Writing a million words living in the head where are my toes? heart soul We are creatures of flesh and blood, with pulsing bodies that feel and move, desire and hurt. There is no life other than this one we experience with this body, our extraordinary bodies. I personally am not interested in a spirituality that does not embrace and operate in the body. There is no such a thing as spirituality without the body. The body is our greatest gift despite how it may let us down and not be as we want or even need. Our body is our teacher and expresses our intentions and will. There is no more important place we inhabit than our body. There is no shangri-la, no ethereal realm of enlightenment and light. There is no where but here and now. And so, the greatest spiritual truth is that ‘it’ is all in the practice - embodied, here and now practice. ‘It’ is life and all we want life to be. “It” is our desire for communion with God and others. “It” is the goal and the end of our striving. It is all in the practice. I can read a million words about prayer and other spiritual practices. I can read a thousand books about the wonder and beauty of music and art. I can have hundreds of glossy magazines about beautiful homes and beautiful nature. I can read a hundred books about good nutrition, exercise and healthy living. I can yearn for justice, goodness and wholeness and can read and write and ponder and think but unless I do I will know nothing but more words and clever ways to put them all together. It is all in the practice. The author of the Cloud of Unknowing said that the only way to know God was to love God. It is all in the practice. Jesus said, the wise person is the one who comes, listens and obeys (Luke 6.47) - that is, who does. It is all in the practice. Practice is something we will and to which we commit on an ongoing basis. As we practice we learn. As we practice we expand. As we practice we are doing that which we will and intend. There is no perfection or end. It is all in the practice. The person who goes to a voice coach but does not use their voice has missed the heart of music. That it is an embodied expression, a flesh and blood resonance within and without. The person who goes to a spiritual director but does not pray, in whatever ways their God calls them, has become like an empty vessel that sees and hears nothing. It is all in the practice. The poet writes ultimately not so there is poem. The poem comes into being because the poet can do nothing but practice their craft. The poem comes from the embodied practice of the one who does. The poetry is in the act of writing. The poem is just the traces of the practice. I am no poet but I can almost guarantee that the greatest joy a poet may feel will not come from reading their poem days or years later but from the creative act itself. It is all in the practice. The practice is the beginning, the middle and the end. When it comes to prayer - and the whole of life can be a prayer - this is all doubly so. Prayer is ultimately about our communion with God, our communication with Divine Love, our community with all that God creates and re-creates. True prayer is not the mindless repetition of words and rituals or a shopping list of needs and wants. True prayer is ‘absolute, unmixed attention’. Prayer is attentive presence and loving beholding of that which God loves - and that is all. Prayer is surrender of the self-focussed mind and re-centring in the present moment. Prayer is openness and trust and single minded focus on the beloved. In this type of prayer there is no goal, no outcome, no end. There is just the moment. It is all in the practice. This is the only, sustainable, authentic way to deal with the variations, vicissitudes and disappointments of public worship. So many of us get caught up in what we do or don’t like when it comes to worship and different expressions of church. The way to worship in honesty, in Spirit and in Truth, is to let go, surrender all self and other critical projections and be one with the moment, with the words, with the sounds. And if, God forbid, but likely won’t, there is something too awful to align with, then pick just one word that calls and attend to that over and over again. There is no perfect worship. There is only this moment and time, these people and this place. It is all in the practice. Anthony of Sourohz, monk and bishop of the Orthodox church, writes that prayer is essentially standing face to face with God, consciously striving to remain collected and absolutely still and attentive in Gods’ presence, which means standing with an undivided mind, an undivided heart and and an undivided will *. He goes on to say this is not easy. It is not but he and countless others believe it is possible. With committed, ongoing practice. With focus and will and humility and the grace of God. It is possible when we let go of outcomes and expectation and simply be in and do the practice. Apparently this is how St John Climacus trained dozens of monks in prayer - a time limit, then merciless attention, and that is all. It is all in the practice. And the ‘it’ is in the end, beyond all understanding yet is as real as your heartbeat and as beautiful as your dearest beloved. practice praktɪs/ noun 1.the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it. Peace & love Rebecca * Living Prayer by Metropolitan Anthony, A Libra Book 1966 p57 and p60
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Rebecca Newland:
Exploring balance, silence and contemplative living Archives
November 2016
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