School of Meditation Weekly Teachings

Weekly Teachings 21/10/2012

Roots of Christian mysticism

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at some the essential aspects of meditation. All of them were based on the teaching of the early Church and especially the teaching of Evagrius, the teacher of Cassian, and one of the most influential Desert Fathers.

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Weekly Teachings 14/10/2012

Eastern and Western Christianity

This significant flowering of Christian contemplative prayer lasted about two centuries in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria. It was Cassian, who brought it to the West in the early 5th century. He founded two monasteries in Marseilles in 415, one for women and one for men.

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Weekly Teachings 7/10/2012

Different types of prayer

In John Cassian’s ‘Conference 9’ Abba Isaac, one of the Desert Fathers, starts to teach Cassian and his friend Germanus about prayer. He first emphasizes that there are different ways of praying: “The apostle [St Paul] notes four types of prayer.

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Weekly Teachings 30/9/2012

What is mysticism?

The background to this series of letters is the teaching coming out of the mystical tradition. We have already heard some of the wisdom from the Desert and we will continue to look in subsequent letters at the teaching of the mystics throughout the centuries up to our time.

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Weekly Teachings 23/9/2012

Humility

The world, in which we live, does not value the virtue of humility. On the contrary it is self-assertion, overt self-confidence, material success, fame and esteem in the eyes of others that is coveted. We even equate humility with humiliation.

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Weekly Teachings16/9/2012

Anger

The Desert Fathers and Mothers and the Mystics of all ages point out that the faithful committed practice of one-pointed attention in meditation/prayer leads to a wider awareness. It starts, however, with more awareness of our wounded ego and how its conditioning blocks our spiritual awareness of the Presence of Christ.

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Weekly Teachings 9/9/2012

On judgement

One of the most difficult things to do in life is not to judge others; not only that but also not to judge ourselves. There is a saying from the Desert Fathers: “The old men used to say, ‘there is nothing worse than passing judgment.’

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Weekly Teachings 2/9/2012

The power of language

“He also said: ‘It is better to eat meat and drink wine than eat the flesh of one’s brethren through slander.’ (Abba Hyperechius)

Not only was gossiping and slander frowned upon, because they were part of judging others, but also because the desert hermits were convinced of the power of language to heal and to harm.

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Weekly Teachings 26/8/2012

No Thoughts, No Images

In last week’s letter on the ‘Perennial Philosophy’ we saw how it is experience of internal silence and solitude, afforded by contemplative spiritual disciplines such as meditation,

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Weekly Teachings 19/8/2012

On Prayer

Like Clement, the early Church Father Origen was highly educated both in Greek, Jewish and Christian thought and saw clearly the correspondences between these different strands of wisdom.

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