First Principle and Foundation (2)

Last week I wrote about the principle of Ignatian Spirituality which is to develop the first principle and foundation of your spiritual life.  The first principle and foundation of Ignatian Spirituality is:

God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill this purpose. From this it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end.

The question which came to mind when considering this is, how do we know if the first principle and foundation is true to who we are created to be?  What if someone has determined that their first principle and foundation is to gain as much money, or material goods, or power that they can, and heaven help anyone who stands in their way.  There does not seem to be anything that will determine, in and of itself, that a first principle and foundation is what will be good for the world or for the individual who professes this.  Christians can, of course, base their first principle and foundation on the Great Commandment of Jesus i.e., to love others as he loves us and to love our neighbours as ourselves.  This seems to be, what you could say, is what lies beneath the first principle and foundation of Ignatian Spirituality.

I was reminded recently, when considering this question, of a traditional aboriginal teaching to help us further unpack this question:

A wise elder is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This states the quandary quite clearly.  It is possible to have a first principle and foundation that feeds either of the wolves which are inside each of us.  We have the free will which God has given us to decide which wolf we feed. 

Another way of looking at this issue, which is not directly a religious one, is to examine it from the perspective of unity and division.  Does a principle and foundation work for unity or does it promote division in our lives and in the community?  Northrop Frye, the great literary critic and author of the Great Code, addressed this in his preface to The Bush Garden, subtitled, Essays on the Canadian Imagination:

Real unity tolerates dissent and rejoices in variety of outlook and tradition, recognizes that it is man’s destiny to unite and not divide, and understands that creating proletariat and scapegoats and second-class citizens is a mean and contemptible activity. 

That was written circa 1970 and is ever so true today where the mean and contemptible activity which strives for disunity seems to fill the news. 

Which wolf will you feed on your journey?  May you be blessed to feed the one which brings love and unity.

First Principle and Foundation

I recently viewed a video on Ignatian Spirituality offered by Spiritual Directors International.  This is the first of twelve sessions, New Perspectives on Ignatian Spiritual Direction.  A link can be found here https://www.sdicompanions.org/ignatian-wisdom-in-troubled-times-free-recorded-session/?mc_cid=5fe87984a3&mc_eid=34c6998033.

My knowledge of Ignatian Spirituality is limited, and I found the video to be a good introduction.  I particularly found the Ingnatian approach to discernment to be of particular interest.  I believe that discernment is particularly important in helping us to navigate the journeys which we are all on.  The ability to discern is vital in finding the path that we are called to travel.  There are many choices which we all face in our lives - which road will we take when we come to a place where the way ahead is obscured. Dante opened his brilliant Divine Comedy with a statement that captures this quandary:

In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. It is a hard thing to speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was, so that thinking of it recreates the fear.

Most, if not all of us, who are in the second half of life, can identify times in which we were faced with such choices.  We can look back and imagine how our lives might have been significantly different if we had made a different choice.  However, we also have many times when we must make what seems to be less significant choices about how we want to live each day. Do I make that phone call or send that email that has been hanging over my head for days or weeks?  Do I make changes to my diet that would probably be a healthy choice?  Can I sign up for one more educational seminar on Zoom, which seems to be calling my name, when I am Zoomed out?  Do I need to go into my small corner and recharge my batteries?  I could go on and on but I’m sure you get the point.

My understanding of the Ignatian approach to discernment involves two basic steps.  First you must develop your first principle and foundation.  In effect, I understand this to be your ultimate purpose in life.  This is something which is going to take introspection and self examination and, I’m sure, the Ignatians have much to say on this.  The first principle and foundation of Ignatian Spirituality is:

God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill this purpose. From this it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end.

My first principle and foundation, at least at this point, is to become the person that God created me to be.  Once you have your first principle and foundation, the choices you make are determined against this foundation.  In effect you discern how or to what extent the different possibilities facing you meet your first principle and foundation.  How you do this and what criteria you use is the art and science of discernment and will probably involve trial and error and judgement.

As I noted at the beginning, I am not knowledgeable about Ignatian spirituality so I am sure there are people who can point out how my understanding is lacking or may even be off base.  However, I want to share with you my understanding of the principles of discernment and how discernment works in my life.  I am the first to admit that I have a lot to learn in this and many other aspects of life.  I will explore more of this next time. 

May you be blessed in the path that you choose on your journey.

 

My Enemies List

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the practice of Compassion Meditation, which was offered by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist practitioner.  I suggested applying this practice to the great commandment of Jesus Christ to love one another as he loves us – and not only loving our neighbours which can sometimes be difficult, but, moreover, to love our enemies.

The meditation is quite simple with the following mantra:

May you be happy.

May you be blessed.

May you be free and peaceful.

May you be ever loved.

May you be always loving.

I have been including this in my prayers since then and have found it to be a balm for my soul.  I have no idea if it has an effect on those I have been praying for.  However, I have found a somewhat surprizing result; I have found more and more people who I have added to this part of my prayers. 

Former United States President Richard Nixon was famous or infamous for having an enemies list of political opponents and using the power of his position as president against those on the list.  I have discovered that as I engage in Compassion Meditation for my enemies, I have rather perverse pleasure in adding people to the list of enemies that I pray for.  The list of people was rather small to begin with but as the days passed the list grew.  It now includes such people as a Canadian federal politician who will remain nameless, the leading contenders for the U. S. Republican Party nomination for president, the six members of the United States Supreme Court placed there by Donald Trump, to name a few.  I have resisted adding the unknown person or persons who spread COVID to at least 20 people – including Lorna and me – at the anniversary celebration of the local seniors club a week ago.  I am sure that person did not do it intentionally. 

Let me reassure you that I am aware – ‘woke’ enough – to realize that Jesus did not have this in mind when he commanded us to love our enemies.  To truly love does not mean to develop a list of people who fit that category and have the satisfaction of categorizing them as people who are deserving of the label of enemy.  You must truly want them to receive the benefit of the prayer i.e., happiness, being blessed, freedom, peace and love.

What I have been doing in this exercise – at least at this point – is more akin to engaging with my shadow.  I will have to confront what it is about those people on the list that are more a reflection of aspects of myself. 

There is always more work to do on the journey.  As the prayer states, may we ‘be blessed’ to do that work.