Sunday February 4: The Inner Observer

To Practice

• Pray these passages again in the manner of Lectio Divina, speaking them out loud to engage your senses and affirm them in your being. Gaze upon the image. What do you hear and see for your journey now?
• The Welcoming Prayer cultivates the inner observer and provides a powerful tool for navigating daily life. Renew or refresh your practice of the Welcoming Prayer. If you are new to the practice, you may find more about it here.
• For more information on the transformative practice of the inner observer, you may wish to read the chapter “Working with an Inner Observer,” in Cynthia Bourgeualt’s Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. The whole book is also very helpful to one’s Centering Prayer practice.

If you wish, you may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/word-of-the-week-feb4

I am listening to a book on tape about conversations between God and figures in the old testament. What i learned is that we cant know who we are … who we are to become.

Jacob tried to define who he was by fooling his father to give him the blessing that belonged to Easau. So jacob pretended to be who he was not-a spectacular false self. When jaacob wrestlrd with the angel at Jabok , he came away limping , and gifted with a new name-i think Isreal. The way God brought about this crisis for jacob suggests the our God is the ultimate trickster. Only when Jacob reconciles with Esau after his interaction with the angel, is jacob free ti be himself.

 

 

Like Pamela, I found that the Welcoming Prayer came to mind while I was reading the following quote: “… Even more strongly, [the inner observer’s] purpose is to bring you into a state of unconditional presence, so that you not only believe but know that no physical or emotional state has the power to knock you out of the presence … presence can be sustained regardless of what inner or outer storms assail you.”
– Cynthia Bourgeault, “Working with an Inner Observer,” Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.  As much as I would like to in the state of unconditional awareness regardless of what assails me, I often find that the best that I can hope for is a sort of double awareness much of the time.  To paraphrase CB in her explanation of the Welcoming Prayer, sometimes the best that I can hope for is to be able to lovingly wave goodby to myself as I watch myself go over the emotional waterfall.

Eben, I got a good chuckle from “sometimes the best that I can hope for is to be able to lovingly wave goodbye to myself as I watch myself go over the emotional waterfall.” Thanks for sharing this.

I’ve heard it said in other teachings that when this double-awareness is present, we’re still better off than without it, because conscious awareness is present, even as the self get stuck in the quagmire all over again. Presence is a gift, no matter what.

Grateful to be on the journey in this beloved community. – Pamela

Keeping ourselves company….

The image this week is connecting me with my “witnessing presence”. For some years now my awake time, my dreaming time, and that liminal space between the two is all my real life, the Welcome prayer being a revealing presence. Sunday night in to Monday morning my dreaming time opened a deep ego scar that had become thickened and hard. The experience so deep that it propelled an energy unleashed in the liminal space where the Welcome prayer became very active (perhaps a Jonah in the whale experience). When finally I found myself fully awake I felt the positive energy of anger, no longer am I powerless, an anger gently massaging the long festering wound. Just as we soak in warm salt water the scarred area of a wound, so is Welcome praying time for me.

Cynthia Bourgeault’s statement “…presence can be sustained regardless of what inner or outer storms assail you” resonates at this juncture of my journey. It is truly the peace that passes all understanding. Why should I remain calm and steady while living in tumultuous circumstances at home and abroad? Presence can be sustained. Thanks be to God. <3 linda

[Author]

Posts