Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
"Week Five: Sermon on the Mount"
"Discovering Our Inner Divine Spark"
Monday, January 29, 2018
Jesus was a remarkable teacher of the Wisdom or Perennial Tradition, a philosophy that has been taught “from age to age in culture after culture,” in the words of Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999). Easwaran was an Indian born spiritual teacher and author, as well as a translator and interpreter of early Hindu texts such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I was personally introduced to him during a visit with Henri Nouwen in the late 1980s. Today I’ll share his description of the Perennial Philosophy so you can see for yourself how East meets West in Wisdom teaching. It’s important to recognize that deep truth is true everywhere and that the historical Jesus was, after all, a teacher from the Near East. Even for those who are not Christian, Jesus’ universal wisdom resonates at the non-dual level. As we look at the Sermon on the Mount, I’ll share a few of Easwaran’s own insights and applications from his reading of the Gospel texts.In his commentary on Jesus’ Beatitudes [1], Easwaran shares four perennial principles taught by Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) that echo this year’s Daily Meditation theme, “Image and Likeness”:
- First, there is a “light in the soul that is uncreated and uncreatable” [2]: unconditioned, universal, deathless; in religious language, a core of personality which cannot be separated from God. Eckhart is precise: this is not what the English language calls the “soul,” but some essence in the soul that lies at the very center of consciousness. As Saint Catherine of Genoa put it, “My me is God: nor do I know my selfhood except in God.” [3] In Indian mysticism this divine core is simply called atman, “the Self.”
- Second, this divine essence can be realized. It is not an abstraction, and it need not—Eckhart would say must not—remain hidden under the covering of our everyday personality. It can and should be discovered, so that its presence becomes a reality in daily life.
- Third, this discovery is life’s real and highest goal. Our supreme purpose in life is not to make a fortune, nor to pursue pleasure, nor to write our name on history, but to discover this spark of the divine that is in our hearts.
- Last, when we realize this goal, we discover simultaneously that the divinity within ourselves is one and the same in all—all individuals, all creatures, all of life.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
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[1] Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness: On the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Nilgiri Press: 1996), 8-9.[2] Meister Eckhart, Sermon 60. See The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, trans. and ed., Maurice O’C. Walshe (Crossroad: 2009), 310.
[3] Catherine of Genoa, Vita, chapter 15. Original text is “In Dio è il mio essere, il mio Me.”
***
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Preparing for Lent
New beginnings invariably come from old false things that are allowed to die. (Richard Rohr, Wondrous Encounters)
Two books for Lent—Father Richard’s classic, Wondrous Encounters, and God for Us—are available at store.cac.org.
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The Franciscan Way: Beyond the Bird Bath
Franciscans never believed that "blood atonement" was required for God to love us. The Great Mystery of incarnation could not be a mere mop-up exercise, a problem-solving technique, or dependent on human beings messing up. Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. (Richard Rohr)
Discover the radical Franciscan way in a self-paced, online course: February 7-March 27, 2018. Click here to learn more and register by January 31!
"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find meditations you may have missed.
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Image credit: Old Horse in the Wasteland (detail), by Charles Cottet, 1898, Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan.
How blessed (or “happy”) are the poor in spirit; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. (Matthew 5:3)
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Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
***Friday, 9 February 2018 with Shane Clairborn at PLNU
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Talks about Grace
Churches are known for teaching what to believe, not about Love and to live love in the world around us.
Jesus draws us to the pain of world not away from it.
We have God to Love us back to Him
With Grace there is no one too far from Him
Grace and Redemption is the story of the Bible
Matthew 1
None of us is beyond reproach and no is beyond grace & redemption
Henri Nouwen quote about being one with everybody no matter they are
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