Archives | Above All Love

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation

by John Borlik | Nov 14, 2021 | Rohr

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Image Credit: Rose B. Simpson, The Secret of Flight (detail), 2015, sculpture.

Week Forty-Six: Spirituality and Addiction

A Willingness to Change

Throughout his ministry, Father Richard Rohr has recognized the power of Twelve-Step programs to bring about spiritual transformation. The steps parallel the counterintuitive wisdom of Jesus:

What the ego hates more than anything else is to change—even when the present situation is not working or is horrible. Instead, we do more and more of what does not work, as many others have rightly said about addicts. The reason we do anything one more time is because the last time did not really satisfy us deeply. As the English poet W. H. Auden (1907–1973) put it: “We would rather be ruined than changed, / We would rather die in our dread / Than climb the cross of the moment / And let our illusions die.” [1]

Addicts—which I’m convinced are all of us, in one way or another—have an intense resistance to change. We like predictability and control. That’s one of the reasons addicts find it easier to have a relationship with a process or a substance rather than with people. Unlike objects, people are unpredictable. Having a drink, making a purchase, or turning to our devices can change our superficial mood very quickly. Even though the mood shift doesn’t last, it makes us feel like we are in control for a while. We don’t have to change our thinking or way of relating to people. We don’t have to sit with our boredom, discomfort, or anger, which short-circuits our ability to grow up and to move beyond whatever is in our way.

In the process of healing and gaining sobriety, salvation becomes not just something we believe, but something we begin to experience through the process of transformation through grace. Both Jesus and Paul were change agents. They were hated by their own groups precisely because they were constantly talking about change. The first thing Jesus said when he started preaching was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The word usually translated as “repent” is the Greek word metanoia, which is surely best translated as “turn around your mind” or “change your thinking.” Most of us won’t move toward any new way of thinking or actual change until we’re forced to do so, which usually means some form of suffering or disturbance that upsets our habitual path.

Until we bottom out and come to the limits of our own fuel supply, there is no reason for us to switch to a higher octane of fuel. Why would we want to change? We will not learn to actively draw upon a Larger Source until our usual resources are depleted and revealed as wanting. In fact, we will not even know there is a Larger Source until our own source and resources fail us. Until and unless there is a person, situation, event, idea, conflict, or relationship that we cannot “manage,” we will never find the True Manager.

[1] W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, ed. Alan Jacobs (Princeton University Press: 2011), 105.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, How Do We Breathe Under Water?: The Gospel and 12-Step Spirituality (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2005), CD, DVD, MP3; and

Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Franciscan Media: 2011, 2021), 3–4, 6.

Image Credit: Rose B. Simpson, The Secret of Flight (detail), 2015, sculpture.

We featured the artist of these sculptures, Rose B. Simpson, at our recent CONSPIRE conference—so many of us were impacted by her creations that we decided to share her work with our Daily Meditations community for the month of November.

Image Inspiration: I’m this post-colonial, bi-cultural being in the world who has experienced. . . the gift of perspective in context in this foundation but also this deep asking of why. Why do we do the things we do? Why do we live the way we do? Why have the things happened to us that have happened and why do we continue to abuse each other and also our environment and ourselves? —Rose B. Simpson, CONSPIRE Interview, 2021

Learn more about the Daily Meditations Editorial Team.

Prayer For Our Community

Loving God, you fill all things with a fullness and hope that we can never comprehend. Thank you for leading us into a time where more of reality is being unveiled for us all to see. We pray that you will take away our natural temptation for cynicism, denial, fear and despair. Help us have the courage to awaken to greater truth, greater humility, and greater care for one another. May we place our hope in what matters and what lasts, trusting in your eternal presence and love. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our suffering world. Please add your own intentions . . . Knowing, good God, you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God. Amen.
Listen to Father Richard pray this prayer aloud.

Story From Our Community

When my first marriage ended, I immersed grief in alcohol, drugs, women, and denial. Through an overdose, I met Jesus, “my savior.” I discovered my grief was not about the relationship ending, but thinking my desire to serve God was gone. Who would want me? The answer—God! Through this realization, I am able to serve God and my sisters and brothers as an addiction and mental health counselor.
—Gary C.
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News from the CAC

**Explore the Contemplative Dimensions of Healing Trauma with James Finley**

In this free audio series, Healing Trauma, clinical psychologist and CAC teacher James Finley guides listeners into contemplative healing as a response to suffering. James outlines seven steps that intentionally invite spirituality onto the journey of healing trauma.

**Now Streaming: Love. Period Season 2**

How do we live justly? Discover ways to choose fairness and equality every day (hint: it starts with loving yourself!) with Jacqui Lewis of NYC’s Middle Church. Season Two of our podcast Love. Period follows her new book “Fierce Love”—revealing a bold path for a better life and a more just world.

Explore Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations archive at cac.org.

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Christianity & Buddhism

by John Borlik | Nov 11, 2021 | Ecumenicalism

Christian contemplation and also Buddhist reflection share a typical goal. Both seek to de-center the thinking mind to allow a deeper experience of reality, love, as well as empathy to arise:

Words Buddha suggests “I am awake.” Jesus informed us in a variety of areas to stay awake and mindful (Matthew 24:42; Mark 13:33– 37; Luke 21:36). However, awareness is not something that simply implies considering points carefully or being actually mindful. The Buddhists mention objectless awareness, where we are not conscious of anything in particular. It is a breathtaking, responsive recognition whereby we absorb all that the circumstance, the moment, the event uses, without removing anything. That really does not come naturally to us. We have to work at it! All types of meditation, as well as contemplation, are instructing us in some way to separate our assuming mind. Some have even called it the “ape mind,” because it keeps leaping from monitoring to observation, believed after idea, sensation after sensation, the majority of which indicate very little. We have actually lived with it for numerous years that we take the monkey mind as normative.

What the wonderful traditions, such as Buddhism, instruct us is that the ape mind truly is instead worthless when we get to things like the fact, love, freedom, infinity, infinity, and God. The ape mind can’t access such points and has no capability to take them in at any deepness. What we need to do is find out various minds, which we Christians call contemplation. Reflection is not churchy, pious, or peaceful. It has little to do with having a withdrawn individuality. It actually is a different mind– it’s not thinking, which is what we suggest by calling it objectless understanding. We do not focus on any particular things of consciousness.

Paradoxically, the path to get to objectless recognition is, to begin with simply one point, one object. We could also call it practicing awareness. Below is an invitation: I motivate you to take some time today to concentrate on one single item. Focus on it not so much with your mind, yet with your detects. See it wherefore it is– its texture, its form, its giftedness, its gratuity, its shade, its representation of light, its isness. Concentrate on this item up until your mind or vanity stops combating the minute and also quits claiming something to this impact: “This is ridiculous. This is silly. This doesn’t indicate anything. This doesn’t make a little bit of difference.”

If we can absolutely enjoy this, whatever this is, it ends up being the portal to everything. Exactly how we like one point is ultimately just how we love every little thing. We need to locate our capability to see, to enjoy, to accept, to forgive, and to delight in something. If we can not indulge in one reptile or one fallen leave, we are not going to delight in God. How we see is how we see. Just how we do anything is just how we do every little thing.

All forms of meditation and contemplation are teaching us some methods to compartmentalize our thinking mind. Some have even called it the “monkey mind,” because it keeps jumping from monitoring to monitoring, assumed after thought, feeling after sensation, many of which suggest very little. What the fantastic traditions, such as Buddhism, instruct us is that the monkey mind actually is rather useless when we get to things like reality, love, flexibility, infinity, endless time, and God. What we have to do is learn various minds, which we Christians call reflection. It really is a various mind– it’s not believing, which is what we suggest by calling it objectless awareness.