Category Archives: Spiritual Journey

La Búsqueda de La Felicidad

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El viaje espiritual… lo libera a uno de las limitaciones de buscar la felicidad en actividades egocéntricas. También abre todo el ser a las posibilidades que eran desconocidas…. Desde esta perspectiva, es fácil negociar todo el viaje espiritual porque todo lo que tienes que hacer es aceptarlo. Ya está sucediendo. Nos ha sido comunicado. Ha sido puesto en nuestras manos. Ha sido puesto en nuestras bocas. Ha sido derramado en nuestros corazones por el Espíritu Santo. ¿Estamos dispuestos a dejar que Dios nos ame con tanta gratuidad inmerecida?”
– Thomas Keating, video de hoy: “’La búsqueda de la felicidad,” Heartfulness: Transformación en Cristo

La fe juega un papel importante en nuestro camino, pero no una fe que resuelva todas las cuestiones; juega un papel mucho más dramático. Thomas Merton le escribió una vez a su amiga Dorothy Day: “Deberíamos temer por nuestra perseverancia porque hay un gran agujero en nosotros, un abismo, y tenemos que caer al vacío, pero el Señor nos atrapará. … El Señor nos alcanzará. Él te atrapará sin falta y te llevará a su Corazón” (El terreno oculto del amor).

Esta es la fe. Y la fe impulsa al buscador a emprender el viaje. Y la sostiene.

https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/es/course/2-the-pursuit-of-happiness/

It is called Transformation

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Contemplative sitting alone or with others—silence and the breath–invite us to rest in that very reality, sinking deeply into it until we come out on the other side of it.  “Where is that?” you might be asking.  A state of mind and heart which, believe it or not, rests, or even glories, in the reality of being simply human, knowing that each of us and all of us–the Universe itself–are held in the benevolent embrace of Divine Love. This love, actually experienced in deep contemplative silence, releases in the unconscious what is held in bondage, little by little, making new freedom possible.  We come to see what we thought was un-seeable.  We welcome that which we never knew.  It’s called transformation and it is the kiss of the Divine.

Nancy Sylvester, IHM Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue. June 6, 2019

The Spiritual Journey Series: Part II, Model of the Human Condition, online video

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The Spiritual Journey Series: Part II, Model of the Human Condition, online video

– Model of the Human Condition

Contemplative Outreach YouTube channel here.

Set includes:

  The Human Condition: The Evolutionary Model
  Formation of the Homemade Self: The Existential Model
  The Pre-Rational Energy Centers
  Frustrations caused by the Emotional Programs
  Dismantling the Emotional Programs
  The False Self in Action

This is part two of the “The Spiritual Journey” video series.

The Human Condition- A Review

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What I do, I do not understand.
For I do not do what I want,
but I do what I hate.
— Romans 7: 15

In Invitation to Love, Fr. Thomas says the primary goal of this teaching on the human condition is “practical: to provide a solid conceptual background for the practice of contemplative prayer and the spiritual journey for our time. We are called to this journey not just for our own personal growth, but also for the sake of the whole human community.”

The Evolutionary Model

The human condition can be presented as an evolutionary process unfolding from one level of consciousness to the next. Developmental psychology points to a similar process in the growth of each human being from infancy to the age of reason. Each level of consciousness is incorporated into the next level and, ideally, all that is good on one level is integrated into the next. However, it is also possible to become arrested at one level. The purpose of the spiritual journey is to heal the wounds of a lifetime that occurred on all levels.

The circumstances of our lives — the unexpected, the trials, the crises, our relationships — begin to uncover where we are in relation to God, ourselves, and others. We begin to look at our false self, our hidden motivations, and the influences that limit our freedom and potential. We remember that this is a healing journey, a journey of transformation.

The Existential Model

Fr. Thomas uses anthropology, biology, neuroscience, and developmental psychology to explain how each person recapitulates the evolution of the human species in their individual development from infancy to adulthood. As we move from one stage of development to the next, depending on whether or not our needs were met (or we perceive our needs were met), we either integrate these lower levels of consciousness into our ongoing development or we use our higher brain powers (rational consciousness) to get our unconscious needs met.

The Energy Centers — our needs for security and survival, esteem and affection, and power and control — are completely normal when we are in the early childhood stages of development. In fact, they are also normal for us as adults. The problem is when our preferences for meeting these needs turn into demands and expectations for the people, events, and circumstances in our lives. The constant frustration of unmet needs and expectations forms our false-self system.

The Philosophical Model

The Philosophical Model develops our understanding of the human faculties — the senses, the intellect, and the will, and how each one functions according to its nature. Like the Evolutionary Model, this model is the ideal of how our powers and faculties work, while the Existential Model is the way human life is actually experienced.

In addition to the active intellect which gives us the ability to reason, we have a passive or intuitive intellect which perceives truth directly without the mediation of reason. This is the seat of our will to God, or our desire to seek that which can only be filled by God. The consistent practice of Centering Prayer helps us to “close the door” (Matthew. 6:6) on all our faculties except our intuitive level, which has the potential to lead us to divine union, the awareness of the oneness of the human family and the oneness with all reality.

The Christian contemplative journey can restore the faculties to their proper place; resting in God allows the intuitive faculties to function at the deepest level, where we relate to God beyond thoughts, feelings, and particular acts. With the emotions at rest we no longer resist the movement of the Spirit. We begin to experience God in everything and everyone, in all of creation, which is another way of saying we are now living the contemplative dimension of the Gospel.

From:The Spiritual Journey
Formation on the Contemplative Life
Spiituality and Practice with Contemplative Outreach.
Session 41

The Beatitudes

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Fr. Thomas introduces us to the antidote to our programs for happiness — the Beatitudes. He says, “The beatitudes are the quintessence of the teaching of Jesus. They represent his comprehensive approach to happiness.”

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
— Matthew 5:3-12

The Beatitudes simply mean: “Oh, how happy you would be, if ….” That’s what “beatitude” really means. In other words, Jesus is saying, so to speak, “You folks don’t know what true happiness is. What you think is happiness is misery. If you’d like to know what it is, let me tell you!” “Oh, how happy you would be, if you are poor in spirit, then you would have the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, true happiness is to forget about security, to be free of it, to put your trust in God. And, “Oh how happy are the poor who don’t have all these symbols, like millstones around their necks, that prevent them from experiencing the joy and the freedom of trusting in God to protect them, to provide for them, to nurture them. They have perfect happiness.”

The next one: “Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be comforted.” Now whenever we let go of something we love—good, bad, or indifferent—there’s a period of mourning. There’s a hole in our heart for a while. But if we accept that pain of loss, then it heals in such a way that we either enter into a new relationship with what we lost that is better than the one we had; or we learn how to live without something that was actually harmful, that was really a straitjacket, that was really phony happiness.

The third Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek;” that is, those who don’t want to have power over other people, who couldn’t care less if they are insulted or mistreated because they know that that’s not their problem. That’s the problem the other guy has who is treating them that way. The meek are those who can put up with insults and find happiness in the freedom from wanting to control or to have power over people.

The other Beatitudes correspond to the higher stages of consciousness, all the way up to divine union and the Beatitude of the peacemakers. The Beatitude of the merciful and the Beatitude of hungering and thirsting for justice is addressed to the Mental Egoic level of consciousness, to full personhood and its corresponding acceptance of our own personal response to Christ, to life, and to the needs of others.

The Gospel, then, is a message that challenges our programs for happiness head on and invites us to change them. If we hear that message and follow it, this is represented as wisdom. If we don’t, then we have to rely on the tragedies of life to turn us around and finally convince us, as we wind up on the bar room floor or some other place, that our program for happiness was not so hot after all. Why wait until you have to be clobbered by life before getting this message? It’s as obvious as the nose on your face that this can’t possibly work. Not only that—it is destroying our relationships with other people. It’s making us miserable and hindering the good that we could be doing other people, because as long as we’re wrapped up in obtaining the happiness that these emotional energy centers are seeking, you can’t even hear what other people are saying, because their melodrama has to be filtered by yours. And so, they tell you something …your emotions start reacting and pretty soon you’re more involved in their melodrama than they are, maybe; I don’t know how it goes. But anyway, we don’t hear the clear call for help that somebody has when we don’t have the freedom from our own emotional selfish programs. To live out of these centers is to opt out of God’s process of human development into higher states of faith, love and consciousness.

Material from Spirituality and Practice
Session 21: Oh, How Happy you will Be…
The Spiritual Journey Formation in the Contemplative Christian Life with Contemplative Outreach.

The Spiritual Journey Formation in the Contemplative Christian Life “The Human Condition: The Pre-Rational Energy Centers, Part 1” Excerpted from The Spiritual Journey Part 2, The Human Condition Fr. Thomas Keating

Energy Centers

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“A whole program of self-centered concerns has been built up around our instinctual needs and have become energy centers — sources of motivation around which our emotions, thoughts, behavior patterns circulate like planets around the sun. Whether consciously or unconsciously, these programs for happiness influence our view of the world and our relationship with God, nature, other people, and ourselves. This is the situation that Jesus went into the desert to heal.”
— Thomas Keating, Journey to the Center

Holding His hand, I am not in charge anymore.

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Today’s gospel (Mark 1:29-39) was about how Jesus grasped the hand of Simon’s mother-in-law who was sick with a fever. He helped her up and the fever left her and she waited on them. My mind just focuses in this piece of the gospel because this is the way how I started my spiritual journey jumping to the unknowing with my total trust that He will take my hand and guide me. I remember that I bought a bible and used the parish bulletin to guide me with the daily readings. This strategy forces me to know my parish and get involved and to be faithful to the daily readings. Little by little, I began to be attracted to silent. I was exposed to a Centering Prayer group few years later and realized that I was praying in similar way intuitively. My participation in this group began and I learn about this prayer more formally. The path has been slow because changes are slow. Every time I reach a dead end in my way, I usually got a little anxious until I remember that I am not in charge that He is guiding me. With time, the image of holding His hand has been with deeper trust and confidence. The daily practice of Centering Prayer has giving me the way to develop a deeper relationship with God and a total confidence that He is taking my hand always guiding me wherever He wants I need to go.

Centering Prayer and Embodied Contemplative Practices

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Centering Prayer and Embodied Contemplative Practices – My experience

The article Contemplative Movement on the January 2018 of Contemplative Outreach Ltd. bulletin by Robin Gates, stirred in my mind so many experiences that I observed after few years of my Centering Prayer Practice. I noticed that my body began asking for movement as never before during reading, working on the computer, attending conferences, etc. My body always was asking me to move even in a small way. I did not know what was happening so I decided to have a standing working station, and began doing more physical exercises. When I found a direct correlation of my Centering Prayer Practice, and the growth of my spiritual awareness with all these changes, I began searching for explanations. Finding scientific research papers supporting the cultivation of interoceptive, proprioceptive and kinesthetic awareness at the core of movement-based contemplative practices such as Yoga, Qigong and Tai Chi, my interest to add some of this kind of practices began in order to find a better balance in my daily life.

I began practicing yoga and then I decided to understand this discipline in a deeper form after I found a lot of benefits in my life. I began with yoga studies and yoga training in the Satyananda tradition (Bihar Yoga) where I have been exposed to yoga philosophy and yoga psychology too. My mind opened a 180 degree radio after this studies and training, given me the discipline and strength necessary to keep going forward in my Centering Prayer practice as transformative tool in the Christian Contemplative Heritage.

Movement-based embodied contemplative practices: definitions and paradigms. Front. Hum. Neurosci., 14 April 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00205.

Editorial: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Movement-Based Embodied Contemplative Practices. Front. Hum. Neurosci., 26 April 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00169

Satyananda Yoga/Bihar Yoga http://www.biharyoga.net/yoga-vision/satyananda-yoga/

A Meditation on Kenosis

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I found this meditation at the end of the book title Humility Matters by Mary Margaret Funk (2005).In this meditation, I discover the words I was searching for so long in my Christian tradition.

kenosis-meditation_hm kenosis-meditation-1 kenosis-meditation-2 kenosis-meditation-3

Humility

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I just finished  reading a book title Humility Matters by Mary Margaret Funk (2005) and I am trying to make a summary of my reading so it will help me to integrate its content.(p.180-185)

 

We Christians follow the way by imitating Christ who revealed to us how to live our human lives as we return to God.

Jesus of Nazareth stated, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him” (Jn 14:6-7)

In our tradition,

– We renounce all  that is not contributing to the construction of the reign of God here and now.

– We take on the spiritual journey, living our life from our depths and in tune with our motivations, desires and passions. “We renounce the thoughts that, when unchecked lead us down the slope toward our afflictions: the classic afflictive thoughts of food, sex, things, anger, dejection, acedia, vainglory and pride.”

– We renounce our self-made thoughts of God, therefore we can know God as God is.

– We renounce the thoughts of our self, accepting the change from self centeredness to sacrifice  on behalf others.

Suddenly develop what we call humility by replacing attachment to ignorance, illusion and greed. We begin to give importance to creation and celebrate life with our spiritual senses, awake and get involved in the Mystery. We begin to integrate our body, mind and soul into a single being. (Purity of Heart)

“To become humble is to embrace the human condition as it is and yet also to renounce attachments to any self-made illusions about that human condition.So comprehensive is this teaching that we may say that humility is for a Christian what enlightenment is for a Buddhist, realization for a Hindu, sincerity for a Confucian, righteousness for a Jew, surrender for a Muslim, and annihilation for a Sufi. Through the four renunciations, we come to purity of heart: the face of humility.”