School of Meditation Weekly Teachings

Weekly Teachings 3/6/2012

Reading the Gospel

Origen was a native Alexandrian of the 2nd century CE, highly educated in Greek, Jewish and Christian wisdom. At the young age of 17 he was made Head of the Catechetical School in Alexandria, successor to Clement.

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Weekly Teachings 27/5/2012

The Human Vocation

Our next guide is Evagrius Ponticus, who was at first very much part of the established ‘orthodox’ Church in the fourth century CE; he contributed passionately to all the debates that marked the early church, which were basically about who Jesus really was and what his life and teaching meant.

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Weekly Teachings 20/5/2012

Contemplating Nature and Silent Prayer

Evagrius’ ideas of approaching God, through scripture, nature and through pure prayer were a fundamental idea with the Desert Fathers and Mothers: “One of the wise men of that time went to find the holy man Antony and asked him:

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Weekly Teachings 13/5/2012

What are Our Demons?

We looked at Evagrius’ division of the spiritual life into the ‘praxis’ and ‘theoria’. Let us concentrate for a moment longer on ‘Praxis’. We must not forget that our spiritual growth depends both on grace and effort. Grace was paramount for Evagrius , but effort was also important.

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Weekly Teachings 6/5/2012

Meditation as a Road to Self-knowledge

According to Evagrius the way to identify our personal ‘demons’ is twofold: by prayer/meditation and by effort to come to self-knowledge and awareness. An important role here is played by ‘watching the thoughts’: “If there is any monk [human being] who wishes to take the measure of some of the more fierce demons.....

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Weekly Teachings 29/4/2012

Importance of the Emotions

We have looked at Evagrius’ emphasis on becoming aware what our ‘demons’ are, recognizing them, acknowledging them and thus robbing them of their power. He talked about ‘purifying the emotions’: purifying and transfiguring the emotions back to their original state of divinely given energy: Read more »

Weekly Teachings 22/4/2012

Evil Thoughts

Evagrius had profound psychological insights into the workings of the human mind. The fact that insights, arising from carefully scrutinised thoughts, are essential for change and transformation is one that was only rediscovered in the 19th century with Freud and Jung. Now it is a commonly accepted working hypothesis for most psychotherapists and analysts.

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Weekly Teachings 15/4/2012

Resistance by the Ego

We have seen how Evagrius’ demons all stem from our fear, our fear of not surviving, in fact, our fear of death. The moment we start to meditate the ‘ego’, our King and Queen of survival, goes into action. It does not like us entering the level of silence, where we will meet the ‘self’, the Christ within, as we will be out of its total control.

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Weekly Teachings 8/4/2012

Resistance Through Unmet Needs

We also need to be aware of the way our ‘ego’ will try to deter us from the silence of meditation by playing the old emotional ‘unmet need’ tapes with their flawed self-images. If our ‘love’ need was not met or we have only experienced conditional love - love as a reward for good behaviour –, it may be hard for us to imagine that God, which is Unconditional Love, is also there for us.

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Weekly Teachings 1/4/2012

Resistance Through Religious Conditioning

Our religious upbringing forms our inheritance of images of God, which may well be a further hindrance to us on the spiritual path. We must become aware of how our ideas about God are not only shaped by social and cultural factors but are also distorted by our conditioning, our personal fears, hopes and needs. They are often a product of our early childhood linked with our attitudes especially to parents and teachers. All images are a product of the ‘ego’. 

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