{"id":22674,"date":"2023-07-25T10:51:35","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T14:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22674"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:22:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:22:29","slug":"22674","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22674","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive (Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ihUF8pbphbk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We Resist Persists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard believes that true prayer starts with a positive \u201cyes\u201d and surrender to God and reality:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I entered the Franciscan novitiate in 1961, part of our training was learning to avoid, resist, and oppose all distractions. It was such poor teaching, but it was the only way they thought back then. It was all about willpower: celibacy through willpower, poverty through willpower, community through willpower. But <strong>what we need isn\u2019t willpower; we need&nbsp;<em>the power to surrender&nbsp;<\/em>the<em>&nbsp;<\/em>will and to trust what is. <\/strong>That\u2019s heroic! It was a fruitless and futile effort because <strong>if we start with negative energy, a \u201cdon\u2019t,\u201d we won\u2019t get very fa<\/strong>r (see Romans 7:7\u201311). That was the extent of the teaching, and it\u2019s really no teaching at all\u2014it\u2019s just \u201cDon\u2019t! Don\u2019t do anything!\u201d When we hear that, the ego immediately pushes back.&nbsp;<s>S<\/s>omedays we have strong willpower and we succeed, but most days we barely succeed. [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know the old shibboleth, \u201cDon\u2019t think of an elephant.\u201d If we try&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;<\/em>to, that dang elephant invariably sneaks back into our minds! Just wait. <strong>To actively oppose something actually engages with it and gives it energy. That\u2019s why good spiritual teachers say, \u201cWhat you resist persists.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our<strong> first energy has to be \u201cyes\u201d energy. From there we can move, build, and proceed. We must choose the positive, which is to choose love, and rest there for a minimum of fifteen conscious seconds\u2014it takes that long for positivity to imprint in the neurons, I\u2019m told<\/strong>. [2]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard advises \u201cneither clinging nor opposing\u201d as helpful when it comes to facing our distractions in contemplative prayer:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I had told my novice master that I wasn\u2019t going to fight my distractions, he would have said, \u201cSo you\u2019re going to entertain lustful or hateful thoughts?\u201d But that would have largely missed the point. The <strong>real learning curve happens when we can admit we\u2019re having a thought or feeling and see that it\u2019s empty, passing, and part of a fantasy that has no final reality except as a lesson.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must listen honestly to ourselves. Listen to whatever thought or feeling arises. <strong>Listen long enough to ask, \u201cWhy am I thinking this? What is this saying about me that I need to entertain this negative, accusatory, or lustful thought?\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have to hate or condemn ourselves for a thought or feeling, <strong>but we do have to let it yield its wisdom. <\/strong>Then we will see it is <strong>the wounded or needy part of us that wants these unhealthy thoughts. Our True Self, our Whole Self, does not need them, and will not identify with them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we can allow our thoughts and feelings<strong> to pass through us, neither clinging to them nor opposing them\u2014and without ever expecting perfect success\u2014I promise that we will come to a deeper, wider, and wiser place. Even our inability to fully succeed is, in itself, another wonderful lesson. [3]&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Continuities <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of us have long felt continuities that have little in common with the course of history. We understand what is most distinctive in this fateful moment and what future it holds. But we, squeezed between yesterday and tomorrow, <strong>will we be mindful and receptive enough to participate in the unfolding of the larger movement?<\/strong> Letter to Countess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe<br>July 9, 1915<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> A Year with Rilke (pp. 192-193). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What We Resist Persists Richard believes that true prayer starts with a positive \u201cyes\u201d and surrender to God and reality:&nbsp;&nbsp; When I entered the Franciscan novitiate in 1961, part of our training was learning to avoid, resist, and oppose all distractions. It was such poor teaching, but it was the only way they thought back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/22674"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22680,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22674\/revisions\/22680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}