On Three Spiritual Practices

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Sufi concept of passing-away (fana) can be instructive to the Christian seeking to surrender his or her will to the will of Christ. Such a surrender is to go beyond external doctrine and into the heart of the Savior.

The prerequisite to this transformation is the annihilation of the ego. In Christianity, this is symbolized by our Baptism, as we have died unto our sinful selves and are reborn into the life of Christ. The annihilation of the ego as the entryway to the Divine Life is a universal concept in religion.

Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24-25, NIV)

There is a saying in Islam: “Die before you die.”

This state of surrender is most difficult to attain in a culture based on materialism. We cannot surrender to God’s will while we have our own agenda. Among the Islamic mystics, even the desire for Paradise or the fear of Hell are seen as egoism.

True surrender is an act of God’s grace, although it can be facilitated by a spiritual practice. A spiritual practice is NOT an act based on “works” in order to gain merit; it is in itself an act of submission to the will of God.

There are many spiritual practices, which would take an entire book to cover. The three I will mention in this post are the Jesus Prayer, the dhikr, and the Rosary.

The great Russian classic about the Jesus Prayer is The Way of the Pilgrim. The Jesus Prayer can be practiced with the aid of Jesus Beads, which consist of 100 beads, usually wooden, plus a cross. The 100 beads can be used to count one series of repetitions of the prayer. Several forms of the prayer can be used. The full form of the prayer is:

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

A common (silent) form of the prayer is to recite, “Lord Jesus Christ,” on the in-breath and, “Have mercy on me,” on the out-breath. The goal of this prayer is to facilitate the surrender of the individual will into the will of Christ.

This is similar to the Sufi practice of dhikr. The most common way to practice the dhikr is the recollection or remembrance of God by the recitation of the shahada: “la ilaha illa’ llah” (There is no God but God”). The negative statement, “la ilaha,” is recited on the out-breath, while the affirmative statement, “illa’ llah,” is recited on the in-breath.

There are several Catholic websites which give detailed instructions on how to practice the Rosary. As Wayne Teasdale has noted, the effectiveness of the Rosary as a spiritual practice has been proven.

The Rosary beads are used to keep track of the prayers and meditations. One of the characteristics that makes the Rosary effective is that the repetition of prayers engenders tranquility of mind while simultaneously meditating on the “Mysteries,” which are primarily centered on Jesus Christ. It takes some doing at first to learn the Rosary, but once learned it can be practiced almost anywhere.

For those who might object to the “Mariology” implied in the Rosary, rather than discard this effective practice, one can employ a few substitutions. In place of the “Hail Mary,” one could use the following:

My heart is glad, my soul rejoices.

You will show me the path of life;

The fullness of joy in your presence;

At your right hand happiness forever.

Similarly, in place of the extra-biblical Mysteries of the Assumption and Coronation of Mary, one could substitute the raising of Lazarus and the conversion of Saul. Lastly, one can finish the Rosary with an “Our Father” (The Lord’s Prayer) instead of the “Hail, Holy Queen.” And there you have a fully Protestant-ized version of the Rosary.

The simple rule about spiritual practices is to use what attracts you and,

Pray as you can, not as you can’t.

Open your heart to Him and He will open the door.

God bless.

The Sufi Way and the Christian

Although Sufism has flourished as the mysticism of Islam, according to Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, “Sufism has never had a first exponent or a historical origin. It existed from the beginning, because man has always possessed the light which is his second nature.” (“The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan”)

Some religionists have laid the claim that Sufism is the sole property of Islam, but from an interspiritual standpoint, this could be no more true than saying that the truth is the sole property of one religion. As a Christian, I have experienced a great kinship with Sufism, and its teachings have invigorated my faith in Christ, despite the fact that Islam is not an incarnational religion.

As to the preexistence of Sufism, about the location of Persia, and the mutual influence of religion, according to Khan,

Persia, lying between Greece, Egypt, Arabia, and India, came under the influence of Plato and Socrates, of Hinduism and Buddhism, and especially of their poetry and philosophy. Everything in the world is influenced by other things, so it cannot be said that Sufism was born in Persia and that it did not exist before; it is an undeniable fact that Sufis existed in the time of Muhammad and even previously, and that Muhammad liked to converse with them and advise them. Thus Sufism in the course of time absorbed the influence of many religions, and in turn also influenced many other religions. (Khan)

As with Christianity, the path of Sufism begins with repentance (tawbat). The original sin in Islam is said to be self-existence, or the belief that there is a self that exists independently of God. The product of this self is selfish desire, which is the cause of every sin. Repentance is an act of God’s grace upon humankind. The Sufi turns to God because God has gone to him and called him out (i.e. of himself).

There are several ways to describe the Sufi Way, and among these descriptions are several sophisticated theological concepts that I cannot hope to cover in a posting such as this. But an early account enumerates seven stages of the path: (1) repentance, (2) abstinence, (3) renunciation, (4) poverty, (5) patience, (6) trust in God, and (7) satisfaction.

One of the Sufi concepts that I have found most valuable and fascinating as a Christian is called fana, or the “passing away” of the individual self and absorption in God. It has also been described as “going out” from the individual will and abiding wholly in the will of God.

This is a mystical state equal to the realization of the Hindu or the satori of the Zennist. Through the practice of dhikr–the “recollection” of God through the repetition of one of the Divine Names, a verse from the Koran, or more commonly the shahada (“There is no God but God”)–there becomes a sense that the individual existence of the self dissolves, as if it were “annihilated.”

That which remains is the mystical apprehension of the Islamic concept of the Unity of God–God alone is. There is not even a “self” being aware of God; it is God being conscious of himself.

This experience has been compared metaphorically to the moon seeing itself reflected in the light of the sun and exclaiming, “I am the sun!” It is only in the light of the sun that the moon is aware of itself, and the soul only has its true existence in the light of God.

As a Christian, I find this to be a beautiful way of understanding my life in Jesus Christ. The fact is that I only have a life in the sense that it is reflected in the light of Christ. It is not even I myself that lives, but Jesus Christ who lives his life, in the eternity of the present moment, through my body. (i.e. Galations 2:20) This is also what Christian mystics have called the “mystical marriage,” or the union of the soul with Christ.

God bless.

About Interspiritual and Ecumenical Religion

One of the main premises of this blog is that religions must show the nations how to live in peace by their own peaceful coexistence with each other. Every religion needs to re-examine itself in this light. Also, as part of a global community, members and especially leaders of every religion need to become conversant in multiple religions. As a Christian, learning about world religions has contributed a great deal to my relationship with Jesus Christ.

For those who are traveling along the path of interspirituality, I believe it is important to remain grounded in one religion. Although, in this interspiritual age, it is not uncommon for some people to observe a “second religion” in addition to the one that they are grounded to. Examples of this are Ruben Habito, a Catholic Christian who is also a Zen master, and Bede Griffiths, the Catholic priest and monk who also lived the life of a Hindu sanyassin in India. Unless a person feels especially called to a second religion, I believe it is best to have one religion to be grounded in.

My calling is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but in the same sense that Gandhi intended, I am also a Sufi, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, and a Muslim. This is to say that I recognize one common humanity which has one God, by whatever name he or she may be called.

Even in confirming that I am a Christian, it could be asked what kind of Christian am I, as there is a wide variety of Christian traditions. Again, my answer would have to be that I am both a Catholic and a Protestant; and within Protestantism, I am an Episcopalian, Evangelical, Baptist, Charismatic, and etc. The best term to use, perhaps, is ecumenical. The term interspiritual was coined by Bede Griffiths to apply to the crossing of religious boundaries. The term ecumenical is commonly applied to the crossing of denominational boundaries within one religion.

I used to believe that I had to make a distinct choice to the exclusion of all the other choices. This is the main reason why I ended up studying so many different creeds and traditions. After many years, I finally discovered Bede Griffiths, the great interspiritual pioneer after Gandhi, and Brian McLaren, the Christian elder and pioneer in the emerging church movement. One of my intentions for this blog is to offer ideas and information that took me so many years to discover, in the hopes of saving a lot of time for younger people.

God bless.

Jesus, Christ of the Cosmos

The appearance of Jesus marks the intersection of eternity with time and history. The man Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, reveals to humankind the character of God. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

Although Jesus lived in a specific time in history and in the culture of Israel, he is not only the Jewish messiah, nor is he only the Christian savior, he is the Redeemer of all humankind, of every nation and every creed. And he is not only the Redeemer of humankind, but also of all life and the entire universe.

In Ephesians 4:10 St. Paul tells us that, through his ascension, Jesus Christ is the Christ of the Cosmos:

He who descended is the very One who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. (NIV)

We see that God’s plan is that everyone and everything in the cosmos is to be reconciled in Christ:

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and, by means of him to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20, Liturgy of the Hours)

Through the Christ of the Cosmos, the ultimate destiny of humankind, and for the universe as a whole, is peace and unity; for God has:

A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into unity in him. (Ephesians 1:10, Liturgy of the Hours)

Through his life, teachings, and sacrificial death, Jesus shows us how to live our lives, as Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, or whatever our creed. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus Christ has become the Christ of the Cosmos and thus crosses over all religious and cultural boundaries. This is why, as a Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi could put into practice the teachings of Jesus so effectively and become himself an embodiment of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The potential of the Cosmic Christ is all-pervading and fills up the entire universe, including the sun and moon, mountains, oceans, trees, rocks and birds. Jesus is incarnated in the poor, the homeless, the sick and disadvantaged. Jesus Christ is also in every religion that promotes peace and social justice.

Those who follow the teachings of Jesus throughout history–one might call them saints: St. Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Franklin Graham, and many others–remind us of the potential in the teaching of Jesus and of the Christ of the Cosmos which is given to people of all faiths.

Blessings and Peace.