"The Flotsam of Feelings"
"The Flotsam of Feelings"
The life of prayer is the primary school of the Spirit. What we’re doing in prayer is not creating successes; we’re waiting upon the Lord. We’re tuning into the stream of life and waiting to let that stream unburden itself of distractions and baggage. If you don’t keep jumping on those ships that cross our minds during prayer, if you don’t over-identify with the flotsam bobbing down the stream, they stop returning. Try it. If you’ve identified all your life with your feelings and your opinions, that flotsam will keep coming by and expect you to jump on it. Stop doing that for awhile. It’ll come by a second time and say, “Maybe you didn’t see me the first time. Here I am. I am the relationship to always get angry about. I want you to get angry again so you can waste the rest of your morning.” And this time you look at it and say, “I don’t need you. Float on by.” Don’t fight it. That’s very important. We were trained to fight distraction. Yet there is no such thing as a distraction; everything is data. Look at it and then see if you can stay on the bank of the stream and name the feeling, feel the feeling and let it go by. It’ll probably come by even a third time, maybe even a fourth or fifth, if you’ve indulged this feeling for years. But after a while you notice that it stops floating by in the stream of consciousness. “I’m not going anywhere with him! I’m not going to get anywhere with her. She’s not going to feed me.” And then you’ll get to the holy place, beyond feelings, beyond opinions, beyond the passing world: the place where all things are One.
from Preparing for Christmas With Richard Rohr
The life of prayer is the primary school of the Spirit. What we’re doing in prayer is not creating successes; we’re waiting upon the Lord. We’re tuning into the stream of life and waiting to let that stream unburden itself of distractions and baggage. If you don’t keep jumping on those ships that cross our minds during prayer, if you don’t over-identify with the flotsam bobbing down the stream, they stop returning. Try it. If you’ve identified all your life with your feelings and your opinions, that flotsam will keep coming by and expect you to jump on it. Stop doing that for awhile. It’ll come by a second time and say, “Maybe you didn’t see me the first time. Here I am. I am the relationship to always get angry about. I want you to get angry again so you can waste the rest of your morning.” And this time you look at it and say, “I don’t need you. Float on by.” Don’t fight it. That’s very important. We were trained to fight distraction. Yet there is no such thing as a distraction; everything is data. Look at it and then see if you can stay on the bank of the stream and name the feeling, feel the feeling and let it go by. It’ll probably come by even a third time, maybe even a fourth or fifth, if you’ve indulged this feeling for years. But after a while you notice that it stops floating by in the stream of consciousness. “I’m not going anywhere with him! I’m not going to get anywhere with her. She’s not going to feed me.” And then you’ll get to the holy place, beyond feelings, beyond opinions, beyond the passing world: the place where all things are One.
from Preparing for Christmas With Richard Rohr
posted by LuisVelasco @ 9:26 AM
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