A person will suffocate if she just keeps breathing in! To breathe means to both breathe in and breathe out—to receive and to give.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Spirituality and the Twelve Steps" (Part Two)
"Sabbath Meditation"
Saturday, 28 June 2014
"Remember: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps" (Part Two)
Addiction uses up our spiritual desire—that drive that God put in us for total satisfaction, for home, for heaven, for divine union. (Sunday)
God fully forgives us, but the “karma” of our mistakes remains, and we must still go back and repair the bonds that we have broken. (Monday)
What we call addiction is what the New Testament called “possession.” The only cure for possession is re-possession by the One who alone meets our deepest desires! (Tuesday)
You must step back from your compulsive identification and unquestioned attachment to yourself to be truly conscious. (Wednesday)
People's willingness to find God in their own struggle with life—and let it change them—is their deepest and truest obedience to God's eternal will. (Thursday)
We stop depending on something outside of us to fill our needs inside. We reverse the flow and draw what we need from the inside, from our absolute union between God and the soul.
(Friday)
"Rest: Breathing Out"
A person will suffocate if she just keeps breathing in! To breathe means to both breathe in and breathe out—to receive and to give. I’m afraid we are much more adept at receiving than giving. It takes some practice to come to know that infinite, abundant grace abides within, so there’s no need to be stingy with our forgiveness, generosity, and compassion. Perhaps practicing lengthening the outbound breath might teach us to let go even further. Slowing the exhale also lowers stress and relaxes the mind and body.
You’re already breathing as you read this, without thinking about it! Now turn your attention to observe your breath. Just notice the natural rhythm of breath for a few minutes, feeling the rise and fall of your abdomen and shoulders.
Count through your next natural inhalation. Pause, holding the fullness in your belly for just a moment. Then exhale slowly, counting twice as long as for your inhalation. (For example, inhale for four counts, pause for two counts, and exhale for eight counts.) Continue breathing in this slowed, gradual way as long as you wish. Then rest again in the uncontrived beauty of your instinctual breathing.
Gateway to Silence: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
For further study:
Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
(also available as CD audiobook)
Emotional Sobriety: Rewiring Our Programs for “Happiness”
(CD, DVD, MP3 download)
How Do We Breathe Under Water? The Gospel and 12-Step Spirituality
(CD, DVD, MP3 download)
The Little Way: A Spirituality of Imperfection
(MP3 download)
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"Father Richard Rohr's Meditation: God-in-Me Loving God" for Sunday, 29 JUne 2014
The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it IS compassion already.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Compassion"
"God-in-Me Loving God"
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Last year I had the honor of representing the Christian tradition at the Festival of Faiths in Louisville, Kentucky. Leaders of many faiths, including the Dalai Lama, came together to talk about the role of compassion in our spiritual practice. The following is what I shared from the Christian perspective:
The Christian who has gone to his or her own depths—not all of us, I am afraid—uncovers an Indwelling Presence, what might even be experienced as an I-Thou relationship (to use the language of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber). In Christian theology this would be described as the “Holy Spirit,” which is precisely God as immanent, within, and even our deepest self. Some saints and mystics have described this Presence as “closer to me than I am to myself” or “more me than I am myself.” Many of us would also describe this as the True Self. It must be awakened; it is never “created” by our actions or behavior, but naturally “indwelling,” or our inner being with God.
Much of culture and religion encourages us to cultivate our False Self or reputation, self-image, roles, and possessions. It is only as this fails us, and it eventually does, that the True Self stands revealed and ready to guide us. The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it IS compassion already, and from this more spacious and grounded Self we can naturally connect, empathize, forgive, and love all reality. In Christian language this is “God-in-me-loving-God.”
The False Self does not know how to love in a very deep or broad way. It is too small and self-referential to be compassionate. The True Self also does not choose to love as much as it IS love itself already. Loving from this spacious place is experienced as a river within you that flows of its own accord, as Jesus promises us so beautifully (John 7:38).
Adapted from Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation, pages 46 48
Gateway to Silence: May I see with eyes of compassion.
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