On Tuesday, Nov. 15, the Living Vision Community gathered again at Yoga Roots for our second week of practicing Apophatic Prayer. Below you will find the introduction I offered as instructive material. I hope you will find it useful as you go further in this ancient and challenging practice. Please remember that EVERYONE is welcome at our gatherings. Invite your friends and share this blog address with them so we can broaden this important conversation....
Last Tuesday, we began our journey into the silent world of Apophatic Prayer. You will remember that the word “apophatic” comes from a Greek word meaning “to deny.” What is “denied” in apophatic prayer is the notion or assumption that God can be expressed or defined in words. The world of apophatic prayer is one that seeks to re-establish and reaffirm God’s ineffable, indescribable, mysterious nature.
Our interest in entering this practice is to see what happens to our faith when it is moved to a place or a realm that is beyond words. I like the way one of my fellow bloggers, Peregrinatus, puts it in the blog “Thin Spaces:”
“For a Western Christian, the use of language and rational understanding has been a primary mode for understanding and relating to God. This [verbal and rational approach] has essentially stripped God of His innate mystery by quantifying and theologizing God into language. We create a mental image of God…{without realizing that] our intellect, language and conceptions are simply insufficient to convey the transcendent otherness of God. The mental tools we use [in attempt] to describe our experience of Reality [Can actually] darken our understanding and hide us from the experience of God's unique otherness.
Peregrinatus continues, “Apophatic prayer and apophatic theology is one vehicle that allows us to move beyond our conceptual box and experience the living God just as God is.”
Daniel Wolpert, whom I quoted extensively in my introductory remarks last week puts it this way: “As we enter the practice of apophatic prayer, we come to the realization that we know nothing of God; and so we must simply surrender and wait for God to know us.” Wolpert continues: “This complete release, this ultimate letting go, catapults us to a space that appears completely empty…We are no longer in control…All our understanding about God is suddenly of no use to us.” And so, Wolpert concludes, “we can only admit that we are helpless before God…and we must trust our Creator to come and find us.”
As with all contemplative and spiritual practices, apophatic prayer may seem tedious and even fruitless to us at first. And that’s ok. But over time, there ARE some things that WILL begin to happen, particularly as we undertake this practice together, in our group setting…
1) You will begin to feel the support and presence of this group – a group that is abiding WITH you in this often challenging and empty silence…
2) Each of us will begin to “soften” through the practice – our minds WILL gradually slow down…with practice – and that’s why we call this a spiritual ‘practice’ – our monkey minds will relax, and be less consumed.
3) Another benefit of our practice together over time, Wolpert says, is that “the hard edges we set to get through the world will begin to rub away here, through our common practice…Our faces will relax along with our minds, our shoulders will sink down, and our hearts will begin to open up to each other,” in this realm beyond words. We will begin to feel tremendous love and compassion for each other as a by-product of our shared silence.
Remember that as we enter this particular form of silent prayer, we try not to rely on words or phrases or constant repetition to center us. We simply try to sit through the noise in our minds. We may use one single word or syllable as a sort of periodic, emergency anchor. We may also want to use a silent mental image as our anchor. I mentioned last week that I like to picture myself on God’s lap being held and cuddled.
We’ll share two periods of silence this evening – both of 15 minutes. Each phase will begin and end with the bell….Let us pray...
Please leave your comments below, sharing your experiences with apophatic prayer!
My experience with apophatic prayer has been less successful alone compared to my experience with the group on the 8th of November. I feel the community, though just getting started, is definitely the key and I look forward to joining you all again next week.
ReplyDeleteScriptures, theologians and many religious leaders tell us what the divine is by listing grandiose attributes. Most mystics worship personal aspects of the divine, but they also speak of what it is not. Many of them said that the divine essence is nothing, i.e. no thing, that it is immanent in all things, yet it is transcendent to everything. Mystics consider this seeming paradox to be a positive negation.
ReplyDeleteAvidya, non-knowledge in Sanskrit, is used in Buddhism for our “spiritual ignorance” of the true nature of Reality. Bila kaif, without knowing how in Arabic, is Islam’s term for “without comparison” to describe Allah. Ein Sof, without end in Hebrew, is the “infinite beyond description” in the Kabbalah. Neti, neti, not this, not this in Sanskrit, refers to “unreality of appearances” to define Brahman. In via negativa, the way of negation in Latin, God is “not open to observation or description.”
Mysticism emphasizes spiritual knowing, which is not rational and is independent of reason, logic or images. Da`at is Hebrew for “the secret sphere of knowledge on the cosmic tree.” Gnosis is Greek for the “intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths.” Jnana is Sanskrit for “knowledge of the way” to approach Brahman. Ma`rifa in Arabic is “knowledge of the inner truth.” Panna in Pali is “direct awareness”; perfect wisdom. These modes of suprarational knowing, perhaps described as complete intuitive insight, are not divine oneness; they are actualizing our inherent abilities to come closer to the goal.
(quoted from "the greatest achievement in life," my free ebook on comparative mysticism)