The All Things Contemplative Blog©

This threesome rediscovered a contemplative practice based on the 14th century text, "The Cloud of Unknowing" and tailored it for modern times. They eventually named it centering prayer, a type of non-conceptual, non-discursive, non-thinking based meditation practice. The practice has became widely adopted throughout the world. 

Fr. William's passing is a significant closure and perhaps celebration of a chapter in the revival of contemplative spirituality and practice in the Christian world - as all three monks have now passed-on yet left behind a host of treasures. May all three rest in peace.

Show Notes - to leave comments/questions click on title above. 

In 1982 Pat Johnson and family moved to the Lama Foundation in New Mexico and there two months later she met Fr. Thomas Keating. She served as the Lama liaison for two 16-day centering prayer (CP) retreats that he led at Lama in 1983 and again in 1984. These were the first intensive contemplative practice retreats using CP in the Christian tradition and inspired by Zen shessins he'd experienced.

In 1984 she served an experimental 9-week retreat Fr. Keating led at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, CO where he was a monk. This began the Snowmass CP retreats at the monastery. From 1984 until 2018, Pat served and oversaw these retreats. She has also served as a Board member of Contemplative Outreach Ltd. and was its overall interim administrator for several years. 

"Whoa, take ‘er easy there, Pilgrim” - John Wayne

Maybe its COVID but I’ve been thinking a lot about traveling, and about pilgrimages in particular. 

When I think of pilgrims I think of Plymouth Rock and Thanksgiving. When I think of pilgrimages I think of people who travel to religious sites such as Mecca, Jerusalem, Iona in Scotland or Shikoku in Japan. 

However, isn’t a human life itself also a pilgrimage of sorts? There’s a beginning and an end with passages throughout. There’s repeated transitions from what is known to what is unknown, a classic attribute of a pilgrimage. Consider for example going from high school to college, getting married, having children or retirement. More broadly, there is the lifelong discovery of values, meanings and purposes often revising and transforming themselves over time.

And what about viewing pilgrimages as metaphors, as Phil Cousineau describes in The Art of Pilgrimage? Viewed thus, a pilgrimage with the proper attitude and intention is any journey that has a purpose of "finding something that matters deeply". It could be traveling to a family homestead where one grew up, a visit to a special place in nature, or going to a museum to experience special artifacts that "matter deeply". 

A couple of years ago I attended the 90th birthday party for an aunt in another state where I had grown up - Kentucky. At some point it became clear to me that I wanted to visit a psychiatrist I’d seen in Kentucky almost 50 years previously when I was in college. He was not only a psychiatrist but also had a strong spiritual influence on me, introducing me to meditation and supporting me spiritually in many ways. He was now long retired and living alone on a small farm about an hour’s drive from where my aunt lived. I had not seen him in many years and he was now near 90 himself. 

John Parks, M.D.

Even with GPS it was a challenge to locate the farm and eventually I had to stop and ask for directions. We spent the afternoon sitting on his porch, drinking tea and taking-in the Eastern Kentucky foot hills in the distance. We talked about all matter of topics psychological, philosophical, and spiritual. As hunger stirred we picked fresh lettuce from his garden and made a salad. 

Beads given at meditation initiation 1970

John had been a robust athlete in college, ran track and had lived a healthy lifestyle; but it was clear that aging had taken its measure. In retrospect, I realized that in my traveling to see him I had paid my respects to him, honored him, and expressed my gratitude for all that he had done for me when I was a young man. I never saw or spoke to him again. A few months later he died.

The All Things Contemplative podcast will feature an episode on pilgrimage with Regina Goetz Roman in the early New Year - stay tuned.

This morning I had a delightful time interviewing David Parks, a Zen teacher. David and I both grew up in Kentucky where he has returned to live on a small farm after spending many years in California. His father, John Parks a psychiatrist and now deceased introduced me as a college student to meditation 50 years ago. 

While I knew of David as his son we never really had a chance to connect meaningfully until recently as we prepared to record an episode of All Things Contemplative. He spoke of growing up seeing his parents meditating on a regular basis and he would flip through books laying around the house by Akhilananda, their meditation teacher, Manley Palmer Hall and others. I said likewise with the books my mother left discreetly around by Gurdjeiff, Ouspensky and Yogananda hoping I’d show interest in them. It was she who introduced me to David’s father. 

This is all to say that it is as if I was only aware of threads and in a flash the whole cloth, invisibly woven together appeared as some type of interconnecting "it", sensed though incapable of precise definition. The episode with David will air in about two weeks.  

Today marks the second year of Fr. Thomas Keating’s passing. As a contemplative he greatly influenced many and was greatly influenced by Zen and he loved haiku. Here’s one of his favorites.

Contemplative Outreach, an organization I've been extensively involved in over the past few decades asked that I submit a piece for their e-news on what I've been up to lately. I submitted this.