Sunday, December 04, 2011

Verbatim: exciting possibilities for new life and freedom

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness," he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C. G. Jung once remarked, "Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil."
If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture - including our religious culture - we must be willing to get down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings, all of the masters of meditation strive to awaken us to the fact that the universe is much larger than we know, that there are vast unexplored inner regions that are just as real as the physical world we know so well. They tell us of exciting possibilities for new life and freedom. They call us to adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit. Though it may sound strange to modern ears, we should without shame enroll as apprentices in the school of contemplative prayer.

The above is taken, verbatim, from my battered 1984 copy of Richard Foster's 'Celebration of Discipline,' which I'm re-reading for the umpteenth time.

1 comment:

The Owl Wood said...

Oh dear, you've stepped into a dirty great puddle of "think", haven't you? That stuff can quite snuff out a chap's social conscience if he's not careful.

Have you no interest at all in fuelling the global economy, in driving consumerism and in helping your fellow man compete against every other fellow man for something or other, the name of which escapes me but it has to do with money and rats and "winning" some race or such?

What? Lost all of your sense of being part of the Great Stampede you say?

Tsk tsk. How selfish can you get...