April e-bulletin

 

The practice of meditation is indeed an authentic experience of dying to self … it is like a “mini-death,” at least from the perspective of the ego … We let go of our self-talk, our interior dialogue, our fears, wants, needs, preferences, daydreams, and fantasies. These all become just “thoughts,” and we learn to let them go. … In this sense, meditation is a mini-rehearsal for the hour of our own death, in which the same thing will happen. There is a moment when the ego is not longer able to hold us together, and our identity is cast to the mercy of Being itself. This is the existential experience of “losing one’s life.” …

Just as in meditation we participate in the death of Christ, we also participate in [Christ’s] resurrection. At the end of those twenty minutes or so of sitting, when the bell has rung, we are still here! For twenty minutes we have not been holding ourselves in life, and yet life remains. Something has held us and carried us. And this same something, we gradually come to trust, will hold and carry us at the hour of our death. To … really know this is the beginning of resurrection life. 

Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ohara Koson, Lily and Butterflies, 1912

 

 

Q: What’s the difference between Centering Prayer and contemplation, and why does this matter?

A: Read the full question and David’s response.

 

You can read the complete bulletin at     https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2022-april-e-bulletin?e=9aa0837e74