The Mystic Way

“Recollection, as understood in respect to the spiritual life, means attention to the presence of God in the soul. It includes the withdrawal of the mind from external and earthly affairs in order to attend to God and Divine things. It is the same as interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God.” – The Catholic Encyclopedia (1917)

The activity that Buddhists call meditation, Christians call recollection. Although, as it noted, interior solitude is also another term for it. The Eastern Orthodox practice recollection in order to gain stillness (hesychia).

Unfortunately, some Christians have decided to use the word meditation. Although this matches current usage, it does not match what the Bible means by the word.

In the Bible the word meditation is reserved strictly for discursive meditation. Meditation is always used for the activity of thinking about, or pondering on, the word of God or the works of God. The word meditation is never used in the sense of interior. solitude

John Main, a. Benedictine monk, has compounded the problem by not only using the word meditation but by also borrowing the word mantra. It would have been better for him to have called it prayer. Maranatha, after all, is a prayer for the Lord to come (“O Lord, come!”).

I follow the Eastern Orthodox hesychasts of using the Jesus Prayer for the practice of recollection. On the in-breath, I say mentally, “Lord Jesus Christ.” On the out-breath, I say mentally, “have mercy on me.”

Is Nirvana God? No. Nirvana actually means to blow out, referring to the selfish desires or cravings. In Christianity, the equivalent of Nirvana would be what the mystics call union with God.

It is amazing how well Buddhism and Christianity harmonize while using different semantic systems. Metta and agape, for example. Or that the cause of suffering is craving and sin, which refers to selfishness. Self is the problem for both systems. The first stage on the mystic way is purgation, while in Buddhism it is called non-attachment. I could go on.

Christianity is the best symbol system for Western thinkers. We are already steeped in its myths, metaphors, and parables. We swim in its semantic sea. It’s easier to swim in familiar seas.

There is one mountain but many paths up it. Find the path that is closest to you and take it. As long as it makes you a better, more loving person, you are headed in the right direction. If it makes you selfish and judgmental, you have lost your way.

“Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples” (Matt. 28:19 CEV).

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to make the people of all nations his disciples, not ours. Are we teaching them how to do this?

Jesus speaks to every Christian:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).

Notice, Jesus said that we are supposed to “learn from me.” Jesus is both teacher and lesson. He teaches us through the Gospels and the life he lived on earth as a man.

But he has not stopped teaching. He still teaches us through the Holy Spirit, who “will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears” from Christ (John 16:13).

Let’s be honest, we can get distracted with a million other side projects. There’s so much activity, but so little spirituality. We must come back to the most important thing, and that is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. For “there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

“Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus in the morning,
Jesus in the noontime;
Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus when the sun goes down!”

“The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every inmost part” (Prov. 20:27)

You are a spirit that lives in a body. You are not the body. You are a spirit that has a mind. You are not the mind. You are the observer, the awareness behind the mind and body. You are consciousness.

Consciousness is the Lamb of the Lord because without it you would be aware of nothing. You would be in the dark of oblivion.

Without consciousness there would be no self-consciousness and no God consciousness. Being aware of nothing means that there would be no light, no knowledge, no you.

As Paul explains, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?” (1 Cor. 2:11 NIV).

It is our spirit that is aware of our thoughts. The spirit does not refer to the mind, the thinking faculty. Rather the spirit refers to our consciousness, our awareness of what is going on inside.

You will not understand the spiritual unless you understand this very important point. The spirit refers to consciousness. Therefore, spirituality deals with the deepening and expanding of our consciousness.

Deepening our consciousness means that we become aware of more of the details of Ultimate Reality. Through being born again, we become aware of an unseen Reality. At first we see very dimly. But as we grow spiritually, Reality becomes more in focus. We begin to look around. We begin to take in more of the unseen Reality in which we live.

Expanding our consciousness means that we become more aware of the vastness of reality. As we begin to grow, we become more aware of the vastness of the spiritual realm. We begin to see the limits of our worldview, our framework for interpreting the world. How little of Reality do we really know?

But spirituality is also about unlearning. Our worldview helps us to see, but it can also block us from seeing. There’s a long process of unlearning and unknowing. We must be open and teachable in order for Christ to lead us into all truth.