The quote below is from Eckart Tolle (with a mashup from one of the Desert Fathers, John the Solitary). This is what we used for our lectio this morning in the Monday group.
Tolle can sometimes seem bone dry--but 'bone dry' can also be the same thing as 'clear and to the point.'
One of the great ironies of mindful practices is that they can appear to be self-focused and self-absorbed. Yet the sweetest fruit of mindful practice is freedom from this very thing--the sticky gravity of our small selves.
Through mindfulness we see the many habits and patterns that keep us stuck. Over time, recognizing and recognizing and recognizing these habits and patterns, it becomes easier and easier and easier to let them go.
Tolle is very helpful describing how this works.
---
Since
ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as
the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have remained a
secret.
With the
timeless dimension comes a different kind of knowing, one that does not “kill”
the spirit that lives within every creature and every thing. A knowing that
does not destroy the sacredness and mystery of life but contains a deep love
and reverence for all that is. A knowing of which the mind knows nothing.
If you find
it hard to enter the Now directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of
your mind to want to escape from the Now. You will observe that the future is
usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined
future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is
worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory. Through self-observation, more
presence comes into your life automatically. The moment you realize you are not
present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are
no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of
the mind: the witnessing presence.
Be present
as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your
reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as
in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your
attention is in the past or future. Don’t judge or analyze what you observe.
Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don’t make a
personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than
any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind
the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
---
There is a silence of the tongue,
and a silence of the body;
a silence of soul
and a silence of mind.
There is silence of spirit, too—
and, of course,
the vast silence of God.
Within this silence
we sing God best
in psalms without words.
--John the Solitary
