One in Mind One in Heart 27 July – 3 August 2022
Wednesday Evening A reading from Chuang Tzu The disciple: "When I don't know people treat me like a fool. When I do know, the knowledge gets me into trouble. When I fail to do good. I hurt others. When I do good, I hurt myself. If I avoid my duty, I am remiss, But if I do it, I am ruined. How can I get out of these contradictions? This is what I came to ask you." ". . . .You are trying to sound The middle of the ocean With a six-foot pole. You have got lost and are trying To find your way back To your own true self. You find nothing But illegible signposts Pointing in all directions. I pity you." The disciple asked for admittance, Took a cell, and there Meditated, Trying to cultivate qualities He thought desirable And get rid of others Which he disliked. Ten days of that! Despair! ". . . Do not try To hold on to Tao Just hope that Tao Will keep hold of you!"
Thursday Morning A reading from Kabir MY Lord hides Himself, and my Lord wonderfully reveals Himself: My Lord has encompassed me with hardness, and my Lord has cast down my limitations. My Lord brings to me words of sorrow and words of joy, and He Himself heals their strife. I will offer my body and mind to my Lord: I will give up my life, but never can I forget my Lord!
Matthew 13:47-53 Jesus said to the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. ‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
Thursday Midday A reading from John Main The only other thing you need to know is that it is essential to say your mantra every day of your life, every morning and every evening. This again is difficult to understand because we have so little understanding of spiritual discipline. But we need to put aside about half an hour every morning and half an hour every evening, to be still, to be simple and, in the language of the early monastic fathers, to rest in the Lord. An honoured word they used to describe their meditation was quies, rest, being quiet, being still. At that moment of quies you are not concerned about what you will do; you are wholly concerned about being. Meditation will teach you that living fully means expanding, crossing the frontiers of your own limitation. Crossing the frontier of your own being you find yourself in God. So do not think that stillness is static or that quies is passive. In peace we find the God who conceives and sustains a cosmos. A reading from Fr. Matthew Kelty It is perhaps healthy sometimes to face the mysteries of our lives. What we really ought to understand is how great is our need for mysteries and the pondering of them. We are immortal. A simple enough statement, but a truth almost incomprehensible. And yet it is basic, elemental to any grasp of human existence. If all you see is reality, you do not see at all. If you are blind to the mystical dimension to the human scene, you might as well be physically blind for all the good it does you. We need and are nourished by the deeps of faith. We all have a hidden dimension more real than the obvious and visible. Our very being here is witness to that. You are caught up in as glorious a business as Peter and Paul knew. The stakes are no less. The rewards are real.
Thursday Evening A reading from Chuang Tzu “Prince Wen Hui’s cook Was cutting up an ox. Out went a hand, Down went a shoulder, He planted a foot, He pressed with a knee, The ox fell apart The bright cleaver murmured Like a gentle wind. “Good work!” the Prince exclaimed, “Your method is faultless!” “Method?” said the cook Laying aside his cleaver, “What I follow is Tao Beyond all methods!” “When I first began to cut up an oxen I would see before me The whole ox All in one mass. “After three years I no longer saw this mass. I saw the distinctions. “But now, I see nothing With the eye. My whole being apprehends. My senses are idle. The spirit Free to work without plan By the secret opening, the hidden space, My cleaver finds its own way. A good cook needs a new chopper Once a year–he cuts. A poor cook needs a new one Every month–he hacks! “I have used this same cleaver Nineteen years. It has cut up A thousand oxen. Its edge is as keen As if newly sharpened.
Friday Morning A reading from Kabir A SORE pain troubles me day and night, and I cannot sleep; I long for the meeting with my Beloved, and my father's house gives me pleasure no more. The gates of the sky are opened, the temple is revealed: I meet my husband, and leave at His feet the offering of my body and my mind.
John 11:19-27 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’
Friday Midday A reading from John Main Meditation is sometimes called the prayer of faith because during our time of meditation we let go of everything by which we know that we are and everything that we think we are. We simply let it go. There is no need to count the cost and no advantage in trying to salvage anything from the bankruptcy. Glory follows this great poverty. St Peter describes it as the utter freedom of spirit that sweeps us into the presence of God’s timeless and spaceless glory. We are summoned to this, according to the New Testament, now, in this life. It is not just a future glory. Enlightenment with the light of Christ is a present reality, a new way of living in this world. During he time of meditation we are absorbing the knowledge of faith that we are not obliged to live merely on the material level of reality. We learned from the faith and generosity of Christ, according to St Paul, that every one of us is summoned to the new, eternal level of reality called Spirit. A reading from Fr. Matthew Kelty We do not know what life is. We know life only by signs, the signs of life. The inner life of God within is even more subtle, unexplainable. Yet no less real. And when in that channel, on that wave length, on that route, we can reach further than any satellite, go as deep as deep can be. Our silence says this. Glory to God for the marvels the human mind has created in spanning water with magnificent bridges, with mighty tunnels, send our own kind to the moon and have them return, project equipment into almost infinite space to listen, to record, to photo -- all to the glory of God. Yet, to reach God is more. And to hear God. And to worship God is more. Infinitely more. This is the message of the quiet life. Listen! God speaks. He speaks to every human heart. And answer Him. For God waits a word of love from every human heart.
Friday Evening A reading from Chuang Tzu If a man is crossing a river And an empty boat collides with his own skiff, Even though he be a bad-tempered man He will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the boat, He will shout at him to steer clear. If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, And yet again, and begin cursing. And all because there is somebody in the boat. Yet if the boat were empty. He would not be shouting, and not angry. If you can empty your own boat Crossing the river of the world, No one will oppose you, No one will seek to harm you.
Saturday Morning A reading from Kabir THE flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love: When love renounces all limits, it reaches truth. How widely the fragrance spreads! It has no end, nothing stands in its way. The form of this melody is bright like p. 97 a million suns: incomparably sounds the vina, the vina of the notes of truth.
Matthew 14:1-12 Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus, and said to his court, ‘This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Now it was Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John had told him, ‘It is against the Law for you to have her.’ He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the people, who regarded John as a prophet. Then, during the celebrations for Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and so delighted Herod that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked. Prompted by her mother she said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head, here, on a dish.’ The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he ordered it to be given her, and sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went off to tell Jesus.
Saturday Midday A reading from John Main More and more people are aware that somehow or other, in modern life, we have lost contact with what is essential. Contact is lost with our own essential being, our own centre. The problem we face, as a consequence, is that we have ceased to look upon our religious practice or our spiritual practice in terms of discipline. More often we look upon our religious or spiritual commitment in terms of what we get out of it. I imagine all of us have adopted this ego-centered approach to our religious or spiritual practice at some time. We too need to examine the true nature of our religious life to find a way to begin decreasing the egotistical element in it. We need to be grasped by the truth that religious values are not to be exploited or experimented with because they – and the sacred they represent – call on us for commitment. As soon as we have begun to commit ourselves, we have begun a journey. It is a journey that asks for discipline, and the challenge to us is that it is a journey away from our own egoism. A reading from Fr. Matthew Kelty Why do people become monks? I daresay monks themselves often ask this question. Why did I become a monk? All have a reasonable answer when the question is placed, but the answer may simply be what is expected and acceptable. The real reason in a case may be deeper than one realizes, more hidden and inaccessible than even the monk guesses. Since I brought the matter up, I’d venture the notion that love of quiet enters into the matter early on. The monk is fascinated by silence. Early or late, they sense in quiet a beauty of great depth. And they drift by design or by instinct to the monastery as a haven of quiet. And against that background they would build their life. For it is in quiet we face the ultimate questions. And, hopefully, in silence find the answers. Somewhere along the way the monk has been made party to this knowledge. And a taste of it would not do. They’d make it the country they live in. For then the great questions can be responded to. What we call the ultimate questions. Which are put to all, since all are exposed to life and its mysteries. For many, maybe most, the questions go unanswered. Why? Why? Why? For even if in faith we know the answer, the answer may not mean much if not entered into in quiet.
Saturday Evening A reading from the Tao Te Ching We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the centre hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it liveable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
Sunday Morning Muhammad’s Prayer of Light OGod! Grant me Light in my heart, Light in my grave, Light in front of me, Light to my right, Light to my left, Light above me, Light in my ears, Light in my eyes, Light in my skin, Light in my hair, Light within my flesh, Light in my blood, Light in my bones. Oh God! Increase my light everywhere. O God! Grant me Light in my heart, Light on my tongue, Light in my eyes, Light in my ears, Light on my right, Light to my left, Light above me, Light below me, Light in front of me, Light behind me, And Light within myself; Increase my Light.
Luke 12:13-21 A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’
Sunday Evening A reading from Rabia Al Basri In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel. Prayers should bring us to an altar where no walls, no names exist. Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illuminated nothing, where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost, Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body? In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolve, that dissolve in God
Monday morning A reading from the Dhammapada “Mind is a forerunner of all actions. All deeds are led by mind, created by mind. If one speaks or acts with corrupt mind, suffering follows, As the wheel follows the hoof of an ox pulling a cart. Mind is the forerunner of all actions. All deeds are led by mind, created by mind. If one speaks or acts with a serene mind, happiness follows, As surely as one's shadow. 'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.' Harboring such thoughts keeps hatred alive. 'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.' Releasing such thoughts banishes hatred for all time. Animosity does not eradicate animosity. Only by loving kindness is animosity dissolved. This law is ancient and eternal.” Matthew 14:13-21 When Jesus received the news of John the Baptist’s death he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But the people heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them and healed their sick. When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place, and the time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.’ Jesus replied, ‘There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.’ But they answered ‘All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.’ ‘Bring them here to me’ he said. He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves handed them to his disciples who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps remaining; twelve baskets full. Those who ate numbered about five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.
Monday Midday A reading from ‘Door to Silence’, by John Main. The journey of meditation into the prayer of Jesus leads to the reunification of all that has been separated in us and between us and the world as a result of the fall. The first step is to be united to ourselves. Once we begin to enter our own unity we are ready to go beyond ourselves into union with others, the world and God. Unity naturally expands in union. Meditation is our way to this unity within ourselves that leads to union with others. It is the only real basis for union, because unless we are united with ourselves we hardly exist as a person capable of relationship. We have not learned yet the self-forgetfulness, the self-giving and the self-commitment that union demands. We all begin the pilgrimage as divided beings. We are divided between heart, mind, body and spirit. We inhabit a dualistic world. Our conception is fractured. We begin the pilgrimage because we feel at a deeper level that the inner unity exists; that there is a harmonious coherence in ourselves, within ourselves and in all creation. A reading from Meister Eckhart Jesus went into the temple and boldly drove out those that bought and sold. And when all was cleared, there was nobody left but Jesus. Observe this, for it is the same with us: when he is alone he is able to speak in the temple of the soul. If anyone else is speaking in the temple of your soul, Jesus will keep still, as if he were not at home. And he is not at home wherever there are strange guests –guests with whom the soul holds conversation, guests who are seeking to bargain. If Jesus is to speak and be heard, the soul must be alone and quiet.
Monday Evening A reading from the Manduka Upanishads Radiant in his light, yet invisible in the secret place of the heart, the Spirit is the supreme abode wherein dwells all that moves and breathes and sees. Know him as all that is, and all that is not, the end of love-longing beyond understanding, the highest in all beings. He is self-luminous, and more subtle than the smallest; but in him rest all the world and their beings. He is the everlasting Brahman, and he is life and word and mind. He is truth and life immortal. He is the goal to be aimed at: attain that goal, O my child! Take the great bow of the teaching of the Upanishads and place in it an arrow of sharp devotion. Draw the bow with concentration on him and hit the centre of the mark, the same everlasting Spirit. The bow is the sacred OM, and the arrow is our own soul. Brahman is the mark of the arrow, the aim of the soul. Even as an arrow becomes one with it’s mark, let the watchful soul be one in him.
Tuesday Morning A reading from the Tao Te Ching The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their back to female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary people hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing one is one with the whole universe. Matthew 14:22-36 Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, while the boat, by now far out on the lake, was battling with a heavy sea, for there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and cried out in fear. But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’ Having made the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the local people recognised him they spread the news through the whole neighbourhood and took all that were sick to him, begging him just to let them touch the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched it were completely cured.
Tuesday Midday A reading from ‘Door to Silence’, by John Main. The core of our dividedness is that we think of reality as outside us. We see everything, self and others, internal and external, as divided. It is this perception of dividedness that is the root of sin within us. This is the meaning of the Fall as told in the book of Genesis. ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ speaks of meditation as the way to heal the wound of sin in us at its root. Meditation is the work of healing and restoration of wholeness at a higher level of development. It is a work of growth, not regression. It is a journey in which we transcend all dividedness. Leaving the dualistic perception of reality we travel in faith into the unity of God. In Genesis, after the Fall, Adam hides himself when he hears God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening. He is afraid. The basis of all dividedness is fear. Meditation discovers the infinite love in the heart, and love casts out all fear. A reading from the Gospel of Thomas Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants taking milk are like those who enter the Kingdom. His disciples asked him: If we are infants, will we enter the Kingdom? Jesus responded: When you make the two into one, when you make the inside like the outside And the outside like the inside, And the upper like the lower, and thus make the male and the female the same, So that the man isn’t male and the female isn’t female. When you make an eye to replace an eye, And a hand to replace a hand, And a foot to replace a foot, and an image to replace an image, you will enter the Kingdom.
Tuesday Evening A reading from the Bhagavad Gita ARJUNA Lord of all. I have faith in all thy words, because these words are words of truth. Tell me in thy mercy of thy divine glory wherein thou art ever, and all the worlds are. For ever in meditation, how shall I ever know thee? Speak to me again, in full, of thy power and of thy glory, for I am never tired, never, of hearing thy words of life. KRISHNA When all desires are in peace and the mind, withdrawing within, gathers the multitudinous straying senses into the harmony of recollection. Then, with reason armed with resolution, let the seeker quietly lead the mind into the Spirit, and let all his thoughts be silence. And whenever the mind, unsteady and restless, strays away from the Spirit, let him ever and for ever lead it again to the Spirit. Thus he sees himself in the heart of all beings and he sees all beings in his heart. And when he sees me in all and he sees all in me, then I never leave him and he never leaves me.
Wednesday morning A reading from the Bhagavad Gita ARJUNA When I see thy gentle human face, Krishna, I return to my own nature, and my heart has peace. KRISHNA Not by the Vedas, or an austere life, or gifts to the poor, or ritual offerings can I be seen as thou hast seen me. Only by love can men see me, and know me, and come unto me
Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord,’ she said ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the housedogs.’ She retorted, ‘Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again.
Wednesday Midday A reading from ‘Door to Silence’, by John Main. All disguises, illusions and false perceptions of ourselves and others, and of God, are spun by the ego. The ego is like a prism. The light of reality passes through and is refracted. The shaft of pure light is split up into component parts and deflected from it’s true course. Meditation dissolves the prism of the ego. Meditation reunites the fragmented pure beam of light. It enables us to enjoy the gift of our being without shame and fear, as a whole. It enables us, as sheer gift, to be wholly open to the wonder of God’s oneness. We enjoy oneness, not by observing it from the outside but by entering its centre. The ego always calls us to self-preservation. The true self, the centre, is created for self-transcendence. All unity has a centre and our unity is our own centre, called the heart. In the heart we find the centre of all who is one with all. The return to the centre (from which we all have fallen) is, like our creation itself, the gift of God. We say our mantra by the gift of God and we arrive in god’s own time. All we have to do is to dispose ourselves, to make ourselves available. That we do as we meditate morning and evening. A reading from Ramana Maharshi On the question of ‘I so often forget to meditate because I have so much work to do, will I make any progress? Never mind. Self-realisation will not come in a day. Mental habits will only go gradually. Today we may think every five hours, Oh, I have forgotten to meditate.’ Tomorrow we may remember every four hours. The day after, every three hours. In this way, enthusiasm for meditation will slowly come. Why do you think, ‘Why didn’t I meditate?’ or, Why didn’t I work?’ If the thought ‘I did’ and ‘I didn’t’ are given up, than all actions will end up as meditation. In that state, meditation cannot be given up. This is the state of natural permanent abidance in Self.
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