Finding the still point
What if there was an inner place we could go to always find peace and joy, even amidst the turmoil and trials of daily life? If we listen to the mystics of the Church and other traditions, we will discover there is such a “point” or “place”, and that we should earnestly desire to find it. It is what allows us to be a bridge between heaven and earth, a place where the peace of heaven can infuse the earthly life we lead.
And I have often said that there is a power in the soul that touches neither time nor flesh. It flows from the spirit and remains in the spirit and is wholly spiritual. In this power God is always verdant and blossoming in all the joy and the honour that he is in himself.
Meister Eckhart
Many contemplative saints of the Church found this place within their spirit, but some I think ultimately did a disservice to it. They made the “attainment” of it the result of strenuous trials and penances. I would respectfully disagree that this is the right approach.
Granted, by relentlessly stomping on all desires and passions as they arise in the interior life of a person, one may find a kind of peace from them. But I think this is a violent approach, sometimes governed by a darker view of the world, and is ultimately not necessary.
It is true that excessive passions and desires can obscure the finding of this still point. When we are lost in the impulse-response-impulse-response cycle, it is hard to “wake up” from this state and realise that there is more to our inner life. To realise that we have much more agency than previously thought. So some mortifications and fasting activities can help us to realise this, and help us to become aware that we are capable of resisting the impulse-response causality.
Yet there is another approach that is much easier and doesn’t require the complete destruction of our desires and passions. This approach “rushes” to find the still point, and, upon discovery of it, comes the internal agency needed to resist the destructive, compulsive and destabilising flow of passions. This agency and peace is the goal, rather than the “killing off” of the passions.
If one has this agency, operating from the still point, then one can discern and choose what energies to entertain and what energies to deny. For the passions or interior energies are not good or bad per-say, but rather our enslavement to them is what is beneath the dignity of the human person. For instance, having an appetite after a long days work is not unhealthy, on the contrary - but losing control of this appetite can lead to unhealthy behaviour. God wants us to be able to enjoy creation, but not become enslaved to it.
So how do we find this place of interior freedom, in a gracious way - aided by God, and not via a means which requires enormous strength of will?
The path of awareness
Anthony De Mello, was a Catholic priest who was also interested in the Eastern religions. He perhaps most poignantly and clearly highlighted the “gracious way” of awareness to find the still point. However, there are other intimations of this path in older Christian spiritual writers such as Brother Lawrence (the author of the Practice of the Presence of God), Fr Jean Pierre de Caussade (the author of Abandonment to Divine Providence) and of course the Desert Fathers and Mothers.
The idea of this path is that, by just learning to become recollected through the day, “drawn inward” if you will, you will become aware of all the impulses, feelings and thoughts that arise spontaneously or in response to some external stimulus. Here’s the kicker - that’s all you have to do. Just be aware.
The mysterious power of awareness, which I tend to think is a sharing in God’s own awareness, will give you the capacity to let all these sensations, thoughts and drives come and go. With practice, you will be dwelling calmly in the still point, watching all things drift by, no longer fussed by the “troubles” of the external and internal worlds.
What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you. You are always a slave to what you’re not aware of. When you’re aware of it, you’re free from it. It’s there, but you’re not affected by it. You’re not controlled by it; you’re not enslaved by it.
Anthony De Mello, Awareness pg 71
By being aware, we are freed from the destructive internal effects of the tumultuous inner and outer worlds. If we can be free, and at peace, no matter what happens, then we are free indeed. We then have the choice to live whatever life we want, regardless of external pressures. However, we’ll find that when we dwell in this still point, aware of all things, that love and peace spontaneously bubble up, and we can be a blessing to those around us.
Here is De Mello again, speaking of the practice of awareness:
If you could grasp this, you’d hit upon the secret of awakening. You would be happy forever. You would never be unhappy again. Nothing would have the power to hurt you again. I mean that, nothing. It’s like when you throw black paint in the air; the air remains uncontaminated. You remain at peace. There are human beings who have attained this, what I call being human. Not this nonsense of being a puppet, jerked about this way and that way, letting events or other people tell you how to feel.
Anthony De Mello, Awareness pg 75
This is what it is like to live in the Spirit (Romans 8), and to always be prepared to meet the master with the lamps of awareness lit (Luke 12:35). We can then let our being unfold as it was created to, our individual being which is a unique finite reflection of the infinite Goodness of God. We would no longer be hemmed in by ego-programs, or the pressures of society and peers. Rather we could listen to the Spirit and flow in His life unimpeded.
May we ask God for this awareness, for the discovery of the still point within. Amen.