Center for Action and Contemplation – Father Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation – Monday, 30 December 2013 “"Richard, You Do Not Tell Me Anything Totally New!"”

Center for Action and Contemplation – Father Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation – Monday, 30 December 2013 “"Richard, You Do Not Tell Me Anything Totally New!"”

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Seven Themes of an Alternative Orthodoxy

Seventh Theme: Reality is paradoxical and complementary. Non-dual thinking is the highest level of consciousness. Divine union, not private perfection, is the goal of all religion (Goal).

“Richard, You Do Not Tell Me Anything Totally New!””

Meditation 52 of 52

“Beginner’s mind” is using your mind, but then letting go of it a bit and for awhile—not trusting it too much to be the whole picture, not grasping it too closely, so there’s room for a larger mind to get in. You only overdo it when you think it is YOU doing all the work and all the thinking. But spiritual knowledge is more like retrieving than discovering. The best compliment I ever get is when people tell me, “Richard, you did not tell me anything new. Somehow I always knew this would be the case, and you just gave me the courage to believe it.” I love that!

Beginner’s mind is an opening to what might just be—and surely is—the Spirit of God, the promised anointing that “teaches you everything,” as St. John says (1 John 2:27). You objectively and already have that anointing, and now you must draw upon it and depend upon it. John has also just said “It is not because you do not know the truth that I write to you, but because you know it already” (1 John 2:21). Spiritual cognition is always a form of re-cognition, because the Divine Spirit knows it in you, and through you, and as you—already. That is why you do not need to be anxious or try too hard. It is more an allowing when the ego is off to the side. Beginner’s mind is a non-grasping, patient, and compassionate holding of truth, with the readiness for God and life to reveal even more of that Truth, and the meaning of that Truth, as your life goes on. Beginner’s mind is always a humble mind, always knowing that it does not yet fully know.(Adapted from Beginner’s Mind (CD, DVD, MP3 download)The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .)

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