{"id":18560,"date":"2020-01-27T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T15:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18560"},"modified":"2020-01-27T10:22:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T15:22:35","slug":"18560","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18560","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Knowing and Not Knowing<\/h3>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1FhTqhWTqQs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/all-spiritual-knowing-must-be-balanced-by-not-knowing-2020-01-27\/\">All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing<\/a><\/strong><br>\n<strong>Monday, January 27, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith around 180 degrees\u2014into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect&nbsp;assurance about whom&nbsp;and what&nbsp;God likes&nbsp;or&nbsp;doesn\u2019t like.&nbsp;Why do&nbsp;we think we can have the Infinite Mystery of God in our quite finite pocket?&nbsp;We supposedly know what God is going to say or do next, because we think our&nbsp;particular denomination&nbsp;has it all figured out. In this schema, God is no longer free but must follow\u202f<em>our<\/em>\u202frules and\u202f<em>our<\/em>\u202ftheology. If God is not infinitely free, we are in trouble, because every time God forgives or shows mercy, God is breaking God\u2019s own rules&nbsp;with&nbsp;shocking (but merciful) freedom and inconsistency!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the fourth century, as the Christian church moved from bottom to&nbsp;the&nbsp;top,&nbsp;where it was&nbsp;protected and pampered by the Roman Empire, people like Anthony of the Desert, John Cassian,&nbsp;Evagrius&nbsp;Ponticus, and the early monks went off to the deserts to keep growing in the Spirit. They found the Church\u2019s newfound privilege\u2014and the loss of Jesus\u2019 core values\u2014unacceptable. It was in these deserts that a different mind called\u202f<em>contemplation<\/em>\u202fwas first&nbsp;formally&nbsp;taught.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;Desert&nbsp;Fathers&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mothers&nbsp;gave birth to what we call the\u202f<em>apophatic<\/em>\u202ftradition, knowing by silence and symbols, and not even needing to know with words. It amounted to a deep insight into the nature of faith that was eventually called the \u201ccloud of unknowing\u201d or the balancing of knowing with not needing to know. Deep acceptance of ultimate mystery is ironically the best way to keep the mind and heart spaces always open and always growing.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We do need\u202f<em>enough knowing<\/em>\u202fto be able to hold our ground.&nbsp;We need&nbsp;a container and structure in which&nbsp;we&nbsp;can safely acknowledge that&nbsp;we&nbsp;do know a bit,&nbsp;in fact just enough to hold&nbsp;us&nbsp;until&nbsp;we&nbsp;are ready for a further knowing. In the meantime,&nbsp;we can&nbsp;happily exist in what some have called\u202f<em>docta<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><em>ignorantia<\/em>\u202for \u201clearned ignorance.\u201d Such people tend to&nbsp;be very happy and they also make a lot of other people happy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few years ago, a man from Colorado came to visit me.&nbsp;He said, \u201cRichard, when you were still in Cincinnati, I gave you a dilemma that I was struggling with; and you told me something that has been my mantra for 30 years. You said to me, \u2018You know, you don\u2019t really need to know. It\u2019s okay not to know.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then he said, \u201cThat\u2019s been my mantra for 30 years\u2014with my wife, with my children, with my business, in my politics. Whenever there is a dilemma, I just say, \u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019 It makes my wife happy, my children happy, and my life happy!\u201d&nbsp;Tears started running down his cheeks.&nbsp;\u201cYou taught me this.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I said, \u201cI did? I don\u2019t even live it myself!\u201d But then, most of my preaching is really preaching to myself.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing and Not Knowing; A Hidden Wholeness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/a-hidden-wholeness-2020-01-26\/\">A Hidden Wholeness<\/a><\/strong><br>\n<strong>Sunday, January 26, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside all our knowing must be the equal and honest \u201cknowing that I do not know.\u201d That\u2019s why the classic schools of prayer spoke of both \u202f<em>kataphatic<\/em>\u202f knowing\u2014through images and words\u2014and\u202f<em>apophatic<\/em>\u202fknowing\u2014through silence&nbsp;and&nbsp;symbols.\u202f <em>Apophatic<\/em>\u202fknowing allows&nbsp;God to fill in all the gaps in an \u201cunspeakable\u201d way, beyond&nbsp;words and&nbsp;within the empty spaces&nbsp;between&nbsp;them. The apophatic way of knowing was largely lost to&nbsp;Western Christianity&nbsp;during&nbsp;the time of the Reformation in the 16th\u202fcentury, and&nbsp;we have&nbsp;suffered because of it.&nbsp;As&nbsp;the churches&nbsp;wanted to match the new rationalism of the Enlightenment with what felt like solid knowing,&nbsp;they took on&nbsp;the secular mind instead of what Paul calls \u201cknowing spiritual things in a spiritual way\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:13). We&nbsp;dismissed&nbsp;the unique, interior&nbsp;access point of the mystics, poets, artists, and saints.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strangely enough, this unknowing&nbsp;offers&nbsp;us&nbsp;a new kind of understanding,&nbsp;though&nbsp;we&nbsp;have an old&nbsp;word for it:\u202f<em>faith.<\/em>\u202fFaith is a kind of knowing that doesn\u2019t need to know for certain and yet doesn\u2019t dismiss knowledge either. With faith, we don\u2019t need to obtain or hold all knowledge because we know that we are being held inside a Much Larger Frame and Perspective. As Paul puts it, \u201cFor now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known myself\u201d (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is a knowing by\u202f<em>participation with<\/em>\u2014instead of an\u202f<em>observation of<\/em>\u202ffrom a position of separation. It is knowing subject to subject instead of subject to object.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took me years to understand this, even though&nbsp;it&nbsp;is straight from the Franciscan school of philosophy.&nbsp;<em>Love must always precede knowledge.<\/em>&nbsp;The mind alone cannot get us there,&nbsp;which is the great arrogance of most Western religion. Prayer in my later years has become letting myself be nakedly known, exactly as I am, in all my ordinariness and shadow, face to face, without any masks or religious makeup. Such nakedness is a falling into the unified field underneath reality, what Thomas Merton&nbsp;(1915\u20131968)&nbsp;called \u201ca hidden wholeness,\u201d [1] where we know in a different way and from a different source. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the contemplative\u2019s unique access point: knowing by union with a thing, where we can enjoy an intuitive grasp of wholeness, a truth beyond words, beyond any need or&nbsp;capacity to prove anything right or wrong. This is the contemplative mind which&nbsp;Christianity&nbsp;should have directly taught, but which it largely lost&nbsp;with tragic results for history and religion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Action and Contemplation: Part Three<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/action-and-contemplation-part-three-weekly-summary-2020-01-25\/\"><strong>Summary: Sunday, January 19\u2014Friday, January 25, 2020<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The desert mystics\u2019 primary quest was for God, for Love; everything else was secondary. (<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/contemplative-consciousness-2020-01-19\/\">Sunday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This describes many&nbsp;Desert Fathers and&nbsp;Mothers: high states of union but low levels of cultural, historic, or intellectual exposure to coherent thinking. (<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-desert-mystics-2020-01-20\/\">Monday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The desert mystics saw solitude, in Henri Nouwen\u2019s words, as a \u201c<em>place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs.<\/em>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-prayer-of-quiet-2020-01-21\/\">Tuesday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as so many of the mystics have taught us, doing what you\u2019re doing with care, presence, and intention is&nbsp;a form of&nbsp;prayer, the very way to transformation and wholeness. (<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/a-practical-twofold-process-2020-01-22\/\">Wednesday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in the desert there is no escaping&nbsp;our&nbsp;own habitual responses. (<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-world-carried-inside-2020-01-23\/\">Thursday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In the freedom with which you freely choose to give yourself in love to the love that gives itself to you, in that reciprocity of love, your destiny is fulfilled, and God\u2019s will for you is consummated<\/em>.&nbsp;\u2014James Finley&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-peasants-alphabet-2020-01-24\/\">Friday<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Practice:&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>Growing in the Wilderness<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If the desert is a place of renewal, transformation, and freedom, and if the heat and isolation served as a nurturing incubator for monastic movements, one wonders if a desert experience is necessary to reclaim this legacy?<\/em>\u202f\u2014Barbara Holmes&nbsp;[1]\u202f\u202f&nbsp;\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life in the desert is not easy. It does not&nbsp;offer&nbsp;moderate temperatures to please the human&nbsp;desire for comfort&nbsp;nor abundant water to quench&nbsp;inevitable&nbsp;thirst. The caves&nbsp;that&nbsp;offer&nbsp;shelter&nbsp;likely don\u2019t&nbsp;provide a soft place to lay&nbsp;tired bodies.&nbsp;And yet, the desert&nbsp;<em>abbas<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>ammas<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em>sought out these conditions, believing they would find new and abundant life\u2014even where life seemed impossible.&nbsp;We invite you to take a few breaths and&nbsp;to slowly and contemplatively&nbsp;read this passage from Howard&nbsp;Thurman\u2019s\u202f<em>Meditations of the Heart<\/em>, in which he describes&nbsp;an encounter&nbsp;in another kind of&nbsp;mountain&nbsp;wilderness.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was above the timber line. The steady march of the forest had stopped as if some invisible barrier had been erected beyond which no trees dared move in a single file. Beyond was barrenness, sheer rocks, snow patches and strong untrammeled winds. Here and there were short tufts of evergreen bushes that had somehow managed to survive despite the severe pressures under which they had to live. They were not lush, they lacked the kind of grace of the vegetation below the timber line, but they were alive and hardy. Upon close investigation, however, it was found that these were not ordinary shrubs. The formation of the needles, etc., was identical with that of the trees further down; as a matter of fact, they looked like branches of the other trees. When one&nbsp;actually examined&nbsp;them,&nbsp;the astounding revelation was that they\u202f<em>were<\/em>\u202fbranches. For, hugging the ground, following the shape of the terrain, were trees that could not grow upright, following the pattern of their kind. Instead, they were growing as vines grow along the ground, and what seemed to be patches of stunted shrubs were rows of branches of growing, developing trees. What must have been the torturous frustration and the stubborn battle that had finally resulted in this strange phenomenon! It is as if the tree had said, \u201cI am destined to reach for the skies and embrace in my arms the wind, the rain, the snow and the sun, singing my song of joy to all the heavens. But this I cannot do. I have taken root beyond the timber line, and yet I do not want to die; I must not die. I shall make a careful survey of my situation and work out a method, a way of life, that will yield growth and development for me despite the contradictions under which I must eke out my days.\u202fIn the end I may not look like the other trees, I may not be what all that is within me cries out to be. But I will not give up. I will use to the full every resource in me and about me to answer life with life. In&nbsp;so doing I shall affirm that this is the kind of universe that sustains, upon demand, the life that is in it.\u201d I wonder if I dare to act even as the tree acts. I wonder! I wonder! Do you? [2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing Knowing and Not Knowing All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing Monday, January 27, 2020 It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith around 180 degrees\u2014into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect&nbsp;assurance about whom&nbsp;and what&nbsp;God [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18560"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18562,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18560\/revisions\/18562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}