I’m a sucker for self-help books with a spiritual or cosmic thread. I love to learn and it’s been a relatively harmless addiction. My quest has been to understand my purpose and to live with the consequences of my choices.
But what could Jesus possibly mean when he talks of letting go of one’s life in order to save it?* I understand the image of letting a seed “die” in order to sprout with new life, but giving up my life? My choices? My identity?
Surprisingly, my own aging is suggesting an answer – that we must let go of the egoic need to understand why things have happened in order to embrace more of the mystery of life and the intricate web of connection that sustains us. That is, I must let go of my need to know or to be right in order to experience God’s divine oneness.
During the covid years, I spent time with medieval mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and the Beguines, who all wrote about some version of Divine Oneness. All lived with a vital connection between service and prayer, and I wondered if monastic life was an essential part of their experience. Pondering their lives, I began to feel a rhythm between the focused consciousness of a mature ego, and the intuitive awareness of an inner realm of rest and renewal. That mystic experience was like breathing in and breathing out for them.
Now I’m grateful for writers like Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeault, who have opened the way for ordinary people like you and me to that unified field through centering prayer. As Jesus promised, when we give up egoic control and dualistic thinking, God quickens new life in us.
— Marjory Zoet Bankson, InwardOutward Editor
For More…
Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (Cowley Publications, 2004).
