Breathing Under Water - Spiritual Wisdom

Reflections on Satsang Meeting Sat 11th May 2013

We met in Satsang at the Friends Meeting House in Wolverhampton. The theme for our meeting was Spiritual Growth - Relationships - Finding the Real Self and Living Freely without Fear.

The meeting opened with a poem from Sister Ishpriya  that set the scene for our main input and the whole meeting. Its words are copied below :

Caught in the Moment of  Half Light

O Lord I am caught in that moment of half-light,

the breathless point of balance between sun and moon.

As I bid farewell to the cold purification of the night,

in that same movement,

I fling wide my arms to be embraced by the warmth and glory of the sun,

knowing that in due time I will bow to the receding light

and open my arms to darkness once again.

Thus, O Lord,
You come into our lives, in the blaze of splendour,
the certainty of Your presence,
in the times of aridity and isolation,
even to the point of despair.
Throughout this continuing journeying,
from the zenith of midday

to the depths of midnight and back to blinding noontide,
we grow towards You, the true light,
that shines like the sun beyond darkness, forever.

Sister Ishpriya rscj

We then moved on to the main input which was a video clip from Richard Rohr.  This had the title Breathing Under Water. Richard Rohr  talked about the connections between spiritual teachings and traditions and the 12 step AA Program.  An outline of the 12 Steps is shown below.

THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

1.We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Some Notes on the Meeting and Rohr's Input

Rohr used these as a backdrop to his inspiring talk. He suggested that in order to reach spiritual maturity we had to let go of the ego, reach a point of pain and powerlessness and only then 'breakthroug'h' into genuine spiritual maturity. He remarked on how  humility and honesty marked were the hallmarks of his experience of attending AA Meetings. Any reflection on the above 12 Steps bear this out. Further more, he suggested that formal  Christian Religions  could learn a lot about the grace of humility and honesty from the 12 Steps of AA.

Broadening out his talk, he contended that we were all 'addicted' ( not just those who formally recognised the label of 'substance abuse' )  We were all addicted to our form of thinking, to our views and our preferences. We all tended to suffer from black and white or Either : Or  thinking. 

Once we made our decision or preference we then logically and intellectually confirmed it. That is, we found the evidence to support our preference. Yet every preference we took was an inevitable pathway towards a potential disappointment. In addition, our 'preferences then led to distinctions between peoples and groups. Inevitably this led to conflict and a failure to mature.

The first half of our life was designed to build up our Ego, give us a sense of value, worth, purpose and self-love. The second half was really about detachment.  This is where we let go of the self and move upwards into a more mature relationship with the Mystery - we call God - the Higher Power of AA.  However, for many, who have a blighted or abused childhood ( or sometimes adults who suffer setbacks and trauma )  then they have no sense of the Real Self and thus cannot let go or detach from the EGO. In fact , they cling to the False Self and remain in a rut. Rohr suggests that they first need to build a 'container' around their damaged EGO and then from this safer place begin to move out and learn to detach.

The way of detachment was to recognise the BINARY THINKING MIND. To practice meditation/contemplation and thus mindfully begin to catch ourselves making these false distinctions /preferences.

These reflections end with the poem that informed the title of Rohr's talk.They contain a deep spiritual message concerning the importance of trust in our relationship with the Ultimate Reality we call ' God'

 House by the Sea

From the Poetry of   Carol Bialock rscj

I built my house by the sea.
Not on sand, mind you.
Not on the shifting sand.
And I built it of rock.
A strong house.
By a strong sea.

And we got well-acquainted, the sea and I.
Good neighbours.
Not that we spoke much.
We met in silences.
Respectful, keeping our distance,
but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.
Always, the fence of sand our barrier;
always the sand between.

And then one day
(I still don't know how it happened),
but the sea came.
Without warning.
Without welcome, even.
Not sudden and swift, but sifting across the sand like wine.
Less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.

Slow, but coming.
Slow, but flowing like an open wound.
And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning

 and I thought of death.
And while I thought the sea crept higher,
till it reached my door.

I knew, then, there was neither flight nor death nor drowning.
That when the sea comes calling you stop
being good neighbours,
Well-acquainted, friendly-from-a-distance neighbours.
And you give your house for a coral castle,
And you learn to breathe under water.