Tag Archives: meditative prayer

Shakespeare, Richard Rohr, and Prayer

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I just listened to the beginning of a sermon by my beloved “Brother” Richard Rohr from 1999.  He was speaking about prayer and explaining that it is more than most of us do when we pray, very aware that, as T.S. Eliot noted, “Prayer is more than an order of words, or the sound of the voice praying, or the conscious occupation of the praying mind…”  He explained about prayer being an attentive, keen awareness of the Presence of the moment, a “Presence” which is God Him/Herself.  Rohr knows that this is a moment of attunement with that Ground of our Being which is everything that we are…in our Essence.

A quip from Shakespeare immediately came to my mind about this meditative focus from another dear “Brother” of mine, William Shakespeare.  In his play, “Hamlet,” King Claudius was kneeling in prayer, not knowing that his stepson Hamlet was approaching with a drawn sword, preparing to take vengeance on the King who, though he was the brother of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, had killed the king so that he could marry young Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet roiled with the notion of the “incestuous bed” that Claudius and Gertrude were sleeping in.  Still not hearing the approaching footsteps, Claudius prayed, “My thoughts fly up but my words remain below.  Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

This memorable line from the play stunned me from the first time I read it decades ago.  It revealed a grasp of language that was finding an entryway into my own heart at that time, beginning a 35 year trek into the intricacy of language.  Shakespeare knew that the word was not the thing, that words were only pointers as in the Buddhist wisdom, “The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.” That moment in 1986 was the beginning of a life-changing transformation for me, my first “tippy-toeing” into the depths of my own heart, a venture which is giving me today some faint understanding of the human heart.

(Rohr is the founder and director of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I invite you to check out his daily blog at—https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/)

A Quaker Perspective on Prayer

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We pray, and yet it is not we who pray, but a Greater who prays in us. Something of our punctiform selfhood is weakened, but never lost. All we can say is, Prayer is taking place, and I am given to be in the orbit. In Holy Hush we bow in Eternity, and know the Divine Concern tenderly enwrapping us and all things within His persuading love. Here all human initiative has passed into acquiescence, and He works and prays and seeks His own through us, in exquisite, energizing life. Here the autonomy of the inner life becomes complete and we are joyfully prayed through by a Seeking Life that flows through us into the world of men. (“A Testament of Devotion” by Thomas R. Kelly)

Kelly, who was a Quaker writing in the first half of the 20th century, presents here a notion of prayer that is far removed from what I was taught. Kelly saw prayer, not just as something we do, but as something that is done to us. Prayer is a spiritual process that we can tap into if we humble ourselves, find an always elusive purity of heart, and open ourselves up to the Infinite.

But here I have posed a problem for the old “concrete thinking” lew that still abides in the depths of my heart and he wants to shriek, “This is nuts!” And, I might add that occasionally in my Sunday School class, where we approach spirituality in similar “non-duality” terms, I will occasionally facetiously announce, “This is nuts!” For, I know that my friends also see how complicated and subtle this approach to spirituality is and how that it does not fit the mind and temperament of everybody. Approaching spirituality in this vein involves the ability to hold contradictory notions in the mind at the same time and most people can’t do that. And, I might add, most people should not do that and should approach spirituality in their own way. For, God works through us all and expresses Himself through us all, even through those that I might disagree with or at times even dislike!

But, at times it is hard to maintain this humble approach in the face of an old “un-literary” lew with his (its!) concrete thinking shrieking at him, who wants to proclaim from the rooftops, “THIS IS THE TRUTH! BELIEVE LIKE ME! TURN OR BURN!” I have the nagging need to “be right” which I keep at bay most of the time. But at times it gets triggered and then the black hole that it is gnaws at my soul for a few days. For, the need to “be right” is a black hole and will devour a soul if given into. It is much easier to “know” that you are right than to have hope, confidence, and faith that there is a “Right” that is present in this universe that is seeking expression through us all, even those that believe differently than I do.

And let me close with Shakespeare’s profound observation about prayer in Hamlet, where King Claudius kneels and prays, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” And then T. S. Eliot noted, “Prayer is more than an order of words, or the sound of the voice praying, or the conscious occupation of the praying mind.”

 

richard rohr

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I have quoted Richard Rohr frequently.  Here, he actually gives us permission to quote him freely without regards to copyright!  I will not abuse the privilege but I will quote him more freely.  My main intent today is to sell you on him.  He is a tremendous voice for the Christian faith and you can hear from him daily by going to his web-site and signing up.  He is very astute and very humble.

“You can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than a barrel of vinegar,” says Francis de Sales.

Enlightenment cannot be manufactured, manipulated, or delivered on demand. It is always passed on from another. Jesus both claims to be the Light of the World and then says the same for us too! (See John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14-16.) It is surprising that most do not connect these two scriptures. Wisdom is not a do-it-yourself project. It is a mystery of transmission, contagion, and the passing on of life, as Francis de Sales did so well through his many loving messages in very hostile 17th-century Geneva.

I always tell people who ask if they can quote me that if it is true wisdom then I have no copyright to it. I learned it from someone else. If it is true wisdom it is always “common domain.”

Enlightenment is not about knowing as much as it is about unknowing; it is not so much learning as unlearning. It is more about entering a vast mystery than arriving at a mental certitude. Enlightenment knows that grace is everywhere, and the only reasonable response is a grateful heart and the acknowledgment that there is more depth and meaning to everything. A too quick and easy answer is invariably a wrong one.

Rohr understands that faith involves going beyond ideology, even “sacred” ideology and seeking the truth that lies beyond mere words.  For example, the term “jesus” is far removed from the experience of “Jesus.”  Or, as the Buddhists say, “The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.”

Now if I can only humbly learn to practice what I here preach.