Christian Mysticism & Contemplation

Parker Palmer, the Quaker community worker says: ‘contemporary images of spirituality tend to value the inward search over the outward act, silence over sound, solitude over interaction, quietude over engagement and struggle.’[i] Palmer says ‘if one is called to the world of action, the(se) images can disenfranchise the soul, for they tend to devalue the energies of the active life rather than encourage us to move those energies towards wholeness.’[ii]

Palmer says that ‘we need a spirituality which affirms and guides our efforts to act in ways that embody the vitalities God gave us at birth, ways that serve the great works of justice, peace and love.’[iii] ‘To be fully alive is to act. The capacity to act is the most obvious difference between (being alive) and dead.’ Palmer says ‘action, like a sacrament, is the visible form of the invisible spirit, an outward manifestation of an inward power. As we act we not only express ourselves, we reshape our world and our world reshapes us.’ [iv]

Activity may be a sign of life, and inactivity a sign of death – but all activity is essentially risky. Palmer says ‘the greatest risk in action is the risk of self-revelation. No one can know us fully, not even we ourselves, but when we act, something of our mystery often emerges…’ How can I know what I think – until I hear what I say? How can I know what I feel – until I see what I do? [v]

‘Our actions may reveal something false in us; (our) own words may occasionally judge (us). Or, our actions may reveal something true in us that others want to censure, when our inner guidance defies conventional order. The question is – whether we are willing to act in the face of these risks, (whe-ther we are) willing to learn from whatever truths our actions may reveal.’ [vi]

‘Which,’ Palmer says, ’brings us to the subject of contemplation – and to the difficult insight at the heart of the contemplative life – truth is always preferable to illusion, no matter how closely the illusion conforms to our notion of the good, or how far the truth diverges from it.’[vii] ‘To be fully alive is to contemplate.’ Palmer says the capacity to contemplate is not ‘the practice of a particular technique, like sitting in a lotus position or chanting a mantra’; but an awareness of and appreciation for the reality beyond illusion. It ‘happens any time we get a glimpse of the truth behind the magician’s trick.’ [viii]

‘Contemplation is difficult for so many of us because we have so much invested in illusion: the illusion, that violence solves problems, that young people sent to die in wars to defend the rich are heroes rather than victims, that both the rich and poor deserve their fate – just to name a few.’[ix] ‘These illusions serve a societal function: they keep us in place’.[x]‘This is why the contemplative moment, the moment when illusion is stripped away and reality is revealed, is so hard to come by. There is a vast conspiracy against it.’ [xi]

Parker Palmer says ‘rather than speak of contemplation and action, we might speak of contemplation-and-action, letting the hyphens suggest what our language obscures: that the one cannot exist without the other. When we fail to hold the paradox together, when we abandon the creative tension between the two, then both ends fly apart into madness. Action flies off into a frantic effort to impose ones will on the world. Contemplation flies from the world into a realm of false bliss.’[xii]

Palmer says the ‘separation’ of contemplation and action ‘is the starting point for many of us’. At this stage of our lives ‘we feel forced to make a choice between a contemplative life and an active life. Because our culture tends to value action over contemplation, we often begin by choosing a life of activity that can become frantic, that exhausts our souls.’[xiii]

Palmer says ‘when exhaustion overcomes us, we move into a stage of alternation. We take a little vacation to refresh ourselves, then we plunge back into action again until we are exhausted again, then take another vacation – and on the cycle goes. Alternation is better than separation but both stages reflect the mistaken notion that contemplation and action are mutually exclusive ways of life. By moving from separation to alternation we may save ourselves from terminal burnout, but we never allow the two poles of the paradox to interact in a way that would bring health to both ways of life. Our active life is never transformed by contemplation; our contemplative life never transformed by action.’[xiv]

Palmer says ‘many of us live a long time in the stage of alternation, but some people, at least some of the time, move on to the stage (of) integration. Some people make the breakthrough simply because they are wise. But perhaps the breakthrough is more often made by people who abandon themselves so deeply to action that no vacation can help them. They become so profoundly exhausted they are forced to live beyond willpower and find themselves falling into the sustaining power of the paradox (of contemplation-and-action). Action becomes more than a mere matter of getting from here to there, but a contemplative path by which we may discover truth. Contemplation becomes more than a luxury to be indulged in when the worries of the world are behind us, but a way of changing consciousness that may have more impact on the worries of the world than (non-reflective) action can (ever) have.’[xv]

Parker Palmer says there are unexpected opportunities for contemplation. ‘Try as I might’, he says, ‘I have found little help in the intentional disciplines of contemplation. But life provides moments of unintentional contemplation, and those are the experiences I want to explore.’[xvi]

Illusions are always more likely to be unmasked by painful encounters with reality. ‘Pain is one of the sure signs of contemplation happening. Contemplat-ion may lead eventually to bliss, but first it will give us the pain of knowing that some of our dearest convictions are shallow, inadequate, wrong. Contemplati-on first deprives us of familiar comforts. Then it replaces them with an inner emptiness in which new truth, often alien and unsettling, can emerge. The contemplative journey from illusion to reality may have peace as its destination, but en route it usually passes through some fearsome places.’[xvii]

One of life’s natural forms of contemplation is disadvantage. This happens when we are forced by circumstance to occupy a very different standpoint from the normal one in our society, and our angle of vision reveals a strange and threatening landscape. For example, coming face to face with poverty.

Another ‘of life’s natural forms of contemplation is dislocation. This happens when we are forced by circumstance to occupy a very different standpoint from our normal one, and our angle of vision suddenly changes to reveal a strange and threatening landscape’. For example, confronting catastrophe.

And another ‘of life’s natural forms of contemplation is disillusionment. This happens when a vision we had believed in fails us, a trusted friend lets us down, or – worst of all – when we discover ourselves to be less than we had thought’.[xviii] ‘Many of us try hard to avoid such experiences, and when we are in the midst of them we go through a kind of dying. But the very name we give these moments tells us that something positive is happening through our pain. We say we are being “disillusioned”. That is we are being stripped of some illusions about life, about others, about ourselves. As our illusions are removed, like barriers on a road, we have a chance to take that road further toward truth.’[xix]

‘One more way life draws us into accidental contemplation’ Parker Palmer says is ‘unbidden solitude. Some of us find it hard to choose solitude because it removes us from the collective life that often reinforces comforting illusions. But life sends many moments when the group excludes us, moments when we are forced to find our way without collective support. In these moments we once again have the chance to penetrate illusion and touch reality.’[xx]

Palmer says ‘solitude is a painful condition at first. But, unlike (disadvantage, dislocation, and disillusionment) solitude is something that sometimes grows on people. There is a reason for this. Involuntary solitude is the permanent truth of our lives: We are born in solitude, we die in solitude, and we have opportunities to learn to live creatively with the fact in the years between birth and death. The fruit of (disadvantage,) dislocation, and disillusionment is the capacity to enter in and enjoy our solitude, compelled by the painful grace of a life that is bent on helping us (contemplate and) “get real”.’[xxi]

Solitude is not simply isolation. It is easy to be alone and yet continue to be in the crowd, to be governed by collective values; and it is possible to be in the midst of a crowd and yet be in solitude. To be in solitude means to be in possession of my heart – my identity, my integrity.’[xxii]Solitude is not antithetical to community. The solitary is someone who is able to give her heart away because it is in her possession to give.’ Unhealthy collectives rob people of their solitude, their identity. ‘The healthy community is one that leaves the solitude, the integrity, of each individual in tact.’ So that we can act contemplatively. [xxiii]

See my new book Out And Out published by Mosaic Melbourne 2012

[i] Palmer, P. The Active Life Harper Collins, New York, 1991 p2

[ii] ibid p2

[iii] ibid p9

[iv] ibid p17

[v] ibid p22

[vi] ibid p22

[vii] ibid p24

[viii] ibid p17

[ix] ibid p25

[x] ibid p25

[xi] ibid p26

[xii] ibid p15

[xiii] ibid p15

[xiv] ibid p16

[xv] ibid p17

[xvi] ibid p26

[xvii] ibid p27

[xviii] ibid p26

[xix] ibid p26

[xx] ibid p28

[xxi] ibid p28

[xxii] ibid p28

[xxiii] ibid p29

1 Comment »

 
  1. sanjitagnihotri says:

    Very instructive.I would add one thing: the true mystics have spoken of ‘dying before death’.It means that instead of waiting for disadvantage,dislocation and disillusionment to strike us personally,we sensitise ourselves to these beforehand.I do so by not only observing life around me,but using my imagination.That way,we learn the right lessons without waiting for these disasters to strike us.

 

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