Sat. 2/5/05
I woke up this morning from a frustrating dream and thought, "I need to have more directional signs in my dreamscape." In the dream, Mario and I were looking for a health clinic so I could get a check-up to go traveling. Only, the building was littered with greasy auto parts going up wooden staircases filled with car parts. Mario was being characteristically patient with our not being able to find the clinic. We kept getting seemingly helpful directions from all of the car mechanics, but no clinic.
I've been reading and have been influenced lately by Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk. His journals speak personally to me. I don't know if i could ever submit myself to the kind of spiritual isolation that he lived in for 20 years. Firstly, I don't think I have the level of spirituality necessary to do it. I get bummed out too easily and am more impatient than anyone I know, especially while driving. Not winning qualities for the monastery.
Secondly, I'm married. But I'm sure that I could be a contemplative even while married. I have the luxury of meditating twice a day either in the peaceful, privacy of my boat, or here at home, where I can close the door of the front bedroom (my study, of sorts) and turn on the small fan to white noise the occasional traffic and pedestrian sounds from the street.
I've been doing "Centering Prayer" meditation for nearly a year now. I started it some yrs ago, but let it slip. I've been doing different kinds of eastern meditating for the better part of 30 yrs. and the process has gotten easier. This method is close to Vipassana (sp?). No thought, no images. Just being open to (giving consent to) the Holy Spirit to work on me from the inside. According to Thomas Keating, another Trappist, who borrowed some of the ideas from Merton, one just needs to sit and be open to God, who dwells within anyway, to work on you. My thought is that the Triune God, if given the consent of the human involved, will purify the body and mind of the meditator. That's my picture of what is going on.
I look forward to the 2 times a day when I set the egg timer for 20 minutes and take 2-3 deep breaths and say a prayer to the Holy Spirit, then just allow thoughts to come and go. Not hang on to them. In fact, to be without thought for as long as I can. It's deeply peaceful. I mostly remember to thank God for the opportunity to have had Him in my ... inner space. It's not often that we can intertain the Creator in our humble inner space. It's pretty awesome, I think. Like having an important guest stay for dinner. Someone everyone in the world knows, in one form or another.
But then I stop and think that I am writing all of this in the most public forum that the world has ever known, the Internet. It's so public and full of such an immense volume of information, that, in a sense, it has become almost private. So, I can write these personal meanderings with almost an assurance that nobody will ever read them, unless, of course, I send out notices... hmmmm. I've added some fotos. Mario is 6'1" and Julian is 6'4".
I've been reading and have been influenced lately by Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk. His journals speak personally to me. I don't know if i could ever submit myself to the kind of spiritual isolation that he lived in for 20 years. Firstly, I don't think I have the level of spirituality necessary to do it. I get bummed out too easily and am more impatient than anyone I know, especially while driving. Not winning qualities for the monastery.
Secondly, I'm married. But I'm sure that I could be a contemplative even while married. I have the luxury of meditating twice a day either in the peaceful, privacy of my boat, or here at home, where I can close the door of the front bedroom (my study, of sorts) and turn on the small fan to white noise the occasional traffic and pedestrian sounds from the street.
I've been doing "Centering Prayer" meditation for nearly a year now. I started it some yrs ago, but let it slip. I've been doing different kinds of eastern meditating for the better part of 30 yrs. and the process has gotten easier. This method is close to Vipassana (sp?). No thought, no images. Just being open to (giving consent to) the Holy Spirit to work on me from the inside. According to Thomas Keating, another Trappist, who borrowed some of the ideas from Merton, one just needs to sit and be open to God, who dwells within anyway, to work on you. My thought is that the Triune God, if given the consent of the human involved, will purify the body and mind of the meditator. That's my picture of what is going on.
I look forward to the 2 times a day when I set the egg timer for 20 minutes and take 2-3 deep breaths and say a prayer to the Holy Spirit, then just allow thoughts to come and go. Not hang on to them. In fact, to be without thought for as long as I can. It's deeply peaceful. I mostly remember to thank God for the opportunity to have had Him in my ... inner space. It's not often that we can intertain the Creator in our humble inner space. It's pretty awesome, I think. Like having an important guest stay for dinner. Someone everyone in the world knows, in one form or another.
But then I stop and think that I am writing all of this in the most public forum that the world has ever known, the Internet. It's so public and full of such an immense volume of information, that, in a sense, it has become almost private. So, I can write these personal meanderings with almost an assurance that nobody will ever read them, unless, of course, I send out notices... hmmmm. I've added some fotos. Mario is 6'1" and Julian is 6'4".
posted by Yana Murphy at 9:19 PM
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