The Way of a Pilgrim: Session 6

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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

Ben Kesey (0:07)

Our desire is to honor and share the best parts of the Christian contemplative traditions so that this collective wisdom might serve the flourishing of humanity, all beings, and all of creation.

My name is Ben Kesey, and I lead the development team at the Center for Action and Contemplation. I want to thank all of you who are generous donors giving freely and cheerfully to make this work possible. If you have been impacted by these podcast conversations and are inspired to invest in the future of CAC's mission and work, twice per year, we invite your financial support. To contribute, go to cac.org/donate to make a gift. Thank you so much.

James Finley (0:51)

Greetings. I'm Jim Finley. Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to our time together, turning for guidance to the teachings of the anonymous author of The Way of a Pilgrim.

In our explorations of this first chapter of The Way of a Pilgrim, we've been following the pilgrim as he shares with us the grace transformations that are unfolding within him, as he follows the guidance given by his star, it's his mystically awakened guide in the prayer of Jesus.

And we've seen how in the following of this very deep contemplative way to commit himself to this prayer, that this prayer embodies the path that leads to the realm of the heart. And then we see in the guidance that he's passing on to us, the guidance that helps us in our own contemplative practice on the qualities of our practice. And although each mystic expresses these guidelines in his or her own unique way, there's universality that runs through the lineage itself. And so we can all take these to heart and apply it to our own particular way of experiencing this. So the first guideline is that the pedagogy of the constancy of the prayer, to say it with constancy, is what's happening is he's learning to leave behind his dependency on thought. The thoughts are on the edges. Because notice in the beginning, he's confused about the awakening on the 24th Sunday after Pentecost. He's bad because he doesn't know what to make of it. So what the prayer does is delivering him from the need to make anything out of it at all. And instead, to lean into the unfigurable immediacy of this love. That's the pedagogy of the prayer, to this love.

Also, another interesting little nuance here to the subtlety of this, in the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner. He's really asking God to make him more deeply aware of and one with the mercy of God revealed in Christ that's already completely given. The mercy is already given. This oceanic mercy is already given. So by asking then for the mercy, we're asking for the grace that God be merciful towards us and whereas it takes a while for us to figure out that it's not missing, so be merciful with us like this kind of thing.

And so here's the thing then, another insight for us as we apply it to our life, a contemplative spiritual direction, that when we experience stirrings, oneness with God, if we ignore them, just go on by as if nothing happened, then we missed it.

But on the other hand, we're monitoring ourself based on our ability to measure up to how well we're able to do this. We also miss it. So, what we're to do really is to give ourself over to a prayer in which we're learning from God how to realize that our shortcomings and how slow we are and half-hearted we are, you have your issues, I have mine, pale in significance to the infinite oceanic depth of God's mercy on us that permeates our limitations. And it's the seeing of that and the acceptance of that experiential salvation. That's the realm of the heart. We're trying to find this one.

Also notice in the guidance from moving from his head to this throat, the guidance is its somatic. That is, instead of being in his head, it's dropping down into our body. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, now the mind is listening to the body say the prayer this way. And also notice that when he's to sit very still to lower his head, imagine he's looking into his own heart. It's a kind of a deep yoga. It's a kind of a deep state. Really it's a state of grace absorption in the mercy of God embodied in the rhythm and cadence of the prayer. He just sits completely given over into this absorbed state.