GOING ON BEYOND 7: A SPOT OF DIY

 

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the seventh session in the course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths". This nine-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware, as part of its Faith Awareness programme. It is presented in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

This evening we're expecting to receive a presentation on "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism" but our speaker fails to appear. So Kevin Commons and Ian Grayling (from the Serene Meditation Group) and I speedily organise a DIY session in place of the one advertised.

We set up three groups of five to discuss three related terms that impact on theory and practice: "meditation", "contemplation" and "concentration". Lively discussion ensues over the next half hour or so, during which we raise such points as those listed below:

• Is there a hierarchy of these terms?
• Do commentators or practitioners consider any of them superior or inferior to the others?
• Does one have to go through different levels before experiencing each one?
• Once you reach one of these stages (e.g. “concentration”) are you done with the others that come before it?
• How do they relate to other terms used to describe similar experiences (e.g. "absorption", "reflection")?
• What is there relation to states of mind where there is an absence of mental processes?
• These terms are defined and redefined in complementary or contradictory ways according to the disciplines, paraphernalia and style of practice.
• We should beware of falling into the trap of believing that we can use these (or any other) terms to describe or express experiences which are beyond words – especially as they are themselves translations.
• We end with a short spell of meditation practice after the zazen (“just sitting”) form that we experienced last week.

I think we did alright this evening, for a spot of DIY.

GOING ON BEYOND 6: DOGEN, MYSTICAL REALIST (A SOTO ZEN PERSPECTIVE)

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the sixth session in the course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths". This nine-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware, as part of its Faith Awareness programme. It is presented in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

This evening our topic is "Dogen: Mystical Realist". Kevin Commons and Ian Grayling, from the Serene Meditation Group, present a Soto Zen perspective on our theme. Kevin distributes a handout, reproduced below:

Origins of Zen Buddhism

After years of trying various practices Shakyamuni finally just sat under the Bodhi tree, experiencing all manner of thoughts and images, until the morning star appeared, at which point all thought dropped away, and he experienced Enlightenment, and became the Buddha.  He was prevailed upon to teach and, over time, gathered a large following of disciples, to whom he regularly unfolded aspects of his teaching.  One day, on Vulture Peak Mountain, instead of talking, he just held up a flower and Mahakashyapa, one of his main disciples, smiled, indicating his understanding of the essence of the teaching.  This incident is regarded as the foundation of the Zen form of Buddhism, which involves the transmission of the teaching “outside the scriptures”.  The point is that, although there are lots of Buddhist scriptures, in the Zen tradition scripture study does not, in itself, result in realising the heart of the teaching.  Direct experience, beyond words is necessary for this.  This form of Buddhism was taken to China by the Bodhidharma, and maintained by a succession of Chinese patriarchs, including Hui-Neng, who had held the lowly position of kitchen assistant at his monastery and was believed to have been illiterate.

Dogen’s early childhood (1200-1212)

At the time of Dogen’s birth the Japanese nobility had become steeped in aesthetic refinement.  This inspired a sense of the transience of beauty, and so focused on the aesthetic, rather than ethical, aspects of religion.  Consequently, they were indifferent to the lot of the masses.  His birth was also preceded by the establishment of feudalism in Japan and the rise of the Samurai class.  In a time of political chaos, many Buddhist monasteries’ concern about their wealth, prestige and power was to the detriment of their moral, intellectual and religious activities.

Though Dogen’s father died when he was two, the death of his mother when he was seven had a bigger impact, as she had requested, on her deathbed, that he should become a monk in order to seek the truth of Buddhism and strive to relieve the sufferings of humanity.  This imperative prevailed against his uncle Moroie’s wish to name him as his heir and to establish him in a career as an aristocrat.

Apprenticeship in Buddhism (1212-1227)

Dogen was ordained in 1213 and began a systematic study of the Buddhist scriptures.  This led him to this seemingly insoluble spiritual question:

“As I study both the exoteric and esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Dharma-nature by birth.  If this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages – undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment – find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in spiritual practice?”  (Quoted in Hee-Jin Kim (2004) p. 22)

Whilst Dogen accepted the truth of original enlightenment he did question the significance of activities that constitute human existence, which amounted to asking “What is the meaning of existence?”  To seek an answer he studied with various Buddhist teachers, most notably Myozen, who had brought Rinzai Zen from China to Japan .  Yet he still felt dissatisfied with much of the Buddhist teaching in contemporary Japan as his original question remained unanswered so he travelled to China to continue his search in 1223.  He stayed at various monasteries but overall was rather disappointed with the state of Buddhism in China and had decided to return to Japan , when an old monk suggested he should visit Ju-ching, the abbot of Mount T’ien-tung monastery.  Ju-ching was a rigorous practitioner of Ts’ao-tung (Soto Zen) sitting in the shikan-taza (just sitting) form of za-zen (formal sitting meditation) every day, often for long periods.  Unlike his contemporaries he eschewed politics, prestige and financial reward but rather focused on helping his students to see the truth for themselves.  One day Ju-ching admonished a monk who had fallen asleep during meditation with the following words:

“In za-zen it is imperative to cast off body and mind.  How could you indulge in sleeping?” (Quoted in Hee-Jin Kim (2004) p. 36)

The remark shook Dogen to his core and he experienced an inexpressible ecstatic joy that engulfed his heart and Ju-ching acknowledged the authenticity of Dogen’s enlightenment experience.

“To cast off body and mind did not nullify historical and social existence so much as to put it into action so that it could be the self-creative and self-expressive embodiment of Buddha-nature. In being “cast off”, however, concrete human experience was fashioned in the mode of radical freedom – purposeless, goalless, objectless, and meaningless.  Buddha-nature was not to be enfolded in, but was to unfold through, human activities and expressions.  The meaning of existence was finally freed from and authenticated by its all-too-human conditions only if, and when, it lived co-eternally with ultimate meaninglessness.

What was taking place in Dogen’s mind was a radical demythologising and in return remythologising of the whole Buddhist symbol-complex of original enlightenment, Buddha-nature, emptiness, and other related ideas and practices.  The crux of his vision lay in a realistic affirmation and transformation of what was relative, finite, and temporal in a nondualistic vision of the self and the world.  To understand duality lucidly and to penetrate it thoroughly within a nondualistic mode of existence was Dogen’s final solution.  His remaining life consisted of his intellectual, moral, and cultic efforts to enact and elucidate this vision in the specific historical and social conditions of his time.” (Hee-Jin Kim (2004) p. 37)

Return to Japan (1227 to 1253)

This experience answered Dogen’s question about the meaning of existence.  In 1227 he returned to Japan to transmit the ancestral line of his teacher to his own countrymen.  In the same year he composed Fukan zazengi “Rules for Meditation”, (Appendix) which can be regarded as a manifesto for the teaching he proclaimed.  He stayed at Kenninji temple until 1230, when he moved to an abandoned temple called An’yoin, where he composed the Bendowa chapter of the Shobogenzo, which expanded his teaching in the Fukan zazengi.  In 1233 he moved into Kannon-doriin temple, which was expanded over the next ten years, and wrote 44 more chapters of the Shobogenzo and took on Ejo as a disciple, who helped with the administration of the temple and its development.  He opened the monastic community of the re-named, expanded, Kannon-horinji temple to everyone regardless of intelligence, social status, sex or profession and abolished the separation between monks and lay people, writing:

“It (enlightenment) depends solely upon whether you have a sincere desire to seek it, not upon whether you live in a monastery or in the secular world.” (Quoted in Hee-Jin Kim (2004) p. 42)

However, he did put the bulk of his effort into developing monastic training and his lay disciples built the Daibutsuji temple in a secluded mountain area.  He moved there in 1244 and., two years later, changed its name to Eiheiji (temple of eternal peace) under which name it survives today.  He spent much of his later years establishing the detail of daily life and practice for his monastic community.  In 1253 he appointed Ejo as his successor and finally succumbed to illness that he had experienced for about 3 years.  He died sitting in the zazen posture.

Much of the material about Dogen's life comes from: Hee-Jin Kim's Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist Wisdom Publications (2004). You can find a review of the book online in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

After an hour or so of the session, we're invited to dry a bit of zazen - "just sitting" - meditation. We can sit on the floor, with various kinds of stools or cushions for support or remain in our chairs (as I do) and face the wall for ten minutes. Eyes open, not struggling against any thoughts which may arise, but not deliberately engaging with them if possible. I don't think I'll be able to last that long without falling asleep, but I find it surprisingly easy - and refreshing.

GOING ON BEYOND 4: RAMAKRISHNA - A HINDU VIEWPOINT

 

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the fourth session in the course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths". This nine-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware, as part of its Faith Awareness programme. It is presented in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

We were expecting to receive a presentation this evening on "Ramakrishna, a Hindu Viewpoint". Our speaker, who would have been travelling up from London, cancelled earlier today, so Barbara Butler has stepped into the breach and leads us through the same topic.

Ramakrishna used meditation and mysticism as means of "going on beyond" the separation of religions to realise their underlying unity. He never claimed that all religions are alike - but advocated unity in diversity, a harmony achieved through mediation and contemplation - appreciation of what we might call these days, "the gift of difference". This was the basis of his appeal for a fellowship of religions, an expression of the Hindu philosophy of Advaita  - unity - challenging the philosophical position of Dualism. He offered the Bhagavad Gita as the key text in understanding this unity.

In practical and social terms, Ramakrishna's teaching of unity expressed itself in his conviction that all people are equal - a radical position for a nineteenth century Hindu. His disciple, Swami Vivekananda, taught against idleness, asserting that "work is worship, worship is work" rather than proposing that one is more meritorious than the other, that a person should choose one over the other.

In the second half of the meeting, we form small groups and discuss what we could do to work towards Ramakrishna's goal of a fellowship of religions.

Obstacles

• Ignorance
• Clinging to convictions
• Thinking that your way is the only way
• Lack of healthy doubt
• Following a path for your on aggrandisement (egotism)
• Not taking an interest in how others see life
• Institution of religions: maintaining the institution can be put before what the religion is really about
• Association of religion with government or with power
• Dialogue of religious leaders maintains established power
• Lack of time
• Lack of confidence
• Complications
• Unity – too easy
• Conflicts – real
• Work / commitment within one’s own denomination is so absorbing that there is no time for dialogue
• It is too easy to proclaim human unity and yet not recognise the reality of conflict
• Inter-faith work can become commodified, self-sustaining career path

Ways forward

• If strong in one’s own faith, then one can cope with others
• Openness
• Open mindedness
• Agreeing to disagree, while maintaining your own integrity
• Seeking common ground
• Coming together for a common purpose, irrespective of belief
• Keeping hope alive
• Necessity of democracy, involving ordinary people
• RE in schools: education in humanity
• Gentle first steps, listening
• Food
• Create opportunities to meet
• Showing good will
• Meeting one another
• Fellowship

GOING ON BEYOND 2: MYSTICISM FROM A CISTERCIAN PERSPECTIVE

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, this evening for the second session in the course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths". This nine-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware, as part of its Faith Awareness programme. It is presented in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our speaker this evening is Father Joseph Delargy, Abbot of the Monastery of Mount St Bernard Abbey (on the right in the photo above, with Kevin Commons). The full text of his talk is reproduced below. 

Mysticism from a Cistercian Perspective 

I have been invited to speak about Mysticism from a Cistercian Perspective. There are two words in that title that may need clarification.

Cistercian is the order of monks I belong to. It is a Roman Catholic Christian order founded in the year 1098. Today it numbers about 4000 of both of monks and nuns, about 2000 monks and 2000 nuns spread throughout 200 monasteries throughout the world.

Mysticism is harder to define. Even though it is a word that is used much in Christianity – we speak of mystical theology, mysticism, and mystics, we think of the Spanish Mystics Teresa and John of the Cross, or the English mystics, Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle, the Cloud of Unknowing - we find it hard to actually define it. A definition of mystical theology is: the study of the human experience of God and a definition of mysticism is: involving the explicit experience of the immediate presence of God. So it is to do with the experience of God in this life.

Another problem with the word mysticism is the tendency to equate it with unusual phenomena like ecstasies, trances, visions, but these are always peripheral to true mysticism, all the true mystics never sought anything like that and if they did experience them they often found it an embarrassment. A saying that is often said by older monks to over eager novices is that mysticism "begins in mist, is centred on I and ends in schism."

The mystical teaching of the Cistercians would be above all found in the writings of the first Cistercians monks, people like St Bernard of Clairvaux (pictured below), William of St Thierry, Ailred of Rievaulx, Guerric of Igny and others. The Cistercians were originally a reform movement, started in 1098 in France, when a group of monks left the abbey of Molesme to found a new monastery with a simpler lifestyle and following the Rule of St Benedict more closely, stripped of all the accretions that had attached themselves to it over the years.

 

Their teachings are found in their sermons, treatises and commentaries. The Song of Songs in the Old Testament was one of their favourite books of the Bible and they never tired commentating on it. St Bernard’s great commentary runs to 86 substantial sermons and he only got as far as chapter 3 verse 1, not even half way through. The English Cistercians John of Ford and Baldwin of Ford continued this work after Bernard’s death in 1153.

The Cistercians saw the love story between the bride and the groom in the Song of Songs as representing the relationship between God and the soul.

Bride = the soul (or the Church) = anima

Groom = God = the Word

One verse they homed in on was 2:4. Our modern bibles say: He brought me to the banqueting hall and his banner over me was love but the old Latin bibles they would have used instead of saying his banner over me was love say He set love in order in me. That seems to be the whole key to Cistercian mysticism – the ordering of our love.

We do love, as humans we can’t do anything else, but we either love the wrong things or love the right things but love them too much or too little. Our love needs to be put in order.

Another important theme is that of image and likeness. Following Holy Scripture and the book of Genesis they believe that man is made in the image and likeness of God. After the fall of Adam we are still the image of God but we have lost our likeness. The spiritual/mystical path has as its goal to restore our likeness to God.

The Cistercians couldn’t get over the fact of the Incarnation, it fascinated them, the fact that God emptied himself to become man in Jesus Christ, the true humanity of Christ, a man like us in all things but sin. Pope Benedict XVI speaking on this aspect of St Bernard’s teaching in 2009 said:

In the extenuating battles between Nominalists and Realists two philosophical currents of the time the Abbot of Clairvaux never tired of repeating that only one name counts, that of Jesus of Nazareth. "All food of the soul is dry", he professed, "unless it is moistened with this oil; insipid, unless it is seasoned with this salt. What you write has no savour for me unless I have read Jesus in it" (In Canticum Sermones XV, 6: PL 183, 847).

For Bernard, in fact, true knowledge of God consisted in a personal, profound experience of Jesus Christ and of his love. And, dear brothers and sisters, this is true for every Christian: faith is first and foremost a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus, it is having an experience of his closeness, his friendship and his love. It is in this way that we learn to know him ever better, to love him and to follow him more and more. May this happen to each one of us!

Silence was another important element to the Cistercian mystical path. Not just silence to foster recollection but silence in order to "hear" God. They believed that hearing comes before sight. We will only see God in heaven but in this life we can ‘hear’ God (metaphorically speaking) speaking to our soul.

Simplicity was important – simplicity in liturgy, architecture, and life style. Whilst beautiful things – statues, stained glass, etc. - can lead us to God they can also be a hindrance getting in the way of a pure experience of God. In a sense the Cistercians were minimalists.

 

The Cistercians followed the Rule of St Benedict (c. 530 pictured above) and so its teaching was foundational to them. Humility and obedience were essential elements of their spirituality and mysticism.

Manual work was held in high esteem by the Cistercians. St Bernard said he learnt more from the woods and the trees and the rocks than he ever did from books.

The Cistercians described the mystical experience as ‘Visits from the Word’ – no strange phenomena – but when prayer is easy and living the virtues then the Word (God) is with us. When prayer is difficult and living the virtues is a struggle then the Word has departed. We sense the Word’s presence and absence but we don’t know the moment when he came or went. The comings and goings of the Word are entirely up to God, though we can facilitate them by making ourselves ready.

No saint is as optimistic as St Bernard, no saint is as hopeful as he is, in the ability of man, wherever and whoever he is, to return to God. No one was beyond hope for Bernard. The most wretched sinner was seen by Bernard as a man with his foot on the first rung of the ladder back to God. For Bernard the man at the very bottom has nowhere else to go apart from up. No saint was ever as encouraging as St Bernard. In a very well known passage Bernard writes – and this comes after speaking about the heights of the spiritual life and union with God – he writes:

Every man – even if burdened with sin, enmeshed in vice, ensnared by the allurements of pleasures, caught in mud, fixed in mire, a slave to care, distracted by business, afflicted with sorrow, wandering and straying, filled with anxious forebodings and uneasy suspicions – every man, I say, standing thus under condemnation and without hope, has the power to turn and find it can not only breath the fresh air of the hope of pardon and mercy, but also dare to aspire to union with God…. Why should he not venture with confidence into the presence of him by whose image he sees himself honoured, and in whose likeness he knows himself made glorious? Why should he fear a majesty when his very origin gives him ground for confidence. (SC 83)

St Bernard certainly lived by this. In the well-known story, one day St Bernard was on his way to see Count Theobald and on the way he came across a crowd leading a man out to the gallows for execution. The man was Constantius and he was guilty of murder. We can imagine the scene, the baying crowds heaping insults on the murderer and the terrified man being dragged along. Bernard stopped and took the rope by which the man was tied and said to those in charge "Let me have this murderer, for I wish to take him and hang him with my own hands" (i.e. by living the penitential monastic life). Such was Bernard’s authority that those in charge let him take the man and Bernard took him to Clairvaux where he became a monk. Under Bernard’s guidance Constantius made atonement and reparation for his sins by a life of obedience and penance as a monk for the remaining thirty years of his life until his holy death. Constantius is remembered in the menology of our Order on June 20.

When the crowds looked into the terrified man’s face they saw an evil demon, when St Bernard looked into the man’s face he saw past his sins to a potential saint. Cardinal Basil Hume used to say (quoting Oscar Wilde): "Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past."

In his sermons on conversion he paints and all to familiar picture, when we try to convert we are beset with greater temptations. But we are not to despair. He writes: (If we ask) … "Is it possible for such wretchedness to make a person happy?" (I say to you) Whoever you are, if you are in this frame of mind, do not despair: it is mercy, not misery, that makes a person happy, but mercy’s natural home is misery. Indeed it happens that misery becomes the source of our happiness when humiliation turns into humility and necessity becomes a virtue. Sickness has real utility when it leads us to the doctor’s hands, and he whom God restores to health gains by having been ill. (Conversion 12)All I have been saying is from the past, from history, so I would like to speak about a modern Cistercian Mystic, Thomas Merton. In December it was the 46^th anniversary of his death.

Thomas Merton (photo above) was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades in France in the eastern Pyrenees where his father was painting. His father, Owen, was a New Zealander, and his mother Ruth, was an American. When Merton was one year old the family moved to the US, first to Douglaston on Long Island then to the borough of Queens in New York. Merton had one brother, John Paul, who was a few years younger than he. When he was 6 Merton’s mother died and this was followed by a period of wandering for the family. First his father took him to Bermuda and then once again to France, where Merton went to school. In 1928, when Merton was 13, it was decided to continue his education in England and they moved to Ealing, W. London. He began school at Ripley Court, a prep school in Surrey, and then when he was 14 he moved to Oakham Public School in Rutland, just 25 miles away from where we are sitting now. After Oakham he gained entrance to Cambridge University where he studied modern languages French and Italian. At Cambridge something went wrong, though we are never told quite what it was, but to the end of his days Merton seemed to have a real hatred of Cambridge. After two years at Cambridge he transferred to Colombia University in NY and was much happier there reading English Literature and doing his Masters degree on William Blake. He lived in NY on and off for the next 6 years and during this period he converted to the Roman Catholic faith, being baptised on 16 November, the feast of St Gertrude, in 1938, when he was 23. Three years later he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky in the U.S. and soon after began his prolific writing career.

There is no single opinion on Merton: some see him as the most important monk of the twentieth century, and indeed the most important monk of modern times, others see him as an anomaly. Whatever the opinion, though, it can’t be denied that he was a significant figure and still is. What his influence on the development of the Order was is hard to say; it could be argued he had an enormous influence on the Order, or equally, that he had no real lasting influence on the Order. My opinion at the moment is that he had a large influence on the Order, but not directly, but indirectly. I don’t think we can point to anything and say we do or don’t do this because of Thomas Merton, but I think the attitude and outlook of the Order has been very much shaped by Merton.Just recently I came across a piece of his writing that I think can serve us as a good meditation.

It is his first ever Christmas he spent in the monastery, so that is just after a few weeks, bearing in mind he entered on 10 December, Merton was waiting in church for the midnight Mass to begin and Merton writes in his journal:

Lord it is nearly midnight and I am waiting for you in the darkness and the great silence. I am sorry for all my sins. Do not let me ask any more than to sit in the darkness and light no lights of my own, and be crowded with no crowds of my own thoughts to fill the emptiness of the night in which I await you.… Your brightness is my darkness. I know nothing of you and, by myself, I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing you. If I imagine you, I am mistaken. If I understand you, I am deluded. If I am conscious and certain I know you, I am crazy. The darkness is enough. (Bridges to Contemplative Living, edited by Montaldo & Toth, Ave Maria Press, 2010. p. 28)

Powerful words from someone who had just been in the monastery for two weeks.

Twenty four years later this basic theme and attitude is still there in his mature writings. In 1965 in the Climate of Monastic Prayer he writes:

Contemplative prayer is, in a way, simply the preference for the desert, for emptiness, for poverty. One has begun to know the meaning of contemplation when one intuitively and spontaneously seeks the dark and unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way. The contemplative is one who would rather not know than now. Rather not enjoy than enjoy. Rather not have proof that God loves him. He accepts the love of God on faith, in defiance of all apparent evidence. This is the necessary condition, and a very paradoxical condition, for the mystical experience of the reality of God’s presence and of his love for us. Only when we are able to ‘let go’ of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste, and to experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that presence with the overwhelming conviction and reality that revolutionize our entire life. (Ibid. p. 29)

I think that is a good and helpful passage. We all experience periods of aridity in the spiritual life but here Merton teaches that we have only begun to know the meaning of contemplation when we "intuitively and spontaneously seek the dark and unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way." So our aridity is not a hindrance on our journey to God but rather it is the way, the path, to Him.

Father Joseph has set the bar rather high for the speaker following him next week. Hang on a minute - that'll be me! *gulp*

ChristChurch is busy this evening. We're used to the City of Leicester Singers rehearsing here on Monday evenings. Tonight, session four of an eight-week course on the history of the Old Testament is being held in the Vaughan Powell Room, next to ours - though no one can remember that being on last week. In the Worship Space (the main area of the church), Rev David Jennings, Canon Theologian, is delivering the monthly Leicester Theological Society: "Is the Bible the word of God? Discuss". Until this evening, Leicester Theological Society has held its monthly meetings on Fridays. I've often wanted to attend their lectures but they've either coincided with the kids staying with me or some other social commitment. But it's odd that they should be holding them here now on Monday evenings, when some of those who regularly attend the Christians Aware / Faith Awareness sessions would more than likely want to attend the lecture. For that matter, I'd fancy joining in the Old Testament history course too!

But it's a wee bit more than a minor irritation here this evening. In the Worship Space, David Jennings is using the microphone and PA and his talk is seeping into our room via a speaker that we can't switch off. It's turned down as low as it'll go but we can still hear every word, bubbling under Father Delargy's talk. When he's about to take us into a period of silent meditation, I break ranks and dash into the Worship Space to see if they can cut the sound to our room. But even though they're on to Q&A, there's no natural break in the flow that would allow me to interject. After standing there for the better part of ten minutes and failing to make myself seen or heard, I head back to our session. I have to say I'm relieved that that particular distraction won't be there next week.

GOING ON BEYOND 1: INTRODUCTION & PERSONAL REFLECTION

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, this evening for the first session of a new course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths". This nine-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware, as part of its Faith Awareness programme. It is presented in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

It was originally intended as a ten-week course which should have begun last Monday, but sub-zero temperatures and slippery roads and pavements made it seem wise to postpone the start by a week.

This is the latest in a series of courses that has so far addressed  "Mindfulness" (2010), "Mindfulness and Morality" (2011) and "Mindfulness and Wisdom" (2o12) - each of which is covered extensively on this blog. Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons (photo above) from Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group are facilitating this first session and will have their hands on the tiller throughout the course.

There are 15 people attending this evening (including our facilitators). This programme has been designed as a means of helping those attending to explore the process of looking within as a means of deepening their understanding of their own faith as well as looking at mysticism within a range of different traditions. More specifically, the programme seeks to enable people to:

• Recognise ways of knowing through personal experience that goes beyond rational understanding;
• Deepen (or initiate) their own meditation or contemplative practice;
• Be mindful of similarity and difference in contemplative practice from different faith perspectives;
• Consider the practice of "meditation" as a means of underpinning daily living.

This opening session provides a "faith-neutral" introduction. The remaining sessions will each look at meditation or contemplative prayer and mysticism through the life of a well known practitioner from a sample of different faiths. Each of these sessions will comprise an introduction from a named speaker and explanation of the particular practice  of the chosen practitioner. The presenters will then lead a short period of meditation or contemplative prayer and the session will conclude with questions from the audience.

The programme, which employs a range of delivery techniques, including practical experience of a contemplative technique, aims to promote active and reflective learning in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust.

This evening, Ian and Kevin renew our acquaintance with authorities and commentators whose names and insights we've come to know through these courses: James W. Fowler and his definitions of stages of faith; Alister Hardy and his research on religious experience; Zohar and Marshall and their work on spiritual intelligence. We do some pairs work discussing how Hardy's findings relate to our own lives - an exercise in active listening.

MINDFULNESS & WISDOM 8: IN CONCLUSION

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the final session in the course, "Mindfulness". This eight-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware (as part of its Faith Awareness programme) in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

This concluding session is facilitated by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons, from the Serene Reflection Group.

Part of this evening is devoted to considering similarities and differences between the presentations that we've had in previous weeks. 

From the three introductory sessions

People may well be at different stages of faith where for some the principal locus of authority is external (teachers and scriptures) but for others the principal locus of authority is found within. This is underpinned by a sense of progression through life from Dependence, though Independence to Interdependence.

Zen Buddhism Wisdom and Compassion are inextricably linked.

Islam Wisdom is expressed in your actions.

Judeo-Christian The scriptures provide insight in how to lead the good life.  In this regard is Jesus a window into Wisdom?

Humanist Wisdom is about deciding what is right to do at an individual, family and societal level.

Similarities If wisdom is not manifested in daily life it is not wisdom. What you think, believe and say should be compatible with what you do.

Differences The Zen contribution made much more of the importance of direct personal experience that goes beyond rationality but is still relevant to daily life.

MINDFULNESS & WISDOM 6: THE PLACE OF WISDOM IN THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the sixth session in the course, "Mindfulness". This eight-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware (as part of its Faith Awareness programme) in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our topic this evening is "The Place of Wisdom in the Judeo-Christian Tradition", presented by Revd Marcus Braybrooke. Marcus is President of the World Congress of Faiths and is the author of many books on religion and spirituality in its many forms. His specialist interest is in relations between Christians and Jews. The copy below is almost entirely adapted from the handout we’re given this evening.

Wisdom literature was commonplace in the Ancient world. Here are a few examples of Ptahotep's advice:

• "Do not gossip in your neighbourhood, because people love the silent."
• "Only speak when you have something worth saying."
• "Love your wife with passion."
• "Do not blame those who are childless, do not criticise them for not having any, and do not boast about having them yourself."

Wisdom literature in the Bible

The Wisdom literature includes books such as Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon and perhaps the Psalms and (in the Apocrypha) The Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, which is the Greek translation of Ben Sirah who wrote the book in Hebrew c. 190/180 BCE and it was then translated into Greek for his grandson in 132 BCE. Wisdom literature in the Bible is of two types: instruction and reflection.

Instruction

Are you good at getting up in the morning? If not, here's one for you: "As the door turns upon its hinges, so doth the slothful turn upon his bed." (Prov 26:13). Again, "The bickerings of a wife are like the ever-dripping gutter." (Prov 19:13). But lest we be accused of sexism, Proverbs also says of a virtuous woman, "her price is above rubies." (Prov 31:10). Sometimes there are parallels with New Testament passages: "The tongue that soothes is a tree of live; the perverse tongue a breaker of hearts." (Prov 15:4) and "With the tongue we praise Our Lord and Father with the tongue we curse man, who hath been made in God's likeness." (James 3:9). There is quite often a suggestion that God will reward the righteous: "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not let the upright go hungry. He thwarts the greed of the wicked." (Prov 10:23). Also, "The righteous man 'shall be like a tree planted by the waterside, but the ungodly are like chaff, which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth." (Psalm 1)

Reflective literature

Wisdom literature ponders the injustice of life: "God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Know now that God hath overthrown me, and has caught me in a net. Behold I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud but there is no judgement." (Job 19:6-7) The Preacher in Ecclesiastes says: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity".

The personification of Wisdom (who is female)

Wisdom says in "The Lord brought me forth or created me as the first of his works ... I was appointed from eternity, before the world began." (Prov 8:22)

"wisdom pervades and permeates all things. She is the breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty ... She is the reflection of the eternal Light, untarnished mirror of God's active power, and image of his goodness." (Book of Wisdom 7:25-26)

Wisdom gives understanding and teaches the secret of a good lire, which is obey the Torah. Solomon says: "I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me ... I loved her above health and beauty ... She is a treasure unto men that never fails." (Wis 7:7)

"Thy word is a lantern unto my feet: and a light unto my paths." (Psalm 119:105) 

"Thy testimonies are wonderful: there fore doth my soul keep them." (Psalm 119:129)

Wisdom in the New Testament - Parallels in the Gospels
Wisdom says: "Put your neck under the yoke and let your soul receive instruction: she is hard to find." (Ecclesiasticus 51:26) Jesus says: "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." (Matthew 11:25) Testing, and the mocking of a servant of God's claim to be protected by God: Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life: for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries." (Wis 2:17-18). "He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (??)

The wisdom of God is foolishness to men (1 Cor 1:17ff)

Wisdom is a challenge to human conceit and to a knowledge-based pattern of education.

Jesus as the Wisdom or Word of God

Several New Testament writers identify Jesus with the figure of Wisdom who was with God from the beginning but how close is the parallel?

Paul actually speaks about Christ as "the power of god and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor 1:24) and says that his message was "of the mystery of the wisdom of God - even the hidden wisdom, which God orddainedCor 2:7) "Wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness." (Wis 7:26) The author of Hebrews says of Christ: "He reflects the glory of God and hears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power." (Prologue to John's Gospel)

Later Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism said little about Wisdom, but she reappears in Kabbala or mystical Judaism.

"How should we speak of Jesus?"

Some translations of the New Testament avoid "Father" and "Son".

"Stories of the Prophets", and Arabic Bible that uses "Lord" instead of "Father" and "Messiah" instead of "Son".

"True Meaning of the Gospel of Christ", an Arabic translation which removes "Father" in reference to God and removes or redefines "Son".

A Turkish translation of Matthew that uses "guardian" for "Father" and "representative" or "proxy" for "Son".

The Bengali Infil Sharif, which translated "Son" as "Messiah" and "Son of God" as "God's Uniquely Intimate Beloved Chosen One"

We're given an exercise for our small group work that seems a little odd, given that not everyone in the room is Christian (we have at least two Secular Humanists, two Buddhists and a Bahá'í) but everyone does their best to enter into the spirit of things. We're asked to discuss the most helpful way to speak of God's presence in Jesus:

• Jesus is God
• Jesus is the Image of God
• God was in Jesus Christ
• Very God of Very God
• The Wisdom or Word of God was present in Jesus and also in Buddha and Zoroaster and Krishna
• Jesus as a window into God (which is how he is described in Honest to God)