chris erdman

Thanks, Steve. I ought to take a look at Eliot. You’ve mentioned this poem a few times in the past.

Mitali! A delight to hear from you and to reconnect . . . and to enjoy a stroll through your website.

Your question . . .

In the West (and Westernized parts of the world), contemplative practices are in vogue. Stressed Western people are looking to contemplative practices for relief and enlightenment. These seekers practice yoga and read Tolle (not bad things). They’re a broadly white and now increasingly disaffected Protestant group. And there are large numbers of the affluent “spiritual but not religious” tribe. Non-whites are increasing among them as affluence shifts away from white America. They’re feeling the bankruptcy of the Modern period. It gave them ideas, but no real inner life. And so the affluent, who can afford therapists and chic conferences and retreats like the one you attended, are also seeking a recovery of the contemplative life that sustained much of the world’s cultures for millennia.

So, we’re witnessing the awakening of the West and Westernized to the perennial Wisdom traditions. The chief practice in those traditions–whether those nurtured by the Buddha, Plato, Rumi, native shamans, the sages of Israel, and of course, Jesus—was the practice of contemplation, the inner eye, the life of prayer.

For us Christians, this means a recovery of the root and center of our spiritual tradition—too long neglected but keep alive by our monks and mystics (who, incidentally, have most often been poor and frequently uneducated by societal standards).

Take St. Anthony the Egyptian as a model of the poor, relatively uneducated, and often oppressed, who’s life inspired the Christian monastic impulse that has probably been solely responsible for the durability of the Christian faith in the world. For without the monks and their practices, often hidden from the world, we may well not have a Church today.

Okay, this is getting longer than I’d intended. But your question is of vital importance.

Contemplation is no luxury for the rich and powerful—even though Providence is now awakening this tribe to the spiritual life they’ve too long ignored (and who we Christian clergy have largely failed to provide with the spiritual nurture they need).

Contemplation first flourished among those who lived the simple life—a life lived near the earth, aware of the cycle of the days and seasons, and who looked to God in all things (Celtic Christianity is an example of this in the West).

But these poor and uneducated have not had the luxury of writing books. Which is one reason it may appear that contemplation is a luxury of the affluent. They’ve practiced the contemplative life, centering their hearts in Christ while they pull the plow, calling upon the Holy Spirit to bless the hearth, the field, the womb, yielding their lives to the Father when their bodies fail and their loved ones die too young from war or disease.

That said, the monks have written. And some laypersons as well. And we have their testimony, though it’s not always easy to find (helping people find them and learn from them is my chief aim on this site).

As for resources:

1. The Way of the Pilgrim/The Pilgrim Continues His Way. A nineteen century exploration of the Jesus Prayer by an anonymous layperson who seeks to inspire the contemplative practice among Russian peasants.

2. The Wisdom of the Desert. A collection of wisdom sayings from the poor saints of early Egypt. Edited by Thomas Merton.

3. And for a non-Western, Indian exploration of the contemplative life, see Yoga and the Jesus Prayer Tradition: An Experiment of Faith, by Thomas Matus.

4. There’s also the little travelogue by the 6th century monk, John Moschos, whose collection of stories and anecdotes from his travels in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor reveal a world seldom seen by modern people. A people alert to the presence of God and made so because of their spiritual practices. It’s called, The Spiritual Meadow.

These are the ones that come immediately to mind. They’re mainly old. But that means they’re classics and have nourished saints throughout the ages. If you’re interested in carving out or enhancing a spiritual life for yourself as you live between cultures these ought to give you a good start.

I’ll post this response in my main blog and provide links to the books there.

Thanks for the reconnection!

Warmly,

Chris

P.S. greet Rob for me and squeeze those boys.

Mitali, I agree. This is why the world church must be included. Or rather, that we ought not to be so myopic and instead listen to the world church, not only presently, but historically.

The movement isn’t new. It’s been growing since the earliest times, and as I’ve said, largely among the non-affluent. Though the affluent have often been drawn in…case in point: 14th century English spiritual teacher, Walter Hilton and his letter to a Christian nobleman seeking the spiritual path in his “The Mixed Life.”

Your passion and challenge for us to actively seek out those different from ourselves is essential. I find that the affluent folks for whom enlightenment is rather chic benefit enormously from the earthy language of the women and men who aren’t going to conferences and retreats and reading books.

I learned this through a homeless man who attached himself to our church staff last year for much of the winter. Tracy was a real contemplative but didn’t use the hip language. He lived it. A street mystic, in whose eyes I saw the holy. He was killed in an auto accident last month. It broke our hearts. He was as near to a saint as most of us have known. Actually, he was a saint. Maybe an angel.