Let us pray. O God, unto whom all hearts lie open, unto whom desire is eloquent and from whom no secret thing is hidden, purify the thoughts of our hearts with the outpouring of your Spirit that we might love him with a perfect love and praise you as you deserve. Amen. This is my favorite prayer. It's the opening prayer to the Thamma Thammela. Some of you may have heard it. I use it all the time in every prayer. Did everyone bring up a copy of the rules that came in? Good. Those cards that enclosed them are stolen from our mother house in Italy.

[01:13]

They had plenty and they were very happy to give me a handful of them. And I find it fun to use for that. We all have a memento then of the mother house in Albany. Earlier this afternoon I ran into Fr. Bruno who had this wide smile on his face and said, How on earth will you get four conferences out of the Cathedral of St. John's? And I said, well, maybe it's because I wish to talk a little bit about Zen as well. And then we both looked at one another and we both said, how is he going to get four conferences after he does Zen? The Little Rule of St. Ronald, or it's also called the Brief Rule,

[02:16]

is a short but very pithy set of reflections by Ronald of Gravena, our founder. Reflections recounted by his disciple Giovanni and written down by yet another disciple, Bruno Baldifaz of Corford, in Chapter 19 of The Life of the Five Brothers. This latter document was written in the early 11th century. And then promptly lost. And then rediscovered and published in the late 19th century in Poland and in Germany. And then popularized in the 20th century Italian, French, and English versions. It's an extraordinary text.

[03:24]

And we call this course Natural Enough, all of it. It connects the hermit of the Ronaldian world a thousand years ago with desert monastic teachings. With the ancient desert Pesachas spirituality as well, the East. And with the emerging currents within 11th century reforms of arithmetical life, which were ongoing during Ronald's lifetime and his own reform movement. And yet at the same time manages also to sound quite Zen-Buddhist in its mystical unfolding.

[04:27]

And I say, thankfully so. Here we have one of the few collected sayings of Master Ronald, as he was known and called. Who had gathered around himself a small group of disciples to live in solitude together. To pray and meditate upon the Psalms and to read together the desert tradition. That is The Life of the Fathers and John Cashion's Conferences. As well as to live an ascetical life together under the Master's supervision and his moderating direction. And this happened, as you know, those of you who have read Peter Daniel's The Life of Blessed Ronald, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the southernmost part of France,

[05:33]

near the Benedictine Abbey of Cusha. St. Michael Cusha. I don't know how it's pronounced in French. It's sort of a capellon, I think. Cuixa, or something like that. C-U-I-X-A, you'll often see it spelled. Like the very life of Ronald himself, the little rule is marked by the utmost simplicity. It's a very brief compendium of wisdom, set out for us in a way that we might expect for a collection of favorite sayings of a wise old monk in the deserts of Egypt, or Syria, or Palestine. It could be a brief list of instructions for a novice monk in hesitant spirituality.

[06:36]

It could also be the collected opus of some Zen master in a desert mountain retreat. And I think, for a student of comparative religions or mysticism, it could be representative of various religious traditions. If one only substitutes the mention of psalms, as such, with any appropriate corollary of texts from the world of religious consciousness, even so far, I would say, that's primitive religious instructions that might arise from the profound world of the mind. I think it's a gem of mystical literature, and a gem of dynastic literature. And so what I propose to do during the four sessions we have this weekend

[07:44]

is essentially to wend our way through that little rule, commenting on various words and phrases, and attempting to distill the spiritual teaching or meaning within or around these words and phrases. While hoping all the while to open our minds, and particularly our hearts, up to the profound presence and mystery evoked by these few words of St. Ronald, that we call the Little Rule. The spiritual treasure offered us by this brief testament of deep faith and the fruit of long, long spiritual practice is something for all of us, hermits and oblates, nuns, nuns, and spiritual seekers alike.

[08:49]

You'll hear a lot of coughing this weekend, and I'll try to keep it at a minimum. It's not because I have a cold or allergies, it's because I have a physical condition that we're trying to treat right now, but coughing is triggered by talking or singing. And so, come to vigils and logs to my room, you can hear me cough and sing. Get the whole picture. I do apologize, there's really nothing I can do about it, except cough. Could I request that everyone simply close their eyes at this point, and quiet themselves down, while I read the Little Rule of St. Ronald. Thank you. Sit in your cell, as in paradise.

[10:02]

Put the whole world behind you, and forget it. Watch your thoughts, like a good fisher watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms. Never leave it. If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will, you cannot accomplish what you want, then take every opportunity to sing the Psalms in your heart, and to understand them with your mind. And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up. Hurry back, and apply your mind to the words once more.

[11:12]

Realize, above all, that you are in God's presence. And stand there, with the attitude of one who stands before the Emperor. Empty yourself completely, and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the little bird that takes nothing and eats nothing, for what its mother gives it. We will read the Little Rule at each meeting we have. And I would ask three volunteers, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, and Sunday morning, to read it for us at the appropriate time.

[12:16]

So, any of you, in your own time, in your time between now and then, as you meditate on the Little Rule, as you read it and reread it, find yourself wanting to proclaim it, then just let me know, that you can move on to your third. I'll read to you. Sit in your soul as a paradise. Sit. Sitting. Until the most recent times, historically speaking, one does not read of sitting for prayer in the West all that much. And in the West, sitting was seen more in the context of hospitality, for instance. Please sit down.

[13:20]

Come in. Sit. Enjoy. Take a load off, as they say in Wisconsin. It's a sign of hospitality. Sit. Sit at your desk down. A sign of welcoming, or being welcomed. Also, sitting down to a meal is very important in the West. And all that connects. Not that it isn't important in the East as well, but at least we have something, some context where sitting in the West is important. It is prominent. As well as in hospitality, I think also in the spheres of judgment and power in the West, sitting is very important, historically speaking. So the judicial modes of judgment and law will see a power seated, whether it's the liege lord,

[14:21]

or the king, or the prince, or the queen, or the judge. In all of these contexts, sitting is very important. No one sits, or no one sat, until that person, the judge, the power sits. So even today, our judicial system, all, I don't know, how do they say it in the courtroom, all lies until the judge sits. Until she or he has seated down. We stand. Historically speaking, that's very current with sitting in the West. Also, of course, in throne power. Now, we don't have many kings and queens left in this world, but there's still very few. And it's the same way. When the queen comes into power, for instance, everybody stands, and when the queen is seated, then the other powers sit.

[15:25]

In various courts, that still exists. Sitting in scripture, how do we find, where do we find the context of sitting in the scripture? Well, one figure immediately comes to mind, and that is David. David sitting at his heart. Psalm-dising. Praying, writing poetry, singing poetry to God. Also, interestingly enough, the prophet Elijah. When we think of Elijah, we usually think of him, I suspect, battling the 400 prophets of Baal and slitting their throats after his display of power. Terrible, terrifying. However,

[16:29]

when he does that, in fact, and he runs for his life, literally, and hides out in a wall for a protracted period of exile, he is depicted as sitting in prayer and subsisting on God's mercy, on God's love, on God's care for him, as he sat in the body. Yet, if I rose, the story goes, certainly also in both Testaments, the banquet scenes and table literature, certainly in the Gospels, extremely important. And these are sitting contexts. And so,

[17:33]

if you want to develop a spirituality of sitting scripturally, that's a good place to start, at the table. Just as it is in the West, the context is very powerful. When Jesus teaches the crowds on the mountainside, He always asks them to sit down. In fact, one of the, I forget which of the Gospel writers, maybe Luke, I would hazard saying Luke, he's the one that says, he sat them down, like little patches of flowers, a flower garden. Do you remember that? Do you remember which evangelist? One of them actually, I forget what the other says, and he sat them, and they sat the people down in sections, like flower arrangements, or flower pots. That's the sort of scriptural sideline,

[18:37]

a little image, that rings very true to me. It isn't just a poet who's trying to depict something. It's an oral tradition of how they remember something, when they put in little colors like that. And of course there are other colors that show up that are even more endearing and probably more embarrassing than sitting down with flower pots. But anyway, in the context of teaching in the wilderness, when Jesus is the master, and people gather around to hear the Word, it's in the context of sitting down together and listening, sitting down and listening. Also in scripture, enthroned power is replaced predominantly. So any context of the king,

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and the king's court. But not only that, also when the scriptural writers are referring to God, or to the celestial, or to Lady Wisdom. Where does Lady Wisdom sit? At the right side of God. Lady Wisdom is sitting. Why is she sitting there? Because she's the right hand of God. Because God sits. Because God is enthroned. And we stand before God who is sitting there. Also, who else does Jesus meet on his travels? Who are invariably, invariably sitting by the roadside. But the blind, the beggars, and the lovers. All the people he felt closest to. All the people, all the outcasts

[20:40]

whom he welcomed and said would be first. He's asking. There they are, sitting by the gates, waiting to be healed. Sitting by the pool, waiting for the finger of the angel to stir the water, for the angel in the wind to move the water to this one and move the other one. Waiting by the roadside, saying, Who is this? What's happening? Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! The blind beggar is sitting. Bartimaeus? Sitting by the roadside. What about Job? What does Job do? His whole life falls apart. He sits on the donkey. Sits on the donkey. And he sits, and sits.

[21:42]

We just read in Evangelist the whole cycle of the Book of Job. Every single word. Vigils after vigils. And Job sits, and sits, and argues, and listens to arguments, questions God, and somehow survives it all in the end. Sitting there on the donkey. And as the story goes, it's restored to even the full life that he had in the beginning. More children, more money than he could spend, and wealth and riches. And I saved the best for last. Sort of in the context of concentration. Mary. Mary, sitting at the feet of the Lord.

[22:43]

Letting his words soak in. While Martha, just as important to the Lord as Mary, just as dear to the Lord, certainly just as attentive to the Lord in other ways as Mary, works in the kitchen. But there's Mary. And the reason we point out Mary is because of what Jesus has to say. Come, come, come. Let Mary sit here. She has chosen something extremely important to listen to. And of course, we monastics have matched on to that, and held on to that, and kept it through the centuries, and even writing on banners from time to time, especially during history, when we get in trouble with church authorities, or bishops, or cardinals, or whatever, trying to take over our monasteries, and trying to get money, or whatever.

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Not nowadays, but I mean in former times. And we would say, we are the inheritors of Mary. And you know what Jesus said? Leave us alone. All of these scriptural examples of sitting can prove beneficial for our own approach to sitting in prayer, for we can undoubtedly, I think, find ourselves in prayer with these various modes of sitting. You know? Is there anyone here who hasn't felt like Job at least at one point in their life? We are the Prophet Elijah sitting in the lobby. We are David. Regardless of what our music might sound like. We are the poets. We are the musicians of the heart. We are at table fellowship with the Lord.

[24:51]

Every day. We will be tomorrow. We are those occasionally sitting on the roadside, waiting, desperately waiting sometimes, to be healed. Or to see, finally, see Christ. Or to feel the healing touch of Christ. Or to just get the touch of the Lord. Just an itch. Even to see. Like the Canaanite woman. Was she a Samaritan? The Canaanite woman. The one who was feeding and managing the family. And she stopped. She snuck up and touched him on his lower right hair with her. And occasionally, each one of us

[25:53]

can be wisdom. Can be wisdom. God's right hand. Sitting close. Eye to eye. Ear to ear. We certainly can be on the wrong side from time to time. In a crowd. Listening to the Word. Hoping that the Word is real. Asking ourselves how to make it real. How to live that life. Live the gospel. Embrace it. Spread it. Proclaim it. Sitting in the desert tradition. There are various references to sitting

[26:58]

as the way to pray in the desert tradition. Which is our ancestry. As monastics. Certainly, within the various collections of apophlegmata, those sayings of the desert elders and fathers that we have in various collections. We call apophthems or the apophlegmata in the monastic world. Also, in the refinements in his History of the Monks you will find mention of sitting as sitting as the way to pray as sitting in prayer. Also, Palladius in his History of Monks. Specifically, number 9 of Palladius. And in John Cashion's conferences in a number of contexts that I will direct you especially to Cashion's conference number 7 for sitting in prayer. Here are some representative examples

[28:04]

that I can read for you. Three of them. Brief. They're all from the apophlegmata. Abba Moses said go sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything. That's probably the most famous one. Abba Rufus said remain sitting in the cell with fear and with knowledge of God holding far off the remembrance of wrongs suffered and pride of spirit. This is a precious one. Because it's so hard to hold off the remembrance of things past that hurt.

[29:05]

This we all know. And I pray for healing of memories through the years of our lives. Because until you let go of the past until you let go of all those hurts of all those imagined slights and the anger that comes from it or the vengeance even sometimes or the anxieties or fears or even sometimes envy of others who received what we didn't receive or whatever. As long as you hold on to all these various forms of crap psychological crap in our hands, rubbish you know that sitting is going to suffer. That is, that prayer is going to suffer. Abba Rufus

[30:11]

he said remain sitting in the cell with fear and knowledge of God holding far off the remembrance of wrongs suffered and pride of spirit. Of course with that phrase you can go off in all other directions. It might be good for you to use this this is a a koan as it were especially since it caught your your attention at once. Let's sit a bit tonight. And of course the phrase is fear of God and knowledge of God carry a whole plethora of connotations spiritually speaking. It's a very powerful little very powerful little

[31:11]

saying. Abba Anthony is the third one. Abba Anthony said just as fish die if they stay too long out of water so the monks who lay there outside their cells and pass their time to others. Abba Anthony preferred the monks going to the cell and mind their own business and sit in their cell and pray. Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water so the monks who go there outside their cells. So really it's powerful because Anthony is saying the cell itself is where the monk gives and moves and has his being. Where the nun belongs

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if she wants to live and have her being not out prattling with the others. There are stories about the monks who stand outside their cells while reading the Gospels or on their way to market and rumble murmur about various things. And Anthony is speaking to that issue in the desert. Sitting in patristic writings Here among the fathers of the church when they use the term sitting or the image of sitting in prayer what they mean is solitude. The context is always solitude. If you want to investigate this further and I'll give you four examples

[33:13]

If you want to investigate this further if you read the section on the patristic writers in my latest book The Language of Silence and gosh I treat in that one little section I treat quite a few of them, maybe 12 or 13 of them and all in the context of solitude and you're probably able to see much more than I'm going to give you here but I will give you four instances four writers who use sitting in the context of solitude. Jerome in his letter 22 wrote the following phrases describing his solitude I was sitting alone and I will sit in the waters of solitude I will

[34:15]

sit in the waters of solitude Eucarius of Lyon wrote about sitting in God sitting in God Interesting Interesting physiology Gregory the Great in any number of contexts used the phrase tranquil sitting He doesn't mean just sitting quiet, not just sitting quiet tranquility usually is in the context of what in the East would become hesychia the inner stillness that one seeks, that one strives for for instance in Jesus' prayer

[35:16]

where in the West Gregory the Great used that the phrase tranquil sitting that plumbed into that same idea Augustine of Hippo wrote sitting in prayer like David and Elijah the two were just I was very happy when I ran across that because I had already found David and Elijah when I went through my investigations and I had already written them down in the other section When we get to Medieval spirituality and Medieval patristic writers the context for sitting changes slightly from solitude to a fuller contemplation so we get the Middle Ages contemplation is the context for sitting and here I'll also give you four

[36:19]

examples of using this context of sitting for prayer Be the Venerable For Be the Venerable he uses again and again and again Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus to embody or to symbolize the contentment of life itself Be the work of calming the body calming quieting the spirit and finally resting in Christ resting in Christ that's like sitting in God I like both of those The Elber of Revol who was a second generation Cistercian Abbot in England wrote to his sister

[37:21]

who happened to be a Hermetist and he wrote a rule of life for her which we have very interesting to me sit and be quiet he didn't mean that she was a chatterbox sit and be quiet he means quiet down dearly listen to God so that you can speak to God interestingly and certainly constantly I'm sure of how we see prayer and how we see silence in prayer Isaac of Estella was another Cistercian Abbot who wrote why do we sit in prayer to drink in Christ's wisdom so for Isaac of Estella it was important to sit in prayer if you were

[38:22]

going to do any drinking not that one couldn't pray through one's work, it certainly wouldn't be a good Cistercian Abbot if he didn't believe that but why sitting in prayer is interesting to answer the question that was being posed so obviously there are people saying why do we have to sit in prayer let's keep working we go the first the prior of Huguenot Choucher's New France early Carthusian wrote that there is an absolute absolute primacy which is very Carthusian of course an absolute primacy of quiets in sitting tranquility inner stillness stillness is a good word to use

[39:22]

when you think of the tranquility or quiets stillness because stillness speaks to more than just absence of noise stillness tells you something psychological as well as physical and certainly spiritual stillness is attention stillness is waking true stillness is oriented to mystery and so when we talk about stillness or inner stillness please remember that we are not just talking about quiet as important as that is but stillness

[40:24]

begins sitting in the east in the east sitting is contemplations inner eye as has its context there the inner eye the gaze into mystery and we have how many countless spiritual gurus masters ascetics throughout the various eastern traditions who ultimately say the same thing sit be still if you want to embrace the mystery if you want to become the mystery some master will say become, go on a Hindu

[41:26]

sage might say pray or mantra until you become the mantra or whatever tradition it doesn't matter in that context sitting for Ramayana what does sitting for Ramayana mean the little rule interestingly enough begins and ends with sitting first word first word sit sit in yourself last image sit waiting content with the grace of God like a keeper sit I suppose for Ramayana's followers we could see

[42:29]

sitting as both our beginning and our end as well after all what are we about if not about contemplation what is sitting in prayer if not contemplation is what we're talking about stillness, inner stillness is contemplation why don't we stand in ourselves well of course some of us do some of us pray standing in ourselves some of us chant songs standing in ourselves but when we want to be still why don't we sit why don't we stand after all the people of the resurrection the children of the resurrection stand up, standing historically resurrection stands that's what we're doing when we stand in our rotunda around the altar

[43:30]

we are doing this as a resurrection people not just because we didn't want to put in cues or mirrors you know there's a theology there there were a group of Syrian ascetics monastics known as statics spelled the same way as the electricity where taking off your sweater and getting the charge they stood for penance they literally stood until they died the statics were very extreme often stood on one foot although they alternated until they died they ate that way

[44:32]

for years ate, drank took care of the bodily functions and probably called themselves the standards the statics we don't know a lot about them Syria was a treasure ground for weird movements early monastics we also had the browsers in Syria and I don't mean to I mean these people were trying to do what they felt was right a number of the browsers were highly educated people who went out and lived on the sides of mountainsides on all fours eating grass as cattle until they died also there were the dendrites a whole other movement

[45:32]

the dendrites those were the those were the stylists also the stylists anyway if you want to get some good laughs the history of the mass of Syria as well as being highly edified in places and holding a treasury of wisdom also has short reflections on these various people that are quite humorous at least from our standpoint why not stand, huh? whether for out of respect for the resurrection or out of necessity for penance the question is what are we concerned about when we pray, when we want to go to

[46:35]

contemplative prayer? are we concerned primarily about penance or resurrection's dance? I don't know I think so why don't we kneel? kneeling is certainly a sign of respect it's a sign of humility it's also a sign of penance and it's very conducive to prayer for as long as you can do it maybe that's the point you reach a point in kneeling that's quicker than you would sitting although you reach a point sitting too if you do it in a disciplined way and you all know this probably that you reach a point where you could scream if you don't get up if you don't or if you don't change part of your body or part of your position or whatever but again, what are we concerned about when we talk about contemplative prayer?

[47:36]

why don't we lay down? sleeping in the Lord there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with sleeping in the Lord, dreaming in the Lord and praying in the Lord on our backs if we fall asleep you know there's nothing wrong with that but do you want to make it your everyday spiritual practice? that's the question you may find yourself sleeping more than praying and it would feel good probably but what is the concern when you're talking about contemplative hunger and contemplative prayer and dialogue sitting sitting is a way to quiet ourselves in all the traditions I think I think that's consonant throughout it's a way to quiet ourselves down sitting is a discipline and yet not primarily

[48:38]

a penitential one it's a way of staying awake and attentive without suffering without suffering a new trauma there's a connection here that I would note to the hesychastic prayer of John Climacus in the east and others in the east in the Byzantine Empire and the reason I point this out is because as we know from long old life and times in the cities of Ravenna and Venice and all of eastern Italy where he was primarily concerned Romulus was influenced by Byzantine spirituality his mother was Byzantine his mother was from Byzantium and carried with that into his life and his spirituality the very rich and very different

[49:39]

Christian spirituality of the east in our early history there are many indications of this and many results from this the Commodities movement the Romualdian world and then the Commodities historical movement has a very strong bond between us which flies up again in the 15th century 14th-15th century with Ambrose Traversari being deputized by the Pope to try to bring the Greek church back into union with Rome and it almost happened it actually hadn't been written out and then it fell apart it's interesting that whereas it started in the east

[50:41]

we had a sudden surge again in the name of union with the east and nowadays in our early historical times although our concern is not so much with the eastern church in a hands-on way our order is very very hands-on involved with inter-religious dialogue with the east and ecumenical certainly a spirit of ecumenical endeavors so we'll meet again tomorrow morning at 9.30 and get deeper into but at least this gives you a general intro and a general step into

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sitting

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