The idea of laypeople pursuing the spiritual path is not something new. It just hasn't been popular in the past thousand years." But the rising popularity of Eastern religions, with their meditative traditions, has spurred interest in Christian meditation in recent years. He writes: "Contemplative prayer raises the question: Is there something we can do to prepare ourselves, instead of waiting for God to do everything? In my experience, there is. We can use Centering Prayer to calm the mind, and to cultivate interior silence." Keating provides very detailed instructions for Centering Prayer, including how to set up your own prayer group.
Books Available from Amazon
New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton ($11) guides the reader through a very personal soul searching toward the goal of contemplative spirituality and enlightment. No book in modern times so defines the modern meditative tradition.
Contemplative Prayer, by Thomas Merton ($10) written for monks and other clerics, this book is more theory and history than a guide to meditation, and yet is has been a best-seller for decades.
Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Tradition of the Gospel, by Thomas Keating ($11), remains one of the best introductions to a specifically Christian form of meditation.
The Contemplative Heart, by James Finley ($11) Finley puts contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching into a modern perspective for those who with to develop a contemporary contemplative lifestyle.
Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God, by James Finley ($14), A former monk and student of Thomas Merton, Finley teaches readers to expand (or begin) their meditation practices in concert with their faith and guides them to discover that divine moments of awakened consciousness can lead to a deeper connection with Christ.
Please add your own.
by Pema Chodron from When Things Fall Apart:Heart Advice for Difficult Times
The Practice of Tonglen
Each of us has a "soft spot": the place in our experience where we feel vulnerable and tender. This soft spot is inherent in appreciation and love, and it is equally inherent in pain.
Often, when we feel that soft spot, it's quickly followed by a feeling of fear and an involuntary, habitual tendency to close down. This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and cling to pleasure. In practice, however, covering up the soft spot means shutting down against out life experience. Then we tend to narrow down into a solid feeling of self against other.
One very powerful and effective way to work with tendency to push away pain and hold onto pleasure is the practice of tonglen. Tonglen is a Tibetan word that literally means "sending and taking." The practice originated in India and came to Tibet in the eleventh century. In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness; anything that encourages relaxation and openness.
In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal stuckness happens to be at that moment. At that point, you can change the focus and do tonglen for yourself , and for millions of others just like you, at that very moment, who are feeling exactly the same misery.
I particularly like to encourage tonglen, on the spot. For example, you're walking down the street and you see the pain of another human being. On-the-spot tonglen means that you just don't rush by; you actually breathe in with the wish that this person can be free of suffering, and send them out some kind of good heart or well-being. If seeing that other person's pain brings up fear or anger or confusion, which often happens, just start doing tonglen for yourself and all the other people who are stuck in the very same way.
When you do tonglen on the spot, you simply breathe in and breathe out, taking in pain and sending out spaciousness and relief. When you tonglen as a formal practice, it has four stages:
1) First,rest your mind briefly in a state of openness or stillness.
2) Second, work with texture. Breathe in a feeling of hot, dark, and heavy, and breathe out a feeling of cool, bright, and light. Breathe in and radiate completely, through all the pores of your body, until it feels synchronized with your in-and out-breathe.
3) Third, work with any painful personal situation that is real to you. Traditionally, you begin by doing tonglen for someone you care about. However, if your stuck, do the practice for your pain and simultaneously for all those just like you who feel that kind of suffering.
4) Finally, make the taking in and the sending out larger. Whether your doing tonglen for someone you love or for someone you see on television, do it for all the others in the same boat. You could even do tonglen for people you consider your enemies--those who have hurt you or others. Do tonglen for them, thinking of them as having the same confusion and stuckness as your find or yourself.
This is to say that tonglen can extend indefinitely. As you do the practice, gradually, over time, your compassion naturally expands-- and so does your realization that things are not as solid as you thought. As you do this practice, at your own pace, you'll be surprised to find yourself more and more able to be there for others, even in what seemed like impossible situations.
Centering Prayer
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6778842031221962408
This video gives straightforward instructions on how to practice for 20 minutes. You can practice along with the video, which gives new meaning to spirituality in the digital age!
Here is more on Centering Prayer
http://www.meditationspot.com/christian.html
CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
Thomas Merton was a Catholic monk who lived from 1915 to 1968. Having studied Eastern meditation techniques, he is credited with reviving an interest in Christian meditation and contemplative prayer. He wrote: "Some people may have a spontaneous gift for meditative prayer, but this is unusual. Most people have to learn how to meditate. And meditation is sometimes quite difficult. But if we bear with it and wait patiently for the time of grace, we may well discover that meditation is a joyful experience."
Speaking to fellow monks, Merton recommended silent contemplation, writing: "Contemplative prayer has to be always very simple, confined to the simplest of acts and using no words or thoughts. This prayer of the heart introduces us into deep interior silence so that we learn to experience its power. We seek the deepenst ground of our identity with God - a direct experiential grasp just like St. Augustine sought when he prayed, 'May I know you, may I know myself.'"
James Finley was a student of Merton's and is a contemporary teacher of Christian meditation. He gives detailed meditation instruction and also advises finding a contemplative community for support. He writes: "A single log in a fireplace does not burn as easily or as intensely as several logs burning together. And today, the same impetus toward contemplative community is expressing itself in a movement in which Christians are gathering in small groups to practice meditation and contemplative prayer together."
Finley also writes: "To practice meditation as an act of religious faith is to open ourselves to the endlessly reassuring realization that our very being IS the generosity of God. For God is creating us in the present moment, loving us into being, such that our very presence in the present moment is the manifested presence of God. We meditate that we might awaken to this unitive mystery in every moment of our lives." In his book, Christian Meditation, Finley offers instructions and guidance about developing a personal meditation practice. He writes: "As you settle into your own meditation practice, you will, with God's grace, settle into the method that is most natural and effective for you. In learning to grow into your own evolving meditation practice, you will continue to embody your own unforseeable journey into God."
Father Thomas Keating puts Christian meditation into spiritual and historical context in his book, Open Mind Open Heart. He writes: "The idea of laypeople pursuing the spiritual path is not something new. It just hasn't been popular in the past thousand years." But the rising popularity of Eastern religions, with their meditative traditions, has spurred interest in Christian meditation in recent years. He writes: "Contemplative prayer raises the question: Is there something we can do to prepare ourselves, instead of waiting for God to do everything? In my experience, there is. We can use Centering Prayer to calm the mind, and to cultivate interior silence." Keating provides very detailed instructions for Centering Prayer, including how to set up your own prayer group.
Books Available from Amazon
New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton ($11) guides the reader through a very personal soul searching toward the goal of contemplative spirituality and enlightment. No book in modern times so defines the modern meditative tradition.
Contemplative Prayer, by Thomas Merton ($10) written for monks and other clerics, this book is more theory and history than a guide to meditation, and yet is has been a best-seller for decades.
Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Tradition of the Gospel, by Thomas Keating ($11), remains one of the best introductions to a specifically Christian form of meditation.
The Contemplative Heart, by James Finley ($11) Finley puts contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching into a modern perspective for those who with to develop a contemporary contemplative lifestyle.
Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God, by James Finley ($14), A former monk and student of Thomas Merton, Finley teaches readers to expand (or begin) their meditation practices in concert with their faith and guides them to discover that divine moments of awakened consciousness can lead to a deeper connection with Christ.