Buddhist teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo offers an embodied meditation to calm our nervous systems in times of stress and unknowing:
In a sense, our culture, our society is dissolving. We are collectively entering the chrysalis, and structures we have come to rely on and identify with are breaking down. We are in the cocoon and we don’t know what the next phase will be like. Learning to surrender to the unknown in our own lives is essential to our collective learning to move through this time of faster and faster change, disruption, and breakdown.
To begin the practice, find a comfortable position, sitting, standing, or lying. Connect with your body and how it’s making contact with the chair or the floor. Allow yourself to rest back in some way and really feel the support of whatever is holding you.… Every time you breathe out, let your body rest even more into the support of the Earth.
Allow your face to soften, releasing the forehead, the muscles around the eyes, the jaw …
Let the tongue rest in the mouth …
Be aware of the shoulders and as you breathe out, let the shoulders soften …
Bring attention to the chest and belly, allow them to release and soften on the next exhale …
Notice your arms and hands, with the next exhale let them grow a little heavier, releasing tension …
Feel your legs and feet, as you exhale release, soften, and let go …
Feel your whole body now as you inhale and exhale, allowing the whole body to soften and release its weight even more onto the Earth.…
You can bring this quality of resting back into your daily life. When you notice yourself leaning into the future, tensing up, trying to predict what will happen, straining to figure out what to do, whether on your own or with others, see if you can actually physically rest back. Open up the front of your chest, let your arms hang by your sides, and lean backwards slightly. This can support your mind to rest back, release, and let be, even for a short moment and to whatever degree you are able.
A Change in Consciousness
Richard Rohr emphasizes how the desert mystics were not just seeking a change in lifestyle but a change in consciousness:
The desert fathers and mothers emerged in the early centuries after Jesus. Despite their seeming primitiveness and asceticism, they often demonstrated an amazing awareness of the connection between the one seeing and what is seen. In this regard, they are similar to Zen Buddhists in their simplicity, stories, and insight. The Syrian deacon Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399), who is sometimes called the grandfather of what became the Enneagram, says that “When the passions are aroused in the non-rational part of our nature, they do not allow the intellect to function properly.” [1] He and many others make this insight foundational to their understanding of the science of prayer.
The seeking of “dispassion” or apatheia for ancient solitary monastics referred to the inner peace and contentment that they discovered through their profound experience of what they often called “prayer of quiet,” building on Jesus’ talk of “going to your inner room” and “not babbling on like the pagans do” (see Matthew 6:6–8). In this early period, “prayer” didn’t refer to some kind of problem-solving transaction between humans and God, nor was it about saying words to God. It was quite literally “putting on a different thinking cap,” as the nuns used to say to us. It seems that it wasn’t “thinking” at all, as we now understand it, because such thinking is too often just reacting to or writing repetitive commentaries on the moment.
For these desert mothers and fathers, prayer was understood not as a transaction that somehow pleased God (the problem-solving understanding of prayer that emerged much later), but as a transformation of the consciousness of the one who was doing the praying. Prayer was the awakening of an inner dialogue that, from God’s side, had never stopped. That’s why the Apostle Paul could speak so often of praying “always” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In simple words, prayer is not changing God’s mind about us or anything else but allowing God to change our mind about the reality right in front of us—which we are usually avoiding or distorting.
“Dispassion” was the desert mothers’ and fathers’ notion of freedom and salvation, long before we devolved into the much-later notion of salvation as being transported to another realm. For many today, God is seen—and used—as a partner in our private evacuation plan more than any Love Encountered that transforms mind or liberates heart. This is revealed in the little, if any, concern that many Christians show for justice, the earth, or the poor. The fruits of love are often not apparent in them, and not even of much interest to many of them.
I now believe that the other reality we are rightly seeking is not elsewhere or in the future but right in our own hearts and heads! If we put on an entirely different mind, then heaven takes care of itself and, in fact, begins now.
| Learning from the Mystics: St. Francis of Assisi |
| Quote of the Week: “‘I did not come to be served but to serve,’ says the Lord. Those who are placed over others should glory in such an office only as much as they would were they assigned the task of washing the feet of the brothers. And the more they are upset about their office being taken from them than they would be over the loss of the office of washing feet, so much the more do they story up treasure to the peril of their souls.”- From The Admonitions Ch. 4: Let No One Appropriate to Himself the Role of Being Over Others Reflection As St. Francis was beginning his order, he was tasked with writing the rules and boundaries of what it meant to be a Franciscan. You may have noticed that when a Franciscan writes their name there is an OFM at the end. This is short for, “Order of (the) Friars Minor.” “Friars” means “brothers” and “minor” means “small or opposite of major.” There are no “majors” in St. Francis’ worldview. St. Francis was so beholden to the idea of Christlikeness that all who might join the order of the Franciscans were to join an order of servants, not leaders. Humility was to be the mark of those following in Christ’s footsteps. It is fascinating to note that in the quote above, a member of the OFM was not to rejoice or weep for a role of leadership any more or less than the role of being a foot-washer. To rejoice more over a role of leadership than over a role of servanthood would be inordinate or inappropriate and would highlight something within a person that might need to be checked. And so that leads us to the same thought, those of us who are not formal Franciscans. Are we more interested in leading than in serving? And, if we are in a position of leadership, do we only understand it in the context of servanthood? The world has seen enough of church leadership that leads for the sake of ego, pride, or superiority. It seems as though it was an issue back in St. Francis’ day as well. This is actually why Franciscans wear brown robes instead of the white robes of the Catholic Clerics or even the black professorial robes of Reformed Protestants. The brown robes are a visual, intentional representation of the importance of humility in all things, especially in leadership. Prayer Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enable us to emulate your humility. Allow us the proper detachment to leadership, so that we might never lead from a place of pride, ego, or superiority. Help us to understand leadership from the perspective of servanthood, and help us to grieve when we are not able to serve. Amen and amen. |
| Life Overview: Who is He: Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone When: Born in AD 1181, died on October 3rd, 1226. Why He is Important: GK Chesterton claimed that he was the most Christlike person since Jesus himself, that everyone has attempted to walk in the footsteps of Jesus but that Francis actually did it. Most Known For: Being the founder of Franciscans, one of the mendicant religious orders of Catholicism. He is also attributed as the originator of the first Nativity scene in AD 1223. And, famously received the stigmata toward the end of his life. He was canonized as a saint within 5 years of his death. Notable Works to Check Out: Francis and Clare: The Complete Works Books About Francis: The Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure | St. Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton | Eager to Love by Richard Rohr |
