The anonymous author of the contemplative classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, says that “all human virtue is comprised in the twin qualities of Humility and Charity…He who has these, has all.” Our author goes on to define humility as, “self-knowledge, that terrible vision of the soul as it is…a glimpse which first induces self abasement and then self-purification, which is the beginning of all spiritual growth…”
We have come here tonight to begin or perhaps re-start our spiritual growth. And thus, we have come here to be humbled…and humbled we shall be. For the discipline we shall endeavor to practice tonight and through the month of November is one of the most humbling there is – apophatic prayer.
If you grew up at all like me, you probably have always thought about prayer as an expression in words. But tonight and in the weeks to come we will explore what happens when we seek to move our faith beyond words. We will explore what happens when we even seek to move beyond our thoughts about God, beyond our understanding of God. In a sense, we go back in time to the heart of faith, when, according to Judeo-Christian scripture, Moses asked God what his name was and God responded, “Yahweh,” which is not a name at all. “I am who I am. I will be who I will be.” Translation – ‘I am beyond your human words, your human names, and your human understandings, and I always will be.’
The word “apophatic” comes from a Greek word meaning “to deny.” It is also related to school of theology known as “negative theology” – negative in the sense that it rejects all attempts to define, describe, or even understand God. God, after all, is ineffable, utterly beyond human words, so in apophatic prayer we seek to move our faith and faith practices beyond words as well.
Apophatic prayer is not only an externally silent form of prayer, but it seeks to also be silent internally, where there are no words used or called upon for internal focus, except for a single syllable or “anchor word,” to which I’ll return in a few moments. Seeking this silence both without and within is likely to be extraordinarily uncomfortable for all of us, and particularly for American Christians. The very first thing we should expect to encounter in this form of silent meditation is what contemplative writer Daniel Wolpert calls, “the fallen reality of our minds.” While the novice to apophatic prayer may think he/she is about to encounter God, what he/she will most assuredly encounter first is him/herself…”our self loathing, our shame, our lack of self-worth.” And most of all, and here’s the humbling part, we are likely to encounter our complete inability to control our own minds. We find out in this discipline just how out of control our minds are and how powerless we are to do anything about that.
And so, in apophatic prayer we place ourselves - and our runaway minds - at the mercy of God. We admit how broken and unspiritual we really are and wait for God to come to us.
So what we will do in a few moments is sit in silence together. We may use the sound and rhythm of our breathing to focus us. And we also may wish to use a single word as an anchor to chase away at least some of thoughts that will plague us. Your single anchor word might be “God,” “Yahweh,” Jesus,” “Om,” “love,” or “mercy.” Come back to your one word as you seek to quiet your mind enough to listen for the still small voice of your Creator. We’ll share silence for two chunks of time – 10 and 15 minutes, with a little break in between, for a total of 25 minutes tonight. A bell will begin and end each period of silence.
I’ll close this introduction to tonight’s practice with one of my favorite stories about Mother Theresa. The late Peter Jennings was asked just before he died who his most memorable interview was with. He said without hesitating that it was Mother Theresa. When asked why, he said that he’d never forgotten one exchange they had. “I asked her, ‘Mother Theresa, when you pray, what do you say?’ She scrunched up her face in a confused expression and said, ‘Say?…I don’t say anything. I listen…I listen.”
And so, Let the listening begin…Let us pray…
Scriptures, 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 my free ebook, "the greatest achievement in life," on comparative mysticism)