Thursday, September 24, 2009

Active Meditation


Just to update you, we are re-formatting our Contemplative Time. We are going to move away from the Contemplative Group format and move towards a more individualistic time for everyone to come and sit, listen to music in candlelight, and reflect on your spiritual path. Moving towards a more individualistic time of meditation does mean we are moving away from one of our goals to foster active meditation. Rather, we are hoping to make this time of silence more accessible for all of us to relax, refresh, and renew our spirits. We hope it will be a time of peace for us in a hectic world.

I believe Richard Rohr discusses active meditation better than I can, so I will quote him at length. Please focus on his words and incorporate them into your own spiritual life as you see fit. At the Selah Center, we are always attempting to practice an intentional spiritual walk that includes service to our community. I hope this helps in your journey:

"I believe that there are two necessary paths enabling us to move toward wisdom: a radical journey inward and a radical journey outward. For far too long we've confined people to a sort of security zone, a safe midpoint. We've called them neither to a radical path inward, in other words, to contemplation, nor to a radical journey outward, that is, to commitment on the social issues of our time...

There is no perfect theology, there are no perfect explanations, there is no perfect road leading to psychic health. We are forced to live in a world that contains both life and death. The Reign of God is already here, but it's not yet whole. Faith means standing in this position and holding on to paradox at the same time. If we take the contemplative path, then we see the shadow side and the inconsistency of our own souls. If we take the path outward, then we encounter the place where the victims are. If we try to get to the truth by arguing, we will find good arguments on both sides. At some point we must risk the dangerous decision for faith, which means always standing on the side of the weak, always on the side of the poor, always on the side of the victims."
Richard Rohr - Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go

Wherever you are on your spiritual path, you are welcome in this space. We hope you will join us when you can....

Monday, September 14, 2009

Contemplative Group


This week, we re-visited the importance of discipline for spiritual formation. We noted that the weekly practice of our group is important to the overall growth of the individual's spiritual growth. The intentional practice of setting aside a time each week devoted to spiritual growth and renewal is something many of us have lost in our busy lives, but it is vitally important for a fresh encounter with our own spiritual paths...to experience "the more" of life.

For further contemplation: "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant gratification is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people...The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world."
Richard J. Foster - Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

Monday, August 3, 2009

Contemplative Group


This week, we met in the Theatre Underground again and engaged in music contemplation. A lot of good insights were discovered and shared.

We began by re-visiting the order/chaos dichotomy we discussed last week, and we elaborated on the worldviews these different perspectives create and construct. We connected these worldviews to the musical pieces some preferred over others. This led into a discussion of how we approach the world and understand ourselves within it.

Then, we attempted to synthesize this with our own spiritual journeys, and we discovered how closely our preferences for certain sounds is related to our theological constructions. We analogously discussed music with conceptions of "God" and other theological concepts, and we realized that our yearnings for order or chaos or familiar songs transposed onto our theological underpinnings. For example, we noted that we preferred familiar songs to unfamiliar songs initially. In like manner, we have certain theological preferences that are familiar, and we tend to dismiss unfamiliar theological viewpoints just as we dismiss unfamiliar songs because they are uncomfortable. We decided that a simplistic approach to our musical repertoires is similar to a simplistic approach to theological diversity, and we determined that when we are not open to unfamiliar theologies, we are also not open to Others' songs and musical preferences.

In addition, we realized this related intimately to our discoveries in previous contemplative sessions where we explored our tendency to attempt to control various situations by placing unreasonable expectations onto them. Releasing control, viewing expectations as restrictive, and preferring dynamic change over static order are all things we still struggle with, but we are intentionally aware that these exist. Just as we cannot always control our sound environments, we also cannot always feel comfort by placing unrealistic expectations onto situations that give us the illusion of control. Simply pushing the music to the background, just as we often attempt to push "life" to the background, did not really solve any problems. Rather, it left us with the illusion of safety and a feeling of restlessness because of a lack of risk and disengagement with our lives.

Our "playlist" for this week included:

Massive Attack - Angel
Imogen Heap - Sweet Religion
Eluveitie - Glamonios
zero dB - On the One & Three
Josh Ritter - Girl in the War
Glory of Byzance - O Vierge Sainte, rejouis-toi
Iron & Wine - On Your Wings
Radiohead - Karma Police

For further contemplation: "Ancient Greek philosophers consistently explained hearing as the result of a commotion in the air. An external object must actively shock or assault the air to produce sound, and it is this disturbance that is carried to the ear...Sound thus denotes distance and temporality in a way that sight does not. Rather than an inner illumination that emanates outward, hearing proceeds from the external to the internal...Sounds draw us out of ourselves by leading us to the source of the noise, while sight brings the image to us. Sound does not permit us to be detached from the source, as does sight, but it also does not connect us to the source in an immediate way, since sound takes time as its medium. Sound is intimate without being immediate."
Stephen H. Webb - The Divine Voice

Join us next week if you can as we once again meet in the Loft and practice visual contemplation through the artwork of Jay Davis.

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey you are welcome in this place....

Monday, July 27, 2009

Contemplative Group - Theology of Sound

This week, our contemplative group experimented with a new form of contemplation. Rather than sitting in silence, we decided to sit surrounded with various sounds and music. We intentionally contemplated what it means to listen intentionally to various kinds of music, and we attempted to incorporate these insights into our daily spiritual journey.

What we discovered is that this was a beneficial practice that brought out a lot of emotions and topics for discussion. We explored the differences between silence and sound, and we realized how much we ignore the affects sound has on our emotional, spiritual, and physical development. We often avoid sitting in silence, but we also tend to surround ourselves with noise and sounds that we pay little attention to in terms of our own growth. So much of the noise in our lives is relegated to the background, and we wanted to bring that experience to the foreground. In so doing, we realized how much of our lives are structured by the sounds we choose to surround ourselves as well as the sounds we choose to avoid.

Theologically, we found that sound is an integral part of how we relate to the world around us. Sound effects our various interpretations of the world and our contexts, and it also has a significant emotive power over us. Our perceptions of the world are often guided by the sounds and senses that are occurring in a given situation. Our thoughts about our own journeys, our concepts of God, and our relation to others and our selves are intimately related to sound. As our culture is typically visually oriented rather than orally oriented, this is an important element to incorporate into our own spiritual practices. The music we experienced opened avenues of thought we may not have discovered with silence alone.

Our "playlist" that facilitated this exploration was:

Radiohead - Everything in Its Right Place
Sigur Ros - Takk...
Sigur Ros - Glosoli
Lamb - Til the Clouds Clear
Vast - One More Day
David Crowder Band - Intro (I've Had Enough)
Snow Patrol - Warmer Climate
Muse - Endlessly
Jump Little Children - Cathedrals

For further contemplation: "The inner life is a soundscape that integrates body, mind, and emotion, all of which are revealed in the voice. Sound does not disappear into the inner life like light being drawn into a black hole, sound reaches into the whole body and draws the listener and speaker together toward a new place that neither had previously occupied."

"Voices have timber, tone, and life. Voices can be thought to touch us, indeed to enter into us, in ways that a word does not...All sound, in fact, has a physical quality since we hear different kinds of sounds with different parts of our body, due to the vibratory nature of sound waves. Sound and touch, as with Word and body, can work together to reveal and heal."

Stephen H. Webb - The Divine Voice

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Contemplative Group


This week we explored the many intrusions we experience throughout our days. We discovered how much of our lives are consumed by being annoyed or irritated by these intrusions, and we discussed ways to accept these intrusions rather than try to resist them.

We are so used to controlling our environments that we forget to adapt to our environments. If it is hot or cold, we adjust the temperature. If music is too loud, we turn it down. We are used to controlling every aspect of our environments rather than incorporating them into our overall experiences. We expect to be comfortable and at peace all the time, but when we resist uncomfortable intrusions, we are missing out on important parts of our lives and important lessons to learn. We let these intrusions distract us from the act and art of living fully, and these intrusions become compulsions that obsess us and obstruct our paths on our journey. We must learn to adapt to intrusions rather than letting them become compulsions and hinder our path.

For further contemplation: "One moment we are 'pathing,' only in the next to find ourselves 'stuck' and 'blocked.' We may not have lost our sense of purpose and direction, but feel incapable of making any headway. It is as though a barrier has been placed across our path and we can find no way to surmount it...Compulsions obstruct the path by monopolizing consciousness. The hypnotic fascination they exert prevents us from attending to anything else. We behave like a rabbit dazzled by the headlights of a car. Not only do compulsions make us lose sight of our goal, they inwardly paralyze us. To escape their grip does not entail suppressing them but creating a space in which we are freed to let them go and they are freed to disappear...

...Compulsions not only disturb and enclose, they distort. The emotion of hatred is not possible without a perception of the other as hateful. Everything about the person is repellent: the slant of his mouth, the shrug of his shoulders, the tone of his voice, the cut of his suit. Although he has a wife, children, and friends, it is inconceivable that they could love such a man. A compulsive feeling about someone encloses him or her inside a frozen image...

...Once revealed for what it is, the world is opened up as tentative and contingent, impossible to pin down as 'this' or 'that,' 'me' or 'mine.' A thing is what it is not because of an irreducible essence that marks it off from other things but because the complex and singular relationships that enable it to emerge with its own unique character from the matrices of a contingent world. To emerge contingently like this is what it means for a thing or a person to be 'empty'...

...Thus emptiness is a path. It is that open and unfettered space that frees us to respond from a liberating perspective rather than react from a fixed position. It is the absence of resistance in the heart of life itself that allows the boundless diversity of phenomena to pour forth in creative profusion and abundance."

Stephen Bachelor - Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good
and Evil


Wherever you are on your path, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can.....

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Contemplative Group

Tonight we reiterated some important intents and purposes of the group. We reflected on the intentionality and discipline required to cultivate a contemplative stance towards life, and we discussed the importance of incorporating meditative practices into our everyday lives.

We focused on cultivating an intentional awareness towards all the moments of our lives, and we noted the difficulty in living this way. So much of our lives are lost to us in a blur of distractions and un-focused spirituality, and it is only through an intentional awareness that we can begin to recover a sense of wonderment towards life.

We discovered (again) that much of our lives are also a struggle between the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves and learning to live with our limitations and boundaries. For, we often live as if we have no limitations, but part of becoming more aware is also becoming more aware of our own limitations, which serve to guide us in the process of healing and wholeness. We should not resist discovering our limitations. Rather, we should embrace them and learn to live with(in) them. It is important to temper our strong drives towards idealism with a certain pragmatism about living. Otherwise, frustration will follow us on our path.

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can....

Monday, April 27, 2009

Contemplative Group


Tonight's discussion went in some interesting and important directions. We began by discussing the need to control again, and we noted our desire for Order and Certainty. We quickly realized that exploring the Mystery of the Divine is both beautiful as well as disturbing. For, journeying the path of Mystery can also make us uncomfortable in that we do not always understand it...it is incomprehensible. As we are used to explaining and comprehending various problems, delving into incomprehensibility is often foreign and even frightening to us.

What we discovered is that exploring Mystery must always be tempered with a certain amount of Responsibility...for ourselves as well as those around us. We realized that moving into Mystery often makes us uncomfortable because we are used to equating simply waiting with inactivity and passivity. We are used to "doing" and controlling and shaping the outcomes in a given situation. Interestingly, however, passivity and letting go of control need not always be viewed as negative. Non-action is also a type of action when it is intentional. We must form and re-form ourselves in order to prepare ourselves for right action. That is, in order to be motivated by compassionate engagement with the world around us in a responsible way, we must also be willing to appreciate the Unknown Mysteries of this Life, learn from it, and incorporate it into our daily lives.

I am reminded again of the analogy of water from last week. A rushing river is formed and channeled by its environment. It does not force itself onto that environment but is shaped by that environment. Yet, water also exerts its own force onto its surroundings as well. Over time, its own force can be felt and seen. Simply "being," water eventually cuts its own path while still remaining fluid and adaptable enough to its surroundings. It is not that a river is passive. Rather, its patience and consistency, its active non-action alters its surroundings while also allowing itself to be re-formed by those same surroundings.

Human and Divine Responsibility are difficult questions, and we must continue to struggle with them. We must be honest with ourselves about our questions, the Unknown, and even the anger that often accompanies that incomprehensibility. We do not let ourselves be tossed and driven by any passing wind, but we also must embrace the mysterious unknowability of that fierce wind.

For further contemplation: "The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle."
Lao-Tzu, Tao-te-Ching

We cannot control everything, but we do not simply remain passive either. We engage action through non-action. We approach responsibility through compassion and mystery. Sometimes it is difficult in its incomprehensibility, but the difficulty does not force us into apathy. Indeed, non-action is far from apathetic resignation. Those around us make their own decisions. Those decisions can be horrific and disturbing, and we must be ready to take responsible action towards those decisions. Yet, the mystery of those decisions remains, and we are not responsible for others' decisions. Indeed, it is impossible to be so, and we would drive ourselves mad believing this to be true.

Does "letting go" signify passivity?
Do we feel helpless at the center of the circle? If so, why?
How much control do we believe we should have over Life?
Is it our Responsibility to control the Mystery of Life?
Why do we seek possession of Mystery?
Are we actually called to do this?
Do we equate participation in Mystery with control?
Do we equate Responsibility with control?

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Contemplative Group

Tonight, we were back to our usual setup, and sadly, the labyrinth is put away. However, we had a good group, and the candlelight with the paintings from Beep Beep Gallery was beautiful.

We focused again on letting go of expectations. We discussed how expectations can be good, life-giving, and hopeful, but it is when we let these expectations become unrealistic that they become harmful to us. Expectations can hinder us and keep us trapped within a life of self-judgment and the fears of perfectionism that are rampant in our society. Unrealistic expectations seem to stem, according to our discussion, mainly from our need to exert control in our lives. However, this control is only ever an illusion that keeps us perpetually frustrated. We seek control, and when we cannot control our situations and environment, which we never can, we become frustrated and disappointed by the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves and those around us. Instead, we must be Generous in offering Grace to ourselves, those around us, and the ways we perceive our reality.

A helpful analogy voiced in the group was that of water. Water is fluid and adaptable, allowing itself to be formed by its environment. Yet, in its ever-changing flow, it also exerts its own force on the environment around it. It maintains a sense of balance. It adapts to obstacles, but over time, it also exerts its own force on those same obstacles. It alters its course, but it also changes that same course through its persistence and forgiving fluidity. It does not seek control. Rather, it continues on its journey without seeking control. Becoming more like water, we learn that we must be adaptable...and patient. Things do not happen when or how we desire them to happen, but by remaining fluid AND true to our own journey, we remain true to who we are and also free ourselves of the illusions of control and fear that dominate our lives.


For further contemplation: One cannot force a butterfly from its cocoon. It must emerge in its own time.

One must allow a young shoot to grow at its own pace.

Consider the lilies of the field.


Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can....

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Holy Saturday Vigil


Many of us gathered at different times from 8pm until Midnight on this Dark and Holy Saturday to hold Vigil. The Loft was lit only in candlelight, and we came to sit, pray, reflect in silence, and walk the labyrinth. It was a time of silence and reflection as we meditated on the death of Christ in preparation for the celebration of Easter Sunday. We held on to our fragile hope, and we remembered the beauty and splendor of Christ's life...and death.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

Friday, April 10, 2009

Service of Shadows


Our Good Friday service was beautiful, meaningful, and very moving. We began in dim light with candlelight and ended in silent darkness as we journeyed together through the Seven Last Words of Christ....to the grave.

Through spoken words, sacred music, artwork, powerful imagery, prayers, and poetry, we explored the depths of Christ's darkest hours. We remembered and we grieved for our loss.

As we continue our Holy Week journey together, we will be holding Vigil on Dark Saturday from 8pm to Midnight. Come join us when you can for however long you can for silent meditation, reflection, and labyrinth walking with candlelight, artwork, and music.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope that you will join us when you can...

Maundy Thursday

The Maundy Thursday service was a beautiful expression through artwork, song, silent reflection, word, Holy Communion, foot washing, and labyrinth walking. It was a truly moving service.

We explored the tension between the life and death of Christ, and we experienced the radiance of opposites that are present in our daily lives. We celebrated, remembered, and grieved for the loss we feel at this time of the year as Christ underwent the Passion. We focused on the liminal space each of us lives within in our own lives, and we discovered that living a life of paradox is not only healthy and healing but also embodies the life of Christ and his journey to the cross...and the grave.

For further reflection: A poem for Maundy Thursday -

This Last Supper
This Last Breath
His Last Sermon lived out…even to the cross

We share and commune
We wash feet
Tentative and unsure,
We bare our toes
Wondering at the beauty and meaning of this symbolic act

The altar is bare
The garden is still fresh and fragrant
All is quiet before the storm
But soon, He will be gone from us…

Stay, stay, stay…
Frightened and hopeful
Scared and trusting
We are caught, trapped here
Sheep without a shepherd
We grieve…we mourn…and we remember


As our Holy Week journey takes us deeper into darkness and loss, we will reflect on the Seven Last Words of Christ at our candlelight Service of Shadows tonight.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you can join us when you can...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Contemplative Group


This week, we continued our journey through the labyrinth by contemplating the "self." It was a wonderful expression of communal practice through the questioning and questing of subjectivity.

As we journeyed together, we discovered that we do not possess one, unified identity. Rather, we explored the depths of our fragmented subjectivity. We let go of the illusions and fictions we hold together around a unified identity, and we endeavored to delve into the many masks we wear in our lives.

As a spiritual practice, the practice of subjectivity is a difficult path to follow because it comprises who we "are" at any given moment in time. We attempt to present this unified "self" before God, but when we do so, we are not being completely honest with our "selves" or with God. For, we are multi-faceted and polysemic expressions of the Divine, and we must embrace our multiplicity. Whatever we think we are doing, we are always already constructing our subjectivities in the background of who we believe ourselves to "be."

Like a set designer of a play, we construct props and sets for the play of our "self." Some are forgotten, some are altered over the years, some are given too much attention, and some need to be destroyed. By holding on to certain aspects of our "self," we are limiting our own spiritual growth and healing. It is only through the intentional practice of letting go that we truly come towards wholeness within the fragmented multiplicity of our own subjectivities.

For further contemplation: "To be a self is to possess and to be possessed by a name. For every self, the primal scene is the scene of nomination - a scene of naming and being named. This nomination is a vocation, a call that is both a blessing and a curse. A name awakens identity by calling forth, setting apart, establishing difference. Only by a name can the slumberous innocence of anonymity be overcome. This 'gift' is not, however, a simple given. Vocation poses a task - the task of a lifetime. Thus 'the difficulty begins with the name.' The identity bestowed by naming opens rather than closes the drama of selfhood. By marking the paradoxical coincidence of freedom and fate, the name forces each self to decide 'How One Becomes What One Is.'" Mark C. Taylor, Erring: A Postmodern A/theology

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

Thursday, April 2, 2009

InTown Movie Night

We had another great night serving the homeless a meal, vitamins, toiletry kits, and popcorn for the movie! Tonight we showed The Matrix, and we all really enjoyed it. We will be showing the entire Matrix Trilogy over the coming months. Remember that InTown Movie Night happens on the first Thursday of every month.

This is an exciting opportunity for the church to serve the homeless community in Atlanta. We are all together on this journey, and we must practice hospitality and vulnerability in all aspects of our lives. Serving the homeless is a reminder to us all that we are surrounded by a broken world, and we are all in need of healing. InTown Movie Night allows us to offer the castout and marginalized in our world a place of safety, nourishment, and rest...if only for a brief time. And, if we are open and vulnerable, it allows us to learn something about ourselves as well.

Just as we practice meditation through our contemplative group on Sunday evenings, offering service to others through hospitality and vulnerability is a compassionate expression of active meditative living...of re-claiming the sacred art of living intentionally for all of humanity through the holy act of caring for ourselves and for those others around us who share in this journey with us. By cultivating a spirit of vulnerability and hospitality in our daily, spiritual practices, we come to view the world as an opportunity to participate with and express compassion to each of us who are in need of healing.

If you would like to volunteer, just come to the church at 6:15pm on the first Thursday of each month. We would love to have you join us in this sacred practice of service to others.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Contemplative Group

We had another wonderful contemplative group tonight with meditation and labyrinth walking. It was a beautiful expression of our spiritual journey together.

Tonight, we contemplated the concept of "God" and what it means to us. We focused on letting go of all of our expectations and pre-conceptions that we tend to place on the term "God." We discovered that our notions of "God" tend to be more and less of what "God" might come to mean for us through continued spiritual growth. By transforming our approach to conceptions about "God," we explored how our understanding of "God" continues to evolve and grow. We also learned that there is a significant difference between who or what we think "God" should mean and what "God" might signify for us when we release our presuppositions about "God" and simply let the Divine Mystery be in all of its wonderment and fluidity.

Letting go is an important part of our Lenten journey together, and we continued our journey of growth this week by realizing that even the expectations we place on "God" can be a hindrance to our spiritual development. Letting go of these expectations can be truly healing and growthful.

For further contemplation: "The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt." Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be

Wherever you are on your path, you are welcome to participate with us as we share our journey together. We hope you will join us when you can...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Artistic/Spiritual Expressions

At the Selah Center, we are always looking for ways to participate with the local artist and music community here in Atlanta. Currently, we are seeking to begin Drama Therapy and/or Acting Classes. If you are interested, please contact us so you can sign up for these classes.

We are also currently scheduling musical performances, theatre productions, rehearsal space, and local art showings in our DHBC Theatre Underground. If you are interested, please email josh.ritter@dhbc.org for booking information and available dates.

If you are wanting to deepen your personal spirituality, we always have our Contemplative Group that meets every Sunday evening a 8pm. For more personal growth, Erica Hartman will be scheduling one on one Spiritual Autobiography sessions. These are times when Erica will guide you through writing and re-discovering your spiritual autobiography. This is an important spiritual practice that we could all benefit from in our daily lives. We hope you will consider this as an option for your continuing growth and development. Contact hartmanerica@yahoo.com for more information.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to the Selah Center of Poncey-Highland weblog. We hope you enjoy your visit!

As you will learn from our website, we are an experimental Christian community within the Druid Hills Baptist Church. The Selah Center seeks to practice meditation and inter-religious dialogue in order to offer inner growth and transformation for the outward expressions of compassion, love, and justice, which come to life through our creative communal interactions and spiritual practices.

We attempt the intentional creation of sacred time and sacred space for an active spiritual life through meditative and contemplative practices that foster the mind, body, and spirit. We will use this blog to engage in theological discussions as well as provide discussions on our journey together through practicing alternative ways of being in the world. Living a life of transformation is a difficult path, but we are committed to accepting this strenuous calling. Please join us on our journey.