FW: Richard Rohr's Meditation: Consciousness and Contemplation

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FW: Richard Rohr's Meditation: Consciousness and Contemplation

George Duncan-2
Dear FRIAM, Subscribe Me!

George Duncan has forwarded this email to you with the following message: Here's a religious and historical cut on consciousness. Written by an active Jesuit theologian, Richard Rohr. Interesting to explore the similarities an differences in this conceptualization and that being discussed on the FRIAM list.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
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Soup Kitchen (detail), by GeoffS.    
Action and Contemplation:
Week 2
Consciousness and Contemplation
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Today's meditation is longer than usual, but I want you to have all of this together in one place. Many people think of their consciousness as the same as their brain. It's really not. Scientists still struggle to define consciousness and where it arises. The early Alexandrian and Desert mothers and fathers of the church knew consciousness was not the same as the thinking mind. They used the Greek word nous to describe consciousness as what we would see as a combination of Spirit, God, and mind all at once. Consciousness is something shared/participated in and not a secretion of your private brain. American philosopher Emerson called this awareness the "Over-Soul." Thomas Aquinas called it connatural intelligence. It is true to my nature, but true to a larger nature at the same time. Duns Scotus called it intuitive cognition, which he distinguished from rational cognition.
 
The English word "consciousness" comes from the Latin root conscire: to be aware with. Through contemplation we plug into a consciousness that is larger than the brain. It comes through a wholehearted surrender to what is, a surrender that encompasses all and eliminates none of the present moment. Only then will we know that we're seeing reality through eyes larger than our own, which is why it is always a very humble and receptive knowing.
 
The level of knowing that we experience from connection with consciousness or nous is entirely different than the argumentative, dualistic world that we live in. It's a kind of quiet, compassionate, non-opinionated certitude, unlike the arrogant certitude our culture celebrates. Even though we may not be able to verbalize it, we know things calmly and deeply, as truth. We don't know what it is we know, but what we do know is that we are somehow okay; in fact, it is all okay in its foundations and direction. God is the great I AM in which everything--including me--has its being. My I am is a sharing in the one great I AM. To sin is simply to live out of any I am not.
 
At times in contemplative prayer, we connect with consciousness. We think that we grow little by little in consciousness. And in some ways this is true. We grow in our ability to tap into consciousness. But this consciousness is freely available, even and especially to children. It requires no training or special talent. We can be conscious right now, even though it takes practice to remain inside this knowing.
                                                               
Deep consciousness knows the true value of a thing, it knows intuitively what is real and what's unreal, what is eternal and what is passing, what matters and what doesn't matter at all. This kind of consciousness allows us to see the archetypal truth within the particular, for example the pattern of Christ's death and resurrection within each death and birth. At a loved one's deathbed we can be present to their dying, our dying, all dying--and to the reality of life changing forms in each death. If we can stay within this kind of consciousness, I can promise we'll receive compassion and empathy for the world.
 
In the big consciousness, we know things by participation with them, which is love. As I've said before, we cannot know God in a cerebral way, but only by loving God through a different kind of knowing. Mature spirituality teaches us how to enter into the reality of that which we are encountering. And it gets even better than that. Eventually you get the courage to say, I am a little part of that which I am seeking. In this moment, the idea of God as transcendent shifts to the realization that God is imminent. That's why the mystics can shout with total conviction and excitement: My deepest me is God! God is no longer just out there, but equally in here. Until that transference takes place and you know that it is God in me loving God--God in me worshipping God, resting in God, enjoying God--the whole point of the incarnation has not been achieved, and we remain in religion instead of actual faith experience or faith encounter.
Gateway to Silence
Yes
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, with Lawrence Freeman, Transforming the World through Contemplative Prayer (CAC: 2013), disc 3 (CD, MP3 download); and 
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1999), 90, 91.
There is nothing to prove and nothing to protect.
I am who I am and it's enough.

--Richard Rohr
 
We invite you to come as you are, complete, enough, and entirely beloved in your humanity. Join Fr. Richard and friends--Christena Cleveland, James Alison, and Mirabai Starr.

CONSPIRE 2016
: Everything Belongs
Friday, July 15-Sunday, 17, 2016
Register for the conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, or participate online via live webcast.

Learn more at cac.org.
 
Scholarships are available. Seating is limited for the in-person conference--register soon! Webcast registration includes access to the video replay through August 21, 2016. Both in-person and webcast registrations must be made online.
2016 Daily Meditation Theme
Richard Rohr's meditations this year invite us to discover, experience, and participate in the foundation of our existence--Love. Throughout the year, Fr. Richard's meditations follow the thread of Love through many of his classic teachings in 1-2 week segments. Learn more and watch a video introduction at https://cac.org/2016-daily-meditations-overview/.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations are made possible through the generosity of CAC's donors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Click here to donate securely online.

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Re: FW: Richard Rohr's Meditation: Consciousness and Contemplation

Rich Murray-2
Thank you, George Duncan,  I get Richard Rohr's stimulating sharings every midnight for years  now -- just started my own sharing with free spontaneous weekly Youtube sharings with 2 others via Google Hangouts On Air, me in Imperial Beach, south of San Diego, Dirk in South Africa, Sun in San Francisco -- graduates of the 4-month FindersCourse.com process:

Spark Sparks starts, first YouTube video, 3 of us share live awareness flow on free video Google Plus Hangouts On Air: Rich Murray 2016.05.13


Sparks In All,  May 13 2016 Friday 11 am PDT Hangout On Air


Dirk du Plooy



to sunme  2:04 pm  PDT

We are out there now in so many ways. 


Share the link far and wide…

 

https://youtu.be/GvfTbPq-8z0

 

Thanks to both of you being authentic and open.

 

Deepest connected sense with you.

 

Thanks for allowing you in me and me in you.





first comment to Spark Sparks, first YouTube video: Rich Murray 2016.05.13

9:25 pm PDT Friday 2016.05.13

The three of us started this publicly shared adventure this morning about 11:17 am PDT, until ending at 12:28. We want to share our spontaneous online explorations, which started for the three of us together the first time May 4.  Others are welcome to watch, and to join our sharing sessions, to be kept available for free public view. 

Eventually, the sharings will evolve and expand, as more join to explore the wonderful potential of live collaborative online video sharing.  Soon, many similar expanding networks for free spontaneous mutual awareness exploration will evolve everywhere, easily and safely serving the enormous benefit of everyone on Earth and beyond.

We allow continuous spontaneous innovative sharings together to easily shift into many expanded awareness experiences, appreciating every word and gesture, acknowledging the benefits of newly shared, freshly found, surprising natural aspects of our own awareness,  at once unique for each and yet shared among all,  each a unique strand of creative action that inspires enjoys and enriches all the others, learning to let life live freely as a forever fresh jazz session.

Learning by natural doing of whatever is flowing happily each moment leads to a Golden Rule process, as the more we listen, the more each gives, the more everyone evolves, while the mutual celebration is safe, gentle, playful, appreciative, inviting, welcoming, open.  All Chiefs, no indians...  Muddling through is the way...  Wrong way is way...

Feel dubious, unqualified, skeptical, cautious?  Welcome, welcome !!


Lively Communion -- invoking mutual meditative exploration: Rich Murray 1993 April, 2001.06.22, 2011.02.14

1. INTRODUCTION:

We now join in exploring the co-creation of an open ended process of
mutual meditative exploration.
We call this Lively Communion.

God. That word.
May it refer to something real, to our actual experience.

As fabled lovers leap from terra firma into abyss, we hold mental
hands and fall together into openness, into space, into the intimate
unknown, into peace, bliss, and power.

Naturally, it is effortless, spontaneous, yet surprising and vigorous,
a white water rafting of two souls.

We journey, mostly, with open eyes,  and open "I's".  And, most
humanly, we talk and talk -- but mainly about what is happening right
now...

This is Lively Communion. Let us agree to cooperate in allowing it to
happen now, in this very writing and reading.

10:24 pm PDT Friday 2016.05.13



The audio is good enough, especially if you use headphones, and turn the volume high on your computer or smartphone. 

It helps to assume that flow can be trusted fully -- especially  technical problems, interruptions, missing many words or gestures, sudden shifts of topic, unexpected emotions and sensations, mistakes...

You may notice that you feel swept along and uplifted by the flow -- this is how we feel, and your experience helps inspire us as we play, for in the reality of All, time is multidimensional and so is "causality", so that miracles and magic are not only possible, but natural common safe continuous easy -- grace does not require suffering, penance, effort, understanding, qualification, expertise, rules, innocence -- just a little willingness -- if you happen to be reading this, you are already receiving grace...

10:44 pm PDT Friday 2016.05.13



neurobehavioral effects of aspartame, GN Lindseth et al 2014, funded by Army, free full plain text -- 25% of 28 healthy young university students had obvious harm from a dose same as 9 cans daily for just 8 days: Rich Murray 2015.07.05



[ see also, for value of vegan diet,


 DrMcDougall.com


ForksOverKnives.com 


TrueHealthInitiative.org/#/the-solution 




"As a matter of course, every soul citizen of Earth has a priority to quickly find and positively share evidence for healthy and safe food, drink, environment, and society."


within the fellowship of service,


Rich Murray,

MA Boston University Graduate School 1967 psychology,

BS MIT 1964 history and physics,

1039 Emory Street, Imperial Beach, CA 91932

rich.murray11 free Skype audio, video chat



On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 10:47 AM, George Duncan <[hidden email]> wrote:
Dear FRIAM, Subscribe Me!

George Duncan has forwarded this email to you with the following message: Here's a religious and historical cut on consciousness. Written by an active Jesuit theologian, Richard Rohr. Interesting to explore the similarities an differences in this conceptualization and that being discussed on the FRIAM list.
Please Note: You have NOT been added to any email lists. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, please contact [hidden email].

In the big consciousness, we know things by participation with them, which is love.
Having trouble viewing this email? Click here
Instagram Icon
Are you on Instagram?
Follow @CACRadicalGrace for inspiration and invitations to live in Love.
Gray
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Soup Kitchen _detail_ photograph by GeoffS.  _https___www.morguefile.com_creative_GeoffS_
Soup Kitchen (detail), by GeoffS.    
Action and Contemplation:
Week 2
Consciousness and Contemplation
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Today's meditation is longer than usual, but I want you to have all of this together in one place. Many people think of their consciousness as the same as their brain. It's really not. Scientists still struggle to define consciousness and where it arises. The early Alexandrian and Desert mothers and fathers of the church knew consciousness was not the same as the thinking mind. They used the Greek word nous to describe consciousness as what we would see as a combination of Spirit, God, and mind all at once. Consciousness is something shared/participated in and not a secretion of your private brain. American philosopher Emerson called this awareness the "Over-Soul." Thomas Aquinas called it connatural intelligence. It is true to my nature, but true to a larger nature at the same time. Duns Scotus called it intuitive cognition, which he distinguished from rational cognition.
 
The English word "consciousness" comes from the Latin root conscire: to be aware with. Through contemplation we plug into a consciousness that is larger than the brain. It comes through a wholehearted surrender to what is, a surrender that encompasses all and eliminates none of the present moment. Only then will we know that we're seeing reality through eyes larger than our own, which is why it is always a very humble and receptive knowing.
 
The level of knowing that we experience from connection with consciousness or nous is entirely different than the argumentative, dualistic world that we live in. It's a kind of quiet, compassionate, non-opinionated certitude, unlike the arrogant certitude our culture celebrates. Even though we may not be able to verbalize it, we know things calmly and deeply, as truth. We don't know what it is we know, but what we do know is that we are somehow okay; in fact, it is all okay in its foundations and direction. God is the great I AM in which everything--including me--has its being. My I am is a sharing in the one great I AM. To sin is simply to live out of any I am not.
 
At times in contemplative prayer, we connect with consciousness. We think that we grow little by little in consciousness. And in some ways this is true. We grow in our ability to tap into consciousness. But this consciousness is freely available, even and especially to children. It requires no training or special talent. We can be conscious right now, even though it takes practice to remain inside this knowing.
                                                               
Deep consciousness knows the true value of a thing, it knows intuitively what is real and what's unreal, what is eternal and what is passing, what matters and what doesn't matter at all. This kind of consciousness allows us to see the archetypal truth within the particular, for example the pattern of Christ's death and resurrection within each death and birth. At a loved one's deathbed we can be present to their dying, our dying, all dying--and to the reality of life changing forms in each death. If we can stay within this kind of consciousness, I can promise we'll receive compassion and empathy for the world.
 
In the big consciousness, we know things by participation with them, which is love. As I've said before, we cannot know God in a cerebral way, but only by loving God through a different kind of knowing. Mature spirituality teaches us how to enter into the reality of that which we are encountering. And it gets even better than that. Eventually you get the courage to say, I am a little part of that which I am seeking. In this moment, the idea of God as transcendent shifts to the realization that God is imminent. That's why the mystics can shout with total conviction and excitement: My deepest me is God! God is no longer just out there, but equally in here. Until that transference takes place and you know that it is God in me loving God--God in me worshipping God, resting in God, enjoying God--the whole point of the incarnation has not been achieved, and we remain in religion instead of actual faith experience or faith encounter.
Gateway to Silence
Yes
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, with Lawrence Freeman, Transforming the World through Contemplative Prayer (CAC: 2013), disc 3 (CD, MP3 download); and 
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1999), 90, 91.
There is nothing to prove and nothing to protect.
I am who I am and it's enough.

--Richard Rohr
 
We invite you to come as you are, complete, enough, and entirely beloved in your humanity. Join Fr. Richard and friends--Christena Cleveland, James Alison, and Mirabai Starr.

CONSPIRE 2016
: Everything Belongs
Friday, July 15-Sunday, 17, 2016
Register for the conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, or participate online via live webcast.

Learn more at cac.org.
 
Scholarships are available. Seating is limited for the in-person conference--register soon! Webcast registration includes access to the video replay through August 21, 2016. Both in-person and webcast registrations must be made online.
2016 Daily Meditation Theme
Richard Rohr's meditations this year invite us to discover, experience, and participate in the foundation of our existence--Love. Throughout the year, Fr. Richard's meditations follow the thread of Love through many of his classic teachings in 1-2 week segments. Learn more and watch a video introduction at https://cac.org/2016-daily-meditations-overview/.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations are made possible through the generosity of CAC's donors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Click here to donate securely online.

You are receiving this message because you subscribed to the CAC's email list. You can unsubscribe or update your preferences and email address using the links at the bottom of this email. If you require assistance to change your email address, please visit our Email Subscription FAQ page for more information.

Please do not reply to this email. For more information about:




Forward this email

This email was forwarded to [hidden email], by [hidden email].
Privacy Policy.

Email Marketing by
Constant Contact


============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com


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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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Re: FW: Richard Rohr's Meditation: Consciousness and Contemplation

gepr
In reply to this post by George Duncan-2

FWIW, this does approach (what I imagine of) Peirce (perhaps only old man Peirce, though, given that I'm not a Peirce scholar -- or a scholar at all -- and don't keep track of how historical figures change their opinions over time):

cf https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Neglected_Argument_for_the_Reality_of_God


On 05/18/2016 10:47 AM, George Duncan wrote:
> Here's a religious and historical cut on consciousness. Written by an active Jesuit theologian, Richard Rohr. Interesting to explore the similarities an differences in this conceptualization and that being discussed on the FRIAM list.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Consciousness and Contemplation*
> *Wednesday, May 18, 2016*
>
> [...]
> In the big consciousness, we know things by participation with them, which is love. As I've said before, we cannot know God in a cerebral way, but only by loving God through a different kind of knowing. Mature spirituality teaches us how to enter into the reality of that which we are encountering. And it gets even better than that. Eventually you get the courage to say, /I am a little part of that which I am seeking/. In this moment, the idea of God as transcendent shifts to the realization that God is imminent. That's why the mystics can shout with total conviction and excitement: My deepest me is God! God is no longer just /out there/, but equally /in here/. Until that transference takes place and you know that it is God in me loving God--God in me worshipping God, resting in God, enjoying God--the whole point of the incarnation has not been achieved, and we remain in religion instead of actual faith experience or faith encounter.



--
⛧ glen

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uǝʃƃ ⊥ glen