The riddles of distraction (from the silent land)

How easy is it for you to *SQUIRREL*!!! Oh, excuse me, I got distracted...

Chapter five of Martin Laird's 'Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation' helps us deal with distractions... The Riddles of Distraction. This helps us through the doorways we discussed in the last post/chapter.

He opens the chapter with this (75):

The doorways of the present moment are each guarded by an elaborately simple array of distractions that works in tandem with the prayer word. Together they open the doorways into the silent land. These distractions are like riddles that must first be answered before the door will open. The riddles, however, are not answered by the calculating mind but by successive silences. These silences are built around a central paradox: all distractions have within them the silent depths we seek, the flowing vastness of Presence that eludes every grasp of comprehension. Therefore, distractions do not have to be rid of in order for them to relax their grip and reveal their hidden treasure. Such is the simplicity of paradox.

In other words, 'Distraction serves a purpose.' 

So, what are these riddles we must navigate?

THE RIDDLE OF THE FIRST DOORWAY: ARE YOU YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS?

"If we think we are our thoughts and feelings, we go through life simply reacting to what is going on around us, with little awareness that we are even doing this or that life could be otherwise." (77)

"The peace will indeed come, but it will be the fruit, not of pushing away distractions, but of meeting thoughts and feelings with stillness instead of commentary. This is the skill we must learn." (79)

"The prayer word is of great assistance in answering the riddle of the First Doorway." (80)

THE RIDDLE OF THE SECOND DOORWAY: WHAT DO THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS APPEAR IN?

"We move from being a victim of what is happening to being a witness to what is happening... This move from victim to witness is an early psychological fruit of the contemplative journey. It is deeply liberating and gives us a sense of possibility for real change in our lives." (81)

"The riddle of the Second Doorway helps us deepen this silence by training the attention not to spin commentary on the thoughts and feelings that we become aware of." (81)

"Watch it come and go (thoughts and feelings). It's a subtle art." (83)

THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD DOORWAY: WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THESE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS, AND WHO IS AWARE OF THEM?

"This is the great liberation of solving this third riddle, which we come to soon after the second. Inner silence is such that we meet thoughts and feelings purely and simply without commentary, the way a riverbed receives the water from up stream and lets it go down stream, all the same receptive giving." (91)

"To know this is to have answered the third riddle: what is their nature? The thoughts and feelings that have brought us such delight and sorrow are also manifestations of this luminous vastness, waves of the ocean, branches of the vine. And who is aware of these distracting thoughts? [Um, only you] Shift your attention from the distraction to the awareness itself... [In other words, recognize they are only thoughts and feelings]." (91-92)

Laird sums this chapter up nicely on 92-93:

"Distractions... serve a purpose. If we cannot weather these distractions in stillness, they will give the impression that the doorway into the silent land is closed. But if we are simply still before them and do not try to push them away or let ourselves be carried away by them, they help deepen our contemplative practice. They initiate us into a sort of education by ordeal. The fruits of this education are manifold... First, we realize that we are not our thoughts and feelings... Second, once we have crossed this threshold of realizing we are not the mind-stream of thoughts and feelings, we find the tensions of life easier to live through... Third, ...We see that these thoughts and feelings that have plagued us, clouded our vision, seduced us, entertained us, have no substance..."

"I think St. Paul would simply have called this the peace of Christ..." (93) 

 

Much like when our cars break down (or anything else), it's not a matter of if distractions will arise, but when or how often. Part of the work is understanding this is not something to be avoided or ignored, but perhaps the very thing that helps us into the Silent Land by learning the truth that they do not make us who. we. are.!

Practice. Practice. Practice.