18. Just Breathe

'Everyone, by the very fact they exist, is already in the presence of God.
So to live in the presence of God should be as natural as breathing
the air which surrounds us'.
Fr Henri Le Saux

Once upon a time, a master invited his student
to accompany him on a journey.
He didn't tell the student where they were going,
or how long the journey would take,
or what might happen on the way
or even the purpose of making the journey.
The student, of course, was naturally curious,
but his master said no more
so they set off together in silence.
After a while, the student couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.
'Where are we going?' he asked.
His master just smiled and said,
'If we are not there yet, you may never know.'
The answer made no sense to the student,
so he tried again. 'Are we there yet?'
The master replied, 'There is no there – only here.'
Puzzled, the student lapsed back into silence.
The day wore on, and his master showed no sign of stopping,
so the student finally asked, 'What time is it?'
The master answered, 'Now'.
The student was tired. His feet hurt; he was hungry and confused.
'Why do you give such cryptic answers?' he demanded.
The master simply answered, 'Why do you ask questions?
Just breathe in – breathe out.'

1. Find a comfortable, relaxed position, either standing, sitting or lying down.
2. Take a deep breath, and as you release the breath, begin to relax your body.
3. Now be aware the air you are breathing is part of an immense ocean that surrounds you – an ocean full of the presence of God. Don’t try to imagine it; just know God is present in your breathing. So when you draw the air into your lungs, you are bringing God into your inner depths, and you are also receiving God’s power and presence with each breath. When you breathe out, you are letting go and relaxing into an awareness – or the arms – of the Divine presence.
4. Stay with this awareness for as long as you wish.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil.

___________________

Le Saux, Henri, OSB, Abhishiktananda, Prayer, Westminster Press, 1972

Dyer, Phil, Be Still & Know, Tawera Press,2020, p71

17. Learning to Breathe

While my sense of sight is one tool I use as part of my spiritual practice, my breath offers another tool to help calm my busy mind. It also draws my attention to the different breathing centres in my body – my head, chest and abdominal centres – each with their separate function and purpose.

So when I wish to become centred and still, I begin by focusing on the sensation of the air entering and leaving my body through my nostrils or mouth. I am also aware of my thoughts – and note them without conversing with them – as I let them float away on each out-breath.

After a few minutes, I move my attention to my chest and feel the movement of my chest expanding and contracting with each breath. This is also my heart region so I note any emotion that arises with my breathing – and let this also float away on my out-breath.

When I am ready, I turn my attention next to my abdomen, and consciously use my abdominal muscles to draw in each breath – then relax them on each exhalation. This area of my body is associated with the 'Ground of my Being', or my 'Soul-centre' – the place where we especially hold God's image and presence, a living blueprint of whom we are created to be (1). It is here, 'At the centre of your being' you have the answer,', says Mary Jane Ryan in her book, 'Grateful Heart, where 'you know who you are and you know what you want'... as I sit, quietly present to the Presence of God, in my breathing body.

I find this Prayer-Meditation practice helps me to rest in mindful stillness – but it is more than that. When I was Warden of a Retreat Centre, a Sati Meditation Group used our chapel for their meetings. Their teacher, Roshi John Garrie, drew on several traditions to develop a mindfulness practise he taught as "Sati". In his book, 'The Way is Without Flaw', Roshi John taught that 'Within stillness, which is sometimes approached through silence, sometimes through movement, and always through breathing, there is the way to freedom'. We do this, by using our breathing body, as we focus on the air rising and falling with each breath, in the motion of a backward circle.

So starting at my navel region, I followed my breath expanding up the front of my body with each in-breath, then follow the sensation down my back as I let the breath flow out until I rest once more in the Soul-centre of my Being – until my body calls for a new breath. All I need to do is to be in my body and follow the breath – and that is enough. The body knows what to do, and given space, it becomes my teacher.

This practice was a special gift to me and one I came to value so much when my wife Jane died from cancer. It was so refreshing amid all that was happening, to lie on the floor and just breathe and be. That is what I needed most. A way to be. It became my 'life raft', to use a Buddhist phrase, and those of you who have had to support someone you love dearly through the journey of terminal cancer will know what I mean.

As breath is spirit,
fully breathe in this moment
taking time with eternity.
Let the stillness soak into your being...
Release, like a trust, fall into the arms of God
focusing on the presence of the eternal...
Breathe in and out
resting and soaking in the
presence of God.(2)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil.

______________

(1) The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Continuum International, 2nd edition, 2000. See para:362-368.

(2) Holmes, B, What Everyone Should Know About Breath Prayer http://contemplativemonk.com/breath-prayer/

• Dyer, Phil, Pathways to the Fountain – A Christian-Buddhist Exploration, Tawera Press, 2015.

• Garrie, J, The Way is without Flaw: The Teachings of John Garrie Roshi, UK, Sati Press, 1998, p11.

• Keating, T, Intimacy with God,http://www.norumbega.net/path/iwg.html#ch14 Ch 8.

16. The Power of Gazing

St Francis of Assisi and St Ignatius of Loyola shared a similar deep longing and search for God. St Francis, who was born three centuries before Ignatius, saw creation as a gift of an all-good God where everything carried the footprint of God's love and goodness. The Franciscan, St. Bonaventure, made a similar practice of using his physical senses to 'clearly see the eternal God through them as in a mirror' and gave simple instructions on how to experience this life-transforming gaze:

• Remember that God looks upon me in love.
• Respond to God’s loving gaze.
• Begin to see the face of God everywhere, in everyone, in everything and at all times.

Recognising that life is a little more complicated, Bonaventure reminds us that,

Our intellectual effort, on its own, is insufficient for this path...
Above all, we need the help of divine grace to open our eyes
so we may behold the wonder of divine wisdom
which is reflected in all things as in a mirror.

The theory sounded very abstract until I stumbled upon a way to assist this experiential encounter. It also has three simple steps:

• Look at something in front of you at eye level that will remain still.
• While looking at your selected object, begin to widen your vision to include more and more of your peripheral vision.
• As you focus on your peripheral vision, you may experience an increasing sense of stillness and peace. When your eyes tire, gently close them without losing the feeling of still looking out of the corner of your eyes.

I later discovered this process is used by a range of counselling services to trigger our relaxation response. This natural response also helps us to become still and receptive, reducing the constant internal chatter that is so distracting for prayer and meditation. We are then more open to the eternal presence of God's Grace that seeks to carry us into the source of God's love.

Many other mystics have referred to this power of gazing in their spiritual practice. St Ignatius, for example, encouraged members of his community:

(To practise) seeking God’s presence in all things,
in their conversations, their walks,
in all that they see, taste, hear, understand, in all their actions,
since His Divine Majesty is truly in all things
by His presence, power, and essence.

And Meister Eckhart gave a simple explanation of why this intuitive way of prayer is so life-transforming,

The eye through which I see God is the same eye
through which God sees me;
my eye and God's eye are one eye,
one seeing, one knowing, one love.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil.

______________

• Manney, J, An Ignatian Book of Days, Loyola Press, 2014.- Letters of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
• Bonaventure, Journey into God, Tawera Press, 2013, Prologue, para 4.
• Echkart, von Hochheim OP (Meister), Walshe, M (Translator), Essential Sermons, Herder & Herder, Crossroad Pub. Co. NY. p. 298. Available from:. https://almiracatovic.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/sermons.pdf

• Smith, Andy, How To Use Peripheral Vision In Therapy, Practical NLP Podcast, Feb 11, 2016, available from:https://nlppod.com/how-to-use-peripheral-vision-in-therapy/

15. Living Mindfully

'Live in the moment and God will give you all the graces you need'.

This piece of advice was by a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and spiritual director – François Fénelon. Living in the moment is not easy, and one of the struggles I have in my meditation/prayer practice is taming my mind. You, too, may have found taming your mind is not easy – you have to keep hauling it back to the focus at hand like a wayward donkey. The Franciscan Friar, Albert Haase OFM, refers to this struggle at the beginning of his book 'Becoming an Ordinary Mystic'. He encourages us to persist in learning mindfulness because 'Mindfulness breeds mysticism' and will enhance our spiritual life. He then reminds us of a four-step process we can use when our mind wanders:

1. 'Stop' what you are doing, and take a deep breath to recentre yourself.
2.  'Look' briefly, at what has captured your attention to see if it needs immediate attention. If not, then,
3. 'Listen' to your five senses as a way to recentre yourself – as mentioned in my last blog (God in All Things). What are you Hearing? Seeing? Feeling? Tasting? Smelling?
4. 'Go' back to your practice.

Haase says we can also use this simple technique whenever we feel under stress or distracted because our five senses are:

'the keys that open the tabernacle door to the sacrament of the present moment.
It’s important that you take your time and dally and delight here'.

Learning to be aware of the power of the present moment is the beginning of both contemplation and learning to live mindfully – and mindfully aware of the power of God – “who holds and fills everything” is the way the monastic teachers expressed it.

Tessa Bielecki was a founding member and Mother Abbess of the Roman Catholic 'Spiritual Life Institute. She offered several helpful suggestions to support our growth in living mindfully. These included:

• Learning to live more closely to the rhythms of nature
• Cutting down on social media and television
• Quieting your mind with a regular (daily) meditation practice
• Keeping a journal and practising gratitude for the things that bring you joy
• Working tranquilly in a focused way that exercises your whole person.

Our Spiritual life requires no spectacular effort or successes, but it does require passion and a faithfulness to attend to the hundred little things of everyday life. The Vietnamese monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh, once drew a comparison between mindfulness and the Holy Spirit. He saw them both as agents of healing that all people have within them as 'a seed of energy and life', with its capacity for healing, transformation and love. He suggested when we touch this seed, we touch the living reality of the divine presence of the Holy Spirit which dwells within us, waiting to be awakened and seen through the totality of who we are. The implications of this are far-reaching, because:

Our true home is in the present moment.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth
in the present moment.
Peace is all around us,
in the world and in nature
and within us,
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace
we will be healed and transformed.

To be mindful ultimately means to be fully aware; to be grounded in what is 'real' and less carried away by our imagination, or by our prejudice, or reacting to some internal thought.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil.

________________

• Eckhart,von Hochheim OP (Meister) The Essential Sermons, Herder & Herder, Crossroad Pub.Co.NY. Sermon 57.

• Dyer, Phil, Be Still & Know – 14 Day Retreat with the Christian Mystics, Tawera Press, 2020.

• Haase OFM, A, Becoming an Ordinary Mystic, InterVarsity Press, 2019.

• Hanh Living Buddha: Living Christ, Riverhead Books,2007.

• Thich Nhat Hanh, Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living, Parallax Press,1992.

14. God in All Things

I have been thinking more about my last blog, 'If at First You Don't Succeed' and how the Franciscans Saint Bonaventure and Jacopone da Todi both encouraged us to pray using our five physical senses. I don't know how you understand prayer, but I grew up learning prayer was something said, whether it be prayers around the breakfast table, or from a book in Church or the prayers I learnt to say at night beside my bed.

The first time I learnt to 'pray' using my physical senses was at a 3-month Buddhist Retreat in 2003 – a strange place to learn to pray, you may think! However, I found it very helpful, because it taught me how to be present, so I could contemplate the Divine Presence.

At the beginning of the retreat, we were told that the word 'contemplation' contains two words: 'con' meaning 'with'; and 'template' offering 'a space to be moulded into a new shape'. Our five physical senses and our mind being our sixth sense, all provide a natural way for this moulding to occur as we learn to sit mindfully at the centre of the mandala of our senses. This we learn to do consciously and deliberately by being aware of all that we are experiencing through each of our senses, by focusing on one sense at a time.

For example, as I sat on the old couch on the porch and watching the dawn light up the valley, I became aware of the sensation of,

seeing (with either open or closed eyes)
hearing (as I became conscious of the sounds around me)
smelling (as I focused on the fragrances carried by air)
tasting (the remnants of my last cup of coffee)
touching (the seat and air temperature with my body).

I then heard the first bellbird call of the morning. I immediately identified it, and by naming it, I lost the moment – and the experience. I was now thinking, judging, remembering because I had moved from the 'sense door' of hearing to the 'sense door' of my mind with its memories, judgements and opinions. I might later reflect upon 'Why is it that I automatically want to own the experience by naming it?' for example. Or, 'Why do I want to escape from experiencing each burst of music echoing across the valley, and retreat to the safety of my mind?'

How readily and easily it is to surrender the gift of the moment and become lost in a repetitive cycle of internal chatter! How easy it is to stop listening to another person because we are preoccupied with our endless concerns and agendas! Yet mastering the art of contemplation with awareness has a profound effect on the way we live. If we can learn to look deeply into the way we perceive and know things, we will find we can live more easily in the present moment, and be awake to all that each moment holds – which is the only time and place we will ever find and experience the Divine Presence we call God.

In my last blog, I mentioned the joy-filled and awe-inspiring wonder and union with God Bonaventure and Jacopone da Toli experienced in prayer. Another Franciscan mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno, also mastered the art of being aware of the present moment and she expressed a very similar experience,

Everywhere she looked

she saw the created universe resplendent with God's presence
and herself one with it...
In a vision, she could see nothing except the divine power
so that marvelling she cried aloud:
'This whole world is pregnant with God...
the world is so charged with the grandeur of God'.
Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation...

but the power of God fills it all to overflowing (1)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

___________________

(1) Lachance O.F.M., Paul. The Mystical Journey of Angela of Foligno in Vox Benedictina: A Journal of Translations from Monastic Sources 4.1 (1987): 9-39

Dyer Phil, Be Still & Know: A 14 Day Retreat Programme with the Christian Mystics, Tawera Press, 2020.

Hearn, Tarchin, Coming to Your Senses. Available from https://greendharmatreasury.org/writings/e-books/

13. If at First Your Don't Succeed...

Yesterday morning I stayed in Church after the morning service to practice the hymns for the coming Sunday. Having grown up in a Vicarage family with a father who was an accomplished pianist meant I learnt to play at an early age. When I had mastered a few of the basics, it was a natural progression from the piano to the church organ. It also meant I could go to the church building whenever I wanted, and I particularly loved to practice in the early evening. It was then and there that I learnt to love the stillness and the presence that filled the stillness.

Learning to become still and centred has similarities to learning any new skill – whether it is playing a musical instrument or cultivating a contemplative prayer practice – because both require self-discipline. One way that the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure encouraged us to pray was to use our five physical senses. He described these as being, 'Five doorways, through which we become aware of, enjoy and judge the world that surrounds us. In this way, our knowledge of everything in the outer world enters into our interior world... This suggests first: that the One who is 'the invisible image of God...exists everywhere.(Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3) And second... that we can clearly see the eternal God in them, as in a mirror'. (1)

One simple way to develop this way of prayer is to focus, for example, with undivided attention on whatever you are experiencing when you breathe in a particular fragrance or touch the bark of a tree; taste a favourite dish, look at a field of wild-flowers or listen to a bird song. It is not about analysing, naming or even thinking about what you are experiencing. It is re-learning to experience the world with child-like delight, and as your skill develops, you will begin to experience subtle differences you had missed before. How quickly this occurs will depend, in part, on your psychological make-up.

The good news is, we all carry God's presence within us. By using our five senses as spiritual pathways into our inner being, and our intuitive ability to perceive God's presence in and around us, we discover a very inclusive way of prayer that is beautifully reflected by the 13th-century Franciscan poet, Jacopone da Todi:

O Love divine, You besiege my heart:
you are overwhelmed with love for me,
and cannot rest.
My five senses are assaulted by You,
hearing, sight, taste, touch and scent.
Love, You woo me, and I cannot hide from You.
I gaze through my eyes and see Love all around
in radiance and colour, in earth, sea and sky.

Drowning in such beauty, You draw me to Yourself... (2)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
__________________
(1) Bonaventure, Journey into God, Tawera Press, 2013, Ch 2, para 1-3, 7.
(2) Jacopone Da Todi, The God-Madness. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/89200-o-love-divine-love-why-do-you-lay-siege-to

12. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei

Having grown up in an Evangelical Anglican Vicarage, the only early memory I have of Mary was at Christmas with cribs scenes and children acting out the Nativity Story. It was only later in life, while living in a Franciscan Community in the USA, that Mary became a significant person and spiritual presence for me.

I was making a Lenten 'pilgrimage' using the Community's outdoor 'Way of the Cross' – a series of 14 moments leading to Jesus' crucifixion. Each 'moment' was marked by a simple pole, beside a rough track, that wound its way from the valley that enclosed the monastery to the hilltop above. While reflecting on Jesus meeting his mother, I unexpectedly experienced one of those moments when the boundaries between the physical and spiritual planes became very thin. Not that I saw anything. It was an overwhelming sense of presence. That caused me to ask, 'What do you want of me?' – 'Pray the Rosary' was the clear response, and I began to do this at the Monastery's small Marian shrine.

However, my early attempts were not successful and I soon gave up. It was 20 something years later that the initial encounter with Mary's presence became alive for me – as a spiritual guide and Wise Woman who has become an important companion in my spiritual life (1). Part of what has fuelled that spiritual renascence has been the simple Franciscan devotion of the Angelus, which draws attention to three significant moments in Mary's life which also offers profound insight into the way God comes to each of us and offers us a framework for our response.

The Angelus begins with the words: 'The angel of the Lord appeared to Mary' (Luke 1:26-28). Here we hear of a young woman, who was spiritually open enough to sense the Divine Presence, willing enough to believe God wanted to be birthed through her.

While Mary first questioned the angel's outrageous statement before she was courageous enough to respond: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word' (Luke 1, 38). As a result, 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (John 1:14).

As amazing as this was for Mary – and no doubt incredible for us as well; God is present in each of us, waiting for our consent to be birthed through us. We need to be open and willing because “What occurred in Mary historically must be mystically re-enacted in everyone. Every soul is the elect of God, the bride of the Spirit, and the mother of the Son” (2)

Mary continues to be both an example and a spiritual guide for us, so that we too may become midwives of the Divine Presence in our lives and our world.

Come, Creator Spirit, meet me in this moment
as you met with those of old.
Be present in your power
and bring faith and hope, I pray.
Strengthen me with your gifts of grace.
Renew my life and bring to completion all you have begun
for you, O God, are my light and my salvation.
You are the stronghold of my life,
of whom shall I be afraid?(3)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

 ______________________

(1) Two Modern Rosary Meditation Resources: Hail Mary: reflections on the Mysteries of the Rosary. | CEO ....By Br Mark O’Connor FMS from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. Praying the Rosary: A Different Approach by Ella Rozett a Catholic and graduate in Christian-Buddhist Studies.

(2) Quote: Rotzetter, A, etal OFM, Gospel Living: Francis of Assisi Yesterday and Today, Franciscan Inst, 2011..p 126

(3) Prayer: Adapted from the Ordination Service, A NZ Prayer Book, Collins, 1989 p. 896.