There are books I read which I really like but am hesitant to recommend to others. We all have unique tastes and I know mine skew a bit sideways. Some books though, whether I think others will like them or not, should be recommended because of their importance. Martin Laird's 'Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation' may fall into this category.
It starts out a bit tedious, but after the first couple chapters gets very practical. Which lends to its importance.
"Christianity" today is known for many things. It seems most have nothing to do with God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. Contemplation is not something you hear much about in many/most churches. However, as Laird quotes in the introduction (2):
"Our greatest need is to be silent before this great God, . . . for the only language he hears is the silent language of love." Silence is an urgent necessity for us; silence is necessary if we are to hear God speaking in eternal silence; our own silence is necessary if God is to hear us. Silence is necessary because, as Maggie Ross boldly puts it, "Salvation is about silence."
I had hoped to simply write one overview of the entire book, but in my procrastinating I've determined it will require longer, slower, smaller slices. Which is also my recommended way of reading the work and putting it into practice.
To set the stage, Laird begins by pointing out:
We are built for contemplation. This book is about cultivating the skills necessary for this subtlest, simplest, and most searching of the spiritual arts.
Though we are built for it, he also warns (3): "We enter the land of silence by the silence of surrender, and there is no map of the silence that is surrender."
(4) "There are two contemplative practices of fundamental importance in the Christian tradition: the practice of stillness (also called meditation, still prayer, contemplative prayer, etc.) and the practice of watchfulness or awareness."
A major point to making sense of it all is the foundational assumption that union with God is not something we are trying to acquire; God is already the ground of our being. It is a question of realizing this in our lives. He notes that most of us operate ignorant of this, much like the proverbial deep-sea fisherman "who spends his life fishing for minnows while standing on a whale."
So, how this goes I do not know... But I needed to start somewhere. If this is of interest to you, let's set sail... very quietly...
More to come.
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