Questions About the Practice

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more, visit cac.org.

James Finley (0:08)

Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (0:11)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

James Finley (0:13)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (0:16)

Thanks.

Welcome to our second question and response episode for Turning to the Mystics season one, where we've been turning to the Christian mystic, Thomas Merton. In today's episode, we'll focus on questions that came in about contemplative practice. Thank you so much for the fabulous questions. It's been wonderful to read your emails and listen to your thoughts and feedback. I'm sure all the questions today will be a help to everyone who's listening. If you're listening to this episode in real time, you'll be experiencing what we're experiencing, which is this chaotic, challenging time of coronavirus. Jim and I and Corey are here together online, zooming in from our own shelter in environments and living with the ups and downs of this new experience. With that in mind, Jim, I wanted to start with a question around getting advice about a practice we might use if we're having trouble sleeping.

I myself have been having trouble sleeping since the coronavirus experience began. I find myself waking up between two and four most nights and my body is just wide awake and I can't get back to sleep.

When I've shared this experience with friends and family, I find a lot of people are having the same thing going on. And so I wondered if there's a practice or advice that you might have for those of us struggling with sleep these days.

James Finley (1:58)

Yes.

Well, a few thoughts. You know, first of all, regarding to sleep, with your sleep, one, I think it's helpful to see what our normal patterns are. Because some people, disturbance of sleep is an ongoing thing that's been with them for a long time. But the concerns about the pandemic and so on can exacerbate that. So that increases a sleep disturbance problem that's already there. And likewise, whatever you do to help you when you get to sleep and stay to sleep, you continue to be faithful to those, whatever your little ritual is, a cup of chamomile tea or warm shower, whatever you do, you would do that.

Also, to know that when you wake in the middle of the night and you can tell what's on your mind is images you just saw on television that day or on the media about this, and you start taking the magnitude in and where's all this headed, and so it gives rise then to feelings of anxiety and I think also feelings of depression about such overwhelming suffering and the uncertainty of it all. So what we're talking about now is simply what might help with that. See what would be some spiritual remedies that would help with that. A few thoughts, you have to try them on for size and see what helps you.

You know, first, one thing that might help is to know that these disturbed feelings are entirely normal. They're a very appropriate response to what's happening. So you're, like, you're tuned in.

But what we're trying to do is to recognize the ways in which the intensities of these concerns is cutting off experiential access to the presence of God sustaining us in the midst of these concerns, which is always there, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat. So what we can practice is how, what is a meditation practice? It might be just reflecting on the presence of God is with us. It might be through our breathing. What is the practice that takes us to the deeper place, that helps to reinstate us in this groundedness of God sustaining us, being there for and with us. And then how to then kind of hand our fears over to the care of God, that we take our troubled heart, and we hand our troubled heart over into the care of God, sustaining us in the midst of our troubles and our fears, so that our peace learns to reside in this loving presence of God that sustains us in the midst of this. And then the peace is not dependent on the outcome of the effort, whether it be our death, anyone's death, the death of the world, because it's a peace that isn't dependent on anything at all. It's a peace that transcends conditions, permeates conditions, sustains us in conditions. There's that, might help.

Another thing that helps is to know that not only are we united in our collective preciousness in the love of God, but we're united in our collective fragility in the love of God. And therefore we all belong to each other, and we're all woven to each other. And so our concern is a little piece of fear in the burden that we carry, this little echo of the cares and burdens all over the world. And by freely choosing to participate in that and hand that over to God, that can also help as a form of empathic communion with the collective preciousness of our soul. And something that helps me personally, share it because we all find our way, because I'm up at night a lot, I was happy. And I walk around in the dark with my cane so I don't fall over. And so what I do, here's what helps me. One of the things that helps me, the things I just said I do, it helps me. Also, I listen to talks in the dark. I put in earphones, Christa Tipit, like a spiritual talk, there's other places. If I put on real on set on the timer and just listen to a spiritual talk, it helps ground me in spiritual things that are also true. But something that helps me, as I walk around in the dark and I realize that God is present in the darkness in which I'm walking round and round in the living room. I also know that God is not just present in the dark, but God is somehow the reality of the darkness itself.