Richard Rohr operates under the ministry that is entitled Center For Action & Contemplation. He has it nailed. We so need both. As I was pondering my navel in the back yard, with the winds whisltlig through the trees, I felt this peace of just sitting, doing nothing, and observing all the action going on around me.
We don't do enough of that. We miss what Eckhart Tolle calls the Power of Now. And what was in my NOW moment?
Blue Jays, red birds, doves, sparrows, robbins, wood peckers, and squirrels were about doing their thing. Cars were driving in and out of the cul-de-sac. Did I mention the activity of three golden retrievers? Me, I, I just WAS. And then this is what I heard.
We in the West need to .
The West is primarily into PRAYER and of course the putting down of MEDITATION. Prayer is in a sense action direction. Do this for me God, do that for me Jesus. We Westerners are DOERS and that's good unless that is ALL that we do.
We need a .
The East is primarily into meditation which is a non-doing of course- one is just to BE! It is though a ceasing of constant doing that sctually does produce. Since Jesus came to tell us that we are ALL ONE with the Father, maybe we should try and do BOTH.
and intolerance must be abandoned.
So, how's your prayer life and your meditation, followed by a deeper contemplation? We need every weapon in the arsenal. To choose one method over another, to choose a Western tradition over an Eastern, or to choose only what we know over what we don't is to "miss the mark".
