Beyond Information

I remember a long time ago – perhaps forty year or so - thinking that all the information I had to deal with in my job was rather challenging.  Well, little did I know – perhaps in my naivety – that what lay ahead for everyone was an overwhelming flood of information.  That seems to be what we have now – so much information available at our fingertips – literally with a click of a mouse (if you still use are old fashioned enough to use one), that, if we are so inclined or trapped, we can spend all day every day falling down one rabbit hole after another on social media in a never-ending desire for more information.  At least Alice only had one rabbit hole to fall into. 

Today, we seem to be consumed with the search for more information and usually we only want to look for information to affirm and confirm what we already believe.  The algorithms on the various social media platforms seem to ensure this will happen or at least make it difficult to avoid.   The question we have to face today is, is there such a thing as too much information?  The answer is probably self evident – of course there is! (I don’t use exclamation points very often but I think this is an occasion to use one).

I realize my wording has been rather convoluted and meandering but perhaps that reflects the nature of the subject and is an example of more of something not always being better. 

So, given that we are faced with an epidemic of information of all kinds – good and bad, relevant and irrelevant – how can we deal with it?  I believe the answer lies first in the realization about what information does.  I was helped in gaining an understanding about the nature of information in one of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations this past week, “Mere information tends to break things apart into competing ideologies.” 

For me, this summed up what is so evident today in the dominance of social media and the availability of information in the cloud of computing.  As I write that, I realize how that phrase, cloud computing, is so unintentionally revealing about its nature.  Instead of the cloud of knowing, it is the ‘cloud of unknowing’ (with apologies to the unknown author of the classic in mystical writing).  I guess we could all join in with the cry of TMI, TMI – too much information.

The idea that mere information breaks things apart, really gets to the essence of the problem.  We need to work to bring things together and not engage in things that separate us.  What we need is not more information; what we need desperately, is to find wisdom.   That is not an easy thing- true wisdom is hard to find and perhaps is not always easy to recognize.  However, that statement of Rohr’s is an example of wisdom, “Mere information tends to break things apart into competing ideologies.”  Here is the complete quote which addresses one way in which we can find wisdom

Mere information tends to break things apart into competing ideologies. Wisdom received through contemplative seeing puts things back together again. At the CAC (Center for Action and Contemplation), we have found that the most radical, political, and effective thing we can do for the world and the church is to teach contemplation: a way of seeing beyond the surface of things that moves people toward credible action.  

Contemplation is, unfortunately, not something which is natural or easy to people, especially these days when we are distracted and obsessed by all that information.  However, that recognition is a place to start. 

May you be blessed with the gift of contemplation on your journey.

 

A Time for Contemplation

 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

That wonderful passage from Ecclesiastes seems to be speaking to us in new way during the pandemic.  This is truly a season which none of us alive today have ever experienced before.  It would be tempting to yell at God that there can’t be any purpose in all that we have been going through – indeed all that the whole world has been going through and continues to go through in this time of COVID-19.

We could rewrite the words of Ecclesiastes and lament that it is a time to self isolate, a time to be anxious, a time to suffer from illness, a time of economic challenges beyond belief and yes even  a time to die – Ecclesiastes was correct on that one as more than eight thousand people have died from the pandemic in Canada and over 400 thousand worldwide at last count.  So, what in heavens name could be purpose under heaven in this time?

One possibility is that it is a time of turning inward.  Not inward in the sense that we are all just looking after ourselves and turning our backs on others in this time of so much need.  Rather, it is a time for contemplation; a time of seeking God in the silence that is all around us.  You could argue that there are still many distractions that can capture our attention – from endless news stories of tragedies brought about by the pandemic to the most recent cases of systemic racism in our country and our neighbour to the south with the uprising of protests that have followed.  Certainly justified and over due but there is little silence in this.

However, as we are self-isolating in our homes there an opportunity to turn inward in a way which is often neglected in our society.  It can be a time of contemplation in which we turn inward to find a deeper connection to the source of all we are and have.  We can seek and find the inner voice of God speaking to us – that so often still, small, quiet voice that is so easy to miss in the usual hustle and bustle and distractions and noise of what was the normal part of our life in the Western World until three months ago.  Richard Rohr addressed the need for contemplation in this time:

The word contemplation must press beyond the constraints of religious expectations to reach the potential for spiritual centering in the midst of danger. Centering moments accessed in safety are an expected luxury in our era. During slavery, however, crisis contemplation became a refuge, a wellspring of discernment in a suddenly disordered life space, and a geo-spiritual anvil for forging a new identity. This definition of contemplation is dynamic and situational. . . . Richard Rohr Daily Meditation June 11, 2020

There are many ways in which to practice contemplation from reading and reflecting on scripture, to prayer and meditation to being in the great outdoors of the world that God has created, keeping the social distance of course.  I will leave you with another passage from the psalms as a possible candidate for contemplation which seems to be speaking to this time. See which words or phrases resonate with you and spend a few minutes contemplating them.

A Song of Ascents.

130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Blessings on your journey in this time of COVID-19.

Actually, What is Contemplation?

I was away at a retreat last week from Wednesday to Sunday.  I usually go once a year to Apple Farm Community in Three Rivers Michigan―or I try to.  I didn’t make it last year so it was good to be back an connect with the place and the community members. 

Now you may be asking why I go there for a retreat rather than some place in Canada―which is what the customs official at the U. S. border asked me (I still don’t know why I feel guilty when being questioned by a border guard even though I don’t have anything to hide).  The answer I gave him was that I have had a relationship with that community for about 10 years.  That is the short answer which he accepted.  The not quite so short answer is that the community was founded over fifty years ago by someone who is probably my favourite spiritual writer, Helen Luke.  She was a very wise woman who wrote inciteful, meaningful explorations of the human soul using the bible and many classics of literature such as the Divine Comedy by Dante.  I highly recommend her books and essays to anyone who wants to explore the soul and the human condition.

Apple Farm Community was founded as a contemplative community.  I had not previously considered   what a contemplative community is until is read an essay based on the thoughts of the founder during my most recent retreat.  It is described in the essay as first of all what it is not i.e. it is not an intentional community.   I take that to mean it does not set out to intentionally create a community of and for people.  It provides opportunity and space for people to be themselves in reflection and introspection.

More specifically, to quote from the article, “The ultimate way of contemplation lies not in increase in knowledge or even understanding, importance, or in refusal of life or love, and not in the quest for spiritual experience but just simply in an ever-deepening sense of wonder.” 

 I think it is that sense of wonder, which I find so hard to recognize in my day -to-day life, that is what is truly meaningful for me.  It is the sense of wonder at the wonders of God’s creation which I am able to recognize and experience there more than most other places.  I do find it in other places such as the wonderful architecture of an ancient cathedral or a natural cathedral such as a majestic sunset.  However, my time at Apple Farm enables me to see and experience it in the small things which I otherwise would miss. 

The key is to turn to wonder especially when you find you don’t have the answer to your questions or are not sure why life is happening to you the way it is; or just because. 

As Paul Simon said, “These are the days of miracles and wonders”. 

Blessings on you journey. 

In Tune With God

Last week I reflected on why I pray.  I concluded with the statement that I pray because I know it is necessary for my salvation and the salvation of the world regardless of those theological questions which can be voiced by me within or by others in the outer life.  This week I want to reflect further on what I mean when I say it is necessary for salvation, mine and the world.  Perhaps this is where fools rush in because salvation is a topic which is fraught with possibilities and misunderstanding; Hence, my further rumination on the subject.

One of Richard Rohr’s daily meditations this week spoke of contemplative prayer as being like striking a tuning fork.  He notes, “All you can really do in the spiritual life is resonate to the true pitch, to receive the always-present message…Most simply put, prayer is something that happens to you (Romans 8:26-27), much more than anything you privately do”.

This begins to approach what I believe about prayer; or I should say trying to believe. Prayer of all kinds, contemplative, intercessory, thanksgiving, is, I believe, about becoming more in tune with God, what God is, what God’s intention for us is and what God’s intention is for God’s world. The challenge in prayer is that we try to have our intention take precedence over God’s. This is where the ego gets in the way.  We want different things in life; sometimes it is for the benefit of others e.g. healing from disease; sometimes it is for the benefit of the world e.g. caring for God’s creation; but often it is for our own benefit.  We believe that we can bring God’s will into line with our own because we know what is best for whatever it is we are praying for.  We can add at the end of our prayers, your will be done.  Jesus emphasized that in the prayer which he taught us, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  I do just that at the end of my prayers.  However, I question to what extent I or other people truly believe that they want God’s will to be done when it doesn’t coincide with ours. 

I have been practicing Centering Prayer for a few years now as part of my daily prayer practice (my daily intention in any case). Centering Prayer is a form of silent prayer in which you make space for you to be more aware of God’s presence in your life.  This can be a bit of a challenge because generally nothing seems to be happening, other than having many distracting thought as my “monkey brain” keeps interrupting my non-thoughts.  My ego wants to be able to accomplish something, to measure success or at least that I am becoming better at centering prayer; perhaps going the usual 20 minutes without any distracting thoughts.  However, that is not the point.  Distracting thoughts are not a defeat.  The goal is to just let them go; to not hold on to them and return to the centering emptiness. 

The goal, if it is not counterproductive to think of a goal, to become more in tune with God.  This in turn will, hopefully, bring all of my life more in tune with God’s intention for me and for the world.  It is not a replacement for living in the world; rather it is a tuning to God’s intention for the world and try to live in a way that is more in tune with that.  That, for me, is salvation. 

Blessing on your journey.