Practice: The Reset Button

 

John Baptist

27^th February 2022

Reading my previous blog, The Fear Beads, one might wonder whether religious practices can only bring about bad outcomes. Obviously, NO! It is the intention that makes a practice healthy or unhealthy. If the motivation for religious practice is transformation and not fear, then it is good and serves its purpose. The renowned Mexican monk, Richard Rohr, says, “Practice is an essential reset button that we must push many times before we can experience any genuine newness”. To develop something new and lasting, practice is necessary. Through lack of practice, newly gained behaviour and insights can actually die off. 

The value of practice is greatly recognized in fields such as sports and in creative endeavours, however its need is yet to be adequately acknowledged in the world of religion and spirituality. A practice that constantly opens oneself to God’s presence will initiate transformation. Practices like reciting the rosary, using prayer-beads, attending novenas, saying mantras, making processions and pilgrimages, performing genuflections and prostrations, blessing oneself physically, burning candles or incense, if done with mindfulness, can neurologically rewire the brain. Rewiring our brain can help us see reality in a new way. Religious and spiritual practices have the power to help us discover an ever-larger notion of God, reality and ourselves, provided we outgrow an infantile and magical understanding of these practices (Richard Rohr). Infantile and magical perceptions of religious practices blind us to seeing God, who is ever-present in ordinary and daily human experiences. On the contrary, a mature understanding of religious and spiritual practices can shatter our rigid and narrow understanding of the Divine and set us free to see the Divine presence in and around us. 

Any practice that opens our inner eyes to see God is holy and acceptable. Let our religious and spiritual exercises become a reset button for self-transformation, enhancing our awareness of God in creation, in others, and in ourselves. 

 

 Notes

Richard Rohr, The Importance of Practice, https://cac.org/the-importance-of-practice-2021-12-15/

The Fear Beads

                                                                                                                                            

John Baptist

21^st February 2022

         Is “practice” good or bad? Well, it depends on why one does it. Practice creates and strengthens certain neural pathways, which make people set in their ways – ways of behaving and thinking. Practice actually creates new responses, which can be either healthy and flexible or unhealthy and rigid. 

        One area where practice is routinely used is in religion or spirituality. People, irrespective of their faith, often use exercises that consist of repetitive words and actions. These exercises can include reciting the rosary, using prayer-beads, attending novenas, saying mantras, burning candles or incense and more. Such religious exercises are neither good nor bad in themselves. It is the intention — the motivational force — that gives meaning, value and efficacy to these exercises. 

Two strong motivational forces are fear and transformation. People can have fears that God might punish them or of befalling misfortunes, among many other fears. Thus some, guided by fear, can engage in a religious ritual, such as reciting beads, to appease God, whom they imagine as angry and punishing. In doing so, individuals intend that God will not punish them or allow harm to come upon them and instead will bring fortunes to their lives. Any mindless and fear-based repetition of any practice can actually keep us quite unconscious (Richard Rohr). Thus the practice of fear beads can make us catatonic and trap us in a repetitive cycle of rigid thinking and behaviour. Catatonic repetition of any religious exercise leads to unconsciousness and ultimately death. Can we take time to reflect on our various religious exercises and unearth the intention(s) behind them? Is it fear or transformation? 

Let us hope that through awareness we break the cycle of catatonically reciting fear beads. 

 

 

Notes

Richard Rohr, The Importance of Practice, https://cac.org/the-importance-of-practice-2021-12-15/

Find Your True Valentine

 

John Baptist

13^th February 2022

Once again, Valentine’s Day is here; romance is in the air. You might find Valentine’s Day a wonderful experience if you are in a satisfying love relationship. If it is the other way then you might feel sad, frustrated, angry and unfulfilled. It is nice to have people to care for and love us. However, Kristin Neff, a renowned researcher in self-compassion says that we need to recognize that it is not necessary for our happiness that we need someone else to complete us. Romance is a gift from God, yet, it can not be the ground that gives us a sense of completeness. In fact, what gives us the sense of completeness and wholeness is knowing and connecting with our true selves. It is connecting with the Life (Divine) that flows within our being and in the universe at large. 

Neff asserts that often we “are raised with the notion that our worth stems from finding someone to love and cherish us. We’re taught that our value is derived from the adoring eyes of another, and if we aren’t in a relationship with someone who cares about us, we must be a failure [and worthless]”. It is vital for healthy growth, particularly during our childhood, that we receive love. Receiving love is essential in our adult lives as well. However, the problem can start when we do not find the adoring eyes; consequently, we can begin feeling empty and unfulfilled. If you find feelings of dissatisfaction and incompleteness in your life, seize this opportunity and shatter the illusion that others can make you whole and fulfilled. Each one of us need to understand that others cannot make us whole. 

Wholeness begins when we embrace ourselves as we are. 

“In moments of wholeness, we enter into the crypt of our being, with arms wide open to embrace all of the parts of ourselves, even those which were neglected and pushed away from long ago. In this quiet and compassionate embrace, we meet the stranger who longed for this reunion for our whole lives” (John Baptist). 

Remember your true Valentine is “you”. Find, connect, and love this “you”, your first and the last Valentine, who is perhaps most neglected. And, gradually, you will realize that if you connect to others from this ground of self-connection and wholeness, your relations will be more satisfying and fulfilling. 

 

Notes

1.     Kristin Neff, Meeting Romantic Yearnings With Compassion, Email Communication
2.     John Baptist, 2021, Brokenness to Wholeness, Media House, Delhi 
3.     Mark 12:31 – Love your neighbour as yourself

Defensive Shadow

John Baptist

7th February 2022

Each one of us has a shadow in ourselves. One harmful characteristic of the shadow is that it defends itself. Therefore, it can be challenging to detect our shadow. Richard Rohr says that our shadow is not evil in itself; it just allows us to do evil and not recognize it as such. Our shadow self makes us all into hypocrites on some level. Hypocrite is a Greek word that simply means “actor,” someone playing a role rather than being “real.” If we look deeply into what we do and how we behave then we would discover that many things we do only to be acceptable to others and present ourselves as someone different and better than who we really are. Often, we act our roles so long and so well that we begin to deceive ourselves. 

            The shadow can take control of our whole self. It can justify what we do or choose to avoid and how we live our lives. The shadow is afraid of revealing itself; therefore, attacks or avoids anything that attempts to bring it to light. Perhaps the following examples can help us understand the games our shadows play. A person who is ashamed of his native place can avoid situations where their identity might be revealed; someone who is seen doing something wrong might avoid or start attacking the witness; a person who feels less capable in an area might project themselves as superior in some other.

A lot of shadow work is required before we can get in touch with our true selves. We need to discover the games our shadow plays, not only with others but more so with ourselves. Rohr states, “Shadow work literally “saves us from ourselves” (our false selves)”. Perhaps, the greatest of all enemies is within, our shadow. Can we detect, understand and shatter the defences of this enemy, and initiate a journey of knowing ourselves?

 

Notes

Richard Rohr, Unveiling the Shadow, https://cac.org/embracing-shadow-and-light-2021-06-14/