Fwd: Richard Rohr's Meditation: The First Gaze
Gabby Dean
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From: Center for Action and Contemplation <no-r...@cac.org>
Date: 30 June 2014 2:20:52 PM AWST
To: gabby...@westnet.com.au
Subject: Richard Rohr's Meditation: The First Gaze
Reply-To: no-r...@cac.org
Only after God has taught us how to live “undefended” can we immediately stand with and for the other.
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Image: The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix) by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Compassion
The First Gaze
Monday, June 30, 2014
I am just like you. My immediate response to most situations is with reactions of attachment, defensiveness, judgment, control, and analysis. I am better at calculating than contemplating.
Let’s admit that we all start there. The False Self seems to have the “first gaze” at almost everything.
The first gaze is seldom compassionate. It is too busy weighing and feeling itself: “How will this affect me?” or “How can I get back in control of this situation?” This leads us to an implosion, a self-preoccupation that cannot enter into communion with the other or the moment. In other words, we first feel our feelings before we can relate to the situation and emotion of the other. Only after God has taught us how to live “undefended,” can we immediately stand with and for the other, and in the present moment. It takes lots of practice.
On my better days, when I am “open, undefended, and immediately present,” as Gerald May says, I can sometimes begin with a contemplative mind and heart. Often I can get there later and even end there, but it is usually a second gaze. The True Self seems to always be ridden and blinded by the defensive needs of the False Self. It is an hour-by-hour battle, at least for me. I can see why all spiritual traditions insist on daily prayer, in fact, morning, midday, evening, and before we go to bed, too! Otherwise, I can assume that I am back in the cruise control of small and personal self-interest, the pitiable and fragile “Richard self.”
Adapted from “Contemplation and Compassion: The Second Gaze”
(article by Fr. Richard available free on CAC website)Gateway to Silence:
May I see with eyes of compassion.
Fr. Richard’s new book is here!
Eager to Love:
The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
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Peter humphris
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