[Oe List ...] Response to Zahrt

Tue Aug 11 20:44:02 CDT 2009

Len,

I've read GRATEFULNESS, THE HEART OF PRAYER. Been so long ago I don't  
know whether or not this..Mystic's Guide.. is in it. I use a kind of  
excerpt from his work to request permission from our B&B guests to  
present what I call an unconventional, non-sectarian table grace.

David
On Aug 11, 2009, at 12:00 PM, Len Hockley wrote:

> David,
>
> I too have many of the questions and concerns you raise.  It has  
> been helpful for me to look at "Spiritual Practices" as tools in  
> the big picture.  Sometimes they work and then there are other  
> times.  I ran across the following from a well known mystic and  
> found it instructive:
>
> G&P
> Len
>
> .
> Silence, Word, and Action:
>
> A MYSTIC'S GUIDE TO PRAYER
>
> Prayer happens whenever we open up to that infinite More that gives  
> meaning to the finite reality in which we live. In a Peak  
> Experience, we perceive this More in a flash. However, we can  
> prepare ourselves through spiritual practice to receive it as a  
> steady light.
>
> Let silence, word, and action be our guide. Silencing our mental  
> noise prepares us for an encounter with the More. Too, we can learn  
> to listen so deeply to what our senses perceive that the More,  
> which goes beyond sensuous reality, speaks to us through sight,  
> sound, touch, smell, and taste. And any activity with which we  
> become fully one can open us up to its More - in an understanding  
> that comes only by doing.
>
> 1
> Silence is hard to come by. Most of us live under a constant  
> bombardment of sound, taking for granted traffic noise, Muzak, and  
> constant chatter. Have you left your TV on, unaware that no one is  
> listening? Take this as a warning signal that noise pollution is  
> endangering your health. "All that lasts long is quiet;" says the  
> poet R.M. Rilke. We wouldn't last long unless our bodies insisted  
> on quieting us down in sleep. For our inner health, too, we need  
> periods of being still. Stillness heals. A broken arm needs a cast  
> to keep it still, or else it will not heal. To heal our inner  
> restlessness, we need a spiritual practice that has for its goal  
> silence. Spiritual silence is more than the mere absence of inner  
> noise. It is the More that we experience when we go beyond the  
> reach of words and thought. Many different practices belong to this  
> world of prayer, called Prayer of Silence. All of them aim at  
> leaving the world of the senses behind in order to dive into a  
> fathomless More, an ocean of wordless meaning. Don't let this scare  
> you. Just making room in your schedule for a few minutes of  
> deliberate silence is a good beginning. You will soon witness how  
> much this does for your inner and outer well-being.
>
>
> 2
> Another whole world of prayer consists of spiritual practices that  
> go in the opposite direction from Prayer of Silence and yet,  
> paradoxically, lead to the same goal.
> There, we left the world of the senses behind; here, it becomes the  
> gate through which we enter the More. This, too, requires spiritual  
> practice, since normally we live merely at the surface. But when we  
> turn our deep attention, our heart attention, to the smallest part  
> of reality, it speaks to us. We receive it as not just, say, a  
> dandelion, but as the More speaking to us in unique and  
> untranslatable dandelion language. Thus we find meaning, which is  
> essential for human well-being. We cannot survive without it. And  
> "meaning" in this sense is not the significance of a word which you  
> can look up in a dictionary. What is truly meaningful to you? It is  
> some encounter or activity in which your heart finds rest - for a  
> while, at least. "Restless is our heart" until it finds rest in the  
> More, as Augustine pointed out. We can tap into a second world of  
> prayer by turning to any one of the innumerable things around us  
> and being nourished by its meaning. All such different practices  
> are called Living by the Word.
> 3
> Understanding comes through doing. In doing anything with total  
> attention - like the concentration of a dervish's whirl - we  
> discover there is more involved than our own effort. The very  
> vitality of our bodies is a mystery to us; the body "has us" as  
> much as we "have it:' When we are "in" love, we are immersed in  
> More. We somehow understand love only by loving, vitality only by  
> being alive and active. Another name for this participation in the  
> More is "blessing;" whose English word comes from the same root as  
> "blood:' In peak moments we are blessed and can bless. At other  
> times, we can deliberately let the bloodstream of blessing flow  
> through us, breathing the life-breath of the universe. The term for  
> practices that foster experience of the More through full attention  
> to what we're doing is Contemplation in Action.
>
> Prayer as silence, word, and action is the very core of  
> spirituality, the very essence of health. It calms, nourishes, and  
> enlivens body and soul through communion with the More.
>
> -Brother David Steindl-Rast.
>
>
> Witness by David Zahrt
>
>> ASTOUNDING WITNESS. I have yet to find a way to include such  
>> solitary discipline in my life. Lin may even say I have yet to  
>> include any kind of discipline within my life!
>> Do you have recommendations about how to adopt such a discipline?
>> When we first returned to Iowa City (1985) we did visualization  
>> exercises around the meal time.
>> When I returned to the Homestead (1990) I fashioned daily  
>> meditation sitting. I wasn't able to keep it up. Either I didn't  
>> see the value in it, or didn't find the need for it, or couldn't  
>> identify the need it fulfilled.
>> I've read  THE ENGAGED SPIRITUAL LIFE by Donald Rothberg (2007). I  
>> haven't been able to sustain a meditative practice. If/when we get  
>> moved to Carson City, NV, I may have a bit of incentive to keep a  
>> practice going. My sister, Chris, has established a Sangha there.  
>> It may help to have a congregation of people that will provide  
>> external accountability for practice.
>>
>> Have I told you the story about my being 63? I was singing in a  
>> Barbershop Quartet and asked the quartet to learn WHEN I'M 64, so  
>> I could sing WHEN I'M 64 when I'm 64 (2001). They wouldn't agree  
>> to work on it. So I learned all four parts, went to a local fellow  
>> who has a recording studio, and recorded the parts one by one. I  
>> recorded the melody line (Lead) first. He played that back in my  
>> earphones and put the recorder on a second track. I then sang the  
>> remaining parts one at a time and when I finished he played all 4  
>> parts on one tape. So now I have my own quartet. Trouble is there  
>> is not much market for a one-man quartet!
>>
>> David
>>
>> David & Lin Zahrt
>> Country Homestead B&B
>> 22133 Larpenteur Rd.
>> Turin, IA 51040
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David & Lin Zahrt
Country Homestead B&B
22133 Larpenteur Rd.
Turin, IA 51040
-- Doorway to the Loess Hills -
<http://country-homestead.com>
Where a change of pace is as good as a vacation, and a sense of place  
is soothing to the soul.
<chbnb at netins.net>
Skype <loesshills>

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