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....