My intention with this site is not to especially write essays on mystic theology nor to wax lyrical on metaphysics. There are many excellent books, blogs and you tube video’s out there that will do this extremely well.
What isn’t so accessible is the the ‘how to’ of contemplative practice. This is really my great passion, enabling people to find their way, along this strange and somewhat hidden path. I find this is particularly tricky for those brought up in the protestant church as contemplative practice was not really recognised as a path to spiritual growth in this tradition. Indeed this was the very reason I left the church as a young adult. What I didn’t know then was that my various mystical experiences and the sense of a longing, unfulfilled by church going, was a calling to the interior path but back then I neither had the language, the understanding nor the direction to find my way at that time.
So back to my point, though I will spend a little time exploring contemplative theology the real point of my mission is to get down the the practicalities of the way of the mystic. Teresa of Avila reminds us that while discursive reason has its place, you cannot think your self to enlightenment.
The way that I like to think of it is that we all naturally have ‘spiritual senses’ which are designed to enable us to make our way on the inner path, just as we have our 5 senses that help us make our way through the external world. For many though the external facing senses are so dominant the the inner ones lie dormant. Even so there are some whose interior senses are naturally awake…particularly if your upbringing allowed for this to be so (more of this in another post), such people are often drawn to a metaphysical view of life and if they are also lead a religious life will quite likely find there way to the inner contemplative path.
I believe that the awakening of these inner senses is part of the practical ‘work’ of the budding contemplative. Again, as Theresa of Avila would say, we have to learn to recollect our faculties, ie; our will, our intellect, our senses, and as we bring these to a place of stillness we begin to discover the subtle movement of God in the soul.
Anyway, what I am really getting to is that first and foremost my teaching is practical because at some point we have to stop reading about our the contemplative life and start living it.
If you are interested in finding out more about this approach, please read my post ‘something new’ and do consider joining us.
Blessings, Jayne
Lavish Wisdom 