{"id":18605,"date":"2020-02-19T10:14:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18605"},"modified":"2020-02-19T10:14:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:14:42","slug":"the-wisdom-of-contemplation-%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18605","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of Contemplation \ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br> Wednesday, February 19, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j25JqWgjDF4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>We may think of prayer as thoughts or\nfeelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. . . . Prayer is\nthe opening of mind and heart\u2014our whole being\u2014to God, the Ultimate Mystery,\nbeyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Through grace we open our awareness to\nGod whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than\nthinking, closer than choosing\u2014closer than consciousness itself.<\/em>\u202f\u2014Thomas Keating [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Wisdom \u201cwork\u201d and contemplative practice are not\nsynonymous, I hope you can sense the resonance between the two paths. Each has\nthe potential to open us up to greater love, compassion, and action through a\nconscious surrendering to greater knowing and the Great Knower. Whenever heart,\nmind, and body are all present and accounted for at the same time, when they\nare all \u201conline\u201d in the language of Wisdom, we can experience\u202f<em>pure presence<\/em>,\u202fa moment of deep inner connection with the pure,\ngratuitous Being of anything and everything. It may be experienced as a quiet\nleap of joy in the heart, absolute clarity in the mind, or a deep centeredness\nin the body.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplation, like the Wisdom path, is an exercise in\nopenness, in\u202fkeeping <em>all three spaces open long enough for us\nto notice other hidden material.\u202f<\/em>When we can do that, we are\ncontent with the present moment and can then wait upon futures we know will be\ngiven by grace. This is \u201cfull-access knowing\u201d\u2014not\u202f<em>irrational<\/em>, but intuitive,\nboth rational and trans-rational at the same time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The supreme work of spirituality, which makes presence\npossible, is keeping the heart space open (the result of conscious love),\nkeeping a \u201cright mind\u201d (the work of contemplation or meditation), and keeping\nthe body alive with contentment or, as Cynthia would say, sensation, without\nattachment to its past woundings (often the work of healing). In that state, we\nare neither resisting nor clinging, and we can experience something genuinely\nnew.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who can keep all three spaces open at the same time will know The Presence that connects everything to everything. Surely this us what Jesus is talking about in his several parables that warn us to stay awake! (See Mark 13:34-37; Matthew 24:40-44 and 25:1-13) Being awake is a prerequisite for true prayer. This way of knowing has little to do with belonging to any particular denomination or religion; it is found at the headwaters of all the world\u2019s major religions. Each has its own piece of Wisdom, its own techniques and teachings that urge us to bring our whole selves to the job of growing and \u201cwising\u201d up. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Gateway to Action &amp;\nContemplation:<\/strong><br>\n<em>What word or phrase resonates\nwith or challenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to\ndo?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prayer for Our Community:<\/strong><br>\n<em>O Great Love, thank you for\nliving and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep\nconnection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably\nshares each other\u2019s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts\u2019\nlongings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . .\nKnowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers\nin all the holy names of God, amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, February 19, 2020 We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. . . . Prayer is the opening of mind and heart\u2014our whole being\u2014to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Through grace we open our awareness to God whom we know [&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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18606,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18605\/revisions\/18606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}