Mindful of mystery part 2
Jesus was a riddler. And wrestling with riddles sparks new neural pathways in our neuroplastic brains. I dare you to wrestle with this one.
What does Jesus mean when he says this in Mark 4:21-24?
‘He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
‘Consider carefully [see] what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’
In the context of Mark 4 which is about the seed and the sower, with the seed being the Word of God, the lamp is also the Word of God. The echo is of Psalm 119:105, ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.’ But what is being measured? And what will be received? The clue is in what the good soil represents in the parable of the seed and the sower. And the answer is worth waiting for. The answer makes Jesus a major contemporary player in a key cultural phenomenon.
mindful of mystery
Sometimes we need to focus on the riddles and mysterious statements Jesus makes, staying with just the one or two verses of that riddling.
For example what does Jesus mean when he says this in Mark 4:21-24?
‘He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
‘Consider carefully [see] what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’
A clue is that this has to be considered in the context of the rest of Mark 4. Two key questions are: what is the lamp, and what is being measured?
I’m going to leave it as a riddle to think about, and I’ll come back to what I think Jesus is saying.
more mindful about anger part 1
In J. K Rowling’s first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone orphan Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised and sees his parents. It is a mirror that shows the deepest and most desperate desire of his heart (Erised = Desire). It is a mirror, that his headmaster, Dumbledore tells him, shows ‘neither knowledge or truth.’ In fact many have wasted their whole life sitting in front of that mirror.
Paul uses the image of a mirror in the first book to the Corinthians, and James the brother of Jesus also uses the idea of a mirror – but this is the mirror of truth, the living book of Scripture.
‘But the man who looks intently into the [mirror of the] perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.’ (James 1:25)
The question is which mirror are we continually looking in? Are we looking in the narcissist’s mirror, where there is no room for anyone else to be reflected? A mirror that dooms us to disappointment as our appearance ages. Are we looking in the glittery mirror of our culture of consumerism, which tells us all the products we see in it will make us happy and fill our inner emptiness (until at least the new model comes out)? Are we looking in the mirror of distortion, that is suspicious, paranoid and misinterprets everything anybody says to us? Or are we looking in the mirror of truth that shows us the living book of Scripture that gives freedom? And we are doing this continuously as James urges?
James talks about this metaphor in the context of addressing anger. Anger is one of the afflictive thoughts identified by the Desert Fathers and Mothers as most destructive of community. We often feel guilt and shame for the anger that grips us and that we indulge. Paul tells us something helpful in Ephesians 4:26, he says ‘In your anger do not sin.’ The feeling of anger is itself not a sin, but what we do with it often is.
With that in mind what does James want to tell us? The first thing he tells us is that ‘Everyone’ is to be ‘slow to become angry.’ (James 1:19). The word ‘everyone’ is used a lot to address important issues in the Bible – and I talk to many Christians who want to qualify this and say ‘everyone…but me.’ They are somehow the exception to the rule, the person who doesn’t have to tithe, live in community, be chaste in their sexual practice and so on.
Anger is one of those issues where many Christians wish to qualify that direct biblical teaching. Why does James say that we must be slow to become angry? Because we are usually very quick to become angry. On my smartphone I have an icon for a game called ‘Angry Birds’ – it is a shortcut that goes straight to the game. On many of our chests we have an ‘angry man’ or ‘angry woman’ icon – which is easily pressed and provides a short-cut straight to the land of angry.
If we are to be slow to become angry we must learn to slow down the chain of thoughts that make up the shortcut in our psyche. The Desert Father and Mothers called these chains of thought logismoi. I’ll say more about that in part 2.
But the question is are we going to deal with our anger or not? Suppressing it is not the answer, nor is indulging it. There is another way.
mindful of anger
Many access anger too quickly, and others try to suppress or avoid the feeling altogether. For some it has become an ‘Angry Bird’ icon in their minds which is too easily pressed and accessed. They need to slow down the process of thoughts and feelings that make up that hot button. Others need to face their anger and not hide from it.
Jesus recognizes that anger might stream inside us but says that it can be transformed and that we shouldn’t direct it on to others(Matthew 5:21). If we are slapped round the face our automatic response is to get angry. By telling us to turn the other cheek Jesus is challenging our automatic response(Matthew 5:39). In others words we need to be mindful of our anger.
Jesus reveals himself through his words to be the first neuroscientist (not surprisingly). In their book How God Changes Your Brain, leading neuroscientists Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman explain how anger is humanity’s greatest enemy. When we get angry the rational, social and compassionate parts of our brain close down…meaning no communication is possible.
John Cassian a fourth century monk says anger is a ‘deadly poison…that must be totally uprooted.’ Some researchers believe that anger is a coronary-prone behaviour that damages our bodies. But it’s very useful isn’t it for getting our own way…
I was very encouraged last night as I led a seminar at church on the latest neuroscientific evidence for how God changes our brain for the better through contemplative/mindful practices. We had over 30 people, with folk from churches, neighbours and friends. The discussion was really helpful, especially as people shared their insights about anger.
mindful of the body
Time stress is rife in our culture, and is a silent killer, being responsible for some forms of heart disease and other ailments according to some research. Time stress can lead to competitiveness, cynicism, anger and hostility which have been called ‘coronary-prone’ behaviour.
Many clues appear in our bodies which we ignore because we are on auto-pilot and stuck in automaticity. One of the first places to begin to learn mindfulness is to pay attention to our bodies. Our 5 senses operate as a kind of outer rim of awareness of what is outside our body. Daniel J Siegel talks about the sixth sense, which is the ability to be aware of what is going on in our bodies.One of the ways we can do this is to start paying attention to our breath.
The breath belongs to no one, we take it with us wherever we go and it often indicates to us when we are stressed or not. For example I do a simple exercise of counting my in-breath, followed by my out-breath.
‘Inhale one, exhale one…’ and so on up to a count of ten. If I lose count I start again. There are many mindful breathing exercises. Will van der Hart and Rob Waller have one in their book ‘The Worry Book’. The key thing is practice and repitition.
The body and the spirit are good and belong together – it is not ‘body bad – spirit good’. That is bad theology. There is much more to be said about this. But think about those who have given their bodies for you?
As a Christian I believe Christ gave his body for me. My mother housed me in her womb, and fed me from her body. My father has protected me with his body from a drunk. The body and the spirit belong together in God’s redeeming wholeness.
Listen to your body today and its messages, it might just save your life.
Coco – the cocker spaniel/poodle mindful in the moment
I have learnt a lot about mindfulness in the present moment from my dog Coco. Especially in his intense desire for freedom from his leash/lead.
I think I realised watching him attentively that for much of my life I have been on an invisible lead. Becoming mindful is taking the lead off, throwing off the shackles, breaking the chains.
Coco loves free running – he puts all of himself into it. He desires to be free and then inhabits all of his freedom to run. I think God enjoys seeing him run. But when I first got him I was afraid to let him off the lead. What if it wasn’t safe? What if he didn’t come back?
Of course it doesn’t always go to plan. Sometimes (often) he is aware of exactly where the fox scat is, and rolls in it ecstatically. It is a vile smelling perfume. Apparently his nose is 1,000 to 10,000 times more aware than our noses. He follows invisible trails of scent that we are completely unaware of.
Then, he is often very slow and methodical. I have to slow down as well. The present moment is a delight to him. The moment he finds the exact smell that he has been looking for – he is fully present to it – neither occupied by the past or worried about the future.
He is a mindful dog, for being in the present moment is an integral part of mindfulness.
mindfulness through art
We can become mindful through looking at art, reading poetry, becoming a carpenter, fishing – being a poet, or artist.
One such artist who can help us journey into a state of greater awareness is Odilon Redon, the French Symbolist.
ODILON Redon the French Symbolist (1840-1916) shows us in his paintings the spiritual reality underlying our material reality. Although that spiritual reality is veiled and ambiguous, Redon enables us to see through the physical to the spiritual beyond. Redon achieved this through his use of symbol in the mysterious world of dreams and the subconscious.
I recently had the privilege of visiting the recent exhibition of Redon’s work at the Grand Palais in Paris (23 March- 20th June 2011). This is apparently the first major exhibition of his work in Paris since 1956.
Although I have been drawn to his pastels by their ecstatic use of colour, this exhibition traces the development of his work from the beginning of what is called the Noirs, charcoal drawings and lithographs, through to the luminous vibrancy of his later pastels.
What is brought together in this major collection of over 170 pieces is the shadow side of our humanity and the light that also inhabits us. A religious experience and a serious illness in the 1890s brought out this explosion of colour in his work which had until then lain dormant.
The paintings are often spiritually evocative although never labelled as ‘religious’. In this way their appeal would be to all who love art.
The centrepiece of the exhibition was a painting called The Golden Cell (1892). You gaze at a mysterious yet still and peaceful cobalt blue profile of a face, eyes closed, painted over a metallic gold background, much like an icon. What is striking about the painting is the unrealistic use of colour – a blue face. Blue here is seen to be symbolic of holiness.
Another painting of a still but attentive face is called Closed Eyes (1890), this is a recurring theme, and believed to be the transition point between the Noirs and the later vivid colour. If part of the reason for art is for us to experience something, as it was with stories in an oral culture, then these are paintings that create a yearning in us for the peace that is being portrayed before our eyes.
Another key painting that lies at the end of this journey into stillness is called The Silent Christ (1911), or perhaps even better, The Silence. This is not the silence of Christ before Pontius Pilate, or his silence on the cross, but the silence of his contemplation in communion with his Father – which is the silence. Paradoxically, although Christ’s eyes are closed, this is a watchful face, not the watchfulness of anxiety and suspicion, as characterizes so many faces in the twenty first century, but the watchfulness of love and trust. This is interesting as Jesus talks much about watchfulness in Mark’s gospel – a concept that overlaps with modern ideas of mindfulness.
Even in the earlier charcoal and lithograph pieces, with their weird and anguished themes of smiling spiders, and plants with human heads, there is still the attempt in drawings of angels and demons to show light and dark through a mastery of the technique of chiaroscuro. The French term clair-obscur brings out the tension that lies within all of his work, clarity and hiddenness are woven together.
The one theme that is missing from this collection is a greater representation of the ‘mystical boats’, a series of sailing boats with mysterious passengers and elusive destinations – but still infused with the colour of hope and faith. These paintings encourage us not to remain anchored in an imaginary safe harbour, but to sail through the shadow into the light beyond. Perhaps, most encouragingly of all, Redon’s work draws out the spiritual which lies dormant in so many people. It is there where his importance lies.
Why be mindful? depressed and anxious? read on…
I remember sitting outside a French cafe in Paris just before my last sabbatical 7 years ago. The children who were young were just playing in the square in front of us. I couldn’t enjoy the capuccino, the sunshine or their free play, I was plagued with irrational anxious fears that someone was going to snatch them. At that moment I didn’t know how to handle those anxious fears. I knew that I longed for an interior freedom. I found help within Christian contemplative mindfulness practice as well as modern psychological therapy.
If you are depressed, anxious, suffering from stress or many other modern ailments then mindfulness is being used within psychological treatments of these afflictive thoughts. There are mindfulness-based treatments like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). There are other therapies which are mindfulness-incorporating like dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
Mindfulnes as a theory and in terms of mindful aware practices (MAPS) is growing exponentially within psychology and Western culture. It is both a universal human capacity and can be reached in many different ways. The primary influence within Western psychology has been Buddhist theory and practice in this area.
I am interested in examining it from all angles as well as showing that Christian contemplative practices also lead to a state of mindfulness. I know from my own experience that it works. The key question, however, that anyone needs to ask, is ‘how do I discern what help to access in the confusing market-place of help?’
Being Mindful
Being mindful is as important as breathing. Unfortunately just as we breathe automatically so we often live automatically. We live on autopilot as many psychologists call it. People have been aware of mindfulness almost as long as the human race has been aware of breathing.
What is interesting about mindfulness is the way you can interact with ancient witnesses to mindfulness as well as the latest neuroscientific evidence. One such text is from the book of James in the New Testament.
‘But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.’ (James 1:25)
One aspect of mindfulness is to learn how to ‘look intently’. The Greek word here is parakypsas, which also occurs in 1 Peter 1:12, where it talks about angels longing ‘to look intently’ into the mystery of the gospel.
Within James it appears to be being used as a technical word to talk about meditating on the ancient texts that make up the Bible. Meditation on a text in this way is what we would call today a MAP, a mindful awareness practice. Mindfulness as a state of present moment awareness needs MAPS, mindfulness awareness practices. Within the first chapter of James there are a number of words to do with perception, an aspect of mindfulness.
The other element of how our minds works that James points out, and he is not just being metaphorical is that we forget how to live wisely, and we also have the capacity to not forget, or to remember (James 1:25). James often gives us one thing, for example, ‘forgetting’, to bring to mind it’s opposite – in this case remembering.
The ‘remembering’ that is important here is the Greek word mnesthenai usually translated ‘to be mindful of’. These are two important capacities of our mind, forgetting and remembering. The forgetting in today’s language is akin to what psychologists call automatic thinking, or being on autopilot, which is an unaware and forgetful way of living.
The mindful awareness practices (MAP’s) help us to ‘remember’ to live wisely and in awareness. In my experience God plays his part in this. This is the missing dimension. What I would call mindFullness.
The Contemplative Self
MUCH OF today’s worship and prayer seems to be a closed system which does not allow for the validity of silence and solitude. I have been in that place myself where people told me silence and solitude was important, I tried it, but it did not seem to work.
But the work of silence and solitude may be the most important thing we do as disciples of the Still One.
It is interesting but if you look at things in the world slightly differently you can see how silence and stillness is built into the fabric of existence around us.
At the beginning of everything God spoke into the silence. From the beginning of our lives we have the connected silence and solitude of the womb, where the first sounds a baby will hear are her mother’s heartbeat and the sound of her blood pumping at around 16 weeks, two months before the ears are fully formed.
The mysterious process of quiet sleep is a place of silence and solitude making up a third of our life. The silence and stillness of a spider, or crouching tiger are God-given signs in the world that we just don’t see. Silence is more important to our well-being than we realise.
The attentiveness we develop in art or poetry which makes the world more fully present is another sign God has placed in the world to draw our attention to the importance of stillness.
Not being able to find a place of silence, as for tinnitus sufferers, can feel like a madness. We live in a kingdom of noise where there is almost nowhere to go to find silence. We are drowning in noise but we do not know it, we think we are waving.
A small amount of silence can be wonderful, but stretch it out a bit and suddenly it becomes a fearful place. A number of times in prayer meetings I have said ‘let’s wait on God in silence’, and within twenty seconds someone prays out loud.
The Desert Fathers whose work was silence tell us that a prolonged period of silence and solitude means we will have to ‘wrestle with our inner demons’. In fact when Abbot Moses was asked for a word of life he replied, ‘Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.’ In other words the silence and solitude of the cell will teach you everything.
Silence and solitude especially within monastic settings has often been criticized as a withdrawal from life. But it is in silence and solitude we become aware of our connectedness to all things. It is in the kingdom of noise that we feel isolated and disconnected.
When Jesus healed the paralytic in Luke chapter five he was able to read the hearts of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. This is often attributed rightly to a prophetic gifting through the Holy Spirit, but just before this passage we read, ‘ Jesus often withdraw to lonely places and prayed.’ It is that work of silence and solitude that also enabled him to read hearts.
I have only begun to put the tiny crescent of a fingernail into the doorway of silence and solitude which is how we develop a contemplative self. It is a tiny splinter of sunlight in my heart that refuses to leave.
The goal of developing our contemplative self is to become awake and aware and compassionate like Jesus. The fourth century Syrian Ephrem said that in baptism we ‘put on the Wakeful One’. Noise puts us to sleep, silence and solitude awakens us to be like the ‘Wakeful One’ we have put on.
Perhaps the most important thing is that silence and solitude is our umbilical cord to God. Just like babies we can hear without having to hear through our ears. Without that guiding thread we lose our way in the competitive maze that is western culture.
We are so preoccupied in our minds with our own selfish chatter we have forgotten how to listen to God with our hearts, we do not know how to hear the words he tries to form in our inner being.
Another way of saying that we wrestle with our inner demons in silence and solitude is to say that the illusions about who we are are stripped away.
If the voices who say that silence and solitude are the turning point in Christian transformation are right then we need to find a way to get all Christians to embrace the vision.
In that silence and solitude we are ‘blessed’ with the greatest blessing of all, the gaze of a loving God and his loving presence when we ‘take to heart’ the word of God that has been revealed to us (Revelation 1:3).
The greatest challenge facing the church today is to get all Christians to take to heart this landscape of interior solitude, planting within it the transforming Word of God.
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