Category: Uncategorized
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Chapter 2: Reflection 27 – Battling Heart-wounds
“With al keping kepe thin herte, for lijf cometh forth of it.” (Wycliffe Bible, Proverbs 4.23) 1 The third verse of Langri Thangpa’s 8 Verses reads “During all my activities I will probe my mind, / And as soon as an affliction arises – / Since it endangers myself and others – / I will…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 26 – Allowing Others to be of Supreme Importance
“No thing bi strijf, nether by veyn glorie, but in mekenesse, demynge eche othere to be heiyer than hym silf.” (Wycliffe Bible, Philippians 2:4) 1 In the second stanza of his Eight Verses on Mind Training, Langri Thangpa (1054-1093) writes: “Whenever I interact with others, / I will view myself as inferior to all; /…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 25 – Transformed into Nothing but Pure Joy
In his short 1999 book How to Generate Bodhicitta, Tibetan Buddhist monk, Ribur Rinpoche (1923-2005) teaches: What is the measure or sign of having generated great compassion in your mind? It is that you feel towards all sentient beings the same wish for them to be free of suffering that a mother would feel for…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 24 – Generating Compassion Until Tears Flow
While the eyes of many Christians in the medieval West glistened with compassionate devotion, so did those of many spiritual practitioners in the Land of Snows, and with no less tenderness. The great Kadam master, Geshe Langri Thangpa (1054-1124), who is “famed for his great compassion,” was often in tears, because of “his constantly contemplating…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 23 – Wound Me with the Wound of Compassion
The American Christian pastor and evangelical preacher, A, W. Tozer (1897-1963), had a great affinity for Julian of Norwich and for other Christian mystics. Indeed, his biographer affirms that “the writings of these Christian mystics were woven like threads of silver and gold into the fabric of Tozer’s discourses. He cited them, paraphrased them, imitated…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 22 – I Press My Palms Together
In medieval English spirituality, “contrition” was of a piece with both sacramental confession, which was frequently referred to as “shrift,” and penance. In “The Parson’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer writes of this three-step process: “Now shalt thou understand what is suitable and necessary to true, perfect Penitence. And this consists of three things: Contrition of Heart,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 21 – Stirring, Soothing, and Piercing the Heart
It is from Origen of Alexandria and other ancient exegetes that Bernard of Clairvaux drew and developed the image of “the wound,” particularly in his commentarial Sermons on the Song of Songs. 1 In his seventy-fourth sermon of that collection, the Cistercian Abbot demonstrates having received the breathing inheritance bequeathed to him and skillfully extends…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 20 – Wounds of Love
In the last sentences of Chapter 2, Julian writes: “For the third [gift], by the grace of God and teching of holy church, I conceived a mighty desire to receive thre woundes in my life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wilful longing to God.”…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 19 – The Little Way of Heroic Martyrdom
In 1887, the fourteenth year-old Thérèse Martin, who is now known at Saint Thérèse of Lisieux or the Little Flower of Jesus, her Celine and their father, Louis, made a pilgrimage to Rome. 1 During the trip, this small band of French pilgrims visited the holy sites of the Eternal City, and the sites linked…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 18 – Compassionate Solidarity
When reading of Julian’s “wilful” desire for the “gifte of a bodily sicknes,” one is struck by the level of specificity with which she details the type of illness she desires. As mentioned above, she wants the malady to bring her to the point of death, but her additional specificity is striking: “In this sicknes…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 16 – Steeled by Closeness to Death
Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-254) is a figure with whom TM seems to have identified. 1 And such a sense of affinity can be understood, for while there are certainly differences between to these two Christian men, there are tender points of connection. Indeed, the lives of each were marked by early exposure to intense…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 15 – To Die Without Dying
In her request for the “gift” of a “bodily sicknes,” Julian provides a significant amount of detail about the type of malady she requested. 1 She states that she wished that the sickness would bring her to the very point of death, so that both she and those around her would believe that she was…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 14 – The Kind Gift of Sickness
“For the secunde, come to my mind with contrition, frely without any seking: a wilful desire to have of Gods gifte a bodily sicknes.” 1 Thus does Julian name the second of three gifts she desires of God. In a culture that invests so much in preventing illness and its symptoms, it can seem so…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 13 – Tibetan Christmas Cards
In his book, A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic, Dezhung Rinpoche, author David Jackson describes something of the relationship between the Tibetan Buddhist lama and one of his students, Jesuit Richard Sherburne. Father Sherburne studied regularly with Rinpoche while he was a student at the University of Washington (Seattle). Much of…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 12 – Love at a Refined Pitch
In 1984, scholar José Ignacio Cabezón published a review article which focused on Father Richard Sherburne’s English translation of Atisa’s A Lamp for the Enlightenment Path. 1 In this piece, Professor Cabezón affirms the “success” and the “immediate popularity” of Atisa’s 11th century text and its ability both to avoid the “extensive dialectics that were…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 11 – Watched Over Me with the Eyes of Love
Through the teaching of reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhists believe that all sentient beings have been one’s mother, and father, and sister, and brother an incalculable number of times. Using “mother” as the name of a primary relationship embodying the quality of loving kindness, Tibetan Buddhists affirm this vast communion of relationships when they speak of other…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 10 – Opening Wide the Inner Eye of the Soul
Julian’s desire for a deeper “mind of the passion of Christ” clearly involves the ability to “see” his sufferings, and that visual access is intended to be a type of window through which she can experience a more intimate solidarity and communion with Christ, and with the others who loved him. 1 These others, who…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 9 – To Help All Other Sentient Beings
Within the vast corpus of Tibetan Buddhist literature is a genre of writing that stands out for its inspiration power, poignant fervor, and down-to-earth practicality, all of which have made these teachings dear to the Tibetan people for generations. I am referring to a collection of texts and their associated spiritual practices known simply as…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 8 – A Vision Enlightened by Charity
The man was so kind, so tendered-hearted that many would have regarded him as perilously indulgent … There was no one wild enough, wicked enough, violent enough, ungrateful enough to be beyond the range of Aelred’s forgiveness and forbearance and tender mercy. 1 Thus does TM paint the portrait of the 12th century Cistercian abbot,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 7 – See, Gaze Upon, Behold
Another pioneering figure in the long lineage of teachers of what has come to be called by modern scholars, “affective piety,” is the 12th century Cistercian abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx. 1 Under Aelred’s abbatial leadership, Rievaulx abbey in North Yorkshire was said to have tripled in size. But more important than numbers were the character…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 6 – Student and Teacher – Very Close, Warm Relation
It is clear from the testimony of his students that Geshe Lhundop Sopa embodied a Tibetan tradition of spiritual and religious teaching which stretched back to Atisa. 1 Indeed, more than one student overtly likened him to the 11th century Indian scholar. 2 However, in his genuine humility, he would become quite uncomfortable at such…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 5 – That I Might Have Seen
As Chapter Two begins, Julian explains that “this revelation” was made to her, “a simple creature unlettered,” on May 8, 1373. She further shares that she had “before” longed for three gifts, 1) “mind of the passion”; 2) “bodily sicknes”; and 3) three “wounds”: i. “very contrition,” ii. “kind compassion,” and iii. “wilful longing for…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 4 – Two Figures Made Almost as One
It has been said that by the time of his death 1337, the artist Giotto di Bondone “had revived painting from its long sleep” and that his “brush created figures that truly seemed to live and breathe.” 1 One of the greatest testimonies to his visionary abilities is inscribed on the walls of a small chapel…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 3 – Be Like a Swan
“This revelation was shewed to a simple creature unlettered, living in deadly flesh …” 1 The adjective “deadly” carries a number of meanings and resonances in modern English and in Middle English. These certainly include “subject to death” and “mortal,” but also “perishable, fleeting, transitory.” 2 The evanescent quality of embodied human life, and indeed,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 2 – He was Washing Dishes in the Sink
When TM expressed his desire to study Dzogchen to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader recommended that TM get a solid grounding in the philosophical tradition that the Tibetans inherited from earlier Indian Buddhist scholars. To do this, His Holiness suggested that TM “consult qualified Tibetan scholars, uniting study and practice,” and one of the…
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Chapter 2: Refection 1 – An Evanescent Anonymity
In Eve’s exchange with the Serpent, the Mother of All Living offers a teaching, an exemplum, of the tender and illusive condition that is at the heart of all human suffering – our inability to see things as they really are. 1 Indeed, we see them “as more than they are.” And then, based on…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 20 – To See and Not to See
At the end of her first chapter, after just describing the last of her showings and the Trinity’s dwelling and activity in the soul “for love,” Julian writes these words of hope, trust – and maybe, holy defiance: “And we shall not be overcome by our enemy.” 1 These words, both their message and placement,…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 19 – A Fecundity Which Must Pour Itself Out
What has been said of Bernard of Clairvaux might well be said of Julian of Norwich: “Everything he concerns himself with either leads to love or is explained by love.” 1 The early Cistercian abbot was a very significant presence in TM’s religious, spiritual, and theological development. Two quotations from insightful historians paint an introductory…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 18 – Chewing with the Mind and the Heart
When Harold Talbott, TM’s Dharamsala host, recounted the Cistercian monk’s three audiences and conversations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he reported that “tradition” was one of the topics about which His Holiness inquired: When [The Dalai Lama] was asking Merton about Catholicism, he wanted to know about the monastic tradition. And Merton told him…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 17 – To Give Everything, Everything
The man who served as TM’s host in Dharamsala, Harold Talbott, was interviewed in Louisville, Kentucky in December 2000 to mark the 32nd anniversary of TM’s death. After his 1968 encounter with the Trappist pilgrim, Harold continued his sincere study and generous practice of Tibetan Buddhism. 1 And his gracious practice, his “gentle, humorous, insightful…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 16 – The School of Charity
On the second day in Dharamsala, TM was truly experiencing a sense of connection, as he writes in his journal: “I do feel very much at home with the Tibetans…” 1 In another entry from the same day, TM allows himself to imagine the ways in which such a rich spiritual culture might inform his…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 15 – There is Something About Lepers
Early in his first prayer to St. Mary, Anselm presents himself to the Mother of Mercy as one made unclean by the disease of his sins: “I long to come before you in my misery, sick with the sickness of vice, in pain from the wounds of crimes, putrid with the ulcers of sin.” 1…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 14 – Feeling of Wele and Woe
When asked how innovative it was that Anselm combined more “devotional” material, such as prayers, with more “discursive” material, such philosophical arguments, scholar Eileen Sweeney provides additional insight into what TM describes as the “wonderful unity” of prayer and philosophy in Anselm. The professor explains that the “contrasts in Anselm between those two elements comes…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 13 – A Perfect Synthesis
In the first of a series of five conferences on Anselm of Canterbury which he offered to the novices at Gethsemani Abbey between June and December of 1963, TM, in his very first words, challenges his students to fortify themselves for the task before them: Now I want to get into this deal with St.…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 12 – The Emptying Crown
Julian begins her introduction of the first “shewing” with the words: “[t]he first is of his [Jesus’] precious crowning of thorns. And in this was included and specified the blessed trinity, with the incarnation and the union between God and man’s soul.” 1 In her visions of the crucified Christ, the crowning of thorns becomes…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 11 – A Guide in the Desert
The first English language translation of Atisa’s Lamp for the Path and indeed the Indian scholar’s complete works, was undertaken and completed by a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, who was also present during several of TM’s encounters with Tibetan Buddhist masters in 1968. The Jesuit worked on his translation of Atisa’s writings under the direction…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 10 – The Stars in the Bright Sky
TM’s now famous meetings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama almost did not take place. Indeed, Harold Talbott shares that the Roman Catholic spiritual seeker was not – at least initially – in any way interested in wasting his precious pilgrimage time meeting hierarchs, regardless of their religious persuasion. Harold recalls a conversation he had…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 9 – A Broken and Happy Heart
There is a maxim among those who have long served people in need that when engaging someone who is confused, agitated, and even traumatized, you try to speak softly, but clearly; you simplify as much as possible, without being condescending; you strive, as best you can, to convey your kind regard and respect for them;…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 8 – A Satisfying Word
Anselm’s Prayers and Meditations would have a profound and lasting impact on the spirituality, devotion, and meditation practices of Western European Christianity in the Middle Ages. 1 And we can hear the distinct echoes of that legacy in the language of Julian’s first chapter, with its emphasis on the Passion of Christ. Although an evolution…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 7 – She Told Him to Go … So Off He Went
When Anselm of Canterbury was about 11 years old, on the other side of the world, a very significant figure emerged in the history of Buddhism in Tibet, namely, the Indian Bengali teacher Atisa Dīpamkara (982-1054). And there are intriguing similarities between these two men. Both were skilled and successful scholars and philosophers, both were…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 6 – Omnium Sanctorum & The Birth of the Blues
After spending some time in Bangkok, Calcutta, and New Delhi, it was on the first of November, the great Feast of All Saints – In Festo Omnium Sanctorum – that the TM arrived in Dharamsala, the northern Indian city on the edge of the Himalayas. 1 It was here that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 5 – Nether by Veyn Glorie, But in Mekenesse
In 1988, Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at Oxford, and Maggie Ross (Martha Reeves), an Anglican Solitary or Anchorite, made a commitment to read and discuss Julian’s A Revelation together. 1 But this was no ordinary collaborative reading endeavor. Although they together brought years of study, reflection, and discipline to this…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 4 – A Passion for the Passion
In the very first words of A Revelation, Julian references the Passion of Christ as she begins to introduce her showings: “[O]f which the first is about his precious crowning of thorns.” 1 The first chapter contains a number of such references, which identify critically important imagery and themes for the rest of the text:…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 3 – The Great Compassion, Mahakaruna
By the time he boarded the Pan American flight that began his journey to Asia, TM had already been engaged in dialogue with the continent’s spiritual traditions for many years. And on that Tuesday, October 15th, the 53-year-old Trappist monk was filled with an almost dreamlike excitement: The moment of take-off was ecstatic. The dewy…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 2 – One of My Best Friends
It appears that Thomas Merton (TM) began reading – or possibly, re-reading – Julian’s writings in 1961. 1 In a journal entry of Easter Sunday (April 2nd) of that year, TM notes briefly that he had been “reading bits of Dame Julian of Norwich” the day before, Holy Saturday. 2 By the end of that…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 1 – A Treasure of Wisdom and Blessings
On page 425 of the fifth volume of his magisterial work, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, after 2000 pages of richly researched, insightfully interpreted, and warmly delivered teachings on the Saints and the Greats of the preceding tradition, Bernard McGinn begins his essay on Julian of Norwich with these words:…
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May 8, 2022 – Beginnings
At the end of A Revelation of Love, the anchorite Julian of Norwich (c.1343-c.1416) writes, “This book is begun by God’s gift and his grace, but it is not yet performed, as I see it.” 1 This seemingly simply statement is an authentic act of genuine humility. It is not a rhetorical flourish made to feign modesty, as…
Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas 