Methods of Contemplation

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow yo...

Light is the very basis of Vision, the topic of our current season of meditations. It is a persistent metaphor used in many different spiritual and religious contexts from East to West to convey liberation, understanding, and the elan vital of the universe. Whether it's the Damascus light of St. Paul, the "interior light" of Gregory the Great, the "illuminations of St. Ignatius, the Flowing Light...

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow yo...

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow yo...

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow yo...

The idea behind this method is not too dissimilar from the structure found in the 14th century spiritual classic, the Cloud of Unknowing, but conceptually reversed. In “The Cloud of Unknowing”, the anonymous author tells the reader to “continually place a cloud of forgetting between yourself and the creatures or forms of the world, and a cloud of unknowing between you and God.” In short, they’re s...

In this episode, we explore the divine vision account from the Bhagavad Gita. After a long collection of extremely dense spiritual teachings, finally Arjuna asks his friend Krishna to see his ultimate form as the Lord of the Universe. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God), Krishna reveals to Arjuna, a warrior, the true meaning and purpose of his existence - to know and be united with...

This is a look at the Divine vision account of Saint Julian of Norwich in her "Showings" or "Revelations of Divine Love. As she explains, these series of fifteen visions were received by her through bodily sight, spiritual sight, as well as words formed in her understanding. Julian composed both a short text, and a long text of the unpacking of her visions in no shorter than 86 chapters, exploring...

This is a look at the account of Divine vision from Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was both a visionary as well as a theorist of visions, having a strong interest in both cosmology and eschatology. But she was also a poet, playwright, composer, artist, physician, and one of the most remarkable women in the history of Christianity. One of the deeply interesting things about her is that she focused...

George Fox was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and war. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith. The Quakers have been a facet of the Church that ha...

This is a look at the Vision of God as described by Saint Augustine. He describes several visions he received while in Milan in 386,  and in Ostia in 388. These narratives owe much to Augustines reading of Plotinus, but they also reflect his own deepening awareness of God's action in his life and the action of grace as a model for the meaning of human existence. Augustine's message is that fi...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. Today Clint Sabom of Contemplative Light leads us through a guided meditation based on Leo Tolstoy's book "The Kingdom of God is within you". Clint Sabom is Creative Director of Contemplative Light and the writer of the book “Preparation For Great Light”. His areas of knowledge are Christian Mysticism, Advaita Vedanta,...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. My name is Jory, and today we’re talking with Clint Sabom Clint Sabom is Creative Director of Contemplative Light and the writer of the book “Preparation For Great Light”. His areas of knowledge are Christian Mysticism, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Shamanism, NLP, CBT, psychoanalytic models, brainspotting, Integral Theory...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. Today Marijke leads us through a simple meditation on self-compassion, which I think is arguably the most difficult AND most essential compassion we can practice. Our practice of being compassionate toward ourselves naturally allows compassion to flow outward to others. Once we make the unconscious conscious, we no long...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. My name is Jory, and today we’re talking with Marijke. A former banker and business executive, Marijke left this career path in search of a greater sense of authenticity & joy.  Having begun mindfulness practice over 20 years ago – but keeping it in the background of her life - Marijke returned to mindfulness a...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the fourteenth episode of our third season: Vision. In our last season, we explored the concept of a meditation anchor, and the simplest of these, the breath. An anchor is something, anything really, that we set as the primary focal point for our rational mind. Doing this helps us to build concentration, and gives us a bridge, or a stable place upon which to...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the sixteenth episode of our third season: Vision. In our last season, we explored the concept of a meditation anchor, and the simplest of these, the breath. An anchor is something, anything really, that we set as the primary focal point for our rational mind. Doing this helps us to build concentration, and gives us a bridge, or a stable place upon which to s...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the fifteenth episode of our third season: Vision. In our last season, we explored the concept of a meditation anchor, and the simplest of these, the breath. An anchor is something, anything really, that we set as the primary focal point for our rational mind. Doing this helps us to build concentration, and gives us a bridge, or a stable place upon which to s...

Marc Shaw is a student of the Christian mystics for over twenty years, a writer and teacher focusing on the contemplative teachings and practices to help people grow toward greater awareness of their true self. He went to Seattle Pacific University, where he majored in Psychology and Literature. Marc is a graduate of Fuller Seminary with a Masters in Theology and the Arts, a member of Spiritual Di...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. My name is Jory, and today we’re talking with Marc Shaw Marc Shaw is a student of the Christian mystics for over twenty years, a writer and teacher focusing on the contemplative teachings and practices to help people grow toward greater awareness of their true self. He went to Seattle Pacific University, where he majore...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the thirteenth episode of our third season: Vision.  What would happen if we changed our perspective, from one dominated by scarcity and competition, to a worldview based on abundance and cooperation? What if we viewed everything we had as enough? This passage is from the Gospel of John, chapter six.  Feel free to catch up with us on social media @m...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. Today, Dr. Alexander John Shaia leads us through a meditation on the Gospel of Matthew. In his work, Alexander regards Matthew's Gospel as indicative of how we face change. What do we do with our fears, our doubts, our questions? How do we answer the call to move out from our comfort zone into something new?  Find...

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation. These short segments, are going to consist of a conversation, followed by our guest leading us through their preferred method of prayer, meditation, or other form of  practice. Today we talk with Alexander John Shaia. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Alexander grew up as part of a large extended family that...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the twelfth episode of our third season: Vision. This passage is from the Gospel of John, chapter four. Imaginative prayer, also known as Ignatian Contemplation is the name given to prayer which helps us enter more fully into the passage of Scripture we are reading, by using our ability to form pictures or inner impressions in our minds. We live in a rational...

Hello, and welcome to Methods. This is the eleventh episode of our third season: Vision. Today, we’ll walk with our Guru. You can decide to walk with whomever you choose, be it Jesus, Krishna, the Buddha, or maybe just Spirit. As modern people, when we think of an event, we typically try to classify it as either historical, or mythological; objective, or subjective; real or imaginary. Did it reall...