Spirit Journal – March 2019

I was drawn to the silence and the precision of its four guidelines. You see, 20-30 minutes of silence is the heart of the prayer. You are probably familiar with the guidelines that we use: #1—Choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. This was foreign to my way of thinking of prayer or meditation. #2: Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within. #3—When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word. #4—At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

Father Thomas Keating, a Cistercian monk and one of the founders of Centering Prayer movement, wrote: “Intention is a movement of the will toward the spiritual level of our being.” Ok, I say to myself, I’ll let go of my will and go deeper. I’m all in. And to this day, before I move into silence, I read the guidelines slowly with an open heart. My intention is a willingness to detach from my thoughts. consenting to God’s Presence. The prayer is practice in letting go that extends to everyday life.

In my everyday life, I’m detaching from what I think is best for others, releasing judgments and expectations. It’s a shift from what I know is best for you, to humbly asking God to take over. Thy will be done. This Letting Go process includes surrendering my deepest desires, a most painful surrender. A growing up in God, a painful growing up. Need I say more?

I believe in the healing power of love and I’ll come to a close with a dream. I had been thinking about writing this reflection when, on the night of the lunar eclipse, I had a dream. In the dream it was evening and I was standing on the edge of a pool, patiently waiting. Didn’t know what I was waiting for. Waiting…then a young woman appeared dancing in the water. She gracefully swirled around and looked at me, her hair long and flowing, and I felt deep love for her. The vibration of love was so strong it woke me up. I stayed breathing in the tenderness of the experience, not wanting the moments to end. I thought should I get up and write this down . . . no, I’ll never forget this. The love was profound.

Jesus calls us to Love. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus adds, “do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28) Oh I often fail. I believe that is expected. And in my commitment to the process I get back up. Centering Prayer helps keep my intention pure. Yes to Life! 

One day I was fine.  I went to bed thinking it had been an ordinary day and the next day would be just as ordinary.  But then I was awakened, in the middle of the night, by excruciating pain.  I spent the rest of the night, when I wasn’t in the bathroom with the dry heaves, crawling around on my living room floor. Less than 24 hours later, I was on the operating table, having my gallbladder removed.  And because of complications in my condition, what was routinely a one-hour surgery became a four-hour ordeal.

I spent the next five weeks flat on my back.  Each morning I would feel a surge of energy the limits of which I would test, only to be rudely pulled back to bed, the reality of my essential weakness shattering my illusion of a sudden recovery.  The world went on without me, while I lay there pondering the frailty of the human frame.  It was at least six months before I was back to full strength.

Lying in that bed the livelong day, I finally learned how to pray…or at least I thought I did.  (Since then, I’ve “finally” learned how to pray many times over!)  That’s when I gained a deep appreciation for Psalm 90, the lament about the brevity of life which I mentioned earlier.  As you may recollect, he compares the brevity of life to that of grass:

You turn people back to dust…

    they are like the new grass of the morning:
⁶ In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered. (vss.3a, 5-6)

Now there’s someone who knew how to pray!  And what, having bemoaned the brevity of life, was his plea?

Teach us to number our days

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Notice he doesn’t say years.  No birthday parties here!  No champagne!  Just an impassioned plea to know how to keep a watch on how we live our days.  And for what purpose?  To gain a heart of wisdom!

Who, though, would think the ability to monitor something as commonplace as the day would yield something as monumental as the acquisition of wisdom at the center of one’s being?

For one thing, someone with humility.  As another psalmist says it, “My heart is not haughty.  I do not concern myself with too great things” (Ps. 130:1).   To number our years would be too much to handle.  The cares of one day’s breadth are enough for anyone.  At least that’s the teaching Christ offers: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  (Matthew 6:34)    We find similar advice in the book of Proverbs:

Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.  27:1

Remember the parable about the rich man who had to build new barns to house all his grain?  He congratulates himself for having laid up “plenty of grain for years”… only to then die that night?[3]

That any given day’s troubles are enough for us to handle is accentuated by Schopenhauer’s poetic description of the day as a “little life.”  In his own words:

            Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh

            morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.[4]

A similar sentiment is expressed more expansively in this ancient poem (written in Sanskrit) which draws particular attention to the dawn:

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day! For it is Life,
The very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Varieties
And Realities of your Existence;
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
But Today well lived
Makes every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn.

Notice what a different attitude is suggested here than the one we so easily fall into (mostly out of ingratitude, I suspect).   Rather than approaching what we euphemistically call the “daily grind” as something to be endured, we are encouraged to treat it as something like a work of art—the “well lived” day.  This, then, must be the ultimate form of performance art—to live any given day well!

But I’ve saved my biggest defense for last.  Want to know who else keeps attention focused on crafting a single day?   The One who created the day itself!

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3-4)

Now I don’t want to get into a squabble about whether these were 24-hour days or not.  Nor do I want to start a debate about evolution vs. creationism.  Even if the Genesis account of Creation is to be understood metaphorically, the fact is that the measure of the “day” is one of the first formations of Creation itself.  From then onward, it becomes the measure by which all of creation comes into existence.  Even the Creator of everything, then, seems to agree that any given day’s labor is plenty to be the focus of concern!

“Okay…so what’s on the agenda for today?    Oh yeah, today we make plants.  Is this going to be a good day or what?!?”

 Upping the Ante

Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile to up the ante on the game I’ve introduced, especially if we are to aspire to achieve “Today well spent.”  What if we were to ask not just “what’s the best time of day to do anything,” but what’s the best time of day to do something of large consequence?  Consider, for instance, the mercy of God.  What’s the best time of day to experience God’s mercy? 

Now I know the first response is likely to be “anytime you need it!”  But, while this is certainly true, it sidesteps the possibility that, all things being equal, there is a time of day that is particularly well-suited for this experience.  In other words, remembering that our focus is on “organic time” (rather than artificially determined clock-time), is there a time of day that is, in itself, the manifestation of God’s mercy in a particularly intense way, a thin spot in the temporal round where the action is most vividly revealed?  If there is such a time, then this surely must be the best time to make oneself available to it.

But notice that I’ve not only intensified the question—that is, upped the ante–but also focused it more keenly.   When we were talking about filling one’s car with gas and scheduling colonoscopies, we were focusing as much on the social world as upon the temporal tenor of the day.  But now we are focusing more pointedly on time itself.  And I am suggesting that different phases of the day may have particular qualities, qualities we can perceive and, hence, direct our attention to at any given moment.

The “noonday demon” is one well-known example, though it is an example of a quality one wants to avoid!   The “noonday demon” is a personification of acedia, a listlessness to which solitary workers are particularly prone.  This demon is thought to be active at noontime—metaphorically, then, in the middle of anything—causing restlessness, boredom, and an inability to stay focused on one’s project.  Monastics were the first to recognize this demon, deriving their inspiration from a phrase found in Psalm 91:6: (You shall not fear…) ”the plague that ravages at noon.”

In using the term “qualities” to describe this inner awareness of time, I am referring to how Kabir Helminski describes this term in The Knowing Heart.  “According to the understanding of Sufism,” he writes:

Reality possess qualities or attributes.  All of material existence manifests these qualities, but the qualities exist prior to their manifestation in material forms.  Form manifests the qualities of an invisible dimension, an ‘inner world.’  A cosmic creativity is overflowing with these qualities eventually manifest as the world of material form. [5]

Of course, though,  I have implied, with my reference to the noonday devil, that there are also qualities of the “inner world” that one wants to avoid. [6]   But if you have ever befriended a tree—though, in my experience, it has always been the other way around…the tree befriending me—you have experienced the positive qualities of that tree.  It is what Gerard Manley Hopkins described as “inscapes,” the inner and unique sense of things.  And the story of The Little Prince is a story about this qualitative universe.

The problem with the qualitative dimension of reality, though, is that it cannot be perceived by means of physical perception alone.  Only inner perception is fine enough to perceive this higher order realm of a qualitative universe.  To perceive this inner aspect of reality, one needs to engage the heart, the organ of inner perception.

But it is not as if this inner reality is separate from the physical realm!  No more can this be the case than can a metaphor be separated from its physical referent.  The lover who says, “my love is like a red, red rose” could not say “My love is like a dandelion” and expect to avoid a slap in the face!   The beloved is only compared to a red rose because the physical characteristics of the rose, including its redness, matter.

The first question, then, is this:  What time of day possesses the most intense quality of God’s mercy?  If we find an answer to this question, we will obviously then know the best time of day to make ourselves available to experiencing it.

But what a complex question this is!  Where are we to find a roadmap to navigate a world in which the physical realm is of utmost importance, but is important not only for its own sake, but also because it is a reflective manifestation of another world, a world only perceived by the perceptive heart?  If you’ve ever tried to hang wallpaper, you know that the physical world is complex enough as is.  And now we’ve got to add a new dimension???  Ever try to hang 3-dimensional wallpaper?

I suggest there IS a roadmap for this journey, and a very good one at that!  It has been summarized for us in a concentrated form more compact than any GPS device!  It is the principle of “Hermetic correspondence” and has been neatly summarized in a single sentence recorded in the Emerald Tablet:

That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that

which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish

the miracles of the One Thing.

Instructively, and as a confirmation of its veracity, this same principle is expressed both in the Wisdom of Solomon and in Romans.

For she (Sophia) is a reflection of the eternal light,

untarnished mirror of God’s active power,

and image of his goodness.^[7]

                                              Wisdom of Solomon 7:26 (NAB)

Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes

of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood

and perceived in what he has made.

                                                                         Romans 1:20a (NAB)

The created order is a manifestation of the qualities of the Creator.  According to the Hermetic principle of correspondences, one becomes capable of perceiving these qualities by means of analogy.

Consider, then, the day itself.  What divine quality is reflected in the measure of the day?  While we won’t travel far down this road in this meditation, etymology gives us a hint about the direction we might search.  Several of the roots from which ‘day’ is derived mean “to burn.”  This is understandable, given the rising of the sun which shines as it burns, thus creating daylight.   But the meaning of this warmth shifts in a direction that reveals the quality of the inner world when we consider one root from classical Latin, fovere,[8]  which means “heat.”  Interestingly, though, fovere is an inflection of foveo.[9]   And foveo, is a verb with these possible meanings:

• “ I warm, keep warm, incubate”
• “I nurture, cherish, foster.”
• “I support, encourage, comfort, assist.” [10]

What, then, might the metaphorical meaning of the day, especially as a measure of creational activity, mean?  What inner qualities does the measure of a day manifest?  Perhaps the form of the day is the measure of God’s nurturance of creation, a temporal container for nurturing life.  To the extent this is accurate, the day is the physical manifestation of divine nurturing love, a specified period in which life is incubated.  The boundedness of it, then, is a protective measure, a containment for holding that which is fragile and, thus, needs enclosure.

If you have ever gone a day or two without sleep, you know what a safeguard the boundedness of the day is, not just for your physical well-being, but also for your sanity!  That daytime is followed by a period of rest, then, marks out the two phases that are necessary for nurturing life.

*    *     *

It might be helpful, at this point, to summarize what we’ve discovered, thus far, in this meditation on time.   We have demonstrated the importance of working with, rather than fighting against the temporal constraints of our lives,  We’ve also highlighted the importance of paying attention to the seemingly humble measure of the day as an organic measure of time.   And I’ve introduced a question that can enable the reader to experiment with the experience of discovering the “proper time” for any given activity.  The final task, then, is to apply these principles to an issue of substantial importance—our spiritual well-being.  And so, I have offered this question: “What’s the best time of day to experience God’s mercy?”

I’ll address this question in the final installment, next month.  Meanwhile, though, what ‘s your response?  Just as importantly, why?

[1] Of course, in my heart of hearts, I’m going to say it is.  As I said earlier, the old adage to “pay attention to the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves” could just as wisely be applied to how we “spend” the pennies of our time.

[2] Gratitude for simple (that is, essential) things is, for most of us, hard won.

[3] Luke 12:16-20  Working in architectural restoration, I’ve seen enough rich people build their “dream home,” only to die within a year of completion, that I have vowed never to build my dream home!

[4] Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, T. B. Saunders, trans., § 13

No wonder, then, that one of the most popular soap operas of yesteryear—and, surprisingly, it is still running– was named “Days of Our Lives.”  The opening sequence shows sand trickling through the throat of an hourglass against the backdrop of a half-clouded day while the trademark voice intones: “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives.”   As melodramatic as it is—it’s  a soap opera, after all—it hints at this reality that each day is a lifetime all its own.

[5] Helminski, Kabir.  The Knowing Heart:  A Sufi Path of Transformation.  Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1999.  p. 72

[6] I’m not sure the Sufis would say there are negative qualities—probably not.  But I’m an imperfect thinker and am going to have to let it stand as written…at least for now.

[7] Wisdom of Solomon 7:26

[8] Oxford English Dictionary

[9]  :  https://www.wordsense.eu/fovere/)

[10] “Day” Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/day and “Foveo” Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foveo#Latin

©Jeff Ediger 2019