Sprituality
May. 1st, 2003 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalwell, well. This test claims that Augustine spirituality is appropriate for me.
Thing is, I hate visualisations. Tried them twice, both times broke down in tears (literally) because I got too upset and frustrated by my f***ing inability to visualise. I couldn't bring up a picture in my mind. Just the mere mention of this meditation technique gets my blood boiling.
Actually, there's your answer - in a nutshell - why I don't really do Christian meditation. Most guided Christian meditations contain bloody visualisations. Oh, I hate them with a vengeance. But that's me - I get very, very impatient and upset very quickly when something doesn't work or when I don't understand something. That gets to me almost as much as visualisations. But visualisations are worse, because if I have a scientific problem, I can at least break it down into little pieces and reason about it, trying to persuade my stupid little useless hare-brain to find some thread. Not so with visualisations. Ah. The mere thought sends me on a spiral of negativity.
I think I can do Lectio Divina, or get lost in a painting or music, and use techniques that involve dialogue or brainstorming or scribbling on paper, or do my favourite, "just sitting", the Shikantaza of Zen. But not the friggin' monologue of visualisations. I HAVE NO IMAGINATION. I HAVE A VERY BAD MEMORY. I cannot remember tunes, and I find it next to impossible to conjure up mental images. I don't need to see God to enter into a dialogue with Him/Her, and I am constitutionally unable to enter into Bible scenes and "notice what I see". NOTICE WHAT I FAIL TO SEE, more likely! Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, taste the bread. Well, no, sir. No can do.
Phew. That feels better. I have to get this off my chest from time to time :)
May I also add that I don't feel comfortable with the good St. Augustine himself? More precisely, with the misogyny that pervades his writings? Undoubtedly, he has written a lot of wise things, but that doesn't mean he is infallible. If I did exactly what he advises to do, my married life would be tres, ahem, boring. If you see what I mean.
I'm much more at home with St. Igantius of Loyola.
*** *** ***
On to something much nicer. I know that some of you are quite spiritual. Well, if you fancy reading inspiring spiritual thoughts every day and meditating on some superb pictures, then check out![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seraphimsigrist. It is truly fascinating. I spend quite some time getting lost in these pictures. If anything, Zen has taught me to see - to be with a painting.
*** *** ***
Finally,drac11 seems to be Missing In Action. I know ciircee is alive and well, but what about him? brightfame, can you elucidate?
Thing is, I hate visualisations. Tried them twice, both times broke down in tears (literally) because I got too upset and frustrated by my f***ing inability to visualise. I couldn't bring up a picture in my mind. Just the mere mention of this meditation technique gets my blood boiling.
Actually, there's your answer - in a nutshell - why I don't really do Christian meditation. Most guided Christian meditations contain bloody visualisations. Oh, I hate them with a vengeance. But that's me - I get very, very impatient and upset very quickly when something doesn't work or when I don't understand something. That gets to me almost as much as visualisations. But visualisations are worse, because if I have a scientific problem, I can at least break it down into little pieces and reason about it, trying to persuade my stupid little useless hare-brain to find some thread. Not so with visualisations. Ah. The mere thought sends me on a spiral of negativity.
I think I can do Lectio Divina, or get lost in a painting or music, and use techniques that involve dialogue or brainstorming or scribbling on paper, or do my favourite, "just sitting", the Shikantaza of Zen. But not the friggin' monologue of visualisations. I HAVE NO IMAGINATION. I HAVE A VERY BAD MEMORY. I cannot remember tunes, and I find it next to impossible to conjure up mental images. I don't need to see God to enter into a dialogue with Him/Her, and I am constitutionally unable to enter into Bible scenes and "notice what I see". NOTICE WHAT I FAIL TO SEE, more likely! Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, taste the bread. Well, no, sir. No can do.
Phew. That feels better. I have to get this off my chest from time to time :)
May I also add that I don't feel comfortable with the good St. Augustine himself? More precisely, with the misogyny that pervades his writings? Undoubtedly, he has written a lot of wise things, but that doesn't mean he is infallible. If I did exactly what he advises to do, my married life would be tres, ahem, boring. If you see what I mean.
I'm much more at home with St. Igantius of Loyola.
*** *** ***
On to something much nicer. I know that some of you are quite spiritual. Well, if you fancy reading inspiring spiritual thoughts every day and meditating on some superb pictures, then check out
seraphimsigrist. It is truly fascinating. I spend quite some time getting lost in these pictures. If anything, Zen has taught me to see - to be with a painting. *** *** ***
Finally,
drac11 seems to be Missing In Action. I know ciircee is alive and well, but what about him? brightfame, can you elucidate?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
visualization
Date: 2003-05-01 08:31 am (UTC)Loyola? The "Spiritual Exercises". On the other hand I
dont know that they are at all Augustinian, are they...?
Augustine derives more from the tradition of Plotinus
in the inner life doesnt he?
I can be wrong and not meaning to be sort of pedantic in
a halfassed way but...
Both were very interesting people and I dont know that
misogyny will quite hold for Augustine will it? There
was probably a range of things he had to work through
but a man who could say when I came to Carthage many
years ago I thought to preach something about the profanity
I heard everywhere, and then I thought I should wait until
I stopped using the same expressions myself, and now many
years later I in general dont use them but have no urge
to preach on the subject is perhaps too alert a mind
to pin down in the dismissive ways people do...
and thanks for the good word for my
little journaling! and blessings +Seraphim.
Re: visualization
Date: 2003-05-01 08:44 am (UTC)You know far more about the spirituality of both than I do, so I will readily accept your judgement. "Inner Life"
sounds right to me ...
What I admire most about St. Ignatius is his prayers. More about that and what I like about Ignatian spirituality maybe in another entry ... You've made me re-think and re-evaluate. Again. Which is what I admire so much about your LJ.
You are right: these Augustinian words are indeed very remarkable, and what I said does not do him justice. (I almost feel like apologising to the man ... Sorry St. Augustine! I'm sure you're up there and you can hear me.) I was mostly referring to the side of him that is cited e.g. in the writings of Uta Ranke-Heinemann, a contentious Catholic theologian.
God bless,
percival
flann
Date: 2003-05-01 08:50 am (UTC)an interview with augustine in an undersea
grotto(dont ask it is a flann situation, he was
an irish catholic in which augustine
denies being african with some heat in any
ethnic sense and of heaven says that the
cure de ars is the biggest dogs breakfast
around here and that when Peter gets
officious some of the lads follow him going
cock a doodle doo..
but of course I think the interviewee was
not augustine(who like Merton by the way had
a child out of wedlock early on, but that
is another matter) but some irish fellow.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-01 02:06 pm (UTC)