I began today to make the gradual transition into silence. I've learned it doesn't happen overnight but it takes time to slow down physically and mentally from the normal busy pace and focus on doing, doing, doing in order to accomplish. There is nothing to accomplish here really, nothing, just consenting to what is.
It's fairly quiet given 61 retreatants. The Garrision Institute is a big place (former Christian monastery) with expansive grounds so that supports quietness. Scheduled sits increase to 3 hours tomorrow.
Today David Frenette began to teach on contemplatives attitudes. Here are, for me, a few points from his morning talk.
- The spiritual journey is me saying yes to God and God saying yes to me. What does each of those look like over time? At present? Has the ratio of the two changed over time?
- "We become contemplatives when God discovers himself in us." (Thomas Merton) - a situation where God is having a major say at the table!
- As God's presence acts in us nothing thrown away - our skils, interests, life situations, people known, etc. become medium through which "God discovers himself in us." We may return to earlier life interests, people we've know, etc. but as a different person as moved by God's transformative love.
- A teaching parenthetical prior to small group discussions: "Extroverts want to speak in order to think and introverts want to think in order to speark" - Abbot Joseph, St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, CO
- spent time reviewing the guidelines of the centering prayer practice - emphasizing having a firm foundation in the basics - having a "beginners mind" always.
- God making himself know through anything, our thoughts, feelings, life situatons, desires, etc. anything.
- David asks "Who is God for me now?" i.e. what opens me? It could be the person of Jesus, Holy Mother, nature, going to church, art, writing, anything really. My answer: watching the water babies class at the swimming pool - "incarnatonal contemplation" if you will.
Enough for now.....
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