![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2012\/03\/ikkyu.jpg\" "\\"ikkyu\\"")
<\/a>I\u2019m scheduled to take off this evening for sesshin at the temple in Worcester.<\/p>\nAs I think about this, I recall something I first visited a few years ago.<\/p>\n
It comes out of one of my favorite spiritual books, Thomas Merton\u2019s translation The Wisdom of the Desert: Some Sayings of the Desert Fathers, a selection of stories from the medieval anthology, the Verba Senorum, telling of hermits who lived in the fourth century Egyptian desert.<\/p>\n
These days there are more scholarly translations; most people seem to cite Helen Waddell\u2019s work as particularly good. And I\u2019ve dipped into these. But I find I continuously return to Merton, probably because he seems to have what in Zen circles is sometimes called the \u201ceye.\u201d He has a deft touch and a sense for what might actually help us today as we attempt our own path toward wisdom.<\/p>\n
Especially for me as I think of going into retreat even if only for the weekend.<\/p>\n
One of the Fathers told a story of a certain elder who was in his cell busily at work and wearing a hairshirt when Abbot Ammonas came to him. When Abbot Ammonas saw him wearing a hairshirt he said: That thing won\u2019t do you a bit of good. The elder said: Three thoughts are troubling me. The first impels me to withdraw somewhere into the wilderness. The second, to seek a foreign land where no one knows me. The third, to wall myself into this cell and see no one and eat only every second day. Abbot Ammonas said to him: None of these three will do you a bit of good. But rather sit in your cell, and eat a little every day, and have always in your heart the words which are read in the Gospel and were said by the Publican, and thus you can be saved.<\/em><\/p>\n Merton ads a small footnote to that passage about the words said by the Publican, \u201cLord have mercy on me a sinner.\u201d These will eventually morph into the Eastern Christian mantra practice that includes variations on that phrase. \u201cLord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner,\u201d \u201cJesus, have mercy on me,\u201d and often simply, \u201cJesus.\u201d it\u2019s an ancient practice and quite powerful.<\/p>\n I\u2019m deeply intrigued by this anecdote, which can even be thought of as a Christian koan, that is a statement about reality and an invitation to manifestation.<\/p>\n I love how the sage suggests the motivations that led the monk to that cave and the hairshirt were wrong, or perhaps more accurately not sufficient to win the goal. I suspect most of us take on the spiritual path for reasons that make less and less sense over time. Ultimately, every story we tell about hur becomes a little too much, and we need, it appears, to put down that load and continue with empty hands.<\/p>\n But rather more important I think, after the abbot\u2019s suggestion that extreme asceticism isn\u2019t going to do it, either; he outlines three things. I suggest these three things might be useful for any of us who are looking for an authentic spiritual discipline.<\/p>\n The first is to sit quietly. I suspect this is the universal solvent of the spiritual way. It doesn\u2019t take special robes or equipment. Just sit quietly. I would add it seems important to do this regularly, perhaps daily, and to give it a little time each day. Unpacking what \u201csit\u201d really means, and I would add what \u201cquietly\u201d really means is the stuff of the practice.<\/p>\n Second that, \u201ceat a little every day.\u201d The real path appears to be one of moderation. Too little is as bad as too much. I suspect this extends from our choice of eating habits to our choice in clothing and on to the whole range of our lifestyle. A harmonious, simple way does appear to be the stuff of that authentic spiritual path.<\/p>\n And last, finding a way to open the heart. Calling on Jesus\u2019 name is a powerful Christian practice. I\u2019ve seen people go deep and wise with this discipline. In my wandering years after leaving the Buddhist<\/a> monastery as I tried to find the best way to reclaim my Western heritage and Christian roots I spent several years using this prayer. Ultimately I found the Zen practices of shikantaza and koan study my baseline. But I have no doubt it is a complete discipline and I commend it to anyone with a heart affinity for Jesus and the Christian way. I suggest we all have an affinity with some heart full discipline. I would only suggest it is deepened best when undertaken beside a guide who has herself or himself walked that path for a very long time. Such a thing helps us to not turn our practice into a garden of ego, but rather into a garden of love.<\/p>\n Or, so it seems to me.<\/p>\n Okay, some serious work to do before the serious work of sitting down, shutting up & paying attention\u2026<\/p>\n
\nAlthough some are more compelling than others from the get go. Needing to relax is hardly ever a sustaining motive for taking on a spiritual discipline. (They\u2019re usually just too hard\u2026) Wanting to understand the immediate hurt around the suicide of a student at one of the local universities I find an example of a more pressing motive. <\/p>\n