April 8, 2012 in
COUNSELING, GODSTUFF with
DON’T STOP READING!!
No matter how much the word “meditation” makes you want to tune out, I encourage you to hang in there. Hang in there, even though meditation is seen by many as some esoteric practice, meant only for a) monks, nuns, and the hard-core religious; b) kooky, or touchy-feely people, both of which probably watch way too much Oprah.
Meditation, in fact, can be a critical practice in helping us to relieve much of our anxiety. Although it should not be viewed only as an anti-anxiety tool, it certainly can play a signfiicant role there. In this post I am going to attempt to explain the reason why meditation is needed, and I will do this primarily from the perspective of alleviating anxiety.
I have established in previous posts that the root of anxiety is our thinking. Anxiety is what results when the basic fear response, common to all sentient beings, joins up with imagination (as far as we know, found only in humans). In other words, without imagination, there can be no anxiety. Anxiety is always fear of this or that possibility, and a possibility, by definition, is something that 1) has not yet happened, and therefore; 2) is imagined. Since anxiety is the result of the fear response combining with imagination, then learning to focus on the present moment will alleviate anxiety. Meditation (called by Christians “pure prayer,” or “silent prayer”) teaches this in a way so profoundly simple that it seems almost too good to be true — or too easy to be effective. But it is both true and effective.
Have you ever been completely lost in the present moment? I mean so absorbed in a moment that you completely forgot about yourself and your own existence? Perhaps you were watching your children play, or maybe you were having sex that took you to a place beyond all thought, or completely immersed in something funny, or just having so much fun you were simply enjoying it. There is never anxiety in those moments, because we are simply in the moment. No conscious “thinking” is going on, we’re just riding that wave — whatever it may be — and loving it. Though we will often think about these moments afterwards, the thinking was not necessary for enjoyment of these amazing moments.
Normally we think in order to solve problems. We think in order to make plans. We think in order to do our jobs. We think in order to do well in school, and have good conversations, and raise our children prudently and skillfully. We think in order to analyze our situations and make good decisions. These are all healthy ways of thinking. But when thinking runs amuck, you have anxiety. Continue Reading…
April 6, 2012 in
GODSTUFF, REFLECTIONS with
We’re really attached to what makes us miserable. We’re into it. It gets us through our day. Why am I so afraid to let go of what violates and compromises my heart’s desire?
—James Finley
April 4, 2012 in
GODSTUFF with
The New Testament says,
Romans 8:6 (NCV)
6If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace.
This cannot be any other way, and is the definitive test for whether or not a person is centered in God, whether we apply it to the Islamic militant, the one constantly seeking his own promotion, the non-believer trying to be a “good person,” or the average person who professes Christianity. That is where I am probably most qualified to give an opinion.
I do not think most Christians are living in anything like life and peace. I see many who are so rigid in their understanding of God that they are filled with anger, perhaps even hatred toward, those who disagree with them. I see many others who may not be angry or rigid, but are filled with and largely motivated by fear that their own understanding of God has brought upon them. They falsely think they simply have not progressed far enough yet. The truth is that the seed of fear is present in their understanding of God from the beginning and further progression will lead only to more fear. What is needed is an overhaul. I see many other Christians who live in constant chaos, making bad choice after bad choice, and experiencing all the horrific consequences this will bring into the lives of all who live this way, religious or otherwise.
It is safe to say that religion often brings death, and it does this by getting people focused even more dramatically on themselves after conversion than they ever were before. Ego is tricky, and just when we think we have killed it by converting to this or that religion, it slips into that very religion and poisons it. Thus we might find ourselves feeling prideful over how humble we are becoming, or thinking of ourselves as very different, after all, from the pagans who live around us, taking on a them vs. us mentality. But God is one, and the more we truly know God, the less fracture there will be in ourselves, and the less different we will see ourselves as being from others. Ego and self-interest can, and often does, work its way into the practice of religion and when that happens, religion becomes just one more of the channels we follow to get what we want – only now we perceive that we do it with the blessing of God.
All religion that leaves out the reality of gradual, daily, inward transformation (as contrasted with merely acting in certain ways) will lead to death because it leaves us bound either to dead legalism and rule-following (fundamentalism), or to our own lost selves who appealed to religion in the first place to escape our deadness and lostness (liberalism).
I have very little regard for religion, including Christianity, which is every bit as powerless in itself as any other religion. It takes great effort to clear away the gunk that has accumulated over it and find in it the clear, refreshing, life of God. The best spiritual writing and direction does exactly this.
April 2, 2012 in
GODSTUFF with
For all the talk that goes on in Christian churches today about reaching “the lost,” I would love to see a little more emphasis on reaching “the found.” When people who identify as Christian but are mired from month to month and year to year in pornography, gambling, addictions, and bad marriages (at nearly identical rates to those who do not claim to be Christians), something is profoundly wrong.
There are several directions we can go with this. 1.) We can say that the reason Christians are nearly identical to non-Christians in terms of how we actually live is because what we believe is not actually capable of bringing transformation; 2) We can say that we’re missing a critical piece of the whole thing — something upon which the promise of transformation itself rests and without which there can simply be no significant transformation; 3) We can say that the problem is that we just aren’t trying hard enough. (As some popular writers are in fact saying. See my post “Not Crazy about Crazy Love“.)
I think the answer is #1 and #2. I think the reason Christians en-masse are not experiencing significant life transformation is because we missing a critical piece of what Christianity actually is. Continue Reading…
Recent studies have shown that the average congregation on a Sunday morning can tolerate only fifteen seconds of silence before someone feels compelled to break it with an announcement, a song…or whatever.
Too often the church is the enemy of our solitude. Too often the church is one more agent in the vast social conspiracy of togetherness and noise aimed at distracting us from encountering ourselves. The church keeps us busy on this cause or that, this committee or that, trying to provide meaning through motion until we get “burned out” instead and withdraw from the church’s life. Even in its core act of worship the church provides little space for the silent and solitary inward journey to occur (sometimes filling the available space with noisy exhortations to take that very journey!). — Brennan Manning, in Ruthless Trust
