Newsletter Archive
Entering the Castle
An Inner Path to
God and Your Soul
View Details »
Your Power to Create
From wishful thinking
to True Manifestation
View Details »
I am pleased and honored that Caroline has invited me to make regular contributions to her newsletter. It seems appropriate that I first briefly introduce myself. I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. When I graduated from high school in 1961 I entered the cloistered Trappist monastery of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where I lived as monk until1967. I look back on my years in the monastery as a time in which I was introduced to and immersed in the mystical heritage of my own Christian tradition. For two and half of those years the renowned monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton was my spiritual director. Through Merton I discovered the spiritual wisdom found in yoga, Zen, and the other contemplative traditions of the world’s great religions.
When I left the monastery my primary concern was how I could continue living out here, in the midst of the world, the contemplative way of life to which I was introduced in the monastery. In 1978 wrote a book titled Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, in which I explored Merton’s insights into the true self beyond ego. When that book came out I began to get invitations to lead contemplative retreats throughout the United States and Canada. In leading these retreats over the years I have had the privilege of being with thousands of men and woman who are interiorly drawn to follow the contemplative path. When Caroline invited my to speak in Chicago a couple of years ago, I did what I always do when leading silent retreats. I turned to the teachings of one of the mystics for guidance in how we today can experience within ourselves the oneness with God that mystics invite us to discover. As I spoke, I immediately sensed that I was in the presence of fellow seekers. Last April I was able to accept Caroline’s invitation be part of her retreat on Theresa of Avila in Avila, Spain, where I shared some reflections on the teachings of Theresa’s close friend and fellow mystic Saint John of the Cross. It was in Avila that Caroline invited my to contribute to this newsletter. About once a month I will be sharing with you insights and words encouragement that I hope will help you in your own ongoing contemplative journey.
I will conclude this first newsletter with a simple insight. The oneness with God the mystics invite us to discover is not hard to find because it is hidden in some far off place we cannot get to. To the contrary, God’s oneness with us is in plain view, right before our eyes in everything we see. The mystic path is right beneath our feet in the intimate immediacy of the situation in which we find ourselves. It is just that the momentum of trying to get done all that we perceive needs to get done makes it hard for us see God in all that needs to be done. Because this is so, we recognize the importance of slowing down enough to catch up with ourselves. The contemplative path, it seems to me, has about it this quality of quieting our mind and heart, so that we begin to stabilizing ourselves in the one thing that is always going on—God loving us, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, in to the one unending present moment in which our lives unfold.
Learning to rest in this one thing, learning to see this one thing in all that we see, we follow the way of the mystics down through the ages.
It is, of course, easier to do this a monastery. Every aspect of monastic life is intended to protect and foster this transformative process of learning to be grounded in the inherent holiness of life itself. It is admittedly not as easy to follow the awakening path in midst of today’s world. But the good news is that it is not necessary to live in a monastery to follow the mystic path. With God’s grace we can establish within ourselves a sincere and quiet determination not to be swept away by the demands of the day. Each of us can, with God’s grace, “enter the castle” of our own soul in which God lives. Our point of entry in this ever-present way is as close as our willingness to slow down, right now, in this very moment, so that divinity of the life we are living can begin to come into view. The process of passing through the obstacles and blessing we discover in this self-transforming journey will be the subject matter of each of my contributions to this newsletter.
Visit Jim Finley's website at: contemplativeway.org
James Finley
Findhorn, Scotland
Tuesday 9th October, 2007 (3 days)
http://www.findhorn.info/programmes/programme127.php
This retreat is a follow-on workshop after our three-day event with Caroline Myss, Entering the Castle.
The New York Times #1 best-selling author Wayne W. Dyer has discovered the secrets to achieving a way of life that guarantees integrity, joy, peace, and balance. Now you can too, when you read his newest book, Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life.
http://promos.hayhouse.com/promos/dyer/us073107email/
