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. 

Dreams and Liminal Space

The idea or concept of ‘liminal space’ has come to the forefront in recent years.  As noted in a recent program on CBC radio, Ideas, “Until recently, the word liminal was mostly confined to academia. Its roots are in Latin, from "līmen," meaning "threshold" or "doorstep." In anthropology, it's used to describe the middle part of a ritual or rite of passage.” 

The concept of liminal space took off during the COVID pandemic.    As noted in the Ideas program, “Online interest in this specific genre surged early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Google searches for the words "liminal," "liminality" and "liminal spaces" began climbing in March of 2020, when the pandemic first hit North America.”  This is understandable as the Pandemic had characteristics of liminal time and space.  It occurred in between the re COVID time when people could meet and mingle without undue concern and the post COVID time which people hoped and perhaps even prayed for. 

I was discussing the program with my wife Lorna recently, and she noted that dreams are liminal.  I could see her point and agree with it wholeheartedly.  This is exactly ‘what dreams are made of’ – to quote another source.  They c, cur in the space between the conscious and the unconscious.  They often occur in that time of transition between waking and sleeping.  Dreams have a quality which resonate with liminal photography which has developed in conjunction with the increased interest in liminal spaces.  The Ideas program discussed liminal photography, “Since the start of the pandemic, a very niche genre of photography has grown in popularity. Called "liminal spaces," it's largely made up of images of empty, eerie hallways, dark stairways, old arcades and dead malls.” 

Dreams provide a window into the world of the Unconscious which, is an aspect of the human psyche, identified by Carl Jung expanding on the work of Sigmund Freud.   It is part of us which is also not part of us going beyond the boundaries of our conscious awareness.  Dreams are the times in which we become conscious of aspect of that unknown part of our existence of which, by definition, we are conscious.   This is our connection to worlds beyond our awareness where “people fly and water runs uphill” to quote one of the modern guides to dreams, Jeremy Taylor.

If you want to explore the concept of liminal space, the Ideas program can be found at https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/15897775-in-liminal-space.   A good introduction to engaging with dreams is, Dreams; God’s Forgotten Language by John Sanford. 

May you be blessed with many dreams on your journey. 

Compassion Meditation

Last week, Richard Rohr quoted the following passage on “Compassionate Meditation.”  A practice I was not aware of but which engaged me:

Thich Nhat Hanh and other Buddhist practitioners recommend that we regularly engage in a Compassion Meditation that is also known as metta or loving-kindness.…

May you be happy.

May you be blessed.

May you be free and peaceful.

May you be ever loved.

May you be always loving.

Now repeat the exercise, this time picturing someone you hardly know. Wish them the same loving desires. You may choose someone you saw on the bus, someone in the supermarket or a church group, or perhaps someone you’ve read about in the news. Make the image clear and pray for them as sincerely as you can. Your goal is to open to them/give them their humanity. 

I can see how this would be a powerful practice for being compassionate and helping someone to be more compassionate.  To riff on Burt Bacharach, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. Compassion is one of the expressions of love.   

I can also see how it would be a is a means in which Christians can practice the great commandment of Jesus Crist to love one another as he loves us – and that includes our enemies as Jesus so inconveniently declares.  Yes, that is not a typo – inconveniently for Christians – as it is, at least for me – as Jesus is commanding me to do what seems to be impossible. 

To do this as a part of compassionate meditation, what I suggest is a third step which would be for someone who is, or seems to you to be your enemy:

Now repeat the exercise, this time picturing someone you consider your enemy. Wish them the same loving desires. You may choose someone who is currently in your life, someone who is no longer physically a part of your life, but who has injured you deeply in the past, or someone in the news who is not directly in your life. Make the image clear and pray for them as sincerely as you can. Your goal is to open to them/give them their humanity. 

I hope that you will try this several times as see what happens.  I am going to do this as part of my daily practice this week.  Also, do not forget to do this for yourself.  It is important that you show yourself compassion.  

May you be blessed to give and receive compassion on your journey. 

Reminiscences of a Jr. Forest Ranger

All the wildfire news recently dredged up my memories of the summer I spent as a Jr. Forest Ranger when I was sixteen.  The program was run by the then Ontario Department of Lands and Forests.  You had to be sixteen years old and a male in those days – it was a manly thing, so girls did not qualify. The Jr. Rangers were sent to remote parts of the province to live in a camp, with probably 40 other youths of the same age, and receive training and education and work experience about wilderness and nature and other such things - plus many things not on the curriculum. 

We received our room and board and – if memory serves - $4.50 a day.  I seem to recall that this was increased to $5.00 part way through the summer.  We lived in cabins of about a dozen or so guys each and were supervised by a ‘Foreman’ who was probably twenty years old and two deputy foremen who were all of seventeen.  The camp consisted of the bunkhouses, showers, a dining room and latrines – no in door washrooms. On the subject of forest fires,  I do remember that there were forest fires in the area, and we all hoped that we would be called into action as we would have received significantly more remuneration as fire fighters – bit sadly or possibly for the best – that did not transpire.   The forest fires were not nearly as intensive or extensive as they are this summer. 

The camp that I was assigned to was near Minaki in the northwest corner of the Province.  The closest town was Kenora which, on Googling, I discovered was about 50 km away.  We were on a lake – again, if memory serves me - Rough Rock Lake.   On Googling Rough Rock Lake, I found that there is such a place – the hit turned up Rough Rock Lodge and Outpost – probably not the old JR. Forest Camp but close enough. 

Delving into my memories of that summer, I found that I don’t have a great deal of specifics.  We did a lot of swimming in the lake.  The food was quite good and plentiful as was necessary for a group of “hard working” teenage boys.  The camp cook was someone who had worked on the railroad as a cook, so he was good at feeding groups of men and didn’t take any crap from anyone.  I don’t remember much about the work aspect of the summer except learning how to build fire breaks to fight forest fires – hence my thoughts about this experience.  We did go into Kenora a couple of times to dances and we did find people of the opposite sex to dance with – but nothing more in my experience or reports from other campers.   In my recollection, we played a lot of softball and volleyball which I enjoyed because of my height if not my natural athletic ability. 

One memorable event was a fly-in visit from a celeb – it turned out to be NHLer George Armstrong.  He naturally made quite an impression on us.  However, I don’t remember anything about the specifics of what he talked about.  What else was there?  Well, there was the time we all went on a forced march at 5:00 in the morning because of some flagrant violation of the rules – It struck me as unfair because I hadn’t been involved but there was the camaraderie of everyone being in it together.  There was also the three-day canoe trip, which was my introduction to canoeing, which left me with mixed feelings about that mode of transportation.

Finally, and most memorably, there was the last night before returning to my home in Toronto.  The foreman managed to get a plentiful supply of wine for a celebration of which the guys liberally imbibed.  That night was a bit of a blur - so it’s ‘say no more, say no more, to quote Monty Python.  I will say that it was a bit surprizing that no one drowned or got lost as a result.

I did check and was glad to see that the program is still going strong with the now Ministry of Natural Resources.  It is now called the Stewardship Youth Ranger Program.  There is no mention of gender in the requirements for application, so I assume it is open to males and females.  It pays “minimum wage” which is an improvement over the $4.50 or $5.00 a day.  As I recall, from another summer job at the time, the minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. The requirements are being born in 2006, attending school, a resident of Ontario, and eligible to work in Canada.  Based on my long-ago experience, I would definitely recommend it for young people today.

It was an experience I am glad I didn’t miss.

 

Actually, What is Reality?

We are now settling in, to cottage life on PEI.  However, the calendar is lying as the weather is proclaiming loudly that it is still early spring with temperatures in the low singe digits (centigrade), cloudy and wet.  However, it is inconsiderate to be complaining about this weather when so many people are suffering from the effects of wildfires and extremely hot weather.  The cold is made a bit more difficult because Lorna is reluctant to light the wood stove in case Trixie the cat tries to emulate a Tennessee Williams novel i.e., cat on a hot iron stove. 

We began our cottage time by watching a movie on our less than up-to-date technology i.e., the combo VHS and VCR player connected to a 20” portable TV (it is a colour TV in case you are wondering).  The movie we watched was Lars and the Real Girl, which we had originally seen during our Spiritual Direction training at Mount Carmel some years ago.  It is a delightful poignant tale – almost a fairy tale - which did not get the attention it deserved when it was in theaters.

The plot is simple but not simplistic.  As described on-line, the film follows Lars (Ryan Gosling), a kind-hearted but extremely introverted and socially awkward young man who develops a romantic yet nonsexual relationship with an anatomically correct sex doll, a RealDoll named Bianca. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. On the advice of a doctor (Patricia Clarkson), his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

There are many questions raised by this movie.  As the title suggests, who is real and what is reality?  Reality certainly is in the eye of the beholder as Bianca becomes more real to everyone in Lars’ family and community as the plot develops.  At its core is the issue of acceptance of those you love.  When Lars objects to Bianca spending time with others and not exclusively with him, he is told that Bianca has been accepted by the community because everyone loves and cares about and for him.  The ending is quite poignant, as Lars develops to the point where he no longer needs Bianca, and he allows her to “die”, and he begins a relationship with a “real” live woman. 

For me, the issue that this tale brings front and centre, is how does society accept people who do not fit the idea of what is normal and acceptable?  I note with alarm that some politicians on the right in Canada e.g., Pierre Poilievre, are now banging the drum against all things “‘woke” and warning about the dangers of accepting anything they label as “woke” – I won’t list all that can entail but the extreme right in the United States include things such as opposing women’s reproductive choice, gun laws, LGBTQ people, and promoting sexism and racism.  It is anything and everything that they don’t agree with and oppose for their ideology and political advantage. 

Being truly accepting of others that don’t fit our idea of what and how people and things should be, can be a real challenge.  But it is one that we must strive for.  Allowing Lars to be who he is, enabled him to be more fully who he was intended to be when he was created.  The question remains, how do we as individuals and society enable others to do the same?

Food for thought on your journey.