#contemplatives

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Maurice Denis - Saint George and the Dragon (1910)

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Ian Sanders 

“Monastic contemplatives have staked out a clearly limited area to be transformed by contemplation: the monastery.

Lay contemplatives face the challenge of transforming the whole world.”

~ David Steindl-Rast

[santmat]

Quaker groups vary from location to location. In some regions they would seem like regular church ("programmed" meetings). The traditional Quakers of New England follow the old format of "unprogrammed" meetings, meaning no sermon but a group sitting in a circle, sitting in silent meditation. Occasionally the silence is interrupted by a person or two feeling prompted by the Spirit to give short messages. Not in "tongues" but something inspired or inspirational. The Quakers have mystical roots, and I say that like that's a good thing, lol. They are a remnant of the Christian mystics, the earlier Friends of God (German: Gottesfreunde), and the Brethren of the Free Spirit.

The Quaker group I visited sometimes also had a Wednesday evening study group working with a book by Marcus Borg (Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: the historical Jesus & the heart of contemporary faith). The Gospel of Thomas and Nag Hammadi were included in the readings.

"This amazing simplification comes when we “center down,” when life is lived with singleness of eye, from a holy Center where the breath and stillness of Eternity are heavy upon us and we are wholly yielded to him. Some of you know this holy, recreating Center of eternal peace and joy and live in it day and night. Some of you may see it over the margin and wistfully long to slip into that amazing Center where the soul is at home with God. Be very faithful to that wistful longing." (Thomas Kelly, Quaker mystic)

[azspot]

The loss of the “third eye” is at the basis of much of the shortsightedness and religious crises of the Western world, about which even secular scholars like Albert Einstein and Iain McGilchrist have written. Lacking such wisdom, it is hard for churches, governments, and leaders to move beyond ego, the desire for control, and public posturing. Everything divides into dualistic oppositions like liberal vs. conservative, with vested interests pulling against one another. Truth is no longer possible at this level of conversation. Even theology becomes more a quest for power than a search for God and Mystery.

The Third Eye

[santmat]

Sant Mat Spirituality, RadhaSoami, Inner Light and Sound Meditation, Surat Shabd Yoga, the Path of the Masters, from a traditional Indian pe

Sant Mat Radhasoami Books — Spiritual E Library

[markllockwood]

The Mystery and Metaphysics of Christmas

An invitation to see the “10,000 things” through the lens of an inescapable Love. We often approach Christmas as a historical commemoration—a birthday party for Jesus that happened two millennia ago. We decorate, we rush, and we consume, hoping to catch a fleeting feeling of peace (“the Christmas spirit”) before January arrives and the grey reality of life returns. But the mystics and the…

The Mystery and Metaphysics of Christmas

[a-hodgepodge]

“A spiritual truth to which our culture and society have so successfully numbed us is that the contemplative life is not a luxury or a quaint pastime but a matter of great spiritual, social, and now even planetary urgency.  Contemplatives know this intuitively. The prayer of silence that confronts the tyranny of the false self and opens us to the transforming power of the Spirit is a moral imperative.”

- Vincent Pizzuto, Contemplating Christ

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day Saint John of the Cross Doctor of the Church

1542-1591 Feast day: December 14 Patronage: contemplative life, contemplatives John of the Cross, O.C.D., was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar, and priest, who is also known for his writings.

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