At any given moment, the most important place on earth can be a palace, a pigsty, or a cell. --Davila
Would you believe a coonsty?
In each moment, each person is capable of possessing the truths that matter.
Leave place, leave time, / Avoid even image! / Go forth without a way / On the narrow path, / Then you will find the desert path. --Meister Eckhart
The desert path? I pictured an ocean. I guess we won't need the snorkel.
We all have a key to the door that opens to the luminous and noble peace of the desert.
Oh, that desert. Where the Desert Fathers lived. These first Christian monks “looked back to a series of Old and New Testament models and prototypes, especially figures associated with the desert, like Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist… (McGinn). These fellows “carved out new roles for themselves as special mediators between the divine and human realms."
This “free-form asceticism” entailed
withdrawal from society into the desert, a separation that involved both an external geographical shift of momentous nature and a new kind of exploration of the inner geography of the soul.
Soul cartographers? Yes, but mapper and mapped are the same, or at least not-two. In this, a “basic pattern” emerges, of “withdrawal-purgation-transformation.”
Withdrawal from society is the easy part. I took you out of hell, but I could not get that hell out of you, says Petey.
The desert, traditionally the home for demons and not for humans, was the place where the encounter with the spirits of evil… could be more readily encountered and mastered…. These demonic powers, always present within the soul, become luminously real in the intense heat and introspective atmosphere of the desert.
Christ began his career by being tempted by the demons. And we’re supposed to seek them out and tempt them? Isn’t that bit like the guy who decided to live with bears in the wild? How'd that work out?
What’s the first thing we notice? The size of those teeth! No, about the moment.
I suppose we notice that we notice. More generally that there is experience. This is impossible to put into words, because words -- and anything else -- presuppose it.
Moreover, while animals have experiences, man alone experiences experience; or rather, we go back and forth between experience and the experience thereof.
A voluptuous presence communicates its sensual splendor to everything.
Is that what this is, this pure Presence?
The momentary beauty of the instant is the only thing in the universe that concurs with the eagerness of our souls.
The Momentary Beauty of the Instant.
Experience, Presence, Light, Mystery. Being.
Slow down!
One who acts hastily frightens off swarm of gods.
And be quick about it!
Our most urgent task is that of reconstructing the mystery of the world.
We are not alone!
In man’s extreme solitude he perceives anew the touch of immortal wings.
To be continued...
4 comments:
Isn’t that bit like the guy who decided to live with bears in the wild?
Or something Daredevil Rex Kramer might consider a bit too dangerous...
I'm reminded of a commentary I saw recently regarding the the daily practice of the Rosary (but really, it applies to any serious spiritual practice), that when you take it seriously you are very likely to suffer serious challenges - more bluntly, spiritual or even demonic attacks - as a result. On the one hand, this is the desert encounter, delivered right to your own front door; on the other, if you have eyes to see it is also when one does indeed perceive anew the touch of immortal wings.
I like the idea of demons (that they exist, not actively seeking them out). I once tried to craft a unified spiritual theory which would explain who and why some folks are more amenable to demonic possession than others.
I was okay with conservatives demanding that I include leftists. But when they demanded that I include only leftists, I had to abandon the project. It seems they’d forgotten some pretty basic stuff, like the concepts of “false prophets” and fruit falling close to trees and fishing for men instead of little boys.
And so in our travels we now seek out the lost. We try to save these lost. We try to tell them that we got rich making their economic ground less fertile so they could become monks who are virtually impervious to demons, always a good thing.
But they’d rather play Fortnight and Minecraft. I’m now considering a Christian warrior game where demons constantly pop up where you least expect and you can blow them up good.
I have a bit of a problem with a demonically possessed in-law and I'd sure appreciate some advice.
I have a little sister who I always looked out for. She married poorly. I blame myself for having not chased him off but he got her pregnant before I could. Chase him off that is. Then he got a job as a mail carrier and began supporting his new family. So I told myself "Well, at least there's that..." and I’d help out whenever they needed me to do repairs or persuade dad that they needed some cash.
One day I was asking some fellows if they did work for their sisters for free. Okay, it was more like I was bitching a little bit. They told me that I should be helping out single mothers since being a single mother was tough. I said she’s married. They told me that I should be helping out disabled wounded warriors since being a disabled wounded warrior is tough. I said he’s fully functional. They told me that I should be helping out sisters married to alcoholics/meth addicts since being married to an alcoholic/meth addict is tough. I told them he’s not on any drug that I’m aware of. They told me that I should be paying more attention to all those times he returned my favors. I said he’s never returned any favors.
That’s when they stared at me like I had demons crawling out of my ears. “Uh…” one of them said. “You’re being scammed.” After pondering this for a bit I realized the truth of it.
So the next time my sister called, using her typical sweetly spoken catchphrase “I need my brother”, I told her I was immensely busy and she needed to get her husband to do it. After some serious bitching and proclamations that she was never going to call me ever again, she did exactly that. She never called me again.
It’d been several years and just this Christmas, she tried to entice me to visit so I can see her new dogs. She knows I like dogs. So I’ve been wondering. She and her loser husband are both quite Christian. And they’ve taken in our aging father, presumably for his cash. How do I tell her and dad that her loser husband is demonically possessed? I really want to just punch the guy out but then there’d be jail time to deal with. I'm not sure what to do.
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