Biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake, a former Fellow of Clare College Cambridge, believes that being completely present in sport is to enter the joy, energy and flow of the Holy Spirit. Once an atheist, Dr Sheldrake returned to the Christian faith after living in a Christian ashram in India. The following is an edited extract from a talk* he gave on 20 May about his most recent books: ‘Science and Spiritual Practices’ and ‘Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work’.
Jane Goodall on finding ‘a great spiritual power’ in the forests of Gombe
The bird and the wire mesh
A little bird trapped behind a wire mesh is a poignant metaphor for those in prison, as well as those imprisoned by fear, illness or despair, reflects Patrick Gormally. A volunteer Catholic Prison Chaplain, he is a retired university professor and Head of Department of Romance Languages. He and his wife Marie-Cécile live in an Old Rectory in New Aquitaine, south western France.
Finding God by attending to the miracle of creation
American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, found God through being truly present, particularly to the natural world, and in the compassion, love, wonder and gratitude she experienced as a result. *Dr Cath Connelly celebrates one of the great poets of our time, who challenges us with the question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
For the world’s sake, we must hold fast to the ‘little piece of God’ in us
A revolution in wisdom vital for our time
An extraordinary and life-changing spiritual experience when he was a young man shaped the rest of Bruno Barnhart’s life. It led the Californian Camaldolese Benedictine Monk, who died in 2015, to devote his life’s work to recovering and re-conceiving Christian wisdom today, centred on and emanating from the one great revolutionary event of the Cross. Dr Chris Morris, who completed a PhD* on Barnhart in 2020, explains why he has found Barnhart’s ideas “compelling and endlessly engaging”.
Our future depends on the ‘loving eye’ replacing the ‘arrogant eye’
The ecological crisis – a ‘wicked problem’ requiring some ancient wisdom
Refuse the busyness of the world; rest on the bedrock of your humanity
‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’
The most important reason for a contemplative practice like meditation or mindfulness is that it taps into what author Maggie Ross has described as “deep mind”, a deep spring of love and compassion. Jesus called it “living water”. Thomas Aquinas said God is compassion, and that “Compassion is the fire that Jesus came to set on the earth”.
Silence a ‘source of empowerment; without it we are lost’
“We have got to the point where a soundless world has practically ceased to exist, and we are the poorer for it,” writes Cistercian monk and author Michael Casey in Balaam’s Donkey. “Recently I have read several accounts written by brave adventurers who have put aside their electronic devices for an hour, a day, or even a week and been astonished to discover the richness of a life without incessant interruptions and noise.”
Learning to love, not just tolerate, those who are ‘difficult’
One of Christianity’s most radical demands is that we are not merely to tolerate those we find difficult, but actually love them. No wonder the Catholic writer and philosopher GK Chesterton observed: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Meditation – a glimpse of the Resurrection
At Easter we celebrate Resurrection and liberation from the fear of death – something we can experience through meditation by transcending the constant cycle of the death and rebirth of our thoughts, and abiding in what is eternal, says Benedictine monk Fr Laurence Freeman. He is also Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) and author of many books on meditation including Jesus the Teacher Within (Continuum, 2001), Light Within (Canterbury Press Norwich 2008) and First Sight – the Experience of Faith (Continuum 2011). This interview with Roland Ashby, which first appeared in 2002*, is reproduced here to mark WCCM’s 30th anniversary, which occurs this year.
Easter summons us to join the ‘gang of the crazy’
The mystical branch of Islam – Sufism – has produced one of the world’s great mystics: the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. His prayer calling for the Beloved to set him free by dragging him into the gang of those crazy with the ecstasy of love, provides a profound insight into Christ and the meaning of Easter.
Aligning ourselves with the Real is unimaginable bliss says Rowan Williams
Meditation is not about having “nice experiences” or becoming more “effective” in whatever we do, but about “aligning ourselves with the Real and the True”, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on 9 February. He was speaking via zoom on the theme of ‘Meditation – with or without expectations’ as part of a monthly series of talks organised by the Bonnevaux Centre for Peace, the international home of the World Community for Christian Meditation in France.
‘Sacred activism’ the only way to save the world
If the world is to be saved then human consciousness must undergo a radical transformation, argues Indian-born author, teacher and mystic Andrew Harvey. He spoke to Roland Ashby about humanity’s exploitation of nature and addiction to greed, and how this ‘global dark night’ is a wake-up call to bring to birth a new consciousness.
The world needs ‘hunter-gatherers of goodness’
Getting on the ‘inside’ of faith and finding the ‘missing link’
After studying theology at Oxford, Dr Sarah Bachelard left the church. But then she encountered Christian meditation, which she says took her out of her head and into her heart. She went on to become an Anglican priest, and in 2012 began a new church in Canberra – Benedictus Contemplative Church, which incorporates silent meditation into its services. She spoke to Roland Ashby about her spiritual journey and her latest book A Contemplative Christianity for Our Time. You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/nXqK3KU8Lzk or read an edited transcript below.
Science, religion, contemplation and imagination all keys to unlocking the universe
That the universe is ordered, and that such order can be perceived, and its inner structures imagined, has profound theological significance, according to theoretical physicist Dr Tom McLeish, Fellow of the Royal Society and Inaugural Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York in England. Professor McLeish, a Christian, whose recent books include Faith and Wisdom in Science (OUP 2014) and The Poetry and Music of Science (OUP 2019), here argues that the ‘conflict’ between science and faith is an invented illusion that melts away when the history and present experience of scientific imagination are considered seriously.
Zen, Christian meditation and depression
UK author and long-time meditator Jim Green has worked for many years in the field of mental health, including at the Open University and the BBC. Here, in this extract from his latest book Giving Up without Giving Up – Meditation and Depressions, he draws on his extensive experience in both the Buddhist and Christian traditions to explore the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Christian meditation, and how meditation can be both crucifixion and resurrection, especially for those suffering from depression.