Spirit, Mind and Body

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Spirit, Mind and Body New Camaldoli Hermitage ORDINARY TIME 2018 Spirit, Mind and Body Only then do we return to the soul— and the body—with the light and energy of Spirit that brings both of those realms to their fullness and fruition. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam “Spirit, Soul, Body and the Spectrum of Consciousness” 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com In This Issue Spirit, Soul, Body and the 2 Spirit, Soul, Body and the Spectrum of Spectrum of Consciousness Consciousness Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam 4 From Vienna to New Camaldoli: An Oblate’s In this edition of the newsletter, we are exploring Journey to Integral Spirituality the Spirit, the Mind and the Body. In our times, the David Hallowell, Oblate OSB Cam cross-fertilization of spirituality and psychology has 5 Spirituality and Psychology proven to be a rich vein to mine, as we hope you Bede Healey, OSB Cam will find in these articles. 8 Focusing-Oriented Lectio Divina as a Way Let’s start with the Greek word psukhē or psyche. to God’s Wisdom Through the Body It is variously translated as the human mind Michael Mullard, Oblate OSB Cam or soul or spirit. Following in the line of Bede 10 Voices from the Community Griffiths, I will define it as soul, more layered than the mind and more observable than spirit, 13 Taste and See That the Lord is Good which is beyond it both as its source and summit. Vickie Conte With this understanding the art or discipline of psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy—at their 13 Preached Retreats Fall 2018 best and most refined—are really soul doctoring. 14 Activities and Visitors Think of soul as a spectrum of consciousness 15 Development that begins with senses and emotions, which are intrinsically bound to our physicality. Then, 15 What the Monks Are Reading moving from the gross level to more subtle 16 In Remembrance of Robert and Gabriel regions, there is the rational mind, what most people think of as simply “mind,” though Asian traditions have a broader understanding and use of that word. At a more subtle level there is the intuitive mind, both artistic and mystical intuition. And there are yet even more subtle realms beyond the intuition as well. In the Hindu tradition, according to the Katha Upanishad, for instance, the first dawning of self-consciousness comes at the level known as the mahat. Deeper yet is the realm of the Unmanifest, the avyakta in Hinduism, similar The painting on the cover is titled “Out of to the alaya-vijnana of Buddhism, perhaps the Depths.” The artist is New Jersey native, the collective unconsciousness and universal Eugene Salandra. He received a BFA in Film consciousness of depth psychology. and Television at New York University, and studied figure drawing at the Art Students’ Each of these realms could be and has been League of New York. explored at length, and this spectrum of Except a brief Benedictine monastic sojourn, consciousness could be divided into many his life has been occupied with practicing other or different categories. But the points here the art of animation. He is an oblate of New are these. First, that beyond the soul, beyond Camaldoli Hermitage. these layers of consciousness, deeper than all that, both the source and the summit of all this, 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage still using the vocabulary and anthropology of Fr. of psychology and spirituality explores the nuances Bede, is the realm of spirit proper—our spirit, our of both. He reflects on his experiences with openness to the Spirit of God. In this very specific practicing both psychotherapy and the monastic understanding and use of the word “spirit” we life and shares what he has come to understand are speaking here of a realm beyond name and and ideas of where integrating these two can form, deeper than all manifestations and phe- lead—finding our truest selves while embracing, nomena, the source of all name and form, mani- joyfully, the God within. festation and phenomena. Michael Mullard, also a psychotherapist, explains Second, the soul, the realm of the psyche, acts as the relationship between a type of psycho-spiritual a bridge between the realm of the physical and process and the Benedictine tradition of Lectio the spiritual. We want it to be a clear bridge, a Divina. Michael shares how this approach is inclu- conduit. In order for it to be that, the realm sive of body and mind healing with a heavy dose of the psyche may need some doctoring along of sacred scripture to mend the Spirit as well. the way. As a matter of fact, most spiritual We reached out to our community of monks and practitioners discover that they do need some oblates by asking a few questions related to this help at some point in the spiritual journey. I topic. The answers we received are heartfelt and often think of my own psyche as a dark jungle: thoughtful. I may need someone to go in there with me, perhaps with a machete and a headlamp, and David Hallowell takes us on a journey through help me make my way through it. Just as we the lives of Viktor Frankl and Bernard Lonergan and have perennially relied on philosophy as a sister their deep and rich impact on his own spiritual path discipline to theology, what we have come to to becoming Catholic and an understand, appreciate and articulate since the oblate. Andrea Seitz thought- birth of the psychological sciences in the 20th fully explains the impact that century is that, at its best, psychology is the spiritual direction has had in companion par excellence of spirituality, her life and the importance especially on the inner journey of contem- of this companionship on her plative prayer and meditation. spiritual journey. Third, the way of meditation, in this We hope that the understanding, is keen not to get wisdom found in caught in any of these layers these articles of consciousness but to go and essays directly to the spirit—our inspires you spirit—in hope of an encounter to be ever with the Spirit. Only then do we mindful of your return to the soul—and the body— holistic self, to with the light and energy of Spirit nurture and nourish each that brings both of those realms to aspect lovingly and to let their fullness and fruition. each be a reminder of God’s image in In these pages we pay homage to whom you are the holistic. Br. Bede Healey’s created. wonderful essay on the integration contemplation.com ~ 3 From Vienna to New Camaldoli: An person was, and the phrase Ebenbild Gottes is reverberating off the aged yellow paper with the resonance of a ringing Oblate’s Journey to Integral prayer gong. This clue is BIG. Spirituality Two thousand years ago in a Palestinian Roman outpost, David Hallowell, Oblate OSB Cam a Jewish carpenter posed one of history’s most important questions: “Who do you say I am?” All of history (and the Europe, 1939. Imagine your family is targeted by the future!) pivots on that Christ-seed understanding, and government because of your ancestry. You begin to have even we among Jesus’ own followers continue to struggle to identify yourself publicly based on a politically motivated to unpack its full profound significance. As I pondered the construction of who your relatives were. Your rights begin horrors of the Nazi murder machine, I wondered about the to erode. With time, neighbors begin to disappear, their related question of who we are, as human persons. I tried belongings plundered by unscrupulous neighbors and to consider these questions separately, but everywhere I government officials. You lose your unborn child to a state- turned I could only find a weak sentimental preference for mandated abortion. Finally, your family is deported. Your our own species. I wanted deeper answers that matched parents and brother perish, you do not know what the depth of tragedy and loss carved into Europe under happened to your spouse. Four years later, emerging the Nazi ruin. from one of the concentration camps of Eastern Europe, you learn your spouse fell victim to a gas chamber in Auschwitz. Millions perished. You did not. Now, live the rest of your life. Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Poland Frankl had a strong instinct for the importance of Exhibit of children who perished during the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, anthropological questions, even in his pre-war writings. the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Jerusalem He summarizes his anthropological axioms in ten theses, which the 1950 interview discusses. The tenth thesis Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl had to live out such a asserts: “In the end, the person is only comprehensible in test for five decades. In hindsight, he passed admirably. the context of transcendence. The human person is only The U.S. Library of Congress crowned his book, Man’s to be understood as an image-bearer of God [my best Search for Meaning, one of the top-ten important books effort at translating Ebenbild Gottes], only to be inter- of the twentieth century. He remarried an exceptional preted via the Supra-Personality. And he or she is only Catholic woman, Elly Frankl, and their marriage produced able to become what one should be by the grace of the a child, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Frankl Supra-Personality. The human person is discovered in rescued many thousands of patients and readers from the the imitation of God.” Frankl’s approach here is rational brink of suicide. His books remain in print, continuing to rather than strictly empirical.
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