The Other Side of Silence: A Guide to Christian Meditation 0809119560

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Tte Otter 3fcfe of 3ilence Q.

Gakfe to Christian Atelitation

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e Other aide of ailence g Guide to Christian AMitation AortonTISelse^

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Acknowledgments Roberto Assagioli,

M.D PSYCHOSYNTHESIS: A MANUAL OF PRINCIPLES ,

AND TECHNIQUES. New York, The Viking Press, The T.

Psychosynthesis Research Foundation,

S. Eliot,

"Burnt Norton"

copyright 1971 by vanovich,

New

Louis Evely,

Esme

in

New

York,

1971. Used with the permission of

New

FOUR QUARTETS.

York.

Copyright 1943 by T.

S. Eliot;

Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace, Jo-

York.

THAT MAN IS YOU. Westminster, Maryland, The Newman Press,

1965.

Used with permission.

Edward

"The Journal Edward Fischer.

Fischer,

permission of

as

Worship," from

WORSHIP,

vol.

47, no.

8.

Used with

THE MYSTICAL ELEMENT OF RELIGION AS CATHERINE OF GENOA AND HER FRIENDS, Vol. II.

Baron Friedrich von Heugel,

STUDIED London,

J.

IN SAINT

M. Dent and

William Johnston,

THE

Sons, Ltd., 1927. Used with permission.

STILL POINT: REFLECTIONS

TIAN MYSTICISM. New

York, Harper

&

Row,

ON ZEN AND

Publishers, 1970.

CHRIS-

Used with permis-

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF C. G. JUNG.

Ed. by Gerhard Adler, Michael Fordham, Herbert Read and William McGuire. Trans, by R. F. C. Hull. Bollingen Series XX, Vol. ii, Psychology and Religion: West and East. Copyright 1958 by Bollingen Foundation and O1969 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Used with permission.

C.G. Jung, ANALYTICAL Copyright Oi 968 by Heirs of

C G. Jung,

a Division of Random House,

Inc.

PSYCHOLOGY:

ITS

all rights

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

reserved.

MEMORIES, DREAMS REFLECTIONS. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston.

Jaffe.

of

Random House,

St.

Inc.,

John of the Cross,

Kelsey,

DARK NIGHT OF THE Press.

New

SOUL.

ENCOUNTER WITH GOD.

Kierkegaard,

Recorded and edited by Aniela

York, Pantheon Books, a Division

Translated by E. Allison Peers.

Used with permission.

and copyright, 1972, Bethany Fellowship, Srfren

Pantheon Books,

1963. Used with permission.

New York, The Newman Morton T.

New York,

Used with permission.

Inc.,

Reprinted by permission. Published

Minneapolis, Minnesota.

FEAR AND TREMBLING

and

THE SICKNESS UNTO

DEATH.

Translated by Walter Lowrie. Copyright 1941, 1954 by Princeton University Press, Princeton Paperback, 1968. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

George Maloney,

THE BREATH OF THE MYSTIC.

sion Books, Inc., 1974.

Arthur Miller,

Denville,

New Jersey, Dimen-

Used with permission.

AFTER THE FALL. New York, The Viking Press,

Inc.,

1964. Used with

permission.

THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION: A HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE, Vol. 2, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700).

Jaroslav Pelikan,

Chicago,

The

University of Chicago Press, 1974. Used with permission.

WRITINGS FROM THE PHILOKALIA ON PRAYER OF THE HEART. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer. London, Faber

lated by E.

&

Trans-

Faber, Ltd., 1954.

Used with permission.

Jim

Elliott in

an interview with Dr. Ira Progoff on "The Intensive Journal," released in House Associates by Explorations Institute, Berk-

duplicated form in 1971 for Dialogue eley, California.

C.J. Jung,

Used with permission.

MODERN MAN

IN

SEARCH OF A SOUL. New

York, Harcourt, Brace,

Jovanovich, Inc. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Used with permission.

T. S.

Eliot,

THE COMPLETE POEMS AND

court, Brace

and World,

Inc.,

1952.

PLAYS:

1909- 1950.

New

York, Har-

To Paisley Brown Roach, faithful co-worker

and friend.

Contents Introduction

Part

A i.

Encountering

2.

Intimacy,

God

Basic Perspective

7

An and Meditation

16

Part

The

4. 5.

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need

6.

To

7.

The

8.

A Word

Whom Do We

Two

Basic Climate for Meditation

The Climate of Meditation The Spiritual World as the

3.

One

Pray?

31

Soul's Soil for

3 3

God

42

57

Power of Love 62 Warning and Encouragement

Creative of

70

Part Three Preparations for the Inward Journey

9.

Time

10.

Silence:

1 1

Aids

83 Discovering the

Way

in the Practice of Silence

Inward 1

93

09

Part Four

The Use of Images 12. 1

3

Silence,

in

Meditation

Mysticism and Religious Experience

Exploring the Nature of the Spiritual World vii

125 1

6

3

Contents

viii

14.

Developing Imagination: Stepping into the Inner World

15.

A

16.

Putting Imagination to

Check

List for the

Venture Inward

Work

192

208 Part Five

Adventures on the Other Side of Silence

17.

Windows Inward

Notes

309

239

1

78

Introduction Many

people seem to

down

to cases spiritually,

some

of finding

meditation

feel that

Christian meditation. In fact

more and more

have turned

to

is

not for everyone, particularly

way

people, seeking a

of getting

Eastern ways of meditating in the hope

Much

discipline that the ordinary individual can follow.

has

been written about these Eastern disciplines. But neither the Western novices

in

Zen or Yoga or Transcendental Meditation nor the more experienced writers about them seem to realize that there

method of meditation available

a powerful and unique Christian

is

This Christian way of meditating can bring reality

and new

common

all

many

fact,

Jesus of Nazareth

new

known.

He

way

is

everyone, particularly people like the publican

whom

chance and those

life

It

God which He

Dante's conception of heaven,

who

for

It

is

for

not think they have a

has beaten down. Simple people and beginners can

have a genuine encounter with God. presence and love of

who do

way

offered a

not just for the in-

or the full-time professionals or the particularly adept.

tellectuals

it.

vision of

was the most democratic and down-

the religious leaders the world has

people to encounter and experience God. His

everyone

wishes to use

people a whole

effectiveness in their living.

As a matter of to-earth of

who

any ordinary person

to

in

is

a matter of learning to respond to the

already offers

us.

It

enters at all also has

some

much

very

is

which each person has a particular basic experience of the

like

place, while

whole of the

heavenly spheres.

This

On

is

quite a different idea from that found in most Eastern meditation.

the one hand, the idea

is

to

expressed in Jesus of Nazareth.

God

respond to the loving concern of

Most

so well

people can learn this response, and the

broken, downtrodden and oppressed of this earth have the easiest access to this

The poor

response. tage.

Our

part

is

in spirit, the

hungry and the seeking have a

Eastern religions, on the other hand, usually

which one detaches oneself from the world,

cipline by

viduality

and merging with the Cosmic Mind

sciousness. reality as a

which one

The

basic difference

Lover

to

whom

one responds, or

seeks to lose identity.

to

between the two

It

made

advan-

us.

the painstaking dis-

stress

losing personhood or indi-

become one with pure conis

whether one

sees ultimate

as a pool of cosmic consciousness in

takes an extraordinary

amount

experience to decide between these deeply different views of

could be

special

mostly to accept the hand already stretched out to

only on the basis of prejudice or naivete. In

life.

this

A

of living

and

snap decision

book

I

am

trying

Introduction

2

Western point of view of ultimate

to present

some

as Lover.

This most basic idea of Christianity

of the evidence for the

today in either religious or secular

We

in the

West

live in

much

not given

is

circles.

an age which has doubts about people's

reach out of the physical and material world and touch anything at

have passed beyond these doubts. But

rate scientists

ability to

The

first-

popular science, usually

is

it

all.

years behind the times, that influences the average individual, and popular

fifty

science

box.

is still

If

caught

any way

sees

box

to get out of the

and

effort to a

And how to

break-out experience.

most Western Christian professionals have forgotten

TM,

so people, to

hungering

Yoga and

for a spiritual

dimension

in

With

that

meditate and they

modern

science.

to Zen.

in the experience, there

experienced.

give

is

turn to the East, to

life,

Since the aim in most varieties of Eastern meditation

sonhood

would

it

who

the tragedy

are caught within a view of the universe no longer accepted by

And

at all,

could be done only by religious professionals

this

their total attention

materialism that confines us to a space-time

in the kind of

modern world

the

probably say that

no personal way

is

to lose one's per-

is

what

to describe

is

sought or

the exception of Transcendental Meditation, which has devel-

oped easier techniques and some quite

which only the adept can ers

reality

consideration

must generally enter

follow, blindly.

specific goals, these are very difficult

open only

to a select

Those on the outside are not drawn

are simply to live on in reflected glory until they

ways

few and which Western-

come

in;

they

more favorable

to a

karma.

There meditation

is

no doubt that the experience described by the advocates of Eastern

is

a real and valid one, and

from both East and West

who have

we can

experienced

learn it.

experiencing the same reality, and they are just as

much by

studying those

But there are other ways of real.

Simple peasants some-

times have equally important experiences in the Eucharist or praying the rosary

or repeating the Jesus prayer.

imagination

Lover

— which

who

is

Still

others find

one way of experiencing

by turning inward through

it

reality

— and meeting the divine

then draws them on to deeper religious experiences.

religiously untutored,

conversed with

The windows

God

have used

in a natural

this

way about even

of ancient Gothic cathedrals

have also been launching pads

for

Many

people,

imaginative method unconsciously as they the trivialities of daily living.

and the

numerous

icons of Eastern

Orthodoxy

individuals to enter this imagina-

tive venture.

Thomas Merton was one that imagination has creative

writer about the

life

of prayer

and constructive uses

in the

who came

conferences he held not long before his fatal journey to the East,

some length

of the need to liberate imagination

to realize

contemplative

and allow

it

life.

Merton spoke

to be

In at

used for the

purpose of discovering relationships between things, creating symbols, and finding special or

new meanings. He noted

that imagination can discover real meanings,

Introduction

3

not just produce distractions and delusions, and he stressed reading the Bible imaginatively, both as a

meaning contained These

way

discussions, taped at his conferences,

mous book, Contemplation and secular

the cloister

were published

posthu-

in his

World of Action. Merton knew both the life of He knew heights and depths of the interior life, and in a

life.

our culture against using imagination.

also the prejudices in er,

of exercising imagination and also to find the full

in the Bible.

he would undoubtedly have had

much more

he had lived long-

If

about

this subject. His ways the importance of my own reasons for writing about imagination and trying to show its place in our prayer life. His ideas open

to say

discussions suggest in various

the

way

to discover

how

fulfilling relationship

imagination can be developed to lead one into a deep and

with God.

we

In the pages to follow

have doubts about the reason.

It

this

Most people who are capable

gifts.

method.

It is

not the only way, and

individuals of certain psychological types.

have shared

have found

it

of the parish church of ences, held here

hope

is

it

falls

it

which

I

into the

hands of

was

still

Some

who

The encounter with God and the Risen by those who turn toward Him,

find

and are then transformed by

find

this experience.

when

lectually

Christianity

was most

is

book: Encounter with God. This

method

is

it

What

creative.

a practical

in

my

confer-

Notre Dame.

I

a present possibility. This

manual

am

I

is

trying to offer

not a

manual

intel-

have written such a

I

for those

of finding the encounter, learning

is

general use in the

in

This

demonstrating the possibility of the encounter.

to try out this

ticing

and

alive

I

new meaning and hope and

an understanding of one neglected method of meditation days

whom

useful.

it

Christ

verified

love,

heard about

classes at the University of

others

not touch

were members

of these people

rector; others

my

in

who

of listening to

may

it

However, many people with

most helpful.

and abroad, or

which such an

in

particularly helpful for those

is

or the value, of meditation for whatever

possibility,

requires no great

dreams can use

their

one simple way

shall consider

encounter can be found. This approach

what

who would

it is

like

like

and prac-

it.

I

am

deeply grateful,

for nineteen years in the

first

of

all,

to the

band of people who met with

Thursday morning prayer group

at St.

me

Luke's Church,

to the Reverend Stuart Fitch who assisted so ably with this group, in which many of the ideas suggested here were tried. I am also much indebted to those who have attended my conferences on meditation and have offered so many sug-

and so

gestions.

Dame

—

I

am

particularly grateful to the students at the University of Notre

graduates,

undergraduates, seminarians, priests and ministers, nuns,

directors of religious education in various

me

in courses

on

feedback and so I

am

religious experience

many

denominations

— who have worked with

and who have given

me

so

much

honest

helpful suggestions.

grateful to those followers of C. G. Jung,

Max

Zeller

and Hilde and

Introduction

4

James Kirsch, who showed me the reality of the spiritual world and how one could reach it, and so opened me to an understanding of what the early Church Fathers were talking about in their discussions and meditative writings. also thankful

beyond words

for the friendship of

I

am

John Sanford who has shared

with me, listening and discussing nearly every aspect of the spiritual world, and to

Leo Froke, a wise

shown me rity,

rather than

down

away from

and

it;

and

to

literature,

who

Richard Payne

who

suggested that

has

matu-

religious experience can lead to I

write

these thoughts.

This book would have been harder

and

and student of

psychiatrist

friend,

so clearly that meditation

to write

and

clarifying editorial attention of Paisley Roach.

to read

My

without the careful

wife and

hours talking over the subject of the book, and she has also spent reading each draft and helping to put

it

I

have spent

many

hours

within the range of nontechnical

readers. I

am

deeply appreciative to the University of Notre

Dame

du Lac

for

providing an atmosphere in which such works are stimulated and encouraged.

I

owe much to discussions with my friends David Burrell, C.S.C, Maurice Amen, C.S.C. and David Verhalen, C.S.C. who have listened and responded to many of the ideas and practices that are presented. I

am

also grateful to

Carmela

the faculty stenographic pool final

form.

Rulli, Shirley Schneck,

who have worked

Beth Gadberry and

hard putting the manuscrpt

in

PART ONE

A Basic Perspective

1

God

Encountering

Can

people's

activity given

God? Can we

be touched by

lives,

new

vitality

by the

reality of

actually find our everyday

God's presence and wisdom?

If this

we do to open ourselves to such experience? What preparation is needed, and how do we go about finding such an encounter? These are the kinds of questions that come up when people meet together is

than what can

possible,

and

to consider

about ways of deepening their religious

talk

God

'always concern about whether

have wrestled with

no good reason

experiences.

problem and

this

assume that one

to

Nor

physical things.

can be reached at I

is

have come

God

Our

purpose

This not

is

my

I

of discovering whether this

pages

is

God and know

of meditation

I

as best

to explore

which we

in

Him

is

and of meditative prayer.

have found inspiration and guidance

use of their methods for to

last

from

in these great leaders,

to St. Teresa, St.

I

my own

religious

I

human

was then able

soul that

to pass the

through the cauldron of

tual practice can

and healing today

made

began

development and

me. Through one branch of depth psychology

standing of the

life

ways

a rela-

John of the Cross, Francis de Fenelon, John Woolman and Douglas Steere. But it was only when I was

who came clear.

to

that relationship with

introduced to certain findings of depth psychology that fullest

reli-

one can

have learned a tremendous amount from them over the

Origen and Gregory of Nyssa Sales,

way

open oneself

to

is

purpose to give a history of the devotional masters and their

methods, although thirty years.

aim

the

for

Himself.

in these

can become open to experiences of

is

I

is

limited only to experiences of measurable,

Starting with this premise, the best

tionship with God.

is

to the conclusion that there

These experiences deserve consideration, and there are grounds

gious belief rests on reality or not

It

There

there any reason to doubt the validity of one's religious

is

believing that they point toward

possible.

lives.

Over many

years

all.

I

to

make

the

to help others

found an under-

the need for religious meditation very

knowledge of these masters of the devotional

my own

experience.

Only by

trying

them out

in ac-

one learn which of the various ways of praying are most for each individual.

real

—

A

8

What

hope

I

Basic Perspective

to provide are simple

and

direct suggestions that can help or-

dinary people to open themselves through meditation and be touched by the re-

My

God.

ality of

others very

purpose

is

essentially practical.

I

we

a theoretical way. Instead

in

little

shall discuss the prayers of

shall be considering

ways

in

which modern Christians can tap the resources that have enlivened the Church

and

people

its

tions. It

to

reality of the Christian

when

showed an

I

words I

with

my

who have

ideas of those

life,

I

thing

more and more

— or even simply

needed

to

clear-

as a Christian

have some experience of what discovered

I

did speak from even the slightest encounter with God, others

I

interest that

seemed

— even

I

who

really should

I

I

have been stimulated by

to get closer to that reality.

my

could read the Scriptures and say

Most

sense of contact, almost no experience.

conscious mind.

But most of the time

to carry over into action.

those

— was trying very hard

found that

little

as a pastor

could not live with myself. And, incidentally,

found that none of us

my

me one

ministry showed

go on speaking

spoke; otherwise

that

my

years of

first

about the I

and the

to test the experiences

us.

wanted

I

mainly practical sugges-

will be

Meditation?

Is

The If

ly.

and these

vital periods,

mostly a waste of time until one has the raw material of an active

is

with which

life

gone before

What

most

its

not that history and theory are wwimportant, but rather that reflecting

is

upon them prayer

in

was reading the Bible

like

prayers and offices

of this activity

came from

a student, voicing the prayers

mostly as thought forms, and more and more the feeling grew of something lacking, of facing a religious experience

dead end. At

this point

I

was important. Experiences

began of

to see that

God were

some kind

of

needed, not just at

conversion or as some specially consecrated breakthrough, but available to people's

ordinary

lives,

my own

regular and sustained

meaning

to

my

I

needed relationship with

And

life.

God

easy enough to say that

understanding

prepare so that

we

in particular.

of

it

was then

God

is

is

to Christianity.

But

can break through to

it is

God

God

as a

like

as available as possible.

a cosmic bellhop.

us.

Meditation

But obviously

What

how cenwe have simply the way

harder to realize that

includes various practices, even quite diverse ones,

ing

Him

found the real

I

seeking us, and even to stress

prepare, setting up the conditions that can help to

ences of

that

of meditation.

It is

tral this

pan

all

this

meditation does

is

make

aimed

at

does not

mean

is

this possible.

It

making experi-

mean summonway for us to

a

unlock the door and come out from the places where most of us have been hiding. It

is

the process of opening ourselves to the realm of nonphysical reality in

which God can touch us kind of prayer in which tion

is

far

we

more

directly

than in the physical world.

It is

that

seek relationship with God, and in this sense medita-

the preparation and foundation for prayer.

Encountering God So

often prayer carries with

it

9

Of course most

the idea of asking for favors.

aware that prayer is broader than this, and that any toward God and relating to Him must be included. But in actual of us are well

and

people, both lay

religious,

make prayer

act of turning

practice most

either a matter of formal repetition

or of asking for changes in the world around them. In meditation, on the other hand, there

one way of meeting and relating

One

to the

and learning what God wants of us become

want

of God. Yet the

receive better than

amazing thing

we would have

a fresh emphasis on prayer as

whom

far

to ask

God

one prays. Meeting

more important than what we

when we pray

that

is

dared

is

to

way, we often

in this

on our own. This

Jesus taught His followers to pray. In the Lord's Prayer

we

is

way

also the

are told to begin by

speaking directly to the Father and hallowing His name, putting the phasis on meeting

We

God and

expressing appreciation for

then direct our attention to His kingdom and His

will,

showing our readi-

His ways and wishes. Only then do we go on

ness to relate to

Later on

selves.

first emwhat we have found.

I

shall say

more about

this

prayer and

its

our-

to ask for

use in meditative

practice.

Most people seem

to feel that

attempted only by the most holy.

with

God

are

much more it

Orders could have any ence.

They

mystics

did

who had gone

men open

was thought real contact

for us.

it

my

available than

counters occur most often as that for a long time

meditation

It is

an

esoteric practice that

we have

way

God through

inner or spiritual experi-

the spiritual masters, the mediators, the

the route of complete

of finding a viable

and

utter

commitment

and valuable experience of God; the

requirement was asceticism and a

essential

goods and

One

to

first

God.

was the

and most

total renunciation of one's

worldly

interests.

of the real discoveries in depth psychology has been the finding by

of the foremost groups in this field that is

true

It is

that only ministers or those in religious

Until quite recently there seemed to be no reason to question that this

only

can be

been led to believe. These en-

themselves to an inner realm.

with

They were

is

experience, however, that encounters

not just the saints.

we

all

have access

to

one

an inner realm.

It

Ordinary people can turn inward and be touched by an ex-

perience of

God and

perience

contact with a level of experience other than that of sense experience

is

and reason, then

all

be transformed and renewed.

of us have this contact

If

the essence of mystical ex-

whether we know

it

or not.

Most

people are aware of dreams, intuitions, visions, hunches and other experiences that give a glimpse of something in addition to the physical world.

But where

does one, with only the ordinary problems of doing the best one can in the outer

world, turn for instruction about these experiences of another realm? Unless are forced to look for psychological help, most of us are

approach

to this

realm where

God and His

left

we

with no real

direction could be found.

There are

very few spiritual directors in the modern Church, Catholic or Protestant. This

is

A

io

one reason

Of

many

so

course,

Basic Perspective

people today are turning to the wisdom of the East. mystical experience

if

understood only as an imageless and

is

available to ordinary people. Probably that experience

That kind

ple.

of prayer

who

Teresa

St.

God

union of the soul with God, then the mystical encounter with

blissful

lived in

was

by leaders

stressed

like St.

meant

not

is

less

is

for all peo-

John of the Cross and

an age that was already occupied too much with the

nonphysical world and the supernatural. Their followers were trying to leave

concern with the material world behind, and

it

was a wise suggestion

all

that they

should not get too caught up in visions and fantasies.* But our world today faces the problems of quite a different outlook on

Today most forget that there is

come

to

is

make much

and

that realm again,

taining and fulfilling experiences of

Unless there

life.

in the outer, material

world that we

Our

a nonmaterial inner or spiritual realm of existence.

is

know

to

caught up

of us are so

some such

Why

sense?

God

if

one

is

one can

it

that give direction to the

how

can be reached,

reality that

pray,

to realize that in

task

find sus-

whole of

can prayer

life.

itself

only calling out blindly into the void?

Yet through meditation and the images that are evoked, one can touch and come to

know

the reality of the

Other who

is

actually there.

The Inner Experience

What

wish

I

an Other with

tered iety,

about meditation are things

to share

For

thirty years of struggle.

whom

me

whom

could share every experience of confusion and anx-

I

burning

reality that

offering specific directions

made

And

brought

at rarer

the whole business of

years of studying

relief

from tension and misery, or again

and guidance that rescued

moments life

this

stands on

defend

I

have come

its

own two

to

Other gave a

worthwhile.

modern thought,

is

them

know through my

feet.**

have

I

that there

experiences of the Other or to attribute

What

The

speak has sometimes been a vague presence and sometimes a

I

wisdom

ble situations.

in

encoun-

I

hope and thanksgiving, of sorrow, joy, discouragement and renewal.

Other of

ing.

have discovered

I

they have been fruitful years in which

also

joy

and

come

at times a

me from

intolera-

fulfillment that

through

to realize,

no good reason

to discount these

to self-deception or wishful think-

relationship with this divine reality

Those who experience

this reality

do not have

to

it.

*In their

own

experience, however, St. Teresa

and

St.

John of the Cross

adequately with visions and fantasies. In their writings their experiences are

dealt very

set

down

in

detail.

**For the reader who ence

is

presented in

neapolis:

some

is

interested, the thinking

detail in the first part of

Bethany Fellowship,

Inc.,

1972).

which supports

my

this

kind of experi-

book Encounter with

God (Min-

Encountering God Even

so,

reasons for

it

my

In pastoral counseling

so.

my own

from

was not only a sharing

same kind

these people tried the

Other that

them

that enabled

gamut

of

I

discovered that

I

of myself, but of something more.

me

and

strength

At the same time

was one

also

of the very factors

to begin dealing

I

— and

was

discovered that there

I

can refer the people

is

still

who want

themselves to an experience of the divine or the Other.

with the

full

— precious

little

how

open

to learn

to

found next to nothing

I

about prayer and meditation that takes into account the discoveries

written

human

about the

made by depth psychology

soul

in

its

seventy-five years of ac-

Freud, Adler, Jung, Maslow, Carl Rogers and Rollo

not have existed for

all

They have each

May

might

as well

the importance they seem to have for writers on prayer.

Yet the masters of the devotional other.

was

life.

published today to which

tivity.

often

found

same presence and

of practice, they found the

own

I

I

Other. As some of

in relating to the

found. Activity like this

to find their

was

it

meditations and methods of praying.

sharing the strength that was given

reality of the

and there are two

takes courage to write about these things,

doing

helpful to share things

that this

i i

and the depth psychologists need each

life

discovered something of the reality of the

human

each discipline has something important to say to the other. There

need for us to see meditation

in this

new

light.

is

soul,

and

a burning

So many modern Christians have

trouble with praying because they do not see

how

it

can make sense in

this

complex modern world. Some psychological thought has made the complexity

more understandable

for us.

The work

farther than that. Their thinking

become aware

their discoveries out,

is

it

cuts off

much

Jung and

When

of a need for prayer today.

these people have as

There

of C. G.

his followers has led

and practice have helped many people

much

to

the discussion of prayer leaves

of the sophisticated reading public

and

right to prayer as anyone.

One

need, of course, on both sides.

even the most religious depth psychologists been tempered with the experience of those

is

of the great weaknesses

among

simply that their findings have not

men and women who have plunged

deepest into their relationship with God. These psychologists have not grasped the range and depth

and richness of that experience, and

ance only part of the

way toward

these experiences are to the ordinary logists

who

They

it.

mistrust the entire experience of prayer

and assurances that the road ahead

On

much

left

cannot grow

sical

realize

how common

just

leads

and

where most

religious meditation,

of us need

some

direc-

somewhere worthwhile.

down to the present day, Some manuals insist upon the idea that we God without developing contempt for our

the other hand, devotional writings, even

have often

emotional

so they can offer guid-

do not

"normal" person. Then there are psycho-

and these psychologists leave a great gap tion

often

in

lives,

Western

to

be desired.

relationship with

our bodies and the physical world

writers have neglected the

in general.

immanence or

Many

of the clas-

ever-present quality of

2

A

1

God and

Him

ways of finding

the

Basic Perspectivf

been practices so

result has often

within this world as well as beyond

ascetic,

they even caused emotional disturbance in

average reader, lay or

clerical, to sift

some

followers.

It

is

even though popular devotional works of the

years have sometimes sug-

last fifty

we

the best of psychological understanding, however,

No

wisdom and

Through

can find balance

our

in

practical directions.

one has yet shown more clearly than Dorothy Phillips and her friends

did thirty years ago

Always Ours, by

set side

one begins

what a

many depth

masters and

are

the

difficult for

the wheat from the chaff in this writing,

gested practices quite foreign to the total message of Jesus of Nazareth.

devotional lives and a return to His

The

it.

one-sided and rejective of the world that

side.

By

listening deeply

own words show

same

that there

of understanding

reality.

anthology,

The Choice

Is

am

tempted

and sometimes translating the language,

Each

is

expressing the

an undeniable agreement or

is

human

with our need to stop and to pray, I

between the great devotional

is

their

master of prayer and the depth psychologist are

to realize that the

and again

In

the writings of these devotional masters and depth psychologists

often speaking of the

two ways

close relation there

psychologists.

beings.

or

Their

truths.

between these

Both of them are deeply concerned

and

to question

who

to ask:

same

affinity

what

am

I

to contemplate.

speaking to and

Yet again

who

is lis-

tening?

Quite recently

I

was

told

by the editor of a large denominational publish-

modern book on meditation which shows how

ing house that he knows of no

valuable the insights of depth psychology are in Christian devotional I

had already been

their titles

told

life.

In fact

by a major Catholic publisher that they had reviewed

and found they had brought out no modern work on the

practice or

practical

methods of meditation. The books on prayer either repeat the same old

formulas

in their

antiquated garb, or else they suggest that the traditional ways

of prayer and meditation are no longer possible.

my

In

travels, lecturing to

learned over and over again

both Protestant and Catholic groups,

how many

religious professionals are

any active practice of daily prayer and meditation. This true

among

strict

with religious practice.

amine and

to

for this failure to integrate psychological

Among

abandon many

At the same time many

Catholics, Vatican

II

religious practices that religious people

wisdom

has given a freedom to ex-

were never before ques-

have been frightened away from

psychology because of the negative attitude toward religion on the part of of the psychological tainly

in

and world-denying prac-

have been so common.

There are good reasons

tioned.

abandoning

almost universally

both religious communities and puritanical religious groups

which the members have been alienated by the tices that

is

have

I

no longer the

community. But

this attitude,

total view. In addition, as

although

it

does persist,

much is

cer-

Karl Rahner has noted, there

is

Encountering God

i

3

the great theological gulf fixed between the mystical or ascetic position and the

more

rational theological tradition.

Thus ical

the practice of prayer and meditation has been doubted on psycholog-

grounds (and some of the practices advocated by leading medieval writers

were extreme), and

much

theology,

of

it

has failed almost entirely to gain the support of rational

which

doubts on the contact of ordinary people with

casts

God. For a long time only authority kept the practice of meditation

intact

throughout the Church, and when that faltered so did the practice. At Notre

Dame, which is unquestionably one of the world's we have awakened to the fact that only one course religious experience,

and

offered in the practice of

When

by a non-Catholic.

this

great Catholic universities, is

were even a few who remarked that such a

cussed, there

a university curriculum because

it

was not an academic

was

the question subject

dis-

had no place

in

subject.

Those who are informed about young people and the counter-culture know

what an emphasis there

on meditation and prayer

is

use of hallucinogenic drugs is

is

in these subcultures.

human

often an attempt to break through the ordinary boundaries of

make meditation

ence and

and

women

easier

and

its

results

many

(and older people as well)

prayer, from

Their

not just a reaction against a square adult society;

more

Among

real.

it

experi-

college

men

are turning to Eastern forms of

Hare Krishna chanting and Zen meditation

to

Transcendental

Meditation, in an effort to find some reality or experience beyond the immediate one.

These are reactions

flannel-suit culture,

to the materialistic

and

rational attitudes of the grey-

and they may even be healthy and encouraging

These individuals are trying

to

fill

the gap in their lives that

signs.

was

left

when

Christian forms of meditation were either forgotten or relegated to the dustbin. It is

no wonder that both young and old turn

to find a

Where that

way

that can bring

them

some place

makes sense

Even that there

so is

I

find that

I

is

am

no doubt that there

is

have had

I

life.

And

about these experiences only because nothing unique

with the Other.

I

I

indeed,

in these experiences of

this relationship necessary

Although

it

would

know

still

rather be for Jesus's

is

to

my

I

possible for

do

me

to write

so for a real purpose.

response and interactions

necessity to relate to

not only for

I

my own

was good reason

years,

was asked

was driven by personal

And people

1

to wrestle with bringing

Other over many

instruction about praying in secret.

is

need.

hesitant in writing about this.

need, and even though

silent than write the pages that are to follow. There

found

Church

dimension of

to us in these last years of the twentieth century?

into relationship with the

There

outside the

does one learn about the art of real prayer and meditation in a language

are incurably religious. There

life

to

into contact with a deeper

my own

life,

God and have

but in the

lives of

others as well. I

write these pages on meditation and prayer as a beginner, even and

A

14

Basic Perspective

especially after thirty years of practice.

As Archbishop Anthony Bloom has

writ-

we are all beginners in relating human beings every encounter is

ten in his excellent manual, Beginning to Pray,

God. Indeed,

to

every real relationship with

in

new and a beginning. Our human moment we assume that we know same

is

certainly true of the

relationships have a tendency to go sour the

and

the depth

direction of another

The

life.

unfathomable Other, or God; every turning

Him

to

we are all beginners. One of the things that have learned in talking with people over thirty years is how open one must be to communicate with any other person in depth. I have also learned that the truths enabling me to relate to people are usually even more significant in my relation to God in my meditation. The more deeply one knows humankind the more open one is to know God. One comes to understand what it means that we are made in His image. Every opening of myself to God in meditation opens a new door with new potential and possibilities. As share some of these personal and intimate experiences, my hope is that is

a beginning, and in our turning I

I

encourage others

this will

lead

them

the ones

into

examining

describe.

I

to turn

We can

that the present generation

we sometimes

turies as

who By

believe that there

we

tice that leads

some

in

some

similar ways,

and then

will

and seeing how these compare with of the devotional classics

and discover

not so different from generations of earlier cen-

is

There are

also the

a place and a need in our

exploring in these ways

with which

also read

think.

is

inward

their experiences

we

can find that there

works

of those psychologists

lives for religious experience. is

a reality beyond ourselves

can communicate and which can transform our

one into deeper relationship with

this reality

is

lives.

Any

prac-

part of the practice

of meditation.

The Material This attempt

something of the experience of meditation will be

to share

divided into several quite different parts. In reality these are inseparable ele-

ments of a living process, but

in

order to understand either the process or

ments they will be taken one part in such a

whole process except

communicated except by the

We

in

at a time.

an

intuitive flash,

greatest of artists,

shall look first of all at the

life

shall

we

go on

in

shall consider

Part

II to

or environment in which

it

how

art

is

ele-

which can almost never be

art

is

certainly not is

my

forte.

involved in

one reveals one's depth. Then

shall discuss the relation of psychological types to the inner

in this section

we

and

its

can hardly take

problem of the intimacy that

meditation, since in speaking of this aspect of

we

The human mind

life,

related to meditation.

and, finally,

From

this basis

lay out one by one the elements of the atmosphere is

possible for Christian meditation to

grow and

de-

velop.

In Part III

we

shall consider several

pare to get into the practice of meditation.

ways

in

which the individual can pre-

We shall discuss setting aside the time

Encountering God for meditation, the purposes of silence,

silent,

and various ways of encouraging

including keeping a record or journal.

In Part first

becoming

15

IV we

shall

go on with the preparations

for meditation, considering

the importance of understanding the experiences that are sought and

know-

ing our point of view in seeking them. This will bring us to the gateway of the

inner world. in

We

shall look at the

nature and use of images, particularly as found

dreams, and then at other ways of awakening imagination. #

review briefly our need for historical tradition and a religious journal, the need for a group with

ritual, the

whom

We

shall

then

purposes of keeping

one can share the experiences

of meditation, and finally the need for spiritual direction.

We stories,

shall then consider

how

go about "doing" meditation, using Biblical

to

dream images, and images from other

negative

moods can be changed

into

sources.

I

shall try to

Christ so that one can be delivered from these moods, and

how

this practice

help one in depression, anxiety, or anger. This will help us to see

can transform and stabilize one's emotional especially actions

toward others and toward

life

we

shall see

how

I

shall offer

and

others,

prayer

it

is

road to the universal language of prayer.

and from

in general.

examples of meditations that have

taneously over the years, concluding with a description of the

can pray the Lord's Prayer. These,

can

meditation

We shall go on to discuss the

this fits naturally into intercessory

In the final section

how

and, with that, one's total outlook,

society.

practice of meditation in healing prayer for both ourselves

there

show how

images and then brought before the Risen

way

in

risen spon-

which we

hoped, will offer some signs along the

Intimacy, Art and

Meditation One tually

one's

Our

we

reason that

because

is

so often discuss prayer only superficially

some ways,

this, in

Speaking about

life.

is

it

in

like laying oneself

open

with another person

is

learns that all love has ple that

it

only after

is

not easy to stand

is

it

Holy should be such a

is

taking someone into the

like its I

the record of one's love

ups and downs.

am

seems

life.

life

with God. Sharing

really trusted that they will

tell

peo-

in listening to

me

of their deepest

and experiences and commitments.

religious feelings, their hopes

This reluctance to speak about religious experience stood out, almost the walls of a building, to talk,

it

it

bedroom scene where one

have discovered

I

it

experience to share.

difficult

intimate aspects of one's love

like telling of the

is

In reality meditation

intellec-

for public examination.

our weakness and fear and exaltation. Perhaps

strange that contact with the this

and

the most personal and intimate aspect of

meditations reveal what matters most to us, and

naked before others

Yet

is

among

Dame. When

students at Notre

would be about some book or

idea. If

then in another hour of listening and talking

I

I

they

passed muster

first

like

came

in

in that situation,

might hear about problems with

parents or a brother, or in the dormitory; their sense of loneliness and isolation

and problems of full

was

identity.

of sexual fears still

and

And

after that test

another level of sharing which

vinced that

would not doubt or

I

I

might then be admitted

tales of sexual peccadillos,

some not

found only

I

when

ridicule or pressure. It

so minor.

to a

room

But there

they were quite con-

was then

that

I

was ad-

mitted to their religious experience, their sense of the presence of God, their

know Him better. way with a friend and

feel-

ing of closeness and desire to serve and It

takes courage to share in this

another person into

this deepest level of

ultimately vulnerable, for

deepest values are and

human

it

Other who

is

And

it

human

requires even

at the heart

counselor. Allowing

experience makes any of us

allows the other person to discover where our

where we can be touched.

being the center from which

real courage.

our

we move

more

We

are exposing to another

or wish to move. This demands

of us to open ourselves in depth to the

and center of 16

reality.

Most

of us are afraid to try

Intimacy,

we have

because

We that

hard to believe anything

our heads,

try, in

to accept

we

ality in the universe,

among

retribution

among our else.

that reality

We

so

and

7

and judgment and the wrath of God our nerves and

what Jesus Christ

it

Even when we

cells.

reveals to us about the ultimate re-

are not truly convinced.

It is

and

so easy to find anger

and

lack of acceptance even

and family, that we keep on projecting upon God

closest friends

And

justice

else in

people, to learn about criticism

what we have known from thing

i

not been able to take the Christian revelation really seriously.

have heard so much about

is

it

Art and Meditation

people.

There seems

to be little reason to expect

any-

requires real courage to turn to the center of things, to face

what

find out

is

there.

are not really sure that Jesus

knew what He was

when He

described

God

peering into the desert waiting for a

wayward

child to

story of the prodigal son,

talking about in the

who

as that father

come home

stands

so that

He

can pour out upon the child the incredible richness of His love and concern.

This If

is

we

and

our

love, then

lives,

God

could be like

Then,

God

about

religion,

too,

many

way

threatens our whole

it

of

life.

to turn

to act

on that

away from

would be

for being,

takes a genuine act of will,

it

and then

this,

we have

and reasons

of our motives

No wonder

turned upside down. that

At the same time

too good to be true.

should turn to the center of reality and actually find that kind of concern

to believe

first

belief.

the idea of popular sentimentality

being loving. Freud was certainly right in criticizing that kind of

which he described

what

consideration of

life

womb.

as a longing to return to the

is

expresses a

It

by an indulgent parent without conscious

superficial desire to be taken care of

come out of a genuine when they love in the children and make them depen-

about. But this does not

confrontation with God, with "Love." Even parents, deepest and wisest way, try not to indulge their

As long

dent.

as

dependency

is

needed, they offer

courage the child to step out toward maturity.

God? Those who have

it,

but their real desire

How

the courage to face the reality

can

we

is

expect any

to enless

of

and be confronted by that

Love are refined and transformed by the experience. They do not

fall

back into

childishness very easily.

Being confronted by love means responding, giving back Other. for

And what

His love?

St.

can

unworthy

means stepping

possibly give to

God

—

that

Catherine of Siena was once asked

that the only thing ple as

we

of

we it

can offer

as

we

God

of value to

Him

is

this, is

freely to

ours to give

the

in return

and she wrote back

to give

are of His love. Really meeting the

willingly into the refining fire to be slowly

—

our love to peo-

God who

is

love

remade and changed

one has confronted. Some even turn away from human demand upon them. They realize how powerful that experi-

into the kind of love that

love to escape this

ence can be, and they

resist

being opened up to forces outside themselves which

might loosen their ego control of ful experience;

life

one can be caught by

and change them. Love it

and forced

to

is

indeed a power-

change, which

is

painful for

8

A

1

most

human

Basic Perspective

And the touch of a human love affair.

beings.

gerous than that of a

God

loving

no

is

less

powerful and dan-

The Ways of Relationship Sometimes we conceal our

God

relation with

we

afraid that others are closer than

But once we have turned and are actually seeking

we

need for someone

will almost certainly find a

with love demands sharing of

we

are

to confront the Other, then

to talk with.

And

this experience.

prayer because

in

someone may be further ahead.

are, that

sharing

in

Real confrontation

we

realize that all

of us, even the best, are babes in the woods.

So much growth and transformation are

God

who

that those

possible in one's relationship with

are trying are like the laborers in the vineyard.

1

There

is lit-

who has labored all day and the one who has been at work for only an hour. The first and the last are not far apart. And each of us, the best and the least alike, needs other human beings with whom we can difference between the

tle

one

share our deepest experiences and safeguard against deceiving ourselves.

whom we

each need some person with level of experience,

— with

and we

whom we

also

We

can talk about any of these things, any

need a group

— which of course can be only two

can pray. Although a real confrontation with the

God

revealed in Jesus Christ often comes alone and apart, in the desert or on the

soli-

people

tary mountain top,

and

The

practice of prayer

being, our ideas

and meditation reality of the

and thoughts, our plans

We

life

to the Other.

for

more than human

When

God.

disclose love,

our

is

as

a natural

fails to

happen,

we

for the day, for the

fears,

as

human

bring every part of our

our hopes, our

week, for our entire

human

love,

our

thirst

our anger and vengeance, our depression, sorrow important to

lostness, the values that are

and meditation incomplete, and that

know

it

is

complex and varied

Other,

us,

our adoration and joy and

thanksgiving. Leaving out any part of the spectrum of

to

beings. This

wrong.

is

As we confront the

itself.

and

draws us toward other human

integral part of the experience of meeting

something

life

it

is

like

human

meeting a person

better, only to find that the relationship

life

makes prayer

whom

one hopes

cannot grow because the other

person dares to share only a small part of himself/herself.

What

true of

is

human

our best

in relating.

It is

not very hard to

At those times we want

including the darkness and shadow, so that ual better.

If

Christianity ty,

one

is

loves,

that

and

relationships at their deepest

true of the relationship with God.

to

know

to

know

is

even more are at

about the other person,

we can love or And the

one can bear everything.

God wants

all

best

know when we

care for that individincredible mystery of

us in that way, in total depth and reali-

the darkness as well as the light, the anger as well as the love. Indeed our

Intimacy,

human

desire to

Art and Meditation

19

know and love some other person in depth springs out of the God Himself. This is perhaps the most essential way made in the image and likeness of God, this way of needing to

very nature and reality of in

which we are

and

love

have had one particularly good friend

I

He

be loved.

to

once shared the very depths of

by alcoholism and sexual friend

kept

came

it.

week

together.

his

began

he stopped

AA

He

years.

But when he came back and we

had happened between time came

to

He

lived there, creatively

We

us.

talked,

it

discussed

And

this.

He

got a job.

got married

and then went

and independently,

was apparent

to

for three

that something

it

just evaporate.

keeping a part of himself from

me and

tionship from being real.

were

my He

Gradually

life.

life.

this.

did not really seem to communicate.

weakness that of course did not

each needed to

with

about

indeed broken

life

Then a came out that my friend had felt that bother me with any more of his shadowy darkness, any of the

when we

he did not want

me much

and through a vow renewed each

his drinking.

in

city.

taught

with me, a

to be able to deal

work

another

life

fear, failure in school, failure in

He

Jointly through the support of

at the altar rail,

who

broken

know

a

Once

it

was

We

both realized that he was

that this actually prevented the rela-

clear that

whole person and not

we were

both

we we

losers, that

a mask or portion, then

just

friends again.

Almost the same God. As long

as

we

story could be told over

feel

that there

out and share with God, then

some

we

is

and over of our relationship with

some part

cheat

Him

we

of ourselves that fully as

much

inscrutable reason, something hidden deep in His nature,

meet the

totality of us,

cannot lay

For

as ourselves.

He

good, bad and indifferent, in the greatest depth.

wants

And

to

only

then can His love touch every part of us and transform or change the whole.

For

many

this

reason the meditative process

different sides of meditation

Other, as there are sides of bring to the Other, like to

it

is

human

is

a many-faceted jewel. There are as

and prayer, of meeting and confronting the life.

If

there are parts of us that

like letting part of the

gem go

all

the other aspects of his

life,

when

life.

If

we want

the transformation that can come,

we

Sometimes the very things

ashamed can become the most

brilliant part of

talking about gold; they

not

life

in-

to volcanic

to each of these sides of

need to bring

ourselves before the Presence.

by that Presence

one's prayer

from one's anguish and despair

and explosive anger. There are prayer forms appropriate

we do

So many people

as prayer of thanks-

emphasize certain forms of prayer or meditation such

giving or adoration. But these are completed only volves

uncut.

of

all

parts of

which we are most

our being when they are touched

and changed. This was the change that the alchemists were

when

they hoped that the base metal might be transformed into

were speaking more of the base metal of

the metal in the furnace.

their

human

nature than of

A

20

Some

Basic Perspective

years ago Louis Evely

down

set

these thoughts about sharing

and

love:

Love must express and communicate

itself.

That's

its

When

people begin to love one another,

nature.

they start telling everything that's happened to them,

every detail of their daily

life;

they "reveal" themselves to each other,

unbosom themselves and exchange

God

confidences.

hasn't ceased being Revelation

any more than He's ceased being Love.

He

enjoys expressing Himself.

Since He's Love,

He

must give Himself, share His secrets,

communicate with

us

and reveal Himself

who wants

to

to listen.

anyone 2

These words speak a very profound to allow others to really

bring

all

know

much between God and

perhaps even more. For

and anguish, that

we

to

truth.

this

is

all

we

begin

we

it

we

of our disappointments, our joys,

and communication.

the nature of love

reason

as

It

applies

does between person and person, and

shall say quite a bit

about prayer in fear

anger and sorrow, since modern piety mostly seems to assume

in

cannot find

go wrong.

Love can begin only

can begin to love and be loved only as

a person as

God through

and comfort children,

to love

We

of ourselves to the other person,

our angers and hopes. This as

us.

God

is

to help

them

pick

certainly not less than a

Communication

is

any good parent expects

these experiences. Yet,

up the

human

pieces

when

things seem

parent.

a growing process. As one comes to trust more and

more, one reveals more and more. Sometimes these will be things which looked so black that

we

buried them deep in the unconscious.

We

could not bear to

keep remembering them. As trust and concern and love begin to grow, even these things can be brought out of the darkness.

And

until then

few of us can

ever become free of the nagging fear, hidden in the heart of nearly every person, that no one could really stand us being.

I

recall

was able did, the

one young

to reveal the things

change

It is

man

in

if

with

we

actually

whom

I

let

worked

them

see the totality of

for over

our

two years before he

he disliked most about himself.

When

he finally

him was miraculous.

not easy for us to realize that the

One who

is

love does care for us.

We

Art and Meditation

Intimacy,

have

more

to bring the

secret parts of ourselves

2

up slowly and

let

the reality of

the

One who is love be tested. This takes courage, patience, time. In fact one of reasons why I believe in a life after death is the way communication with

the

Other develops. Even

the

at the

end of that

cation with the

Other early

to

communicate with

of

them and

in

our

us,

and

life,

lives

On

it.

One who

the contrary, every

beginning

realize all along that this

Other

we

now and

another of us which strongly suggests that

trying

is

all

the parts

is

no good

all

the care

There

begins this process, and offers us

grow

to

communi-

experience of

are just not long enough to bring

are able to take, then will end the process just as

ence

just

is

this

of our actions into accord with the Other.

all

reason to believe that the

we

in the best of lives this reality

Even when we have known

life.

are beginning to experi-

then an experience comes to one or

on

this process goes

our physical

after

death.

Human

Types and Meditation

If this is true,

then quite possibly there

meaning

is

suggested that meditation can be as varied as

unique, each one

may

is

is

real

we

forget that

leaves are identical.

tinguishing imprint,

to

is

her

own way

be helpful, but only one's

When is

it

to

thinking of

no two of them are

some

rule of

thumb

no wonder that our

that

understand each other

human

beings as sociological

any more than any

identical,

even our fingers and toes and voices leave a

would make

better.

One

some order

to find

in this varia-

easier for different types of people

it

of these theories

the understanding of

is

personality types developed by Dr. C. G. Jung. This theory, which

most important contributions

The

test

she developed

one of

is

his

been tested experi-

to psychological thought, has

mentally by Isabel Briggs Myers. difficult to use.

dis-

many

personalities also differ in

unique ways. There have been several attempts tion,

totality of his or

and meaningful.

have become so accustomed

abstracts that

two

Since each person

uniquely individual and personal, will offer a relationship with the

Other that

We

we have

in the fact that

itself.

have an individual way of relating the

will

being to God. Other people's ideas

which

life

very helpful and not

is

J

Jung's theory suggests that there are sixteen basically different types of individuals,

al

and that each type has

and organizing

tion

may

well

it.

Many

be understood

its

own

characteristic

as

different

ways

individuals prefer to relate to religious realities.

we

try to

expect

He ator this

is

understand and relate to that person

him/her far

who

to be a

made

us

world. Apparently

in

and given us

He

of taking in informa-

at

different

wants each of us

which

When we

just as

carbon copy of ourselves.

more understanding than we are has

ways

of our fundamental divisions over prayer

our

ways

My

he/she

is,

After

all,

of responding

to seek

Him

in

ritu-

of

types

love another person

and we do not

experience of

best.

and

different

God

He

is

is

that

the cre-

and relating

whatever way

is

to

the

A

22

task

vidual, by

first

is

each of us to find the

for

how one

learning

relationships to the course,

honors each personality and does not try to

any particular pattern or mold

force us into

Our

He

and

best for us individually,

Basic Perspective

Other

in that

order to relate to

in

way

that

functions best,

is

Him.

and then developing one's own

way. There are certain universal

which must be followed. Beyond

that, in

relationship with the Divine, one needs to

an indi-

best for oneself as

principles, of

order to find the deepest kind of

know

and the strengths one

oneself

has been given so that they can be used in seeking and responding to God. Later

on there one's

a time to try other approaches and methods. But until one has tested

is

own way,

it

is

not wise to adopt another person's meditational practice

without knowing whether

will lead as far as

it

one might go by following one's

own way. It is

so easy for a religious leader to

ingful for

many

presented a real problem in in all.

assume that the way which

him or her must be equally meaningful

for

everyone

denominations, and also

else.

mean-

is

This has

in religious

Orders

which the actual devotional practice of one leader could be made the

rule for

For about

many

sixty years

Catholic Orders followed a meditational practice

who

based almost exclusively on the approach of Adolphe Tanquerey,

adopted

the ideas of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. This method holds that the use of images

is

an

way

inferior

whole emphasis on mental communion

in

and

of meditating

seeks to place the

an imageless void.

It

has value, par-

The

ticularly for certain individuals, but certainly not as

an exclusive

needs of various types of individuals could be met

other approaches, like the

very different practice of Still,

if

Ignatius of Loyola, were available.

St.

there are two sides to this matter of the individual's personality type

and his/her way of

relating to

God. God expects those of us

keep on growing, learning to use our personalities more able to

know and

relate to

even more important to of us

is

practice.

Him more

know

one's

who

seek

fully so that

Him

we

and more completely. This goal makes

own

strengths

and weaknesses

and sharing someone

way

else's

both for the leader and for the follower. This

is

of meditating

it

so that each

prepared both to share with others and also to learn from them. At

point, trying out

to

will be

is

this

important,

one way that each of us can find

hidden parts of ourselves and bring them to the meeting with God. With

mind, let us take a look at our differences in personality structure

this in

and how they

relate to devotional practice.

There introvert,

is

first

of

all

the very basic difference between the extravert and the

between one whose

and tangible

things,

interest lies in the outer

and one who

is

ward. Since extraverts find meaning

among

will probably be geared to service

prayer

life

to find

God more

world of people,

affairs

comfortable being alone and turning inpeople and

in

doing things, their

with and to others. They are

likely

often present in the outer physical world than through inner

Intimacy,

Art and Meditation

23

experiences of quiet. Yet extraverts also need time for quiet and reflection; other-

wise they have no chance to integrate what they have experienced

and

find

its

significance for their

own growth and

among

others

their deeper relationship with

God. Introverts,

on the other hand, already find the inner world fascinating and

They

easy to deal with.

are very likely to have no trouble finding an inner expe-

and then look down on those persons who

rience of God's presence,

meaning

largely in the outer world. Since they enjoy quiet,

them

for

time

to find

humans and

is

find their

relatively easy

meditate and seek a personal relationship with the

to

Other. Their need, then, other

it

be called back to the outer world in service to

to

is

to society,

which

is

but necessary for them. Unless

difficult

they will get out and deal with the realities of the outer world, both beautiful

and

sordid, their devotional

tainly

it

would seem

find the deepest

life

tends to

that the introvert

and most

fulfilling

Instead, this difference

become

unrealistic

and detached. Cer-

and extravert need each other

devotional

if

each

is

to

life.

between two types of personality has probably been

and schism

Church. In

tremendously impor-

one

real cause of discord

tant

book Psychological Types, Jung has suggested that type structure may have

been a basic factor

and

in the great theological split of the

revelation, the natural

clash

that

his

Middle Ages when reason

and the supernatural began

to

pan company.

In this

between nominalism and realism, the nominalists were basically interested

in the outer

ture.

in the

came

The

world.

This seemed to the

to

realists

them

to

were caught up by the inner world and

be the ultimate

mind was more

real

its

struc-

For them the image or idea

reality.

than the outer physical thing which was

mediated by sense experience. Because of

this personality difference, neither side

could see the possibility of getting along with the other, and so the conflict was

brought

to a head.

Besides such differing attitudes toward the outer world as a whole, most of us develop at least

we

encounter.

one of four functions that

Two

we

use in dealing with the realities

of these are functions of perception,

information about the world, usually about parts of

The

other two relate to judging, deciding about

it

how

in

which involve taking which one

to organize

is

in

interested.

and use

this in-

formation.

A

mature individual generally develops one of these functions highly, an-

other to a lesser degree, and then leaves at least one buried in the unconscious

and seldom consciously used. function, but this

is

easy for us to use.

We

can sometimes learn to work with

usually not wise until

By experimenting

we have

in the

weakest area before working cons-

ciously to find the strengths that can be used, in all areas. After

we have

this fourth

developed the ones that are

one usually ends up undeveloped

learned to function well in our favorite area and can

use an auxiliary or secondary one, and after finding a nodding acquaintance

A

24 with our third function,

do

we

Basic Perspective

can then investigate what our inferior function can

for us.*

The

first

pair of functions, by which one receives information, are the per-

and the

ceptive ones that are called the sensing

who

intuitive functions.

Those persons

prefer to use their senses, the sensing type, are interested in individual de-

Generally they

tails.

live

"get-it-done" persons, doers. Action

They

rest of life.

prayer

in is

the

They

their response to prayer

and

also to the

toward structured and familiar prayers, some often-used

their meditation into social action

more

In contrast, the intuitive persons are data, in perceptions that are received in

The

in a

are usually

are likely to be conservative in their meditational practices.

They have real need to go out from rect what needs correcting.

ence.

"now" timewise and

often find religious pictures, crucifixes, icons helpful. Their

will tend

life

meditation.

more comfortable

repeatable situations and are

like

well-known environment. They

unconscious

is

their ballpark,

and cor-

often interested in unconscious

some way other than by sense

and they enjoy

it,

They

fluence in the outer world or directly in the inner one.

experi-

either observing

its

in-

are likely to be in-

novative religious leaders, interested in renewal in the Church. Their time sense is

in the future

and they are "thinker-uppers." They seldom can handle the de-

what they think up, however. The inner

tails

of

and

since they use images

bold in trying

new ways

and understand

of meditating.

their

They

life is

very meaningful to them,

meaning, they

will

find themselves at

probably be

home

in

imagi-

native praying.

In religion

it

is

important that the conservative, stick-by-the-rule leader

does not quench the enthusiasm of the intuitive person, and also that the intudoes not expect the impossible of sensing individuals, but allows their

itive

prayer to lead them into doing something about what they perceive. At the same time, each has a great deal to learn from the other.

The

intuitive

must learn that

there are bounds beyond which one cannot step without danger, and that one's

own

value has

roots in tradition, while the sensing person needs to realize

its

something of the vast openness and freedom of the imaginative,

and

its I

came

intuitive

world

possibilities.

recall

to

me

one clear-cut example of

When

the sensing function.

*The undeveloped

I

this.

I

was working with a

whose personality seemed

in real depression,

to

woman who

be limited only to

suggested looking within and finding an image

function, being in the depth of oneself, can often give a person

and using the inferior function is sometimes a way of one most dramatically. Marie-Louise von Franz and 4 James Hillman have written wisely on the importance of the inferior function. The great mystic Jakob Boehme demonstrated its importance by developing his understanding for years around the experience of a ray of light striking a shiny pan. His inferior sensing access to the depth of one's being,

allowing the powers of

function opened the

God

way

to

to reach

him and he worked

for years to integrate

it.

Art and Meditation

Intimacy, that

would help her express her

feelings of difficulty, she protested that she sim-

There was nothing

ply could not use creative imagination.

would come. Yet, when a change

when

she realized that she had

25

finally

felt

began

bound and

no images

there;

to take place in her,

it

happened

had made her depressed.

that this

Suddenly she imagined that the bonds were dropping away from her body, and

was an experience of

there

release

which had a remarkable

effect

on her whole

life.

The

other pair of functions have to do with two essentially opposite ways of

organizing the data that one receives. These are the rational or judging functions

how we

that determine

known

deal with the experiences that

come

and feeling. The person of thinking type

as thinking

to us,

and they are and

likes to classify

arrange things according to logical or intellectual values, while the feeling individual prefers to base decisions and actions

The

first

term

is

upon human

easy for us to understand.

ly interested in logical relationships

scheme of meaning. Time

The

values.

thinking person

and how the world

fits

is

essential-

together into a total

for these individuals runs in a straight line

from past

to

present to future, so that they see things in historical perspective. Their concern is

with ideas and relationships between them, and they

cerned about

how

just aren't

much

con-

other people are affected or whether others are upset by their

understanding of things.

The

description of a "feeling type," however,

is

harder for most people to

understand. This term has nothing to do with feeling in the ordinary sense of ther emotion or physical sensation. Instead, basis of

vidual

how

is

things affect people.

What

is

it

ei-

means making evaluations on the

important to the "feeling type" indi-

the personal value or the value for others of the act or thing or person

or idea. People are important to "feeling type" individuals, and they organize their actions

and thoughts around human

moving from present

to past to present.

experiences that are meaningful to

been meaningful ues.

the

They

in

values.

They

them

Their sense of time

is

rotary,

arrive at their values by matching

in the present

with those that have

the past, and they organize their lives according to these val-

are generally quick to grasp and understand the values of others and

meaning

of

what

is

happening

to

them, while ideas and logical connections

are seldom important to them.

The

thinking types usually build their meditational

life

through connections

with ideas and theology. They find philosophy important and value the

understand

God

effort to

within a framework of ideas and in the historical process.

To

them God can be apprehended by the mind as well as through experience. Their devotional life might seem cold and detached to the feeling person, and they need the correction and support of human values and close personal relationships.

Feeling individuals, on the other hand, find the greatest religious value and

meaning

in personal service

and intimacy. The intimate Eucharist, where there

A

26

Basic Perspective

are horizontal relations between people,

is

often very important to

them and

probably more significant for them than a majestic liturgy or a finely constructed sermon.

Much

But

at the

others.

tion, first

place in a others the In

of their meditational

same

life is

expressed in loving action toward

time, they also need help to

awaken

their thinking func-

simply to evaluate the results of their actions, and then to see their

more

framework

total

meaning they

so that they will be able to

communicate

to

find.

The Kingdom Within, John Sanford has suggested that Jesus expressed what human beings ought to be by combining these various types

the ultimate of

of personality in perfect balance.

inner world. being.

He

He was

cared about people, and yet

He

in intellectual battles.

He

He was

able to turn inward and relate to the

also able to deal with the outer

He

had the most comprehensive

framework.

intellectual

perceived the beauty and meaning of the outer world and at the

was uniquely open

to the intuitive

depth of humankind. Since

we can

are nowhere nearly as balanced as He,

human

world as no other

could defeat the scribes and Pharisees

same time

we human

beings

use only two, or at the most

But as we do learn to use them, we can put them to own growth. And a part of this is learning to be tolerant and accepting of those who have other ways of responding to the divine. It is important to realize that each type of person has to take his/her own avenue to find and explore his/her relationship with God. God is found in many different ways. The important thing for me as an individual is to find a way that can begin to grow. For teachwill get me there, into that relationship, so that ers of the religious way the important thing is to learn how to encourage different ways of responding, to discover how they differ from their own, and how others can develop their own relationship. They also need to study the language three, of these capacities.

meditational use for our

I

and the expressions of

others.

Most

written by introverted intuitives (as they

would care about writing them) and by other

would usually be the only ones who

so they

must be translated

Whether we

are directing our

own

as life

another period of our

lives.

Real

lives

or others'

it is

at

life is

one time

fluid

just

us.

will not be as

Thus, prac-

important

and ever changing, and

people, particularly in their relationship with the center

When we

wise to realize that

changes within and around

which may be very meaningful

suffer

understood

to be

types.

our type structures can change tices

manuals were probably

of the devotional

and core of

are "stuck in cement" and cannot change our meditational like

our relationships with other

human

beings.

experiences and

new

people,

and

also to

reality.

lives,

Creative

beings keep changing and adjusting to the complexities and varieties of

new

at

so are real

they

human life,

to

God.

Meditation and Art

As we write about our

relationship with the Other,

we

cannot avoid get-

Art and Meditation

Intimacy,

27

we are expressing the deepest and most powerful Some people scorn art because they confuse it with wrote to me: "By making us aware of alternatives, art

ting close to poetry or art, for

emotions that

we

entertainment.

A

can have. friend

more

allows us to participate

fully in

most part not art but entertainment. our

to dull

purpose

what

of is

is

rather to

called art

make

pain rather than tools to use in curing the

There

is

mind and

for the

illness

for the

is

us less aware,

senses, to confuse us, to give a false feeling of security

These forms of entertainment are drugs

creatively."

Most

life.

Its

and

success.

drugs to ease our

soul,

or at least letting us live with

a place for relaxation and entertainment, but this

is

it

seldom

a major part of our relation with God. If

there

with the

of

Him

totality of

and

tions

who

indeed an Other

is

aware

are not

life.

and do not

and who wishes

seeks us

Him, we

relate to

Perhaps the greatest expressions of

art are those medita-

God and which

imagination which express our relations with

flights of

and we

to love us,

are certainly not dealing

enable other people to see the possible alternative ways of finding the reality of

One who

really cares for

times

which merely shows us the

art,

them and

will direct

them

of

futility

in their total being.

us on to the alternative, but the great expressions of art

which show us the that Dante,

is

of us

and

the Bible

becomes the

The

Other and expresses dimension.

The

to that

this in

any way

is

art

which

here

It is

greatest

mas-

gospel narratives.

encounter either us

futility

out.

allow ourselves to be open to the reality

Each of

reason for the tragedy and

lost this

we

lives.

stone or in the fabric of our to the

in particular the

artist as

Other and give expression

of the

religion are those

Goethe and Shakespeare are masters indeed, but the

terpiece of art

Each

and

and meaninglessness and then the way

futility

Some-

without the Other, can drive

life

an

in

come

has

words or paint or

know and

to

relate

artist in spite of himself/herself.

much

of so

reflects

who

modern

of

life is

only the barrenness of

that

it

has

shares in

life

the meaninglessness and absurdity. In the deepest sense religion, in which the individual has not been touched by the center of which feeling.

does not

It

know

touched the same center, either

is

bravado

fullest

speak,

is

cold

and un-

in the darkness, despair, or debases

entertainment. In the final analysis meditation

self into its

we

the fire and expression of art. Art, which has not

and deepest. Genuine

manner. The experience of

religion

and

art are

and give expression

credible meeting with reality

this reality

demands

is

the art of living

two names

same

for the

to that experience in

expression. This

is

it-

life in

in-

some

part of the

Those who have been badly hurt or disappointed by churches can perhaps recover something of the reality by seeing the process of meditation and

experience.

prayer as the a

final

and sublime

art

form and the most creative way of

living out

life.

It

is

seriously fear

only dangerous to view meditation as art

and

so refuse to see that real art

and trembling.

When

art

is

is

when we do

not take art

working one's salvation out with

seen merely as one's attempt to reach aesthetic

AB ASIC PERSPECTIVE

28 perfection, then

it

But

this

tual

world and so

is

loses

seriousness

its

only possible

in

and becomes a plaything and not a

a world which does not

sees art

human

merely as a

know

reality.

the reality of the spiri-

product and not a revelation of

more than human harmony and meaning. Jung warns against viewing

one's record of inner experiences as art, either

One must

written descriptions of fantasies or paintings of the inner moods.

careful not to view these as "art" because then they lose their seriousness their

power

to bring us into

a transformation within

world

is

us.

simply to view

touch with another realm of reality and to produce

One

this as

of the

mere

ways

art or

of cutting us off from the spiritual

mere

with power of the reality of art with a capital Surrealist written in 1938. This kind of Art

One

critic

who saw

is

aesthetics.

"A"

Henry Miller

in his

Open

The same

speaks

Letter to the

very close to meditation.

the opening performance of T. S. Eliot's

Party on Broadway remarked that he beating his breast.

be

and

felt like

The Cocktail

leaving the theatre on his knees

would probably not have been touched by the

critic

ordinary religious service. Yet he caught the utter seriousness about salvation

and the

reality of the spiritual

world which

is

found

in so

poetry, in the children's stories of C. S. Lewis, particularly

and

the

Wardrobe, and

in the novels of

many The

Charles Williams.

quality in even greater measure in Dante's Divine

places in Eliot's

Lion, the Witch,

We

find the

Comedy, Goethe's

same

Faust, and

more hidden way in some of Shakespeare's plays like Measure for Measure, The Tempest, Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth. Only a cheap, disillusioned or frivo-

in a

lous art

is

antagonistic to religious experience

Where

the

Church

whether they happen said,

"Morton, there

to is

fails in its task,

be

artists

and meditation.

God

uses

or psychiatrists.

a place for religion in the

whatever channels are open,

One

psychiatrist friend

Church

once

as well as in the psy-

chiatrist's office."

Humankind stands as a bridge between two worlds. Our greatest moments when we have met, nakedly and face to face, the reality that saves and transforms, and then express this as part of our assimilating the experience. Our records of such experiences give us a further step on the road. They also give are

others light to find the path they

brings

more

light

must

and consciousness

darkness to be beaten back.

follow. Everyone's encounter

into this

and record

world and allows the

forces of

PART TWO The

Basic Climate for

Meditation

3

The Climate of Meditation Living things need an appropriate climate If

order to grow and bear

in

fruit.

they are to develop to completion, they require an environment that allows

their potential to be realized.

feed

draw

light to

it,

it

The seed warmth

will not

grow

unless there

is

soil

that can

nurture and moisture that unlocks

to

forth,

its

Time is also required for its growth to unfold. Those who have lived near the desert know the miracle of a rainy year when suddenly a whole mountainside turns orange under a blanket of poppies, or a valley becomes a fairyland of color. The seeds have been there. The soil and the sun and the warmth have been there. Only one thing was lacking, and when vitality.

was

that last climatic need

Meditation

which

fulfilled, life

was profuse beyond imagination.

the attempt to provide the soul with a proper environment in

grow and become. In the lives of people Genoa one gets a glimpse of what the soul

to

erine of is

is

like St. is

Francis or St. Cath-

able to become. Often this

seen as the result of heroic action lying beyond the possibility of ordinary peo-

ple.

The

flowering of the

human

however,

soul,

more a matter

is

psychological and spiritual environment than of particular

How

heroism.

we wonder at the growth random on the littered floor

seldom

gifts

of the proper

or disposition or

redwood from a

of the great

From one seed is grown enough wood to frame several hundred houses. The human soul has seed potential like this if it has the right environment. Remember that only in a few tiny seed

dropped

at

mountain valleys were the conditions redwood,

in

growth

all,

which

spiritual world.

ture that

provide the right environment?

which are equivalent

the seed? First of

and

we

then, do

for the soul

react

Sequoia gigantea, the mighty

grow.

to

How,

right for the

of a forest.

it

Then

can grow and mature. This it

Until

then there

and bring us

to

itself.

are the conditions

soil

and warmth

is

is

it

for

can

the reality of contact with a

must be prodded from within by human need, the moisswell

we

and burst

realize

its

we

that

own

the reality of love

limits

and

so start

upon the

need something beyond our

humanness, neither prayer nor meditation become a

And

What

sun and rain, the

the soul requires a spiritual environment with which

makes the seed

process.

to the

which

own

reality.

seeks out

and

This unique Christian understanding of

desires to touch us

God

is

the light of

the sun which draws us forth. Christians have been entrusted with the knowl-

3

1

The

32

God

edge that die for

is

Basic Climate for Meditation

if

But

credible love.

it

this

means allowing

still

requires one

cared enough to

had been the only one. This under-

that person

standing gives us the assurance that there confrontation. Instead,

who

caring Jesus of Nazareth

like the loving,

any individual, even

nothing to fear

is

the ultimate

in

oneself to be open to this almost in-

more condition

for the reality of

con-

tinued meditation. It

this final step of

is

allowing our

The

expression can take innumerable forms.

by attempting

to

change a rotten

of one's concern

neighbor with a cup of

encourage the seed person

may

It

grow.

to

express that love

warps and deforms human

more

loves, letting

can be expressed by visiting a crotchety old

warm soup, or on a battlefield by lifting some And these things are not only the highest good

water to

them-

in

they also keep our feet on the ground, guarding us from the danger of

selves;

becoming

it

cultivation.

The same

take place.

Growth can seldom be

tree or a

human

It is

may

desire to

respect

fit

we

some

need

seed growing

forced in nature.

growth slowly,

its

We

seem

or fertilizer or

growth

its

Whether

In both cases

at the seed to see

much water

beings to understand that

the world around us

enough

it

is

to realize

two

our

things.

tree.

as

it is.

own

ideas.

Meditation

is

At the same time

to

silently.

have an insatiable

While there

Where

seek out the right climate.

is

we

It is dif-

no harm

it

in

try to force

meditation

is

simple and natural,

conlike

a

requires the right condi-

not provided by the secular world today.

we must

starts to

producing a

more than one condi-

understand them, too often

to

rigid pattern of

and becoming a

tions, conditions reality,

poke

things simple, to reduce every complexity to one cause.

trying to simplify things

cerned,

human

to

for the soul as

be needed to realize some possibility.

ficult for us to adjust to

reality to

along with too

must be shown

personality, nature unfolds

so difficult for

make

our humanness and our

soul, these things all take time.

need for patience. Most of us know enough not sprouting, or try to hurry

if it is

lose

reality.

For both the seed and the is

we

so involved in spiritual things that

touch with outer

touch

One

be expressions of that love in

social structure that

become apparent.

the lips of a dying man.

there

to

another by making love more real to those one already

souls,

tion

lives to

warmth needed

outer action that provides the

If

meditation

is

to

4

The

World

Spiritual

as the Soul's Soil

Most

religions believe that

humanity

touch with a nonphysical or

in

is

We are in touch with a physical world of rocks tribespeople. We are also in touch with a spiritual world

quasi-physical realm of reality.

and

trees

and enemy

inhabited by the spirits of the dead, by demonic and angelic powers. Religious

prayer and meditation were once ways that people used to deal with

ritual,

and being able

spiritual reality,

to deal

how life went with them. The early Christians believed

with that realm

made

a

lot

this

of difference

about

and that Jesus by decisive victory

them morally

disease, they

and

touch with such a world,

powers of

evil in

A

it.

and gained control over mental

in sin, psychologically in

evil forces.

illness,

Since

evil

and physically

in

gained power over these things. There was nothing more important

than keeping

for the early Christians ry,

in

had been won, and the Christian with the Eucharist and medita-

tion shared the victory of Christ afflicted

were

that they

rising again gained victory over the

ritual

in close

touch with the source of that victo-

and prayer were what kept them

of ritual and prayer in this

in

touch with

it.

The importance

framework can hardly be overemphasized. They

enabled Christians to face a hostile world with love, and even to face death with joy.

Some comprehension but related

to,

no such realm, meditation on stupidity and alistic

way

of the reality of the spiritual world, as separate from,

the physical world, at best

nowhere. This

is

madness.

It is

very

difficult to

If

there

it

is

verges

open materi-

to the reality of the spiritual world.

There

is

no

by trying something which they have been taught

one of the reasons

get secular persons to try

view of meditation.

only talking to oneself, and at worst

illusion or outright

Western people's eyes

to find this reality except

leads

crucial to this

is is

why

opening themselves

it

so often requires desperation to

to this reality

which

is

new

to

them. It

was easy

to people in that

below them peak.

It

in

medieval times to believe in the spiritual world.

age

like

in the earth,

stretched

away

It

appeared

an extension of the physical world. Hell was

and heaven

in ten

started just

straight

beyond the top of the highest

ascending layers represented by the planets and

33

The

34

up

stars,

where God reigned

to the highest level

White

Celestial

A

cance.

Basic Climate for Meditation

They

Rose.

wholeness of the

in the perfect

did not lack pictures of the soul's place and signifi-

person was the center of the universe, immersed

in

the world to which

the soul belonged as well as in the bodily one, himself/herself the of the creator God.

For

The

was

person's spirit

main concern

the only thing that really mattered.

reason the great mystics and spiritual writers of the late Middle Ages

this

could indulge in ascetic practices that today seem almost abnormal. Neither Teresa,

St.

John of the Cross, nor

dealing with the spiritual world.

much its

in their imaginations.

Catherine of Genoa speak

St. It

St.

much about

was almost too much around them, too

They hardly

took the physical body,

its

values and

needs seriously.

the

Then began mover ent of

the study of the patterns cf physical matter. Beginning with the stars and planets, step by step to the laws that govern the

atom, they showed that humankind was

tiniest

the universe.

around a

The human

from being

far

down

being was pinned

to a bit of

at the center of

matter revolving

edge of unimaginable reaches of space.

lesser star at the

sophers of the Enlightenment

came

The

philo-

doubt that humans could reach anything

to

human ever touched them. And human evolution, the modern human being has any soul at all. A human

beyond themselves, or that anything more than

with Darwin's impersonal principle of

finally,

world began

doubt whether a

to

being might well be just a

set of

more material

conditioned responses, or one

thing in a material universe that can be studied and picked apart and which will

be discarded in the end. It is

next to impossible to maintain a meaningful practice of religious medi-

tation within a belief pattern like that.

Only

the most resolute or the most un-

conscious are likely to keep on reaching out to something beyond themselves this

is

what they

really believe

about the universe

see meditation as a kind of inner dialogue that results,

but will

aesthetes

this

draw many people

and a few strange

has become

cults will

is

it

which they

live.

if

They may

sometimes produces interesting

pursue

keep at

what there

difficult to see

to

in

it

faithfully?

Perhaps a few

seriously, but for

of universal

many

of us

and urgent value

it

in the

practice.

Frankly, with the breakdown of scholastic thinking in the Catholic Church

and the

rise

of liberal

and

existential thinking in

most Protestant Churches, few

people see any place for the soul as an independent, irreducible reality with a probability of persisting.

ronment, a

soil,

By

the

same token

neither

is

there a place for an envi-

with which the soul can interact. Yet our very real souls are

what we are trying

to

work with

activity in the nonphysical

in meditative practice,

environment

in addition to

its

just

and the soul needs

its

very real involvement

in the material world.

Please note that I

am

not suggesting that the soul can act and react only in

the spiritual environment, only with the reality that

is

of the same stuff as

itself

The

What

I

am

quite an

saying

amazing

usually realize

them its

that there are

is

reality

— can

—

move

to realize

if it is

World

Spiritual

two

the Soul's Soil

two realms of redwood

like the

in

as

And

reality.

and must move

different worlds,

has

it

the soul, which

is

more amazing than we

seed, far

potential. Like the tree,

its

35

both of

in

and

roots in the earth

its

branches in the air and must have both to survive. In several other books,

show

that there

1

particularly in

no good reason

is

doubt the

to

much

psychoid* world with which the soul has

can interact

As

directly.

for

"knowing"

spiritual substantiality to the soul,

a negative proposition, which that

no

spiritual reality exists,

about the world, or

is

no

spiritual

upon the doubter

to

tried to

or

spiritual

with which

it

world nor any

prove

To

this.

This

is

demonstrate

one must show that either one knows everything

knows the very essence

else

common and

the most difficult kind to prove.

is

have

I

reality of the

in

that there

rests

it

Encounter with God,

of things.

And

both of these as-

kind of knowledge that few thoughtful people of today would claim to

sert a

have. Especially in this case

many

in

ages

all

it

would be hard

have maintained

that,

made anything

touched a reality which

sound convincing, when so

to

when

conditions were right, they

within this physical world seem pale by

comparison.

There can be

question about the

little

way

ferent worlds. This

is

Jesus of Nazareth believed.

we

expressed quite clearly His understanding that

seen in one after another of the parables

used some description of the physical world to illustrate what

about another realm of

realm and

reality. It

is

Mount

of Transfiguration.

While Jesus

preciation of the outer material world in

ed

men

to

know

their relation to

teachings about prayer, which strange

how

view. Yet,

thing to

seriously

if

tell

we

Jesus really

all

often

the world of

make

His own experience

also in

showed a thorough ap-

certainly

that

He

said

spirit.

and

This

is

did,

He

assumed

also

want-

in all

sense only within such a framework.

His It

is

take Jesus's moral ideas and then ignore His world-

was

the incarnation of God,

us about philosophy as well as morals.

The world-view

He

revealing

His understanding

evil one, as well as in

and healing of the one possessed by the demon, and on the

where

He was

seen in His various references to the angelic

His teachings about the

in

He

are in contact with two dif-

of Jesus has

more

in

He

probably has some-

2

common

with the ideas of late Judaic

and Greek thought than with early Hebrew thought.

It

may

well be that

God

waited until the climate was right to bring His son into the world. This hap-

pened when humanity was ready could

awaken

conditions are right.

it

It is

not that

God

God's

love,

when

it

can be touched whenever the

has to wait for us to

make

the conditions,

the psyche or soul. This is the world which we know through the unhas been called the collective unconscious or the objective psyche by Jung.

* Resembling

conscious and

to experience the reality of

to the realization that this reality

The

36

He

but rather that

open

to

Basic Climate for Meditation

has to give us time to adjust, to recognize our need and be

His love which

always ready

is

At the time that Christ came with

God

realm through which

this

could do.

It

was

come

to

for people to deal

could be experienced directly. This, anyone

and did not require extreme asceticism

their natural birthright

kingdom

or esoteric knowledge. Instead the

in.

was not extraordinary

it

heaven was right

of

hand, ready

at

to be entered.

The most

vivid

For these

Christ.

down

to setting

experience of the early Church was that of the Risen

earliest Christians the

when

it

came

Church from the Risen Christ with those that Jesus The reality was so close to them that they did

teachings received by the

had given

experience was so real that

the record about Jesus Himself, they sometimes confused the

to the original disciples.

not even realize they were creating a problem.

Yet

come

it

realize that

New

has taken generations of historical criticism of the

to a real picture of the historical Jesus.

He

was known

both ways,

in

We

5

New

by the

first

Testament

have begun only recently

Testament writers

to to in

the historical record, and then for centuries by the apologists and Doctors of the

Church

how

as a spiritual reality.

close the spiritual

world

This was possible because they were to

is

humankind and how they

Greek Orthodox Church has not varied from in the

can touch their

The

become

it

difficult for

Church who gave

two worlds. They saw humanity with one

world of matter, and the other immersed

What

us our Trinitarian

humankind

as a bridge

side joined to the physical

nonmaterial but even more real

in the

and the human soul or psyche

cation between the two.

dominate

the here and now.

lives in

great Fathers and Doctors of the

world-of-spirit,

to

people to realize that spiritual reali-

Christianity continued to express their knowledge of linking

Indeed the

view of the world. Only

West, when the thinking of Aristotle and scholasticism came

Western theology, did ties

this basic

aware of

still

interact.

as the instrument of

communi-

they were expressing might be pictured in a

diagram. (See facing page.)

The

space on each side of the central line represents the two realms in

which the human soul or psyche (represented by the need diagrams to realize the

world (the area on the

many

right),

and

which

forces

so

we

ellipse) exists.

affect

humanity

detail only the lesser

that touch humanity from the nonmaterial world on the

left.

We

do not

in the physical

known

realities

Consciousness and

rationality are represented by the portion of the psyche extending over the divid-

ing line into the area of space and time. into the

world of

spiritual realities.

As

is

The

larger portion of

shown, two of these

times be encountered in the world of matter, but the their

most

effective

What

it

extends deep

realities

human

can some-

psyche provides

meeting ground.

this sketch suggests

is

that

we have

tionality reveals, that in this depth there

is

greater depth than conscious ra-

a reservoir of memories and unin-

The

Spiritual

World

the Soul's Soil

as

THE NONMATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL WORLD

3

7

THE PHYSICAL WORLD Sense Experience; Experiences of Causality and

The

Space and Time

Risen Christ

Holy

or

Spirit

Memories

Consciousness

JtiMfiBk

Angelic and

Demonic

Forces

and

tegrated instincts tact

fears,

with the separate

and

through which

also a deeper level

realities of the spiritual

world.

A

aware

of

it

we

as

can so that

we

are not

moved

We

is

know whether one

usually a difficult task, to

within one's ego or possessed by an element from beyond pelling reason for trying to find out, trying to this depth. evil, as

people

need to become

willy-nilly by either a frag-

mented part of ourselves or some unknown element of the This

find con-

person needs to be in

touch with this depth to have a "single eye," to be wnole. 4 as

we

become

spiritual world.

moved by something But there is a com-

is it.

as conscious as possible of

One's being can be touched and even penetrated by the powers of is often called the Holy Spirit. Most war going on within them between the powers force of light which the early Church knew as the

well as by the creative force that

who

turn inward find a

of destructiveness

and the

Risen Christ. 5 This

is

a struggle which one cannot win by one's

own power,

but

Him

win

only by being open to the reality of the Risen Christ and allowing

to

the victory.

Meditation

is

the practice, the

one's rational consciousness

an

of letting

down

from the depth of one's

the barrier that separates

soul. In Christian

meditation

—

The

38

one

trying to

is

come

whole being

one's

Basic Climate for Meditation

The purpose

Risen Christ.

is

which

evil

unconsciously. In this

new

that

and

and freed from giving find a

to stay as conscious

But

we

we

is

make

way we

the

grant

like that described

full reality to

what

is

world, and then ask

Have we,

as

many

cant than

is

found

this

I

We

is

if

one

full

some

try not to fool our-

have suggested, then few things

Only

lives.

if

in this

way

we

are

able

our sonship through Christ. this

true, or

is

does one find out

if

can expose ourselves

what we have found

tallies

is

such a

is

a realm essentially

is

know

I

way

of only one

to

the scientists have used to

the

way

of repeated experi-

experiences of this other

to

with the descriptions of others.

more

others have stated, found something in the purely physical

there actually

there

if

same method

to try the

true about the physical world. This

ment and experience.

whether

How is

more nearly

sense only within

and

as possible

by Jesus and the early Church?

an answer, and that

deliver

and operating

can make us whole and bring us to maturity.

then, does one find out

realm of spiritual reality?

learn

same time

beyond ourselves, we would

like this

can do are more important for our

How,

find

power

and rational

to reach out to the reality that

This

center, or the

in to destructive impulses.

prayer and meditation are what

if

open

that will

brought together and given the single eye

is

In reality, Christian prayer and meditation

that

at the

seeks to keep the person fragmented

way one

such framework. Unless

selves.

way

a

center of being which allows a person to operate at

potential, creatively

do better

in

and integrating

to allow the Christ to bring the split-off, conflicting

parts of one's being into fruitful relationship,

from destructive

world

into touch with the spiritual

to the reality of this creative

and

lasting

signifi-

realm? Only experience can decide

true or not.

In this sense meditation

is

the laboratory of the soul. Like the physicist

studying the atom, or a biologist working with the

or the psychologist trying

cell,

to understand a complex, the person who turns inward learns about the realities that are found there, their patterns and how to relate to them. While this comes

by experience,

would

one does not

still

from

start

time an experiment

is

performed.

The

any more than a

scratch,

blithely forget everything in textbooks

and

scientist

try to reconstruct

and the explorer

world both need the accumulated wisdom of the

past,

even

scientist all

it

every

in the spiritual

when

has to be

it

questioned and sometimes brought up to date.

But one great

we have

forgotten

difficulty in learning

how

to use

much

about the spiritual world today

of the

wisdom

often seems that the only place to go for guidance

which,

it is

true,

can

tell

us

much about our

that is

is

is

that

available to us.

It

to the Eastern religions

inner world. But

when

it

comes

to

the practical effect of meditation on the things that are important in Western life,

Eastern thought leaves a real gap.

choice.

We

We

are then faced with an Undesirable

can accept the Eastern idea that the outer

or illusory and of no great value, or

we

reality of life

is

transitory

can turn back to the standard values of

The our

World

Spiritual

own world and go on

as

the Soul's Soil

39

leaving spiritual realities out of our calculations about

What we in the West generally fail to we have another choice, although a difficult one, and that our task what our own tradition says about this question and then go ahead

the world that matters to us right now. realize is

that

is

to learn

and

try

it

out.

There are a few the outset. First of

person

ego

To

a strong ego, a strong consciousness

to find relation to the spiritual

is

not bad.

is

things, however, that all of us probably need to realize at

all,

go upon

It

this

has to give up the ego or

established in the outer world

Him

Risen Christ and allow roots this

and

is

a

we

Our

person

who

has never

to turn resolutely to the

obligation

first

is

to sink

are able to stay on course and take

kind of direction.

Much

nonsense has been written about the spiritual world by people

open themselves

to

to this

without realizing that they were courting is

the psychotic

mental

illness that

any barrier

who

anyone

disaster.

The most extreme example

encounters the spiritual realm. Psychosis

back the

else, just as

tides

The

evil.

The

is

it,

of

a kind of

psychotic lacks

from the depths of the soul and veers with

psychotic has just as great religious experiences

valid ones, but the

anything about them except

who

realm before they were ready for

can result from failure to develop an ego.

to hold

every current, good or as

if

and one cannot very

self,

The

no position

in

to take direction.

view so that

find our point of

were trying

this

indispensable

having a strong and stable center of one's personality.

refers to

way one

well give up something that one does not have.

become

is

world through meditation. Having an

talk,

problem

having no

life

is

that he/she

of his/her

own

is

not able to do

which such

into

experiences could be integrated.

One

reason that

many

that they see

is

no understanding of the

it

people are leery of taking the inner world seriously

merely as a world of

is

people sooner or later to view

Yet

this

illusion

and

psychosis. In fact

reality of the spiritual world, the

thinking does not

fit

all religious

the

facts, as

where there

tendency

is

for

most

experience as some kind of illusion. the philosopher

Henri Bergson has

The Two Sources of Morality and Religion. For one thing, our world simply does not produce any finer or more effective people than the men shown

and

so well in

women who

are dealing maturely with this inner reality.

In taking this inner

way

6

of meditation, however, even the person with the

strongest ego needs to realize that there are dangers, that one faces a vast

of contrasting

and

often conflicting realities.

One might

are higher, the oceans deeper, the colors even

more

vivid than in the physical

world. Certainly the forces of light and darkness stand out far

we

are accustomed

to.

And

in the spiritual

world

world

say that the mountains

we

more

clearly than

find not only greater

beauty and creativity than in the physical one, but also the reality of destructiveness

and

One

ugliness, of evil

itself.

of the saddest misconceptions of the

modern world

is

the notion that

The

40 something which

Basic Climate for Meditation

spiritual

is

must necessarily be good. In

through and through only when

be truly

evil

spiritual

world that such

evil takes

when

shape,

evil.

And

there such evil

so that

the devil. For our fight

is

not against

human

and potentates of

against the authorities

and becomes unmiti-

encountered, naked and direct, as the author of

when he wrote about putting "on all the armour you may be able to stand firm against the devices of

Ephesians described clearly

which God provides,

is

usually in the

is

a subordinate or partial good

takes over, pretends to be the central or the essential good,

gated

something can

reality

spiritual. It

is

it

foes,

this

but against cosmic powers,

dark world, against the super-

human forces of evil in the heavens" (New English Bible, 6:i if.). The inner way, the way of meditation is dangerous. Any mighty

into the middle of a

tering

upon

ego), for

way, and that

this

is

blind target.

your own

and

way

You

you

not entering

it

(assuming you have a developed

forces free play. If

and bloody

you do not

get into

you become a

Whomever

of meditation,

cruelty,

colors or classes of persons,

way becomes

the darkness seizes in this

sometimes even sucking a whole nation

acts.

way

of no

them upon other

project

an instrument of destruction and

way

enter this arena for curiosity or diver-

allow the forces of destructiveness to enter and eat away at

soul, or else

know

puts us

only one thing more dangerous than en-

try to stay in touch with the forces of light,

other races or other nations.

I

is

you then allow the destructive

the battle yourself

into cruel

To

struggle.

sion can be disastrous. Indeed there

which

practice

brings us into contact with forces from the spiritual world in this

that this danger can be

and

this

met and overcome except by the

not child's play. But then neither

is

life

is

itself.

Most people are beset by difficulty and danger both from without and within. Most times when we do not see the grim reality in the lives of others, it is because

we

we have

will first try the inner

God, we see,

closed our eyes to

will find help

way

it.

But the message of Christianity

— dangerous

as

it

is

— and

provides solutions, hope, and victory, and the

we

Good News

is

that

kingdom

seek the

on the road ahead. The way of Christianity,

outer world and the one

is

as

we

if

of

shall

for both the

can find within.

And how does one come to believe in such a world of spirit? Is it by faith? The spiritual world can be discovered and experienced by anyone who really wants to find it. One acquires this knowledge by making the same Heavens, no.

hypothesis that others have made, and then experimenting with

the other hand,

is

given;

it is

a

gift

the forces of darkness in that world, but will find

powers of the Risen Christ. Faith

and learn about the tation to

is

what

to

it.

This

is

the

way one

tests

not by saying what he thinks or believes about

know

them already

in flight

one the confidence

gives

reality of that world, to use the practice of

open oneself

life.

Faith,

on

of trust that one does not stand alone against

it.

to

from the go ahead

prayer and medi-

any hypothesis— by

action,

Discovering and coming to

spiritual reality requires the action of meditation. In fact, the

time one

The

Spiritual

spends in quiet and openness,

in

dence of one's actual belief about reveals just

This a

how much one

is

stood

to the

wondering what

as

the Soul's Soil

this

and wants

me

stretched across the abyss.

to

far better eviIt

know.

recently by one friend

do next, he was amazed

And

is

world than any theological declaration.

who

edge of an abyss which he could not to

41

imagination and introversion,

believes

like the story, told

man who came

World

to

is

a priest, about

cross.

As

the

man

discover a tightrope

slowly, surely, across the rope

pushing before him a wheelbarrow with another performer

in

came an acrobat it.

nally reached the safety of solid ground, the acrobat smiled at the

When

they

fi-

man's amaze-

ment. "Don't you think I can do it again?" he asked. And the man replied, "Why, yes. I certainly believe you can." The performer put his question again, and when the answer was the same, he pointed to the wheelbarrow and said, "Good! Then get in and I will take you across." What did the traveler do? This is just the question we have to ask ourselves about the spiritual world. Do we state our belief in it in no uncertain terms, even in finely articulated creeds, and then refuse to get into the wheelbar-

row? What we do about think

we

think.

that there really will not be very

it

is

Are we willing is

a better indication of our belief than to take the

time and

The

practice of meditation

and no amount

of thinking or reason-

a spiritual world available to us?

meaningful unless

we

ing can take the place of experience.

do,

what we

effort to test the hypothesis

5 Cracking the Husk:

Man's Need It

hard

is

for

God modern men and women

for self-reliant

to ask for help

beyond themselves. All through modern history there have been voices

them

to rely

on themselves, that they need nothing

volume has stepped up among Western

Most people have become convinced

other idea.

do-it-yourself proposition.

We

and

else,

thinkers until

in recent times the

almost drowns out any

it

human

that

from

telling

essentially a

life is

reach our goals by carefully planned social condi-

tioning and by working hand-in-glove with matter and the process of develop-

ment

that

is

Is

turning to rectly? In

full potential, their full

possible for

it

Few

seen to occur inevitably in matter.

they can achieve their

men and women

people stop to ask whether

growth, without run their

to

lives

first

finding God.

adequately without

God and becoming open to the realm where God is many ways we human beings are like seeds that wait

found most for

di-

moisture to

break open their husks so that they can sink roots and begin to grow and develop,

and

this raises a real question. If

do

gested,

we

we

sink roots in the spiritual world

and

should our souls be exposed to

realm? At the outset

the answer

Most

is

this

find direct contact it

must be admitted that

not a simple and easy one.

of us

would rather

This process of allowing new

human

way we have sugwe can with God? In fact,

are like seeds in the

need to have the husks of our souls cracked open so that

beings.

One

to nourish a living,

gives

up

growing

stay put life

life

to

than seek such an experience of growth.

open up

to find a

plant.

is

While

death and resurrection for

like

new way,

like the seed that gives itself

the seed seems to have no choice, the

person must choose to experience dying in order to

live,

and

this

is

of us will knowingly expose ourselves to such an experience unless

vinced that If

one

it

leads to

believes,

growth too valuable

way. As the story

at the

all

growth

end of the

last

as

we

to cross

it

Few

are con-

a natural result of defoolish to test the soul

realities,

is

a dan-

and we should not

at-

we sense an actual need for the direct experience. As long that we can stay on this side and find all the fulfillment that

unless

are quite sure

is

it is

chapter suggests, there

gerous abyss between the experience of these two

tempt

we

to avoid.

on the other hand, that

veloping and experiencing in the physical world, then in this

painful.

42

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God life offers,

we

probably have tasks enough for one

ever, the prospect of death to turn

toward

certainly

allowed ourselves to be

we have already seen this opened up to God and the world of

We

are almost

ultimate need and

if

spirit

before the ul-

us. life.

We this

now

reality, often

turn to the questions this raises about a person's outer

without their understanding or even recognizing

people are opened to the need to search for

dangers involved

whether there

is

in

it.

Finally,

trying to open another person's

we no

we

it,

and how other

shall

is

examine the

and the question of

life,

need for everyone to go the inner way. First of

about the claim that humanity has come of age, which

Man

how-

later,

of the most confident persons

then consider the kind of cracks that open the souls of some people to

Let us

that

Sooner or

lifetime.

some

forces

other reality whether they are ready or not.

this

ahead of the game

timate need catches up with

shall

sometimes

43

all let

us ask

Bonhoeffer's view, and

longer need direction from beyond our immediate world.

Come-of-Age

human problems could be neatly packaged and sent to the low bidwe would learn at least one thing. The biggest bundle would certainly be the one labeled "Problems of Self-reliance and Maturity." To become mature, adult men and women have to learn to stand on their own feet, tackle their own needs and work with whatever powers they are given. It takes us human beings most of a lifetime to try to become mature and independent. This is known as developing a strong ego which is essential if one is ever to go the inner way. And even then, most of us never quite get over the wish to be babied and taken care of by other people. It is no wonder we often confuse human maturity with becoming independent of God. Religion itself can be used as a crutch. The worst abuses of power have probably occurred because people wanted to rely on God as a defense for their If

our

der for solution,

action or inaction. Religious people have often looked for reward in

a future

and

life

fullness of living in this present one.

was meant

change what

On

is

be and that

men and women

are foolish to think they can

what do we have

to

show

in the opposite direction? In the past

"coming of age" and trying

"know-how" and

skill

in

to

make

it

for the

abrupt swing

in the

century

we have had

a taste

on our own. Yet with

all

our technical

reasoning and diplomacy our world seems to race

toward overpopulation and pollution and

self-destructive conflict. Millions die of

hunger and over half the world's children go paration for

their

that something like slav-

considered the "divine order" of things.

the other hand,

modern world of

to

fulfillment

and renewal

At times they have even concealed

quo by convincing themselves

desire to keep the status

ery

and

instead of doing the best they could to bring justice

war absorbs an enormous share

to

bed hungry most nights. Pre-

of our energy,

and over the

hundred years we have fought the bloodiest and most damaging wars of

last

one

all his-

The

44 tory.

"man come

seems ironic that the phrase

It

man who was

popular usage by a

camp.

Basic Climate for Meditation

about

was brought

of age"

hanged

to be

into

a Nazi concentration

in

1

In spite of the tremendous increase in medical knowledge, physicians often

and psychological

find that they are baffled by the mental

of our problems and despair in living at the present

pa-

difficulties of their

Almost everything that we moderns write or produce imaginatively

tients.

We

moment.

face with the ultimate prospect of a meaningless void without

come

hope of a

tells

face to

life

after

death. Fifty years of

many

Marxist experiments

over the world have apparently

all

people in those countries with the same feeling of despair.

simply more honest than our present Christian culture. that

we

no God

is

most religious

but this

Marxism

individuals

and

We

their

our

have done our

own

own

ability

house and world

level best

ability

we

(which

II,

which there

life in

still

to

good order

It

muster

seem unable is

everyone

trich

direction.

ask

We

humbly

is

way.

longer needed

no need

for religion or

creative,

and no one seems

to

we can. But once we do), we still need someas

need

our best

to give

and guidance.

for help

effort

Many

life in

to

I

is

There

is

worry about

God

believed that we were ready God and would worship Him

the lives of people

communal

God. People's wants are

He

panionship and fellowship. This true to

our intelligence and

all

B. F. Skinner, for instance, describes a Utopian is

Bonhoeffer also denied our need for

idealistic

to be

meaning beyond the

not a matter of choosing between

perfect balance by proper conditioning or training. ty;

by meditation

thinkers, however, reject this understanding completely.

Walden

In

world and

and in as

often

and divine power and

to this present-day

modern

to

rational

this

in the historical process.

thing more. Both efforts are needed.

human

According

Marxism, a person's need

there any possibility of

is

involvement

need to use our

to put

Of

need something beyond our-

to reach dialectical materialism

to a drill press. In

not recognized nor

is

in history.

working out of

we

recognizes that

Trying pray

like trying to

self-reliant

power

working

to the

will.

replaced by the al-

is

seen only as an impersonal principle that grinds on without

is

possibility of changing.

would be

dilemma by conscious

or solve our

is

makes no pretense

It

but the ultimate reality

to,

must give themselves

(dialectical) process. selves,

turn

to

belief in the materialistic process

belief a people

this

own world

can create our

course there

left

Marxism

life

come

hostili-

after death.

in a different but to

filled in

no anger or

Die-

even more

we no we want com-

of age so that

only because

a beautiful idea but one that

I

have not found

have known.

Apparently both Bonhoeffer and Skinner had doubts they did not express. Skinner speaks of feeling a certain aimless boredom

wonder

if

written of

he

is

how

convinced by

he carried

his

own

Utopia.

A

bottles of sleeping pills

in

life,

which makes one

close friend of Bonhoeffer's has

and tranquilizers

to give people

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God

He

in times of stress.

45

evidently thought people needed something but didn't ex-

pect religion to give

was ultimately

Indeed, the suffering that

it.

on

inflicted

Bonhoeffer by the Nazis suggests that people are not quite ready to take over

and run things without God; nor for

my

in

opinion are

pills

a very good substitute

God. People

still

find a need for

something beyond themselves

best they

can and then look honestly into the depth of their

nore

with a

this

mature

truly

stiff

upper

lip

our need

to

making up

usually

some

religious institution.

human

which

abilities

not enough,

is

God,

who

by

comfortable parish

was

life

life

as in lecturing

who

insist

wants us

and powerful,

has been a deep need

total

our

and when

kinds of people,

all

I

I

have found

have

common

lot

of

all

in a

true in the

it

from one end of the country

as well as those that

felt

on

to use all of

human

every group, young or old, wealthy or poor, people whose full

is

to keep people dependent

and without need. This was true

other and in Europe. Insecurity seems to be the

and

struggle

more.

suburban Los Angeles, and

in

human

in the first place

ministering to

totally secure

academic community, as well

Among

God

God Himself gives something

found no one whose

wisdom and under-

our

plug- for total self-reliance are

believe,

I

are, after all, given

In over thirty years of parish

rich

for further

lack in themselves, while those

on a repressive

that

God

to

basis for the idea that

on God. People

to rely

for

no

is

and dependence on God are generally trying

reliance

to ig-

as they first develop all the capacities they have, recognizing both

standing and power. There

opposed

Trying

them become mature. They become

does not help

and weaknesses, and then turn

failures

do the

after they

lives.

to the

beings.

seemed

lives

were empty or oppressed, there

which the individuals normally found

difficult

to

express to others.

Most

of the time people are able to keep

often feel confident

reward

this

and

only by

life.

up a good

Our

society

kind of self-sufficiency. But behind the

and hurt which make life

with

satisfied

it

front

seems

that a loving

God

is

to

human mask

possible to experience real confidence

KNOWING

and appear and

there.

I

and

demand and

are often pain satisfaction in

have found some people

who

reach this reality through the Church and the rituals that express

tion,

and others who have come

of these ways, however, lost

is

to

easily available to

the reality of the belief system.

would wish

for

any of

but in

us,

found no alternative for those verse.

all

The

my

many

individuals today,

experience of recovering

Neurosis:

to

who come

Morbus Sacer

Many

people, in

become

—

fact,

the

in ac-

is

who have not one I

I

have

face to face with a meaningless uni-

like the seed

Holy

it

reading and personal experience

You can then keep your guard up and perhaps

you must allow yourself

it

through the practice of meditation. Neither

it

risk

going to pieces, or

and be opened up

to

new

else

life.

Sickness

have already had the husk of their souls cracked

The

46

Basic Climate for Meditation

open, although they ordinarily will not admit

prime

sufficiency a

They

virtue.

My

not see any place to turn.

world that considers

to a

it

encounter with the pain and need that

every crack in our social facade was in the parish of which

twenty years.

had been forced

I

admit that

to

I,

my own

willing to speak to a few people of

too,

need,

People came to the church with their problems wives in trouble, parents out,

from sexual

times even the threat of neurosis,

and physical

At times

who had

and

fears

sixteen

scarcely put

my

came

I

was

it

One

on the

dam

like a

side,

I

was

bursting.

and husbands and

by one their

came

stories

alcoholism and some-

from meaninglessness and inner hurt

like

to depression,

ministering to a parade. In the twenty years

hundred families came

many know most

because they needed help, and shorter periods.

almost

rector for

illness.

was almost

it

was there more than

fill

was

I

needed help, and once

— children

been rejected.

rigidity to affairs

jail;

self-

are suffering, mostly in silence, because they do

finger

to

stayed to

most of them

become members

for longer or

of them, sometimes in depth,

on one whose

life

I

to the church,

was complete and

and

satisfying,

could

I

with no

we offered these individuals God who cares. They kept coming,

need for God. As a rule the most important help

was

in finding a

because fect

and

in

way

of relationship with a

other places they found mostly the idea that Christians are to be per-

must be a symbol of that perfection, not a gateway

that ministers

the problems of the

human

tumble out and make an opening

soul

for

to let

God

to get

in.

People are not

much

different in other places. Recently

New York

mission at Trinity Church on Wall Street in

was

the church

filled

I

City.

gave a healing

For three nights

with people seeking healing, and the most

common

need

they expressed was to find meaning, some meaning that would help them bear

Too

the inner pain they suffer. to stay

often,

them and keep up a brave show ed advice like

where most In

however,

all

busy and get their problems solved, or

fact,

is

that

it

like

other people.

leaves the pain

often nothing can touch

is

advice about

how

they are advised to forget

The

trouble with well-intend-

and agony locked up

inside the soul

it.

the deepest dread and pain, which existential writers reveal so well,

seldom comes

which keeps

this

they find

else

to the surface until people are relieved of the struggle for existence

them busy

all

of the time.

So long

by the problems of getting enough food and

as they are completely absorbed

fuel just to stay alive, they

have to face the despair of meaninglessness. Working with people at our society has brought home

to

me how

seldom

all levels

often the greatest misery

of

and pain

occur along with great wealth. These people have no outer problems important

enough

to

keep their attention diverted from the emptiness of their

own

being.

With no outer problems, they are exposed to the reality of the inner or spiritual world. They feel as though they are naked and alone and are usually guided only by fear of what might be found if they looked within for meaning. This is

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God one reason

making almost a

for

busy enough

Anyone who

and agony. Like

own

blackness.

there

when

often find

one

is

forced to look inward usually faces

depth of our whatever meaning we have known disintegrating;

few people

so

If

solitary confinement, this exposes us to the

fear of finding only a void, fear of death

is

time

this

way and

stripped in this

is

fear

We

bridge clubs and bingo parties.

fetish of

necessary to look within.

isn't

it

47

see

any place

and an

for

dissolution (particularly in

after

life),

and the threat of

condemnation. These are elements of the confrontation that are described over

and over by writers from Paul

The Courage To Be caught forever

in

Tillich to Jean-Paul Sartre.

God beyond

writes of finding the

Although

Tillich in

god, other people see

man

They are

a blind nothingness that most people try to escape.

Waiting for Godot or Sartre's

afraid of finding only the pointlessness of Beckett's

Nausea.

This terror of looking directly into the blackness and finding only experiences that seem meaningless and devouring

blackness

and

ness

is

there; the

find

need

is

not to escape

meaning on the other

the darkness than the words of St.

side.

worse than any

is

sickness.

There

no better description of

still

is

John of the Cross

in

Dark Night of the

The

idea sometimes heard today that darkness can be avoided and

find

God

only in joy and celebration, in peace and comfort,

that perhaps reveals our present lack of experience.

way

this

in

some darkness and depression or

along the way. Celebration bration

is

often hollow

and

is

fine

false

and comes

and

else

We

and we are then thrown

Soul.

should

a grave delusion

is

be caught up by

it

somewhere

Beforehand, cele-

na'i've.

way

to the inner

When

into this inner world.

of ego defenses are shattered in one

we

are apt either to begin

after deliverance.

Often the opening from the outer conscious realm us,

Yet the

but to go through the inner dark-

it,

this

is

made

for

happens our husks

known an

or another. Perhaps one has

— some— or perhaps

experience of love, or the breakthrough of a searing religious experience times about as pleasant as Paul's encounter on the

one

struck by neurosis:

is

open

often

us,

through our

all

three of these

own

need, to

illusion,

men and women

to

profession of psychiatry,

need

Of course

work, and religious experience can

unmask and which

is

It

often forces

seek help.

dedicated to relieving the in-

creasing anxiety and agony of people today, has begun to sons'

experiences can

reality.

but one cannot ignore the pain of neurosis.

comfortable modern

The new

common human

another dimension of

love can be dismissed as merely the gonads at

be seen as

Damascus road

awaken

to these per-

As Jung originally noted, behind every neurosis lies one's reality of which all living religion speaks. There is a grow-

for religion.

separation from that

ing awareness of the importance of this understanding and of the point

made

that he

human

reality

had never seen a neurosis healed had been

more than one way.

reestablished.

My

own

until contact with

Jung more than

experience has borne this out in

The

48

Basic Climate for Meditation

working with college

In

students, particularly over the past six years,

have found that their neurotic problems spring

more

far

from a

often

deal with religious reality than from ordinary pathology. For often the "sacred illness" that forces

them neurosis

Few

meaning.

to seek

of

from being cut

off,

them are aware enough

for

one reason or another, from their religious

Some

of

them

it

roots.

result

Many

of

and they are usually perceptive

of their need for meaning,

to realize that they will not find

reality.

is

them have

any other trauma than comfortableness. Their pain and suffering

suffered

inner

them

I

refusal to

until they

encounter a

new

level of

are willing to take the time and effort for the inner

way, rather than merely shopping around

an easier behavioral answer to

for

their problem.

Depression edge. This

common

is

cold of

common

modern

medical profession scribing a

another experience of which

such a

is

mood

One

psychiatry.

their effort to

in

elevator

have some first-hand knowl-

I

expression of need today that

— which

is

is

it

often called the

should have real sympathy for the

do something for depression besides pre-

about as

effective as aspirin

in getting at the

is

cause of a cold.

my own

or the Church, but as a result of being plunged

into the black depths of myself in depression

need affected

real need; the

became an

much about

are sick in this way,

introduction to the realities that are the substance of religion

come through seminary

did not

self

who

have no reservations about the need of people

I

because

me

intolerable burden.

the depths of the

and

At the time

anxiety.

I

human

who seemed

could find no priest

and was willing

soul

how

have met

I

to deal

In an I

had

with

it.

in

dozens of people since then

I

knew

own

of her

Ours. Through her

I

to offer others a

Max

who

Zeller, a

was learning through him

Here

in these

the early

pages

— from

that

One

soul

forgotten

did not have myself,

I

reason

a

man who had

believed that there

is

I

me

to

is

Always

escaped from a Nazi

who

not only started

me

read the gospels again. In the light of what

I

read and reread the

I

began

Church knew

my

turned to her was

a reality that can touch and

Jewish follower of Jung

New

I

have suggested ways of providing

Guidelines for Counselors (Pecos, N. Mex.,

woke up to the fact reality. The Church,

this

Dove

I

Testament.

to find the reality of the loving, saving

so well.

mythology that could be discarded, but a

*I

know

human

Church had

work on the profound anthology, The Choice

toward healing but taught

whom

meaning

discoveries with me.

found help

concentration camp, and

This was

in it-

There were no Christian shamans* or medicine men!

agony of trying

need and shared her

save.

— the

to

have help or be destroyed. At that point Dorothy Phillips realized

to

because

was

to enter those depths

with me. Although the problem was a religious one of healing the

— one

I

physically as well as psychically so that living

that this I

found, had gone

help in a booklet, Finding Publications, 1974).

God

was not

Meaning:

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God on touching people

right

at this

ry of Jesus Christ over the

with what

opened

deep

vistas of reality to

me

that

evil.

my

had learned through

I

level as

powers of

these insights could be shared.

Jung,

we

open

to

tried to

make

it

With

believed in the victo-

it still

There was nothing

inconsistent here

psychologist friends. Instead, they

were not only

For the next eighteen years we

tian.

long as

49

tried to

had

religious but specifically Chris-

make our

where

parish a place

the help of the thought and practice of Dr.

a place where people could bring their needs,

become

them, and learn to use the most basic Christian ways of dealing with

them. Physical Illness

For many of the people

was

to get

Even when things seemed

made

who

found their

over some kind of physical

illness,

way

to

my

church, the

need

first

very often psychosomatic in nature.

we always

to point only to psychological distress,

sure that the person had a thorough checkup by a good physician before

counseling could begin. Specifically physical problems can be masked (as well as

aggravated or even triggered) by psychological

from neurosis

to purely physical ailments

and psychosomatic disorders

— can

Sickness of any kind,

distress.

— including organic

diseases, infections

be an expression of a person's unconscious

need.

Indeed, sickness in

need shows up

in

all

forms

is

common ways

one of the most

our society today. With

the

all

improvements

ment, a larger percentage of people require care for

illness

in

unconscious

medical treat-

than ever before. 2 Re-

pressed fear and anxiety can interfere with our resistance to bacteria or to cancer cells

and can

literally destroy

our bodies

dozens of ways. Medicine has

in

come

to recognize the deadly potential of this kind of stress.

There and

is

no more

to help deal

effective

way

for Christians to realize their

with the needs of others than by sharing

the

in

work

own

needs

of healing.

They can do this, first by knowing their own fears and anxieties and helping others to become aware that they have these emotions, and then by helping to reveal

and share the base of

real

meaning which

courage to deal with fear rather than letting In the process,

it

gives people the security

up

build

in

some healing miracles do happen, and sometimes

gives an individual gradual healing.

As people

face

and

unconscious tensions. this process also

and handle

their problems,

they often find complete health of body, mind and soul. By using prayer and meditation much as the early Church did to bring hope and healing to people,

we open

both ourselves and others to the healing reality of the loving God.

shall be ever grateful to

Agnes Sanford

for

opening

me

to this ministry

books, her down-to-earth lectures, and her personal friendship.

Our

I

by her

need for

healing can start the soul's growth toward health and wholeness. In addition, the medical profession

is

tury of separating physical healing from

suffering today its

spiritual

from more than a cen-

and emotional

base.

As a

The

$o

Basic Climate for Meditation

show more problems with drugs and

doctors themselves

profession,

alcohol,

neurosis and divorce, as well as a higher suicide rate, than any other profession. I

worked

sity

for four years

with groups of senior premedical students at the Univer-

Dame who

of Notre

because they had discovered these ing,

which they could exam-

originally asked for a course in

and death.

ine the problems of suffering, dying

statistics

and they were alarmed. They

They

asked for this course

about the profession they were enter-

much the same conclusion: The when a doctor must deal conand fear of death. The patient is not

came

all

5

to

detached medical attitude does not work very well

human

stantly with

misery and suffering

and the doctor develops unconscious

satisfied

physicians

who

belief in a

pervading meaning

meaning when nothing

to

does

else

it

—

all

On

guilt.

the other hand, the

empathy and understanding need some some experience of the Other who gives

relate to patients with

—

they are to deal with these things day after

if

day and not go under themselves. If

our need

meaning

for

meaning, however,

first

of

all

is

it

to

open us up

Whether one

to

human

beings for an approach to the realities of

acknowledge that one has

this leaves a great deal to

tried to

It is all

one

World

too easy for most of us,

stays put,

what

just

on

the

human

first

step

is

these

simply

resources and that

— the Reality of Evil immersed

in the

basic needs exist outside of our

making

life,

this

a doctor or

be desired.

Reflecting on the Needs of the

zation, to forget

depend

is

who depends on

a theologian, lawyer or politician, or simply a layperson

other

can give

to the reality that

has to be recognized.

the regular rounds of business

can stay shielded from the

difficulties of

comforts of Western

charmed and

circle.

friends

and

civili-

As long gossip,

as

one

people even in the next block. For ex-

ample, the people in Palm Beach seldom stop to think about the conditions of the migratory workers hardly ten miles away. Yet anyone to look at

the why,

what and how

Some concerns.

who

takes the trouble

the surrounding world will find more than enough need of

it

and search

for

to question

some ultimate meaning.

people, of course, are insensitive to anything beyond their immediate

They bury

their heads in the sands of comfort with

no

interest in find-

ing the Christ by going out to the hungry and thirsty, the prisoners and the

Others are sensitive

in the extreme, so sensitive that they

are afraid of

it

life

as

and

is,

often they try to escape through alcohol or drugs.

Gertrude Behanna,

who

marked

was what made

it

that wealth

kept her

self

wrapped

sick.

dread being hurt. They

told her story in her book, it

The Late

Liz, once re-

possible for her to go the alcoholic route;

in cotton batting so that she did not

have

to face either her-

or the world.

But most of us are

in

as well as physically,

and

to struggle just for a

little

picture our

own

between.

this

makes

to eat

We it

live in relative

difficult for us to

and a place

comfort psychologically

imagine what

to lay one's head.

We

it

means

can hardly

children crying with hunger each night, perhaps with not

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God even enough clothing to keep out the

how

most of the world

helpless

and

flood

pestilence, or for that

is

wind, nor do

chill

we

51

really

comprehend famine and

in the face of natural disasters like

when

matter

faced by injustice

and cruelty from

higher up. Certainly there has been enough

war and

tion in this century. In every part of the globe

on

battlefields or in devastated cities

on the

become

every city where

streets of

The same

violent.

The

— between

racial

human wants

If

punishment on

do not occur

forces are usually

groups and

in

fam-

fester until those affected

found

in

wherever one person or group has taken responsibility inflicting

casualties

and concentration camps. They occur

wherever there are tensions between people ilies,

can find the victims of human-

aggression and ability to hate.

ity's senseless cruelty,

just

violence and organized destruc-

we

our system of

for enforcing the

justice,

law and

others.

people were more aware of their kinship, they would be deeply sensitive

to the suffering that

Vietnam or

in a

caused

is

in

such basic ways wherever

European concentration camp,

in

whether

in

Bangladesh or Chad or

in

it

exists,

own country. Their hearts and souls would be so flooded by the sense of human need that there would be little problem about turning to God. Every effort to alleviate that need would make them more open to the presence and action of the Other in their lives. Few of us, however, are this open to human our

needs, even our

own.

We

often respond magnificently to a

awareness peters out, and whatever into the concerns of

Often

it

suffers deeply,

We

easily

is is

our

own

we found from beyond

crisis,

but then the

ourselves

is

absorbed

personal "normal" living.

easy to see that the person on the receiving end, the one

what people can give on

forced to seek help beyond

admit that there are no

of the concentration

camp

atheists in foxholes,

their

who own.

and even the experience

has forced some to search for God. In the pages of the

book, Night, Elie Wiesel lays bare his

own

experience of despair, of watching

every hope die in the hell of the concentration camps, Auschwitz and Buchen-

wald.

Then

in other

value brought him,

works he goes on

first,

to give

show how the

to

loss of

everything of

up hope of finding any ultimate meaning, and

then to search within himself until an ultimate meaning was revealed to him

from beyond himself. This

is

one kind of need that Christians

in

particular

should understand, for at the center of the Christian experience stands man's to man, the God-man on a cross. The teachings of Jesus suggest, however, that we know all about suffering to find our need. We need

inhumanity

should not wait until to be delivered

we

from the

He told us first of all to pray, "Deways He showed that the task is to various Then in from the evil one." the trouble and whether we are nurswhat causing is within and to know

source of our inhumanity, Jesus taught, and liver us

look

ing anger or harmful desires in our hearts.

happen agony

in the outer it

causes.

world and then try

Our to

job

is

not just to wait for evil to

do something about the pain and

Instead, Christians are to recognize the source of evil within

The

52

Basic Climate for Meditation

themselves so that they can seek help

One way

one looks honestly

As Jung

happened,

at the things that

and Nazi concentration camps and

superhuman

order to stand outwardly against

in

certainly to reflect on the need

is

for instance, in the

down from

someone with a warped

claim that the death ovens of

it.

suffering in the world. If

Communist

Laos and Vietnam, there appears to be a

in

force in the universe dragging us

suggested, only

and

Dachau

sense of

we

the goals

humor

express.

could honestly

represented only an "accidental lack of

perfection" or an absence of good. In our

own

we

time

have seen a cruelty over-

take otherwise normal and civilized persons which one might call bestial, except that this maligns the instincts of the animal world. It is

often easy to identify this force within oneself. This force

wish which attacks a person people find it,

when

this force

way

of us escapes

The

idea that

dealing with

evil,

would be funny

way

Either

effects of tension.

in other places.

the effect

if it

fact,

We

battlefield.

that the poor in spirit, the

is

is

I

have

to turn to

it

human

ones,

to

is

more

recent

We evil,

and that these

some

real intelligence

tonomous

force with a

pear to be at

all

that

to affect

of

said

was

it

by themselves.

their lives

more

destructive

spiritual forces of evil are those that

They

are

more powerful

we

evil

fail to

one would

realities,

many

of the

suggest.

see the depth

failure to

human

comprehend

life is

and power of

his life

powers of

evil as

an au-

a kind of unconsciousness

As Berdyaev remarked, the powers

least as intelligent as the

all

why Jesus

the to-do about something that should require only

power

was looking back over

world wars,

life

evil,

perhaps

understand

force of the universe, than

and reason. This

that can lead to disaster.

as he

some other

can be so protected by

for help in

as cosmic

a spiritual or psychoid world as well as a

ways of thinking about Satan or the

and we wonder why

God

blessed, but

manage

they can't

the individual cannot deal with on one's own. like the force of gravity or

also written at

on turning our homes and our

hard

physical one, that person learns that there are forces of evil

than the simply

it

uncreative and

no such thing

meek and sorrowing are

realizes that there

people

tragic lack of understanding. This force

will keep

sometimes find

who know

because they are the ones

Once a person

it

need

that there

show such a

did not

Some

Lewis and Charles Wil-

S.

all its ugliness.

we have outgrown our

or the idea, in

him/her down

4

has to be faced and dealt with or

world into a

struggles against

while others bottle up the lousy feelings

and growth. The novels of both C.

it

death

many

destructive drag entirely.

liams portray the primal force of evil in

some length about

like a

rage, as

is

and

how much one

matter

its

to outbursts easily,

arouses and suffer the hostile to love

fear

there ready to tear the person apart and drag

None

into icy isolation.

simply give

No

they turn inward.

is still

and anxiety,

in depression

light.

of evil certainly ap-

He made

these remarks

with the communist revolution and the two

which he had survived.

remember a conversation I once had with a brilliant and creative theologian who was denying the reality of evil as an autonomous force. We reflected a I

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God together and realized that he

little

which was a protected one indeed.

knew

He

little

53

community,

outside of the college

had never known

real tragedy or violence

or inner agony personally, and in dealing only with rational concepts, he had no

need to postulate the

from

He

it.

reality of evil

had about

much

as

and look

power

for a

him

that could save

idea of the danger of evil as most of us had of

the danger of radioactivity before Hiroshima.

When we door

is

opened

This breaking of the husk

prayer and meditation.

the second condition for the practice of

fulfills

takes great courage, however, to enter this door or to

It

seek for this moisture unless

way

and

spiritual poverty

the moisture that breaks open the

is

life

has already done

your soul has been penetrated, you have religious

helplessness, then the second

inward way. The realization of our

our need for help from beyond ourselves seed.

own

do awaken and realize our to the

little

it

for us.

like a search for rare treasure, or else

Once

the depth of

you follow the

either

choice;

you must turn back

to the

ordinary world with resolute detachment and probably despair. At times one wishes one could back up and start over, but consciousness was apparently designed without a reverse gear.

Need Universal?

Is the

Today, however, we

find

a rash of methods for cracking people open

without counting the cost or looking

thon groups a person ple

have found

thr ;n

is

renewing and

not ready or capable of facing the

may

way

fatigue

ahead. In encounter and mara-

and group

restoring, but these

They

high percentage of casualties.

at the

down by

broken

offer little protection for the

full

were

abandoned. The person

finally

was opened up whether ready

for

it

without a continuing support group

who

this

is

person

work in

or not, and then that a seed with no

as expected

and

such a group often

same person was which

left

to sink

its

Drugs are used indiscriminately by people who have no business trying

to

and with no help provided

roots

like

soil in

to find this soil.

enter another world with no one to guide

them and not even the preparation of

getting along adequately in their natural world.

Andrew Weil

about the dangers of using drugs apart from religious ritual*

*

My

own view

open up the

offer the safer

soul.

ways

is

that

it is

Many people to

best to leave drugs alone entirely.

try the

open up one's

life

has written wisein his perceptive

There are

to them. Passing laws is

and trying

to experience

to enforce

them

a good chance that offering the inward

drug culture could bring about that

result.

better

drug route only because the Church has

ways

failed to

and growth. People need more than

the physical world offers, and they will turn to drugs as long as no other

there

peo-

then go to pieces. Even the modified form of encounter group used by the

those "T-groups"

to

Many

person

depth of inner darkness, and

Episcopal Church for training religious educators did not

ly

pressure.

groups have also had a

way

is

available

will not eliminate the use of drugs.

way

But

of meditation to those attracted to the

The

54

Basic Climate for Meditation

The Natural Mind. Methods

book,

some

inner world they are dealing with. impossible to close

is

or using a ouija board open up

like seances

individuals to real trouble because they do not realize the dynamics of the

it.

We

It is

like

Pandora's box; once

more about

shall say

it is

opened,

these dangers of the inner

it

way

later on.

make

Eastern religions try to specific

way

to follow

culture aside

same opening and then

the

without considering the

and discard

it.

You may

and

thing.

condemned

turned to

method.

this

sonality so that

Many

The

The

much

religion of fear does

open and then submits one If

one deviates, one

to

the

inner

will either be os-

kind of training are so destruc-

effects of this

It

defeats love entirely by walling off parts of every per-

one cannot even know the whole person,

people have been scarred for

damaged by healing

its

individual

to hell.

own

one wonders how a religion supposedly concerned with love could have

tive that

so

the

go a certain route.

social pressure to

tracized or

son.

cracks

It

give the person a

one cannot lay one's

accept the Eastern approach, but you are

forced to leave a part of yourself behind.

same

fact that

this

effect

life

alone love that per-

let

by the use of

this

method. They are

kind of religion that they never learn the meaning of love or

on the personality. While a certain amount of fear

healthy for some individuals,

it

is

may

be

almost always destructive to apply any such

religious idea wholesale, without considering individual differences.

There are to be cracked

also individuals in

open and proceed

some groups who decide

that everyone needs

put pressure on everyone around them. Often

to

they have enough power to keep the heat on until people submit, and this

much

like the police tactic of

is

brainwashing, which has been developed to a fine

some communist countries. As both Jerome Frank in his book Persuasion and Healing and William Sargant in his Battle for the Mind show, the forces

art in

at

work

in this type of religion

and

in

communist brainwashing are the same. In

one case they are applied consciously and preparation for a primitive initiation

can be thoroughly demonic.

We

deliberately; in the other

rite in

are simply

a

tribe.

it

is

like the

Either one of these methods

more aware

of

how

detestable the

conscious and deliberate practices are than the unconscious religious ones.

At one time the survival of Christianity depended upon a fellowship who knew what it was all about. As long as the early Church faced the threat of being wiped out by a hostile empire, every Christian was given three years basic training before being baptized and received into full fellowship. The inner husk of old attitudes and old images was broken down and penetrated by a new reality so that every Christian knew both the need for God and the need for community. All Christians had to have a faith that prepared them to meet death, if

necessary.

Today, however, the pressures seem

For one thing, there well for tices that

son

who

many

people.

is

They

to be of a different type.

accept and use the rituals,

express Christianity in the fullest possible is

embedded

still

works very

dogmas and

daily prac-

a collective Christian attitude that

in this attitude

may need

way

for

them, and the per-

nothing more. Religion then acts

Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God as a buffer

between religious

and the individual.

realities

reducer that brings the 1,000 volts of direct contact that

any of us can

use.

Catholic Church, in the

wisdom

logical

full catholic

lost

its

They

meaning

look for

put their

them

a deep psycho-

is

a person's

life is

is

con-

alive

and

simply not necessary and

them, and they are threatened by pressures from within.

meaning and

try to find

the

Church

some source

of

power or

opened up further

way

of the energy to

these people often feel only

be something different from what they are. There

to try the inner

beyond

When

people, however, find that ordinary religious practice has

for

lives in order. In

to act or to

electrical

disaster.

many

great

an

10-volt current

1

framework and the Church symbols are

meaningful to the individual, the inward journey

A

like

is

doctrine and practice, there

that can keep men's lives in order.

even lead to

It

to the

As Jung commented more than once, within the Roman

tained within that religious

may

down

55

They have

of meditation.

is

more pressure

good reason

to fear

less

for

from being

to the darkness within as they are already seeking

something

it.

Then

there

is

who have

a group

little

tolerance for any kind of religious

way, inner or outer. These people often project their darkness onto others, arousing the hatred and anger that lead to

no approach

to reality except

A

the delusions of psychosis.

who had

such patient

man came asked

in to

thank

"You

other violence.

psychiatrist friend recently told

me

They have

slip easily into

the story of one

suddenly stopped seeing him. After several months the

my

what had happened

patient asked.

war and

through the outer world, and they

friend for curing him.

that led to being cured.

me

told

the streets clean or fighting

to find a cause

communism.

I

The

doctor was curious, and

"Don't you remember?" the

and get busy on ecology or keeping

went

to

work on the communists, and

I've been fine ever since." In those few months he had started a hate group and

brought nearly inner

way

five

thousand

of meditation

attempt to do

in the

may

citizens of the area into

be

less

dangerous

it.

for others

For these people the than the things they

outer world.

In addition, there

is

one group who, without exception, require

ence of direct contact with spiritual

reality,

this experi-

both destructive and creative. These

who undertake to mediate the realities of religion who have lost faith in what the religious institution are leaders who know the experiences for themselves, it

are the religious professionals, to others, often to people

stands for. Unless there

becomes

like

the blind leading the blind.*

religious Orders use some practice to bring novices into contact with and give them a way of dealing with what they find, these practices break down when no one believes that there is any spiritual reality with which to deal. I know of at least one attempt, however, to rebuild a novitiate program by using the understanding of C. G. Jung. It is described by Fr. John Welch, O. Carm., in his unpublished doctoral dissertation on the "Implications of Jungian Theory for the Education of Can* While

many

spiritual reality

didates for the Catholic Priesthood."

The

56

The

Basic Climate for Meditation

pressures on people today seem to be directed

greater consciousness.

If

more and more toward

the constant drive toward growth

and consciousness

does express our greatest need and wholeness, then certainly not everyone should

be exposed to

experience whether needful of

this

ting along with their task of

growth

growth quite well

by examining their

is

are. After this

be sure one

inner world that one

is

is

The

a need for

sis this is

ods.

It

is

a

it

way

for

possible to legislate basis

people

important

to

fertile soil, to

a

way

who have

some map is

and with the greatest

of life for people

who

actually

been unable to find meaning by other meth-

for all people

care.

of the

not a weekend

their need. In the final analy-

break open the ego to deeper reality but

one way

seek direc-

already gone this way,

inner meditative journey It is

to start

and expectations

their desires

who have

and who have become conscious of

people are get-

and the place

following a serious goal and has

entering.

excursion to a land of sun and happiness. feel

and what

and encouragement from those to

all,

lives

Many

or not.

decided there comes the need to find a

is

tion, fellowship

and, above

own

it

as they are,

and one can only do

it

it

is

nearly im-

on an individual

6

Whom Do We Pray?

To

The way

that

you pray, the form and

you think

your meditations

direction

depends largely upon the way you view the world

in

which you

take,

find yourself. If

you are pan of a purely physical universe, you may understand

that

meditation as a method of controlling the brain waves in order to improve your

and emotional condition.

physiological itation,

you

will say

your mantra

If

you then turn

faithfully for

Transcendental

to

Med-

twenty minutes twice a day, and

probably you will find what you expect.

Or,

pended

if

you

toward release from the sider

it

a

ence the

way

illusion

will try to

mature relationship with the universe. This

Zen and other

tation found in

Christian meditation in ther of these.

It is

disciplines derived

most developed form

its

the

way

of medi-

quite different from ei-

is

realm and

in the

nonmaterial or spiritual realm. In

meditation one expects to meet someone, and the encounter

this practice of

usually experienced as a relationship with a person.

must generally

is

from Buddhism.

based on a view of the world that finds each individual impor-

tant, both in the material

resort to images.

vivid inner images. This

many

into the effortless, sus-

make your meditation another step and burdens and pains of this life. You will con-

you

of entering a state of imageless enlightenment in order to experiof

bliss

merging

really envision all life ultimately

of Nirvana, then

bliss

is

Even

Sometimes the encounter

we

something

shall take

up

to talk

itself is

about

it

is

one

experienced in

in detail later

on since

Christian groups in recent years have frowned upon allowing images to

enter into meditation and prayer. Yet one of the most helpful methods that historical Christianity has offered to reach this

Outer course there

TM it

is

is

and actions may

why

no reason

is

by using images. to the encounter,

and of

Christians should not use the techniques of

Zen or

is

one

aware

in Christian meditation, an addition that makes

Christian meditation

something

we

undertake

means stepping out

ality of the loving

not a

is

tionship with a person, an this

encounter

also help to bring

or Yoga. These are valuable so long as one

element tice.

aids

in

that there

is

another

quite another prac-

of escaping from one's condition. Rather

order to bring the totality of our being into rela-

Other

in trust,

way

it

to

whom we

can

relate.

experimenting to see

Father or the Risen Christ.

57

if

Before anything else

one does

find such a re-

The

58 It

is

Basic Climate for Meditation

not likely that any of us will find out whether there

met

forgiving Father waiting to be

one

we do

try to turn to

will not even consider the idea that such a reality

of finding out are slim indeed. strike

meditating

exist,

as

one's chances

many

people

mounGod. Through

gold to be found deep in the

is

The same thing is true of know more and more

valuable.

is

it

we

might

a loving and

is

Him. So long

a vein of gold; not

like finding

It is

rich until they believe that there

it

and that

tains

is

until

explore in order to

finding of

God. But before

He

discovered, a person only believes; through experiencing a relationship one

comes

know. Believing

to

main conditions

the

are seeking. This tianity;

same

it

is

is

a stage on the

way

for effective meditation

found

asserts that

God

is

knowing. Consequently one of

to

to gain

in the Christian story.

some

It is

like Jesus, that at the heart

is

loving, forgiving concern expressed in the

life

we

idea of the reality

Good News

the

and core of

of Chris-

reality

is

the

and teachings of Jesus and

in

His story of the prodigal. can almost hear an audible protest:

I

Isn't this

wishful thinking or merely

projecting humankind's fondest hope into the heavens, refusing to admit

God

the kind of

demands Most of us

have

Jesus

real relationship and, as

us.

are quite willing to be cared

it

takes great courage for

relationship

Much

is

of the time

what

passes for love

upon the other person and

because

I

difficult for

even to each other. Real

is

merely projection, which can ac-

actually is

do not

We

project a part of our-

see that person.

which seem

be genuinely accepted.

Then

excuses are swept away.

real love

not easy.

How

get angry with

This situation allows individuals to look

totally unacceptable. It

there

One

is

away from me temporarily or

try to be accepting.

parts of themselves

When

accepted by the other person no matter

revealed about that individual, and this kind of love

is

is

be coddled and protected, but

from knowing other persons.

often in counseling, people turn

me

tried to suggest, this

for, to

men and women to relate, among human beings.

does occur one finds that an individual

what

I

not often found

tually keep individuals selves

what

we stop to reflect, however, it is harder to say that this is God men and women really wish for. The reality of love revealed by

actually like? If

is

is

no reason not

is

at

a very painful thing to

to look at oneself. All of one's this

because you

and relationship develop between human

beings, they

cannot say, "I can't talk about

won't understand."

Whenever themselves. tionship,

growth This

is

real love

demanding

face the

God

task of

offers

us a far

to

terms with the

more accepting

and we actually shy away from

it

requires, both of

difficult

it

less

pleasant elements of

love than any

human

rela-

because of the deepening honesty and

which involve shedding one's

skin time after time.

and demanding.

Yet Jesus of Nazareth

"Abba." This tice.

coming

is

tells

us to approach

one of His unique contributions

God by

addressing

to religious

Him

as

thought and prac-

Christians are told to turn to the very force that moves the sun and other

To and speak

stars

knowing

small children

like

who

Pray ?

59

need their father and

that they will be answered. In other religions,

"Christians," there

Most tate

Whom Do We

is

call

out

"Daddy!"

and even among many

a very different idea of God.

of the world pictures the ruler of the universe like an Oriental poten-

who must

questioned.

He

be approached almost crawling on one's is

feared, because

He

is

His

belly.

administers the justice with a heavy hand. Often

He

appears very

is

not

and

He

justice

infinitely distant, infinitely just,

much

an

like

almighty steamroller whose majestic will and wrath and judgment must be accepted with resignation, without hope. There are even people to pears to be an unreasonable tyrant

comforts and heals the next.

who

No wonder

people have

little

whom God

ap-

one moment and

strikes out angrily

desire to relate to such

God and prefer to leave prayer to the professionals. Those who hold such ideas of God deep within themselves cannot help but pray very differently from Christians who find the love of a father for a child at the heart of their most central a

experiences.

The Prodigal Father According spelled

it

to Jesus of Nazareth,

God

called the parable of the prodigal father.

back without a word of criticism

much

is

already

— but

Not only does the

— knowing

that the son

father receive his son

is

judging himself too

he brings out the best that he has. Instead of ordinary

clothes he brings the best robes, instead of a

meagre meal they

and instead of recrimination he places

on

righteous elder brother, he

is

rings

his fingers.

the fatted

calf,

Even toward the

self-

kill

open and caring. Instead of chiding him

interested only in justice, the father practices reconciliation

come

He

a prodigal, spendthrift love.

out in His great story of the father and son, which should probably be

to the party

the kind of

and

God men

nection to the

life

join in their rejoicing. This, as Jesus

find

when

they turn to

Him

for being

and begs him

Himself revealed,

to is

for relationship, for a re-con-

that they need.

is not made in the human image. This kind of caring is simply among men and women naturally. It results only when they catch a picture of this infinitely loving God and are raised above the human condition. Although in rare instances we do dream of such a world and such relationships, usually we are afraid to believe that either we or God could be this way. We do not dare to reach out toward God courageously, risking the hope that He may be like that. Until we are willing to take that risk and venture on this path, we actually limit the fullness of relationship that God wishes to give. It is difficult for a human father to relate with affection and warmth when he is mistrusted,

Such a God

not found

rejected or held at arm's length.

He

cannot give

response to robs

Him

Him.

If

one

sees

all

he longs to

give. It

is

no

dif-

who is far more sensitive to our actual inner God as a vicious tyrant or Oriental potentate one

ferent with the heavenly Father

of the opportunity to give us love.

The

60 Taking such a

way

ing in this

step

that

structiveness,

safe.

is

it

human

can break out of the

life

and

same

the

He

one. In the

ago

One

this risk oneself.

might be exactly

up

as Jesus described

They

we

Chris-

has never oc-

It

Him

words and

in

is

simply that

God

are not only alike but the

had on

battles the theologians

same way

many

reason that

at all times.

point of the doctrine of the Trinity

in Palestine,

ative energy

takes a lot of meditating before one

it

simply that they are afraid of God.

is

as Jesus of Nazareth.

How many

being.

Even then

so they keep their defenses

The main tially

of us are able to contemplate act-

pattern of revenge and anger, retribution and de-

and consider taking

tians find this so difficult

curred to them that

Few

radical action.

is

another person has demonstrated such action toward us

until

and reassures us

Basic Climate for Meditation

this issue.

It is

essen-

is

same

in

an important

that people turned to Jesus of Nazareth twenty centuries

Him

can turn to

which made

we

really believe in the Trinity,

and

as the Risen Christ

and

this universe

will let

it

show

in

our

same

find the

pulsates through

still

lives.

And

it.

cre-

if

we

This does not

ability to explain the intricacies of this mystery or how well we know the history of its being understood. Real belief in the Trinity is determined by how we act toward God, how we meditate, how we pray, and especially how we treat our fellow human beings. As I have said before, and probably will say again, our actions tell more about what we really believe than all our intellec-

depend upon our

tual formulations of doctrine.

one turns

If

God

to

expressed by the Trinity,

some expectation

then, with

what

will

one look

for

God

to

of finding the reality

be like? Certainly

does unite the qualities of Jesus of Nazareth and the prodigal father,

human

than any

father. First of all,

and agonies of human

sions

ther by selfishness or by

Jesus of Nazareth, and

He

is

like

Asian

gives free forgiveness

humankind

that

and

Him.

He

cares about us

it

was

as

moment we

far-fetched offer.

we

also gives us freedom.

is

There

is

else

but relationship with

Him

that only love given in freedom is

One

pick ourselves

asks only that

and only

not to pin us

He

and

so

He

relationships founded

down

we

treat

waits.

way God wants

is

He

on freedom

but to see us grow and develop

offers us healing

of the great joys of childhood

parent. In a similar

He

up and

confidence that in the end

will satisfy us,

our potential and our opportunities will permit. In order

achieve our greatest potential,

ei-

being in

nothing that can really prevent us from

nothing

are real. His desire for us

human

are treated.

away from Him or mocking Him. He has

just as far as

be a

swept away

the only major religion of

God

turning

knows

plight, the ten-

to being

like to

better

Witch and the Wardrobe.

the

Incidentally, Christianity

way

human

God

if

is

no matter what we have been or done.

The Lion,

receives us back the

makes such a

other people the same

understands the

He knew what

evil.

He

He

and how prone we are

C. S. Lewis's

in

stan back toward

life

He

to help us

and transformation.

sharing in some creative action with a

us to join with

Him

in expressing

His crea-

Whom Do We

To and

tivity

like

love.

when we

and we can expect

it

early

Church

Risen Christ

ty of the

Him

turn to

and

what we are able

believed in such a Father in their midst.

tionship, love, concern,

to

we can expect guidance human father, for He has

become.

and they experienced the

Him

They knew

as

one

who

wisdom, power, healing and transformation.

they could have had this experience without the revelation of

to a

new

relationship to

level of experience of

God one

ing venture of seeking a fulfilling in

Of where hell

evil

we

a

way

course,

all

God who

of the universe

comes from.

How

so often encounter? If

we

is

is

can a

we do

God

as

its

I

only

know

who

not follow Jesus of Nazareth and the early

stands ready to receive us.

Him

is

How

This takes some doing, because

who

it

power and helps

us stay

possible.

open

of being. Finding this kind of to be.

lose?

It

is

a wild

gamble

to

in the

Here human

away from I

the

do not know.

have known

Him

best

love.

makes demands upon our capacity

we

can locate

deep within us and begin to open passageways of belief

He makes

possible?

is it

meeting unbounded, overwhelming

respond and to love. Through meditation

the experiences

abroad

source and recoil in horror.

that those in the Christian tradition

agree that meeting

We wonder

and loving God permit the agony and

attempts to find a reason and to avoid any dualism often turn us loving Father

the dar-

of.

see the reality of a powerful force of evil

are likely to see

if

Jesus

we have and

not one garden of joy and love. just

doubt

and opened

upon

start

loving beyond any experience

dreamed

I

to reach the deepest levels of

work and

has to put imagination to

that few of us have even

Church Fathers and world,

God. In order

reali-

gave rela-

God which

presented. This conviction shaped their meditation, their sacraments,

them

not

ask,

even more than from a

the knowledge and the vision of

The

is

rather a potential in which our greatest effectiveness and

is

joy are realized. Finally, help,

6

Each of us has a place within His plan, a destiny which

a straitjacket but

and

Pray ?

Meditation

is

this precious vein

in this kind of

to

buried

God and

one way that brings us

to this

we are capable God enables us to grow into what we were meant look for a God like this, but what do we have to to

it

so that

we

can become what

7

The Creative Power of Love Often the elements

no

no

life,

We see

been discussing are

no connection between our prayer

outwardly,

lives

what we do

make a

relationships with other

human

care for others,

is

as

much

and turning inward.

but unless

human

it

and

it

actions.

fabric.

yet

we

find

from morality.

The

two, howev-

What we do

with our

a part of meditation as

In fact, Christian meditation

difference in the quality of one's outer

flare for a while,

that cause

we

well

in the quietness

that does not

may

how

separate

and our

life

present,

all

we

cannot be separated for they are of the same

er,

It

we have

meditation simply because

vitality in

life is

results in finding richer

short-circuited.

and more loving

beings or in changing conditions in the world

suffering, the chances are that

an individual's prayer

activity

will fizzle out.

Loving actions provide yet another condition that

They provide

develop through meaningful meditation. that the sprout of

One

new

life

is

needed for the soul to

warmth

the necessary

so

can break through the surface and continue to grow.

of the great contributions of the

Hebrew

prophets was their understanding

of the direct interplay between people's everyday living and their approach to

God through

God was

While the He,

too,

and prayer. They believed that the only sure

ritual

ing to the just

show

justice in one's

own

to us.

basis for relat-

actions.

revelation of Jesus of Nazareth goes a long step

showed the absolute

which are revealed

we want

to

beyond

justice,

necessity of revealing to others the qualities of

Giving some of the same love

our prayer and meditation

to

is

God

a prime condition

be worthwhile. In our

own

time,

if

Martin

Luther King exemplified the connection between prayer and loving action as few

have done

in

any

age.

His prophetic words are written

in his book,

Strength to

Love.

Meditation and the inner

way

are like a spiral staircase.

bring us to a realization of the nature of the selves.

Then

if

we

new

trying to act

we

whom we

requires putting

what we have learned

level of caring for others or of action in the

The

steps

first

are opening our-

are given

and again with new

new understanding 62

com-

into action,

world.

Once we

upon the meaning we have found, we are ready again

level of meditation;

Christ,

to

are serious about going on and not just pretending or hypo-

critical, this realization

ing to a

God

for a

are

new

insights into the reality of the Risen

of

what our

actions ought to be

and a

The Creative Power

of Love

63

new basis for directing them. At one level we may become open to many different relationships, or at another to the sorrow and suffering for

sympathy with untold numbers of people and

level of experience

is

their condition in

the joy of that

make

As each

life.

we

actualized in our relationships with other people,

find

new levels of community with God. This seems to be an unlimited process. In this way real social action grows from an experience of God. In Friedrich von Hugel's study of the life of St. Catherine of Genoa one can follow this process at work in a life that is certainly one of the most attracagain and again

tive

examples of medieval

many

1

piety.

Catherine

St.

easier to identify with than

is

was

of the cloistered saints, and step-by-step the effect of her search

reflect-

Her initial illumination arose out of discouragement with a meaningless life. The experience made it possible for her to continue in her marriage, living with her wealth until much of it was lost and giving the best of her love to ed in action.

her husband. After his death she protected his mistress and illegitimate daughter.

She moved

and

to a hospital to care for the sick

destitute there so long as her

physical health remained. In each act of giving she richness of her

communion with Love

left

a record of

show her humanness, leaving her precious

In her will she continued to

how

the

God) grew and developed.

(as she called

objects to

favorite relatives.

How

does one go about shaping one's

giving of oneself even

when

one's

own

not a simple matter, and elsewhere

Here

is

it

have

I

life

so that

it

will manifest this love,

needs cry out to be met? Certainly this

approach

tried to

in

it

some

in

touch with the reality that

the door open both ways.

It is

is

found there requires keeping

so easy for us to forget that accepting

nearly always

means passing

that activity

only listening and sharing oneself with others.

is

First of all, such love

is

it

on by doing something active

not created by one's

own

pour out through

it.

life

in action. Since this

not our

is

effort. It

first

to

than relying on our

work through

own

efforts.

us takes

Unless

gives love, our attempts to imitate

it

we

some doing, but first

God

even

if

happens when a ritual, to

and foremost human

does take effort to cooperate with this creative reality

Allowing love

from

for others,

person allows the love discovered inwardly, through meditation and

it

2

necessary to sketch these ideas only briefly to remind us that looking

inward and staying

reaction,

is

detail.

it is

when one finds more certain

far

find the reality of the

are often self-seeking, shallow

Other who

and egocen-

The trouble comes not so much from our intentions, but from the fact that many well-intentioned people force love. They go out in caring for others and

tric.

so

make

valiant efforts to love without

reality they are trying to express

to

first

discovering the difference between the

and unrecognized

self-seeking.

Because they try

go ahead without seeking experience of God, they often spoil what should be

a transforming contact with the reality of love, at best reducing

human

it

simply to a

level.

Probably the best way

to describe

what

I

mean

is

by another diagram,

this

The

64

Basic Climate for Meditation

one representing two individuals facing each other. The nates one it

who

is

flow out to another person. Each

SPIRITUAL

on the

ellipse

trying to be open to love through the religious

WORLD

is

desig-

left

way and

then

let

surrounded by the physical realm and the

PHYSICAL

WORLD

SPIRITUAL

WORLD

Love, or

Love, or

The Loving God

The Loving God

III

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