The development of the prophetic life in the West depends on the cultural gift of the Far East—a
commitment to awareness, to presence, to what is going on before the eyes of the seeker at the
present moment. Where Westerners calculate the nature of life in large, sweeping concepts, in grand
theological “truths” the spiritual masters of the Far East plumb the depths of the present. The Eastern
mind wrings cosmic truth out of the simplest of acts. The Zen master, in fact, has taught through the
ages, “O wonder of wonders, I chop wood. I draw water from the well.” What is going on now, here, at
this very moment, in other words, is the stuff of spirituality. Not ideas only, not religious disciplines
only, not “belief” in the academic sense of the word, not even “good acts” satisfy for the Eastern
notion of “the spiritual life.”
The capacity for consciousness may be exactly what is lacking in the Western soul. That may be why
charity, but not prophecy, marks the religious imagination of the modern world. That may be exactly
the reason why the pollution of the globe and the rise of nuclear weaponry has sprung up willy-nilly,
like mushrooms after rain, in Western society: We look but we do not see. We act but we do not think.
We plan but we do not reflect. We pray but we do not contemplate. We are more pragmatic than we
are ethical. If it works we do it. We ask only rarely, if at all, whether what is technically possible is also
morally appropriate, really life-enhancing, good for children and other living things. The whole effect is,
far too often, “progress” without respect for established priorities, profit without human progress at all.
The real problem may be that we are not a contemplative people. But if that is the case, its corollary is
all too clear: the real problem is that without a contemplative mode of life we will never be a prophetic
people.
Centeredness, awareness, contemplative presence catapult even the most average of persons from a
kind of robotized existence to the very heights of humanity, to the absolute depths of the human soul.
But it is precisely there, in the depths of the seeing soul, that the word of God begins to make spiritual
demands.
Normalcy, compassion and endurance mark the prophetic endeavor, yes. But centeredness compels it.
We need to be able to ask “why” and “with what long-term effects” and “at what cost to the values we
hold most dear?” Those are the questions that preoccupy the serious Christian, that drive the saints,
that impel the prophet.
–from The Cry of the Prophet: A Call to Fullness of Life by Joan Chittister
commitment to awareness, to presence, to what is going on before the eyes of the seeker at the
present moment. Where Westerners calculate the nature of life in large, sweeping concepts, in grand
theological “truths” the spiritual masters of the Far East plumb the depths of the present. The Eastern
mind wrings cosmic truth out of the simplest of acts. The Zen master, in fact, has taught through the
ages, “O wonder of wonders, I chop wood. I draw water from the well.” What is going on now, here, at
this very moment, in other words, is the stuff of spirituality. Not ideas only, not religious disciplines
only, not “belief” in the academic sense of the word, not even “good acts” satisfy for the Eastern
notion of “the spiritual life.”
The capacity for consciousness may be exactly what is lacking in the Western soul. That may be why
charity, but not prophecy, marks the religious imagination of the modern world. That may be exactly
the reason why the pollution of the globe and the rise of nuclear weaponry has sprung up willy-nilly,
like mushrooms after rain, in Western society: We look but we do not see. We act but we do not think.
We plan but we do not reflect. We pray but we do not contemplate. We are more pragmatic than we
are ethical. If it works we do it. We ask only rarely, if at all, whether what is technically possible is also
morally appropriate, really life-enhancing, good for children and other living things. The whole effect is,
far too often, “progress” without respect for established priorities, profit without human progress at all.
The real problem may be that we are not a contemplative people. But if that is the case, its corollary is
all too clear: the real problem is that without a contemplative mode of life we will never be a prophetic
people.
Centeredness, awareness, contemplative presence catapult even the most average of persons from a
kind of robotized existence to the very heights of humanity, to the absolute depths of the human soul.
But it is precisely there, in the depths of the seeing soul, that the word of God begins to make spiritual
demands.
Normalcy, compassion and endurance mark the prophetic endeavor, yes. But centeredness compels it.
We need to be able to ask “why” and “with what long-term effects” and “at what cost to the values we
hold most dear?” Those are the questions that preoccupy the serious Christian, that drive the saints,
that impel the prophet.
–from The Cry of the Prophet: A Call to Fullness of Life by Joan Chittister
THE STUFF OF SPIRITUALITY
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