How thoughts tempt us, how they lead to sinning, and what we can do with them

How thoughts tempt us has  long been a study of contemplatives.  With constant vigilance and unceasing prayer, the Desert Mothers and Fathers sought above all to free themselves from the ascendancy of harmful thoughts or the logismoi, that is, the "passions," as they called them.  The practice of such vigilance allowed them to recognize evil before being tempted to commit it. Here's how fifth-century St. Hesychios the Priest describes the progress of a thought (which at first may be neither good or bad) so that it eventually it  becomes a serious moral problem:


The provocation comes first, then our coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons. Third comes our assent to the provocation, with both sets of intermingling thoughts contriving how to commit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete action – that is, the sin itself. If, however, the intellect is attentive and watchful, and at once re-pulses the provocation by counter-attacking and gainsaying it and invoking the Lord Jesus, its consequences remain inoperative; for the devil, being a bodiless intellect, can deceive our souls only by means of fantasies and thoughts. (The Philokalia, Vol. I, 170)

Straightforward as it is, Hesychios' description needs very little commentary.  He begins by reminding us that temptation comes to us through our thoughts, their attachment to our imagination, and subsequent development:

Just as it is impossible for fire and water to pass through the same opine together, so it is impossible for sin to enter the heart without first knocking at its door in the form of a fantasy provided by the devil.

Knowing this, we must be ever on guard for the first sign and provocation to sin and ceaselessly invoke the Lord through the Jesus Prayer. If we give ourselves over to the provocation, then comes our "coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons."  Third, comes our assent to the provocation, with both sets of intermingling thought contriving how to commit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete actions--that is, the sin itself.  Once the provocation is engaged, that is, once the serpent get his head in the doors, the battle is almost assuredly lost and the unholy minting of our own thoughts with those of the demons draws us quickly down the path to full consent.

St. Hesychios the Priest provides numerous insights as to how we may effectively “watch” our thoughts.  Among his suggestions are the following two which are especially helpful.  First, do some “thought watching” at dawn. In other words, get up a bit early and quietly, before you do your Centering Prayer, allow yourself to see what you are thinking. That practice, begun at dawn, can then be carried on periodically during the day.  One stops and looks as his or thinking and thereby get to know something true about one’s self.  Second, St. Hesychios recommends that we couple our watchfulness with fasting.  Strongly encouraged by Jesus himself, fasting (perhaps by not eating till satiation, but being just a bit hungry after eating) is to accompany prayer (see Matthew 6.5-18); the two complement each other.  

In his recently published Mountain of Silence, Kyriakos Markides' tells us how Father Maximos of Mount Athos describes five stages of logismoi as detailed in the teachings of the Fathers of the Church:

• Assault - the logismoi first attacks a person's mind

• Interaction - a person opens up a dialogue with the logismoi

• Consent - a person consents to do what the logismoi urges him to do

• Defeat - a person becomes hostage to the logismoi and finds it more difficult to resist

• Passion or Obsession - the logismoi becomes an entrenched reality within the nous of a person

Father Maximos carefully explains that no sin is committed until the third stage of Consent, though he warns that if a person is of weak temperment, they are unlikely to be able to resist the logismoi at this Interaction stage.  Father Maximos also teaches that the best way to combat logismoi is to be indifferent, to ignore them. He suggests that a person should pray to combat logismoi, but only when not overcome by fear.

The provocation comes first, then our coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons. Third comes our assent tothe provocation, with both sets of intermingling thoughts contriving how tocommit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete action – that is, thesin itself. If, however, the intellect is attentive and watchful, and at once re-

Moving to My Re-activated Website

Something quite wonderful happened to me on my way to blogging this week.  I found the key to my old WordPress blogsite:  Praying Daily Blog.  Now that an opening is this "old" blog is now available, my work within this newly re-activated blog allows for a more robust presentation of content and images, among other amenities.  For this reason I'm asking my readers to head on over and join me at Praying Daily Blog.  If you're new to Praying Daily Blog, you may wish to subscribe to the RSS Feed by entering your email address in the upper-right textbox so that you will receive automatic notifications whenever something is posted.  As you might rightly suppose, I'll not be posting anymore here.  So drive down the street and meet me at our refurbished Praying Daily Blog.  You'll like what you see!

The Cloud of Unknowing: Study Guide for Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Read Chapter 11, “How to evaluate each thought and impulse and avoid being careless about venial sin” (34).

In this short chapter Anonymous  asks us to examine the way we think: how we use our thoughts and how our thoughts use us.   Review what we said last Tuesday as to what our Desert Mothers and Fathers, St. Hesychios the Priest, and Paul Evdokimov have said concerning the movement of our logismoi (thoughts, passions) as they begin, develop, and reach conclusions within us.  Watching thoughts-- the act of spiritual attentiveness, watchfulness, and the guarding of one’s heart-- has always been a key practice among contemplatives throughout the great traditions of the world.

Once again St. Hesychios the Priest provides numerous insights as to how we may effectively “watch” our thoughts.  Among his suggestions are the following two which are especially helpful.  First, do some “thought watching” at dawn.  In other words, get up a bit early and quietly, before you do your Centering Prayer, allow yourself to see what you are thinking.  That practice, begun at dawn, can then be carried on periodically during the day.  One stops and looks as his or thinking and thereby get to know something true about one’s self.  Second,  St. Hesychios recommends that we couple our watchfulness with fasting.  Strongly encouraged by Jesus himself, fasting (perhaps by not eating till satiation, but being just a bit hungry after eating) is to accompany prayer (see Matthew 6.5-18); the two complement each other.

How do you, as Anonymous recommends, “[pay] attention to the sudden allure of each thought?

Read Chapter 12, “How contemplation destroys sin and nurtures virtues” (35-36).  For the first time, Anonymous mentions “virtues,” and you should read Butcher’s note to understand our use of the word.   In medieval times, the Seven Deadly Sins were often presented as opposites to the Virtues .  (I will provide a handout in class showing you the two trees.)

Over the centuries, however, the presentation of “virtues” moved in directions that did not always compare them with the “seven vices.”  As a consequence, the so-called seven virtues were divided into two classes: the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues, and often they were discussed with the fruits of the Holy Spirit as St. Paul describes them in Galations 5. 

As good as all this is (and difficult to keep straight as to what goes where), perhaps the Boy Scout Oath is about as good as it gets (outside The Cloud of Unknowing) when it comes to describing a virtuous life:  "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent."  And yet, as Anonymous will remind us, there’s more to it all than that.  No self-help program comes close to his wisdom.

As Anonymous encourages us to think about vices and virtues, he admits that some practices are “good” and that “they help [us] grow in grace.”  (35-36).  What are such practices?

But as good as these habits, disciplines, and practices are, they are not equal to the one practice that truly helps us destroy sin and nurture the virtues.   What is that “work” that “trumps everything else” and how does he describe it?

Anonymous’ final paragraph in Chapter 12 is powerful, well worth reading over and over, many times, so that it sinks into our awareness of what’s important when we wish to cultivate a life characterized by everything that’s on the tree of virtues.  What two virtues—Anonymous will discuss them at length in the upcoming chapters-- are especially important to cultivate as a contemplative?

Next week's class will be on Monday, July 30,  at 10:00 a.m.  Our special guest will be Cherry Haisten, whose introductions to the practice of praying The Welcoming Prayer is known throughout the world.  Do be sure to come as she shares her insights of this contemplative practice with us!

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, July 17

Study Guide for Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

Chapters 8-9  

Read Chapter 9, “How even the holiest thoughts obstruct rather than help contemplative prayer” (30-31).

Where, in particular, does Anonymous stress the importance of not confusing good and lovely thoughts “about” God (or anything or anyone else)  with entering the cloud of unknowing”?

Locate and underline the three times that Anonymous in this chapter calls what we do in contemplative prayer “work.”  Then take a look at Butcher’s comment on page 137 (Chapter 3, note 4) and ask yourself, “Does it help if I consider Centering Prayer “work”?  If so, how?  If not, why not?

Read Chapter 10, “How to tell which thoughts are sinful, and which are mortal or venial” (32-33). 

Here Anonymous wants to consider how we handle “bad” thoughts.  We are to be aware, he says, that not all thoughts, especially “bad” thoughts are the same.  As Butcher explains in her endnotes, Anonymous was accustomed to dividing sins into two categories: venial and mortal.  He assumes that as contemplatives who have “honestly renounced the world,” we do not have a overly serious problem with mortal sins.  We should, however, be on guard against their dangerous entrance and presence in our lives, and consequently he gives us examples as to how the so-call “seven” deadly sins my inveigle their way into our thoughts and actions.  As you look over the list, which one or ones do you consider personally most dangerous to your spiritual life?  Why so?  When and how in your work of contemplative prayer do you handle them?

For next Tuesday, July 24, read Chapter 11 (34) and Chapter 12 (35-36).

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, July 10

Study Guide for Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

Be sure to note that OUR PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION WILL BEGIN AT 9:00 AND MUST END AT 10:30 SO THAT LARRY and ANDY CAN DRIVE TO ATLANTA FOR A NOON MEETING WITH “GEORGIA LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS.”

Read Chapter 8, “Answering your doubts about contemplation; why learning curiosity, and intellect must be destroyed; and the difference between the active and contemplative life” (26-29).  

Study the text so as to share you insights during our discussion that will work with the following questions:

1.      During contemplative prayer (for us, Centering Prayer), does Anonymous want us to make a distinction between good and evil thoughts?  Why or why not?
2.    What, in the opinion of Anonymous, is the danger inherent in engaging in good thoughts?
3.    In paragraph 3, Anonymous makes a distinction between two kinds of lives in the Church, the active and the contemplative.  What’s the distinction?
4.    Anonymous also says that both the active and the contemplative lives each have two stages.  What are they?  And how do they come together?
5.    What goes on in the  mind in the “higher active stage (lower contemplative [stage])?
6.    What goes on in the higher stage of contemplation?
 

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, July 3

Study Guide for Tuesday, July 3, 2012
The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

Chapters 5-7

Read Chapter 5, “How contemplation requires us to hide all people and all things past, present, and future, and all accomplishments, under the cloud of forgetting” (19-20).  Notice how Anonymous suggests that we place ourselves between two clouds: one above us and one below us. 

1.      What does he call these two clouds? 

2.    What’s the difference between these two clouds?

3.    Is it necessary that we always stay between the clouds?  Why or why not?

4.    Suppose we have some good thoughts about God.  What does Anonymous suggest we do with such thoughts?   Why?

Read Chapter 6, “A short look contemplation, through dialogue” (21-22).

5.    In this very short chapter (only two paragraphs), Anonymous makes one important observation.  What is it?

6.    What’s the purpose of your “sharp arrow of longing” and how in Centering Prayer do we shoot it?

Read Chapter 7, “How to deal with your thoughts during contemplative prayer, especially when curiosity and natural intelligence intrude” (23-25). 

7.    Is it possible to get rid of all thoughts in contemplative prayer?  Why or why not?

8.    Anonymous recommends that, “for the love God,” we are to “dismiss” wonderful thoughts about God when we practice contemplative prayer.  Why does he make that recommendation?

9.    To move us into the clouds, what practical suggestion does Anonymous make when we find ourselves wanting to focus with “a humble stirring of love”?

For next Tuesday, July 10, be sure to note that OUR PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION WILL BEGIN AT 9:00 AND MUST END AT 10:30 SO THAT LARRY and ANDY CAN DRIVE TO ATLANTA FOR A NOON MEETING WITH “GEORGIA LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS.”  

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, June 26

Study Guide for Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

Read Chapter 3, “How to do the work of contemplation, and why it is the best work” (11-12).

Notice the many different ways Anonymous emphasizes that it is God who brings us to himself as he begins to describe what happens when we use our sacred words to disentangle ourselves from thoughts in our monkey mind.  Here are some of the expressions he has used so far:  God leads you by “the desire of your heart” (7);
God nudges “your desire awake, fastening it to a leash of longing” (7-8); God wants to “lock your eyes on him . . . .” (10).   Now in Chapter 3, Anonymous says that what God does and what we feel is “a gentle stirring of love” (11) and “a simple reaching out to God” (12).   Read endnotes 2, 3, and 6 so you get a good feel for the Middle English words that Anonymous is using to help us understand.  The metaphors of stretching, reaching, intending all underscore the movement of love that we squeeze out with our sacred words as God leads us.

Why is such “work” the one that pleases God the most?

Read Chapter 4, “Contemplation’s brevity, and why knowledge and imagination can’t acquire it” (13-18).

In this chapter we find out what contemplation is not.  On the one hand, what is it not?  On the other hand, what is it?  What has time got to do with it?  What has love got to do with it?  And what has got to “be squashed” to that contemplation may occur with integrity?

For Anonymous words always present us with a problem because we use them to produce ideas.  He is worried about how we use words to describe the contemplative experience.  He cautions us as to how we are not to describe imagine darkness and cloud?  What, then, is “darkness” and what is “cloud” for the contemplative person? 

As always, if you  wish, let us know where you found something difficult in the text to understand.  And then too, let us know where you read something that made very good sense.  More than anything, come back next week ready for a good discussion, one you will enjoy.

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, June 19

Study Guide for Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

As always for our purposes, read slowly.  When you think something is important, underline or highlight it.  Make notes in the margins where you have questions or don’t understand something.  What you want to do is read so that you can raise questions and follow along in our discussion next week.  Above all, don’t try to read all the pages in one sitting.  Read three or four pages carefully each day.  Mark up your text.  Let things soak in.  Go over what you’ve read perhaps two or three times.  You may even wish to treat the text as some sacred reading for lectio divina.  However, you do your reading, read with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has promised that he will guide you into all truth, so don’t be afraid of new ideas, new ways of thinking, news ways of appreciating the contemplative life.

About the endnotes

Carmen Butcher provides us with plenty of endnotes that begin on page 227.  They are worth reading!  Treat them as important as the words in the text itself by also reading them slowly and attentively.  When and if you find her notes especially significant, tell us about your discoveries!  Point out to us how they have helped you understand what Anonymous is saying.

Read the following:

·         Preface (5-6)

·         Chapter 1, “The four stages of the Christian life, and how the disciple for whom this book was written advanced in this calling” (7-8)

After you read this short chapter, write out your understandings of what Anonymous means by the following:

·         The ordinary stage of life
·         The special stage of life
·         The singular stage of life
·         The perfect stage of life

Is it possible to “translate” these stages of life into terms that make sense for those of who are not monks or nuns but laypeople:  If so, how?  If not, why not?

As best as you can tell, what stages of life have you gone through and how would you describe the stage of life you are now within?

·         Chapter 2, “A short lesson on humility and the work of contemplation”  (9-10)

Anonymous asks us to “take a good hard look at [ourselves]” (9).  After asking several questions that we need to answer, he urges u to “watch out for that enemy, pride.”   In what special and peculiar ways does pride work in the lives of those of us who wish to live and pray contemplatively?

Anonymous asks us to “lower ourselves,” and he makes several suggestions in that direction.  He reminds us that we have a “spiritual partner.”  Who is that person?

What other suggestions does Anonymous make that will help us  “live up to [our] high calling by lowering [ourselves]”?  What’s the best way to keep ourselves humble?

What does Anonymous mean when he says that “God is a jealous lover”?

Have you ever “locked eyes” with someone you have loved?  When in Centering Prayer do we “lock eyes” with God?

As always, if you  wish, let us know where you found something difficult in the text to understand.  And then too, let us know where you read something that made very good sense.  More than anything, come back next week ready for a good discussion, one you will enjoy. 

Tentative Summer Reading Schedule for Discussions on The Cloud of Unknowing

Tentative Summer Reading Schedule for Discussions on The Cloud of Unknowing

          June 12          “Introduction” (xi-xxvii).  For next Tuesday, June 19, read the “Preface” (5-6),  Chapter 1 (7-8),  and Chapter 2 (9-10).

         
         
         June 19          We discuss the “Preface” (5-6), Chapter 1, “The four stages of the Christian life,  and how the disciple for whom this book was written advanced in his calling” (7-8), and Chapter 2, “A short lesson on humility and the work of contemplation” (9-10).  For next Tuesday,  June 26,  read Chapter 3 (11-12) and Chapter 4 (13-18).

         June 26          We discuss Chapter 3, “How to do the work of contemplation, and why it is the best work” (11-12) and Chapter 4, “Contemplation’s brevity, and why knowledge and imagination can’t acquire it” (13-18).  For next Tuesday, July 3, read Chapter 5 (19-20), Chapter 6 (21-22),  and Chapter 7 (23-25).

July 3             We discuss Chapter 5, “How contemplation requires us to hide all people and all things past, present, and future, and all accomplishments, under the cloud of forgetting” (19-20), Chapter 6, “A short look contemplation, through dialogue” (21-22), and Chapter 7, “How to deal with your thoughts during contemplative prayer, especially when curiosity and natural intelligence intrude” (23-25).  For next Tuesday, July 10, be sure to note that THIS PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION WILL BEGIN AT 9:00 AND MUST END AT 10:30 SO THAT LARRY and ANDY CAN DRIVE TO ATLANTA FOR A NOON MEETING WITH “GEORGIA LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS.”  For next Tuesday, July 10, read Chapter 8 (26-29).

         July 10           We begin at 9:00 a.m. and discuss Chapter 8, “Answering your doubts about contemplation; why learning curiosity, and intellect must be destroyed; and the difference between the active and contemplative life” (26-29).  For next Tuesday, July 17, read Chapter 9 (30-31) and Chapter 10 (32-33).

         July 17           We discuss Chapter 9, “How even the holiest thoughts obstruct rather than help contemplative prayer” (30-31) and Chapter 10, “How to tell which thoughts are sinful, and which are mortal or venial” (32-33).  For next Tuesday, July 24, read Chapter 11 (34) and Chapter 12 (35-36).

July 24           We discuss Chapter 11, “How to evaluate each thought and impulse and avoid being careless about venial sin” (34) and Chapter 12, “How contemplation destroys sin and nurtures virtues” (35-36).  For next Tuesday, July 31, read Chapter 13 (37-38) and Chapter 14 (39-40).

July 31           We discuss Chapter 13, “Humility, and when it is ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect’” (37-38) and Chapter 14, “Why we must go through imperfect humility to reach perfect humility—because we are sinful” (39-40).   By the end of July we will have read and discussed about 25% of The Cloud of Unknowing.  At this rate, we should finish our reading and bring our discussions of the book to a close sometimes in early 2013.   Keep up the good work!

Getting Ready to Discuss The Cloud of Unknowing on Tuesday, June 12

     As some of you may know, our small contemplative gathering (now composed of about 18 regular participants!) has been meeting every Tuesday morning at St. John Lutheran Church for 18 months.  Our meetings generally last about two hours; someone brings and serves fruit and/or pastries while another fixes coffee as we greet one another and settle in to discuss a book we’ve all been reading.  

     In the past year we have slowly and methodically read Cynthia Bourgeault’s Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (CP&IA), discussing three to five pages each week. As our gathering’s teacher, during the week prior to our meeting, I usually wrote and shared five or six printed pages of commentary.   After our generally hour-long conversation, we take a pause and enter the sanctuary of our church to begin twenty-minutes of Centering Prayer. Shortly thereafter, we say good-by to one another, many promising to be at next Sunday’s parish Eucharist and Adult Seminar.

On Tuesday, June 5, we will finish CP&IA. Having thoroughly enjoyed Bourgeault’s detailed clarification as to what Centering Prayer (and the Welcoming Prayer) gives to us as gift from God by way of the Church, we will next read The Cloud of Unknowing, the classic Middle English text that has so deeply influenced monastics and contemplatives for six centuries. Acquainted with numerous translations and editions of The Cloud, I have asked that we use Carmen Acevedo Butcher’s translation, The Cloud of Unknowing: With the Book of Privy Counsel (Boston, Shambhala, 2009). This edition of The Cloud is absolutely stunning as a “sense-by-sense” translation. As Bourgeault says in a back-cover blurb, it’s “brilliant, bold, and breathtaking.”  Everyone in our group has purchased a copy, and we are looking forward to studying what is the finest translation available. 

     Planning to spend an entire year reading The Cloud, a chapter or two at a time, we have decided, however, to format our upcoming discussions somewhat differently.  With The Cloud we will share the teaching responsibilities more directly among ourselves, each one reading in advance and working with a Study Guide that I will provide one week before our actual discussions.   Having spent several hours in preparation, each one of us will thus be able to share insights, understandings, questions, and interpretive options with everyone else in our gathering. The members of the group will thus be less dependent on me as their teacher as we will, in effect, all teach one another.

     To facilitate the distribution of the Study Guides, in addition to passing out hard copies on Tuesday, I will be posting weekly advance Study Guides here so that they will be available to anyone be unable to attend our gatherings for one reason or another. 

Here, then, is the first Study Guide.

Preparation for Tuesday, June 12, 2012 

Assignment:  Read the “Introduction” (xi-xxvii), The Cloud of Unknowing: with the Book of Privy Counsel, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Boston: Shambhala Press, 2009).

As you read the “Introduction,” don’t worry if you do not recognize any of the names (for example, Walton Hilton, Dionysius the Areopagite, Teresa of Avila, and others).  Be satisfied to get the overall drift of things.  When you think something is important, underline or highlight it.  Make notes in the margins where you have questions or don’t understand something.  What you want to do is read so that you can raise questions and follow along in our discussion next week.  Above all, don’t try to read all the pages in one sitting.  Read three or four pages carefully each day.  Mark up your text.  Let things soak in.  Go over what you’ve read perhaps two or three times.  You may even wish to treat the text as some sacred reading for lectio divina.  However, you do your reading, read with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has promised that he will guide you into all truth, so don’t be afraid of new ideas, new ways of thinking, news ways of appreciating the contemplative life.  Here are some things to consider: 

1. Who is “Anonymous”?
2. Under what circumstances and in what kind of world did Anonymous write?
3. What is the “negative way” of talking about God?  Why do some people think positively about the negative way of talking about God?
4. Why does Carmen Butcher say we need contemplation?
5. What is Butcher’s preferred way of translating?  Why does she prefer it?

So that you have every confidence that Carmen Butcher is a good and exceptionally reliable guide to our study of The Cloud of Unknowing, next week I’ll introduce her to you more fully.  And so that you’re not intimidated by her quoting the Middle English text of The Cloud, I’ll provide you with a sample paragraph so that you get a taste for the original text.

If you wish, let us know where you found something difficult in the text to understand. Then too, let us know where you read something that made very good sense.  More than anything, come back next week ready for a good discussion, one you will enjoy.  It will be a model of what we’ll be doing as we work through The Cloud of Unknowing.  See you on Tuesday, June 12.