richard rohr | The Contemplative Writer

Featured Contemplative Book: Immortal Diamond

Posted on April 18, 2016April 8, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Week Three: Transformation

It’s one thing to realize that we have been living out of a false self, but it’s quite another matter to allow God to transform us with the affirmation of his love. Too much of our unhealthy religious practice focuses on what we should not do or not be rather than what we should become.

Healthy religious practices detect and remove the obstacles and distractions that keep us from God’s loving and affirming presence. Our tools are spare and simple with practices such as:

Bracing honesty
A quiet mind
A heart turned toward God

Spiritual masters such as Jeanne Guyon often noted that we enter into prayer by simply turning our attention toward God. That act alone is a prayer, and it is a prayer that we can gradually build on.

As we learn to turn toward God, we’ll find our identities gradually transformed by God’s love and presence. Richard Rohr shares some particularly helpful quotes and insights in Immortal Diamond.

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“Our ongoing curiosity about our True Self seems to lessen if we settle into any successful role. We have then allowed others to define us from the outside, although we do not realize it… Thomas Merton said, ‘If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success. If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted.’ Success is hardly ever your True Self, only your early window dressing.”

*****

On incarnational religion and Spirit-based morality: “You do things because they are true, not because you have to or you are afraid of punishment. Henceforth you are not so much driven from without (the False Self method) as you are drawn from within (the True Self method). The generating motor is inside of you now instead of a whip or a threat outside.”

*****

“God tries to first create a joyous yes inside of you, far more than any kind of no . . . Just saying no is resentful dieting, whereas finding your deeper yes, and eating from that table, is always a spiritual banquet.”

*****

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For Reflection or Sharing

Where to Start with Christian Meditation

Posted on April 13, 2016April 9, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

There are many Christians who are either unfamiliar with meditation or concerned that it’s inappropriate to practice. However, a brief look at the actual substance of meditation should put any concerns at rest and demonstrate the value of meditation for followers of Jesus today.

Meditation is a way to become mindful of the present, creating space to hear what God is speaking in the present moment rather than allowing our minds to run unchecked. We’re surrounded by noise, choose to add more noise, and may not even realize how much negative noise is coming from our own heads.

Christian meditation is a way to become mindful of what we are thinking so that our thoughts can be open to direction from God.

Stephanie Vozza writes about the basics of meditation for Fast Company:

Mindful people—those who live in the present—can step back and stay on the riverbank, watching their current of thoughts and not getting swept away by their content.

Meditation fosters mindfulness, but the practice seems difficult in today’s world of constant stimulation: “People think the goal of meditation is to empty the mind,” says Brooks. “It’s not about clearing the mind; it’s about focusing on one thing. When the mind wanders, the meditation isn’t a failure. Our brain is like a wayward puppy, out of control. Catching it and putting it back to the object of focus is the mediation.”

Brooks says meditating is like exercise; a full workout is preferred, but there is value in short bursts.

“Research shows that a total of 15 minutes of meditating each day for several weeks produces detectable, positive changes in the brain as well as corresponding reductions in stress, anxiety, and an enhanced sense of well-being,” says Brooks. “You can get the benefits of a formal meditation practice by weaving mini-meditations into your daily life.”

Source: Fast Company

Vozza adds a few simple prompts for meditation that you can incorporate throughout your day:

Walking Meditation
Red Light Meditation (turn off your radio while waiting at red lights)
Exercise Meditation
Eating/Drinking Meditation
Waiting Meditation
Task-Oriented Meditation

For instance, if you’re waiting in line or doing the dishes, turn off the radio or a podcast in order to become aware of God’s presence. I’ve often turned to a prayer word such as “mercy” or “beloved.” I also use the Jesus prayer: “Jesus Christ, only Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I have incorporated all of these practices into my life at one point or another and have discovered that left to my own devices I am constantly reliving the past or fearing the future. By practicing these simple meditation practices I’m no longer at the mercy of my guilt or fears. I’m learning to live by faith and trust God in new, deeper ways.

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Featured Contemplative Book: Immortal Diamond

Posted on April 11, 2016April 8, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Week Two: The Struggle with the False Self

Who am I?

This is a foundational question that we’ll forever struggle with in prayer and writing until we finally confront it. There may be no better tool for answering this question than Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond: The Search for our True Self.

This is the book that saved my soul, or at least saved me from myself.

The false self won’t be silenced easily. In fact, I have found that the false self is so hard to fight because living into your true self in God’s love requires doing LESS. So much of religion is about doing more or doing something differently. Rohr’s wisdom about the true self appears to be counterintuitive at first.

“Your True Self is who you are, and always have been in God . . . The great surprise and irony is that “you,” or who you think you are, have nothing to do with its original creation or its demise. It’s sort of disempowering and utterly empowering at the same time, isn’t it? All you can do is nurture it.”

* * * * *

“The soul, the True Self, has everything, and so it does not require any particular thing. When you have all things, you do not have to protect any one thing. True Self can love and let go. The False Self cannot do this.”

* * * * *

“Remember, please remember, you do not (you must not!) fear, attack, or hate the False Self. That would only continue a negative and arrogant death energy, and it is delusional and counterproductive anyway. It would be trying to “drive out the devil by the prince of devils,” as Jesus puts it. In the great economy of grace, all is used and transformed, and nothing is wasted. God uses your various False Selves to lead you beyond them.”

* * * * *

“What the ego (the False Self) hates and fears more than anything else is change. It will think up a thousand other things to be concerned about or be moralistic about—anything rather than giving up “who I think I am” and “who I need to be to look good.”

Finding your true self in God’s love is largely a matter of practicing the presence of God rather than trying to do any one thing better. If we let God define who we are, we’ll start to recognize the times when the false sense begins to whisper lies to us.

Once we learn to rest in Christ, we’ll begin to recognize when the imposter of the false self emerges.

Learn more about Immortal Diamond today.

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Featured Contemplative Book: Immortal Diamond

Posted on April 4, 2016April 4, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Week One: The Search for Your True Self

Richard Rohr’s book Immortal Diamond offered a lifeline at a point in my life when I was discouraged, somewhat aimless, and deeply insecure. What was the root of my insecurity and overall misery? My false self that hinged on my accomplishment and what other people thought of me.

The false self requires constant reinforcement and progress in order to remain content. There may be no greater threat to contemplative writers than the false self.

Keeping the false self happy feeds into so many other pitfalls, such as pride and envy. Who has time to pray when there’s a false self that must be maintained? Who can do the deep observation and painstaking editing that good writing requires while ensuring the false self is placated?

Richard Rohr grounds us in the wonderful news about who you are and where you can find rest as you approach God in prayer and then set about your work for the day:

*****

“Your True Self is who you are, and always have been in God . . . The great surprise and irony is that ‘you,’ or who you think you are, have nothing to do with its original creation or its demise. It’s sort of disempowering and utterly empowering at the same time, isn’t it? All you can do is nurture it.”

*****

“The soul, the True Self, has everything, and so it does not require any particular thing. When you have all things, you do not have to protect any one thing. True Self can love and let go. The False Self cannot do this.”

*****

“I promise you that the discovery of your True Self will feel like a thousand pounds of weight have fallen from your back. You will no longer have to build, protect, or promote any idealized self image. Living in the True Self is quite simply a much happier existence, even though we never live there a full twenty-four hours a day. But you henceforth have it as a place to always go back to. “

*****

“Find God, the primary source, and the spring water will forever keep flowing (Ezekiel 47:1-12; John 7:38) naturally. Once you know that, the problem of inferiority, unworthiness, or low self-esteem is resolved from the beginning and at the core.” Pg 31

*****

“In ordinary language, the True Self is held together by the glue of a universal love. ‘For God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him” (1 John 4:16). When we live in such abundance, we do not need to fight or defeat our False Self. It naturally fades into the background in the presence of absolute abundance and absolute allowing.” Pg. 55

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If you’ve read Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, and I hope you will soon, you know that the key struggle we all face is believing this: “I am enough.” Rohr completes this mantra: “I am enough because of God’s love.”

The truth that I have found is this: Nothing in this life will ever be good enough or offer a peace and security that compares to God’s love.

Read more about Immortal Diamond.

About Featured Books: Each month I’ll share weekly posts about the month’s featured book.

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