CHRISTIANINSIGHT

MEDITATION

Following in the Footstepsof John of the Cross

MARY JO MEADOWKEVIN CULLIGAN | DANIEL CHOWNING

Following in the Footstepsof John of the Cross

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MEDITATION

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Foreword by Joseph Goldstein | preface by Thomas Ryan, CSPCHRISTIAN LIFE / SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Harness meditation’s powerto enhance Christian life.

“This book lucidly shows us how much Christian insight meditation supportsthe purifying path to God and self-knowledge taught by the great CarmeliteChristian contemplatives. I highly recommend it for anyone seeking a seriouscontemplatively-oriented meditation practice aimed at a truer, freer life.”

—TILDEN EDWARDS, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation

THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN INSIGHT MEDITATION can enliven one’s entire prayerlife. It can prepare our hearts to hear God’s word in new ways, set the stage for new

insight into the deeper meaning of the words and symbols we celebrate in Christian wor-ship and practice, and help us to grow in the purity of heart, poverty of spirit, and empti-ness of self that dispose us for God’s work in our lives. The practice is particularly valuablefor taking prayer beyond discursiveness, petition, and thinking. Christian insight meditationis nothing short of a powerful way to “pray always” and practice loving presence to God.

Drawing heavily on the teachings of St. John of the Cross, and also drawing from theilluminating writings of Teresa of Avila, the authors here offer a masterful explication of apractice and path firmly grounded in the meditative technology of Eastern wisdom yetwholly and vividly Christian in spirit.

“A wonderfully clear explanation and a very practical guide.”—TOM WEST, O.F.M., Ph.D., The Franciscan School of Theology

MARY JO MEADOW, a retired professor of psychology and religious studies, is a Sister forChristian Community and a secular Carmelite. She has studied with meditation teachers JosephGoldstein and Sayadaw U Pandita and has been teaching insight meditation since 1987. KEVING. CULLIGAN is a leading scholar of spirituality and a founding member of the Institute ofCarmelite Studies.DANIEL CHOWNING is a director for theWashington Province of DiscalcedCarmelites.

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ISBN-10: 0-86171-526-8 US $16.95ISBN-13: 978-0861-71-526-8

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Christian Insight Meditation:Following in the Footsteps of John of the Cross

Christian Insight+Meditation

Following in the Footsteps of

John of the Cross

Mary Jo Meadow, Ed.

By Mary Jo Meadow, Kevin Culligan,and Daniel Chowning

Foreword by Joseph GoldsteinPreface by Thomas Ryan, CSP

Wisdom Publications • Boston

Wisdom Publications199 Elm StreetSomerville MA 02144 USAwww.wisdompubs.org

© 2007Mary Jo MeadowAll rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, elec-tronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any informa-tion storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or laterdeveloped, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMeadow, Mary Jo, 1936–Christian insight meditation : following in the footsteps of John of the Cross / byMary Jo Meadow, Kevin Culligan, and Daniel Chowning ; Mary Jo Meadow, editor.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 0-86171-526-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)1. John of the Cross, Saint, 1542–1591. 2. Spiritual life—Catholic Church. 3.Spiritual life—Buddhism. I. Culligan, Kevin G. II. Chowning, Daniel. III. Title.BX4700.J7M43 2007248.3’4—dc22

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The material in this book is a revised and expanded edition of Purifying the Heart:Buddhist Insight Meditation for Christians by Kevin Culligan,Mary JoMeadow, and DanielChowning

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To the participants in our Silence andAwareness retreats,who have inspired and encouraged us.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.—Matthew 5:8

When you are purged of all impurity,and the stain of all passion is gone,

you can enter the blessed abode of the saints.—The Dhammapada, 236

Table of Contents

Preface by Thomas Ryan, CSP ixForeword by Joseph Goldstein xiEditor’s Preface xiii

Part I: Foundations 1

1. Purity of Heart: The Teaching and Example of Jesus 3

2. The Buddhist Tradition of Insight Meditation 13

3. The Carmelite Tradition of Prayer 23

Part II: Meditation Instructionsand Guidance in Practice 33

4. Instructions for Insight Practice: Preparation,Breath, Body, Thinking 35

5. Instructions for Insight Practice:Other Senses, Mind-States, Points of Freedom,Walking 45

6. EstablishingYour Meditation Practice 55

7. Getting Guidance in Practice 65

8. The Course of Practice 75

Part III: Three Levels of Purification:John of the Cross and TheravadanBuddhism Compared 85

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9. John of the Cross on Purity of Conduct:Purification of DisorderedAppetites 87

10. Teachings of the Buddha on Purity of Conduct:The Gift of Morality 97

11. John of the Cross on Purity of Mind:Purification of Intellect, Memory, andWill 107

12. Teachings of the Buddha on Purity of Mind:Purification of Mental Contents, Training the Mind 117

13. John of the Cross on Purity of Heart:Contemplative Purification 127

14. Teachings of the Buddha on Purity of Heart:Wisdom, the Goal of Realization 137

15. John of the Cross and the Buddha on Purificationof Our Beings: Integrative Summary 147

Part IV: Questions Christians Ask 157

16. About Prayer, Meditation, Contemplation,and Insight Practice 159

17. About Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Church 169

18. About Carmelite Prayer 179

19. About Christian Grace and the Buddhist Dhamma 189

20. About Karma, Rebirth, and Purgatory 199

21. About Buddhist No-Self and the Christian Soul 209

Appendices

Appendix I. Developing the Silence andAwareness Retreatand Christian Insight Meditation 219

Appendix II. Resource Aids for Practicing Insight Meditation 227

Notes 231

Bibliography 253

Index 257

Preface

Observers of the religious scene have noted in the pastfifty years or so the turning of manyWestern Christians, insearchofmeaningfulpractices todeepen their spiritual lives,

to Eastern religions. Seeing this, the Dalai Lama has graciously said onvarious occasions, “We don’t want you to become Buddhists. But wewould be happy to see you take what you find of value in Buddhismback into your lives to help you become better Christians.”

Easier said than done! Entering into another religious universesends youback into yourownwithnewand complexquestions.Expe-rienced guides are necessary to help pilgrims of interreligious dia-logue negotiate the delicate passage of exploration without losingtheir footing.

Feware thosewhohaveworkedasperseveringly in the roleof guidesas the authors of this book. It is a challenging task to become familiarwith not one but two universes of religious discourse, and to find thethemes in each that resonate with one another. And it is even morechallenging to then develop a programor, in this case, a retreatmodel,that renders that resonance operational.

This the authors have done, based on three assumptions: First, thatinsight meditation, derived from Theravada Buddhism, is essentially aspiritual practice available to all and does not require belief in any ofBuddhism’s religious tenets. Second, that Christians can deepen theirfaith in and love of Jesus through this particular method of meditativepractice.And third, that insight meditation can even offer a way intothe self-emptying, purifying action of Christ’s embrace of the cross,and serve as a doorway to a deeper experience of God’s love.

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Those who understand that there continue to be different religionsin the world because there are some real differences between the reli-gions, will appreciate that works such as these are “works in progress,”witnessed to by the very fact that this is a revised and expanded ver-sion of an earlier work. But such works, though they will never befinally “finished” this side of the End-time, are important and neces-sary in a world that has come to see itself as a global village; a world inwhich the Spirit of God is at work among all people in every place,culture, and religion;aworld inwhich peace among people of religioncan only come through a positive appreciation for the gifts each brings.

While this book devotes considerable space to measuring the reso-nance between the teachings of the Buddha and John of the Cross rel-ative to some aspects and objectives of meditation practice, it remainsaworkultimately oriented not toward theory but practice.Where the-ory is concerned, there are bound to be differences of interpretation;but it is harder to argue with the experienced reality of beneficialeffects accruing from one’s personal practice over time.

It is in one’s personal practice that “the rubber hits the road” as theysay.Over the years of their own practice and of guiding others on theSilence andAwareness retreats, the authors have come to the conclu-sion that the insight meditation practice of Theravada Buddhism con-tributes positively to Christian contemplative life. But I suspect theywould be quick to say,with the Buddha, “Don’t believe it because youheard me say it. Put it to the test in your own experience, and judgefor yourself.”

Today’s religious pilgrims canbegrateful toMary JoMeadow,KevinCulligan, and Daniel Chowning for their pioneering work and consci-entious exploration of a segment of the new frontier in our religiouslyplural world.

Thomas Ryan, CSP

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Foreword

In 1996 and 2002, I had the good fortune of attending twoBuddhist-Christian conferences atGethsemaniAbbey inKentucky.This is themonasterywhere ThomasMerton,one of the great pio-

neers in Christian-Buddhist dialogue, lived and wrote, both in com-munity and in the solitude of his small hermit cottage. Over the fouror five days of each conference, as different participants spoke of var-ious aspects of their traditions, one feature of the dialogue stood out:When people were talking over points of theology and metaphysics,there were often striking differences between these two great spiri-tual traditions. But when the conversation turned to the core valuesthat each of them taught and embodied—values like love and compas-sion, renunciation and wisdom—the similarities were very obvious.Christian Insight Meditation builds on those early dialogues and takes

them a step further. The authors of this seminal work are unusual intheir in-depth experience of both Buddhist andChristian practice,andbased on their own practices of transformation, they have seen howeven the differences of language and philosophy are often rooted in thesame process of purification. Using the language and methods ofBuddhist Insight meditation and the teachings of St. John of the Crossthey lead the reader to his or her own rich arena of direct spiritualexperience.Although both of these traditions have profound theore-tical understandings of the spiritual journey, they both value experi-ence over theory, practice over speculation.

Something quite remarkable happens when we drop from the levelof conceptual thinking to the level of direct, non-judgmental, aware-ness.Webegin to see the limitations of ourownparticular conditioned

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patterns of thought; and we open to the possibilities for understand-ing ourselves and theworld fromaplace emptied of self-centeredness.The following pages draw on two great paths of wisdom to show ushow to accomplish this challenging task of spiritual awakening.

H.H. the Dalai Lama expressed very well the great value of stayingopen to different teachings. He wrote, “I have found that extendingour understanding of each other’s spiritual practices and traditions canbe an enriching experience, because to do so increases our opportu-nities for mutual respect.Often we encounter things in another tradi-tion that helps us better understand our own.” Christian InsightMeditation serves this commendable end with great integrity.

Joseph Goldstein

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Editor’s Preface

Ascending Mount Carmel was the metaphor of St. John ofthe Cross for seeking God. To show the most direct route, hisdrawing of the mountain had “nada, nada, nada” (nothing,

nothing, nothing) written on it all the way up. This path of emptyingout, of relinquishing everything, and of seeing the “nothingness” ofobjects towhichwemight cling is also theway of Theravadan Buddhistvipassana (insight) meditation. Christian insight meditation uses thistime-honored, precisemeditationmethod to implement John’s asceti-cal and mystical teachings.

Since my co-authors and I published Purifying the Heart: BuddhistInsight Meditation for Christians in 1994,manymore Christians have dis-covered Buddhist meditation and appreciated its helpfulness in sup-porting their spiritual work.1We are happy to offer a revised editionof our book under its new title: Christian Insight Meditation: Followingin the Footsteps of John of the Cross.

We addressed the first edition of this book to Christians who longfor the happiness of seeing God as Jesus promised to the pure in heart.By offering an ancient Buddhist meditation practicewithin a Christianprayer tradition, we hoped to teach our readers a process of innerpurification that we believe can lead to deeper Christian faith in thisworld and the direct vision of God in the next.

Since that time,wehavealso foundBuddhists interested in the teach-ings of St. John of the Cross.We offer this new edition for any readerswho might feel that exploring the spiritual traditions of John of theCross and Theravadan Buddhism could enhance their spiritual life.

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Eastern Riches for Christians

Despite the long history of mysticismwithin Christianity and its manyand varied approaches to meditation and contemplative prayer, moreand more Christians have turned to Eastern religions to find guidancefor their interior life that they did not find in Christianity. Some havecompletely abandoned the religion of their childhood, believing theyhave found the “pearl of great price”2 in Eastern meditation.

Since our first edition, many Christians who are interested in orpractice Eastern meditation have come to our retreats. Some had dis-covered for themselves Christianity’s rich mystical tradition.They setout on their own to build a bridge between their Eastern meditationpractice and Christian contemplative prayer. Such persons,who oftencall themselves Buddhist Christians or Christian Buddhists, drawequally upon both traditions to assist their interior development andgrowth in faith.

Other Christians who began with Buddhist meditation have expe-rienced its physiological and psychological benefits; however, they areuncertain how to relate meditation to their faith. They are open tointegrating their meditation practice into their Christian life if some-one can show them how. Some worry about syncretism in their reli-gious practice or fear becomingNewAge dilettantes,believing it saferto keep religion and meditation separate.

We cannot know how many Christians, not yet familiar with ourwork, have at least some experience with Eastern meditation, but wesuspect there are many. This book offers all these Christians reliableguidance for integrating at least one form of Buddhist meditation intoone tradition of Christian contemplative prayer.

The Silence and Awareness Retreat

This book grew out of our eight-day Silence and Awareness retreat,which we have directed since 1989.3 Some readers of our first editionhave attended this retreat, and others have worked privately with thepublished tapes of our1991 retreat.The retreat teaches theTheravadan

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Buddhist practice of vipassana, or insight meditation, within theframework of Christian contemplative prayer found in Carmelitespirituality,especially in the life andwritings of St. John of theCross.4

His Carmelite contemporary, St. Teresa of Avila, also appears in ourwork.5

As we developed this retreat from year to year, we gradually rec-ognized the need for this book.We wanted to make the basic instruc-tions for insight meditation available in writing for Christians whowanted to work with this practice on their own.We also wanted toset down, as clearly and simply as possible, our understanding of howthis venerable Buddhist practice can be integrated with Christianprayer.

Our intent in this book is primarily pastoral and practical.We rec-ognize, but do not discuss,many important questions that occupy pro-fessional scholars in the Buddhist-Christian dialogue and in the studyof Christian spirituality.We are also aware of, but again do not elabo-rate, the social andpolitical implications of collaborationbetweenper-sons of differing religious faiths.

We want simply to teach the practice of Christian insight medita-tion, providing only as much history and theory as seems necessary toshow the compatibility of this simple Buddhist practice with Christianprayer.We believe that Christianswho are faithful to this practice soondiscover for themselves its power to bring inner peace and healing, itsimplications forChristian life,and the inseparable connectionbetweenwisdom and compassion known for centuries to both Christian andBuddhist meditators.

Our Interfaith Perspective

This book invokes the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, whichexhorted Catholic Christians to “acknowledge, preserve, and pro-mote” the spiritual and moral goods and cultural values of Hinduismand Buddhism.6Vatican II also challengedmissionarymembers of reli-gious institutes to reflect attentively “on how Christian religious lifemay be able to assimilate the ascetic and contemplative traditions

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whose seeds were sometimes already planted by God in ancient cul-tures prior to the preaching of the Gospel.”7

We have tried to be as faithful as possible to the integrity of bothBuddhist insight meditation and Carmelite spirituality. At the sametime, we attempt to point out the similarities between these two tra-ditions that enableChristians to assimilate Buddhist insightmeditationinto Christian prayer and to practice an authentic Christian insightmeditation.

We deeply believe that the Christian insight meditation taught in thisbook, a twenty-five-hundred-year-old Buddhist meditation practiceintegrated into Carmel’s eight-century tradition of contemplativeprayer, can satisfy the hunger ofAmerican Christians for spiritual nour-ishment—one of the most pressing pastoral challenges to Christianchurches.To feed this desire,weoffer ameditationpractice that notonlypurifies our hearts, but also draws us directly into the paschal mystery,the self-emptying death of Jesus Christ that gives new life to our world.

Emptiness is a common theme in the spiritual teachings of both theBuddha and John of the Cross. Emptying our lives of attachment toeverything contrary to God’s will and opposed to the free movementof the Holy Spirit within us is the essential process that prepares us fortransformation of our lives.8 By fostering this emptiness, by leading ussecurely along a lifelong path of poverty of spirit and purity of heart,Christian insight meditation disposes us for this unfathomable bless-ing that alone satisfies all our longings.

Plan of the Book

Part I briefly lays the foundations of our approach. It first presentsJesus’ call to purity of heart. Next it gives a historical outline of theBuddhist tradition of insight meditation and the Carmelite traditionof prayer.

Part II gives the instructions for insightmeditation as they are taughtduring our retreats. This enables the reader to learn and experiencethe meditation practice directly. It also offers some new material giv-ing guidance on setting up a practice, and discusses how to find help.

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The unit’s final chapter presents,more fully than the first edition did,the overall path of practice as both traditions see it.

Part III compares the teachings of John of the Cross and the Buddhaon interior purification. This comparison provides the primary theo-retical basis for our effort to integrate insight meditation into Chris-tian prayer.

Finally, Part IV discusses some questions people attending ourretreats often ask about using insight meditation as prayer. The lastthree chapters in this unit are new,written for this edition, to addressthe more recent questions we have been asked.

Two appendices offer additional information. Appendix I recapsour own work in drawing from Christian and Buddhist scriptures andother teachings the contemplative practice we call Christian insightmeditation.9Appendix II lists resources forhelp in continuing theprac-tice of insight meditation.

Because insight meditation focuses on self-emptying purification,we refer only briefly to the Buddhist loving-kindness (metta) medita-tionpractice.However,Gentling theHeart:Buddhist Loving-Kindness Prac-tice for Christians teaches this practice in detail within Christianperspectives.1.0 Together, these two books show both the interior andsocial implications of Theravadan Buddhism for Christian spirituality.

Terminology

Deep meditation in Buddhism, called jhana or absorption, is experi-encedmuch the same as contemplation in Christianity—as receptive,passive, and not under our “control.” However, Buddhists and Chris-tians see the causes of development in meditation practice somewhatdifferently. Buddhists attribute it to deepening concentration, or sta-bility of mind.

Carmelites, especially John of the Cross, generally regard contem-plation as the inflowofGod into the human person,a gift of God’s lovethat we cannot achieve by our human actions alone. They teach thatwe can use various ascetical techniques and spiritual practices to dis-pose ourselves for contemplation, but the increase of divine life in us

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is always grace, God’s gift. To avoid confusion, we reserve the term“contemplation” in this book to John’s understanding.

We use the words “contemplative prayer”—or synonyms like“contemplative practice” or “contemplative method”—for the non-discursive meditation practices we use to dispose ourselves for con-templation. We discuss the concepts of meditation, contemplativeprayer,and contemplation in greater detail in Part IV.Until then,whenwe speak of contemplation, we mean it as John of the Cross did—asGod’s unmerited gift; when we speak of contemplative prayer, wemean meditative practices that dispose us for that grace.

Language Usage

Three personswrote the first edition of this book. I am responsible forthe revised edition. I have donemy best to give you a smooth and con-sistent text, both in style and content, and to iron out stylistic differ-ences among the authors. Some content from the original edition hasbeen rearranged, and some additional content added. The initials atthe end of each chapter indicate whose work is found in that chapter.Where only minor changes weremade in the second edition, I did notadd the initials of others’ work appearing in it.Where greater onesoccurred, I did, with the first set of initials indicating whose is themajor portion of the work.

For a text that reads more easily, I take several liberties with lan-guage usage. To preserve a smoothly reading text, I do not indicateminor deletions, which do not change meaning, in citing otherauthors. I also avoid most use of titles. This means that I commonlyrefer to Christian saints without putting the appellation “St.” in frontof their names. I often refer to St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa ofAvila simply as John and Teresa.

In citing Christian scripture, I give only the name of the evangel-ist instead of prefacing it with “the gospel according to.” For epistles,I name only the recipient rather than stating “the epistle of X to Y.”Finally, because the words “Nibbana” and “Dhamma” are what Chris-tians would consider God-concepts, I capitalize them, although some

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Buddhists do not. I italicize non-English words that recur frequentlyin their first appearance only.

I take the liberty of offering a contemporary translation of Teresaand John,working from a Spanish text and the twoEnglish translationsmost common in theWest.11 This makes the text easier for most read-ers, and keeps the work flowing without the interruption of manyunfamiliar termsor archaicways of phrasing expressions. I do the samefor Buddhist scriptures and works of Buddhist scholars that are intranslation. These changes make the quotations more readable.

Notes of Gratitude

When we first presented Christian insight meditation,we recognizedthatwe are latecomers in demonstrating the relevanceofEasternmed-itation for Christian prayer. We express our gratitude for BedeGriffiths, Thomas Merton, Abhishiktananda, John Main, Sister Ish-priya, Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle,William Johnston,Pascaline Coff,YvesRaguin, Raimundo Panikkar,Anthony de Mello, and many other pio-neers in thefieldof ecumenical spiritualityuponwhoseworkwestand.Youwill easily discern their inspiration in ourwork.However,becausewe want to capture in this book the atmosphere of our Silence andAwareness retreat in both the meditation instructions and spiritualconferences, we provide notes for only direct quotations in the text.All our other sources are included in the general bibliography.

We thankWisdom Publications for their interest in offering therevised edition of this work, and Josh Bartok ofWisdom for his help-fulness in bringing the second edition to press.We remain grateful toClarence Thomson, former director of Credence Cassettes, andMichael Leach, formerly with Crossroad Publishing Company, fortheir original interest in our work and their encouragement to shareour retreat with a larger audience through audiotapes and the first edi-tion of this book.

We are also grateful to Joseph Goldstein, Buddhist author andcofounder and guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Society (IMS) inBarre, Massachusetts, and Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D., a founding

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member of the Institute of Carmelite Studies andAmerican translatorof John of the Cross, for their critical reading of our first edition andtheir helpful comments.Theyhaveboth contributed immensely to thisbook, although the authors alone are responsible for its final form. I,the editor, am especially grateful to the teachers at IMS, especiallyJoseph, for expounding the Dhamma to me. Their wisdom pervadesthis book.

Finally, we thank all who have joined us for our Silence andAware-ness retreats. Their longing for genuine spirituality, their openness toour teaching and guidance, and their constructive criticisms of ourwork have made it possible for us now to share this experience with awider audience. To these men and women, we dedicate this book.

Mary Jo Meadow

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+ Part I

Foundations

+ 1 +Purity of Heart:The Teaching and Example of Jesus

Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus taught in his sermonon the mount, “for they shall see God.”1 For Jesus, the heart ismore than the bodily organ that sustains physical life; it is the

interior center of our being from which all life flows. The New Tes-tament depicts the heart primarily as the source of our feelings,desires, and passions; of our thoughts and understanding; of our willand its choices;and of ourmoral and religious behavior.2Accordingly,Jesus taught, as did the Buddha, that we must purify our entire inte-rior life if we want the happiness of reaching our highest spiritualaspirations.

Jesus Demanded Purity of Heart

That Jesus demanded such inner purity is clear from his challenge tothe Pharisees about ritual purification. “Listen to me, all of you,” hesaid,“and understand.Nothing entering from outside causes a personto be unclean; rather it is what comes out of the person that makes foruncleanness.”3

Impurity Jesus later explained to his close disciples that ritual foodleaves the heart unaffected. It simply passes through the body into thesewer. All foods, therefore, are clean. However, persons becomeunclean by what comes out of them. “For it is from within, from theheart,that evil intentions emerge:fornication,theft,murder,adultery,avarice,malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.All these

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“

evils come from within. They make a person unclean.”4 The Buddhataught similarly: “Indeed, by oneself is evil done. By oneself is onedefiled. Purity and impurity depend on oneself.”5

To see God, our hearts must be pure, free of all evil. God is holy,and only the holy can rejoice in the divine presence.We cannot livebefore God with a heart filled with evil, with murder, deceit, envy,pride.We must first purify our hearts—our desires, thoughts, mem-ories, emotions, and choices—of everything that might cause wrongbehavior.As we gradually cleanse our interior life, we begin to knowthe happiness, the blessing, and the joy of seeing God. The BuddhistDhammapada says,“Mindful of speech.Restraint of mind.Never allowyour body to do harm. Follow these three ways with purity and youwill achieve the Path.”6

Seeing God In this world, seeing God does not mean physicalvision, but experiencing God in the events of our daily lives. It meansknowing God in dark faith and constant love.Yet experiencing God infaith and love in thisworld leads,as the apostle-evangelist John assuredus, to seeing God directly in the life beyond this world. He wrote inhis first epistle:

Beloved,we are already God’s children although what we areto be in the future has not yet been revealed. However, weknow that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shallsee him as he really is.And those who thus hope in him purifythemselves as he is pure.7

Our true happiness in this world consists in embracing the purityof life we see in the teachings and example of Jesus, trusting that weshall be totally transformed in himwhenwefinally see him face to face.

Finding Happiness

This happiness, Jesus reminded us, belongs not only to the pure ofheart, but also to the poor in spirit, the gentle, the merciful, peace-makers, and to those who mourn, who long for holiness, and who

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suffer persecution for his sake.8 His teaching on happiness implies aconnection between all these ways of being in the world.Beatitudes The pure of heart are also poor in spirit. Just as no one

who is pure of heart can be a murderer, an adulterer, or a liar, so thetruly pure of heart also work for peace, show mercy, and strive forholiness. These are the qualities that bring us true happiness.

The happiness Jesus proclaimed is thus paradoxical. The things wenaturally expect tomake us happy—money,prestige,power, security,pleasure—make us very unhappy when they become our only desireand close our hearts to God. The Buddha also taught, “By giving uplesser happiness, one may have a greater one. Let the wise give up thelesser.”9

Purity, meekness, and simplicity, on the other hand, bring happi-nessbecause theycleanseourhearts andopen themforGod,whoalonemakes us completely happy. The kingdom of God, therefore, belongsonly to the poor in spirit, themeek, themourners, and the peacemak-ers—to thosewhomake room in their lives forGod.There is no otherway to establish the reign of God in our hearts.Hardness of heart Jesus, of course, did not expect us to purify

our hearts by our own efforts alone.He knew too well what is in us.10

He knew especially our hardness of heart, our sclerocardia, to put it inmedical terms. Of all human diseases, hardness of the heart is theworst,worseeven thancancerorAIDS,because it closesus to theWordof God and isolates us from God’s love.

We can be so absorbed in our own plans, desires, pleasures,thoughts, memories, and emotions that we exclude God from ourhearts.As the divine physician who comes to heal us, Jesus’ primaryfocuswas to cure the hardness of heart that prevents the growthwithinus of faith, hope, and love, and that excludes the transforming powerof God’s love from our lives.11

Dying to Self

To heal our hardness of heart, Jesus called us to die with him.

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Thosewhowant to followmemust renounce themselves,takeup their cross, and follow me. Those who want to save theirlife must lose it; those who lose their life for my sake, and forthe sake of the gospel, save it.What gain is it to win the wholeworld and ruin one’s life?And, indeed, what can one offer inexchange for one’s life?12

The example of Jesus As Christian discipleship demands dyingto self, so too does purity of heart.We cannot achieve the purity Jesustaught in his sermon on the mount unless we die interiorly.We dieinteriorly every timewerefuse to let harmful intentionsormovementsof rage,envy, lust, injustice,avarice,pride,and slander take root in ourconsciousness, not allowing them a place in our hearts.

As these movements pass through us, the heart’s natural purity andsimplicity emerges, grows stronger, and prepares us to experienceGod in new and unexpectedways.After a lifetime of dying daily to dis-ordered internalmovements,we one day die finally into the complete,never-ending, unchanging presence of God.

Jesus exemplified his teaching with his own death on the cross.Although public preaching, teaching, healing, and community-buildingwere essential to his ministry, Jesus establishedGod’s reign inthe world primarily through his death and resurrection. Similarly, hisreign becomes established in our hearts as we daily share his death andresurrection.There is no other way.“Unless a grain of wheat falls intothe ground and dies, it remains just a single grain of wheat; but if itdies, it bears much fruit.”13

Teachings of the apostle Paul Recognizing the good that comesto the human family through Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paulincreasingly emphasized union with Jesus in his paschal mystery—hisdying and rising—as central to Christian living. In his letter to theChristians at Philippi, Paul challenged them in these words:

In your minds you must be the same as Jesus Christ: his statewas divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God butemptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and

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became as all human beings are; and being as all humans are,hewas humbler yet,even to accepting death,death on a cross.But God raised him high and gave him the name that is aboveall other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth, andin the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesusand that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, tothe glory of God the Father.14

Speaking for himself, Paul went on to assure the Philippians of hisown commitment to the paschalmystery:“All I want is to knowChristand the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by repro-ducing the pattern of his death.That is how I can hope to takemy placein the resurrection of the dead.”15

The mind of Christ We assume the mind of Christ when weembrace the process by which Jesus emptied himself for the humanfamily in his suffering and death on the cross. His self-emptying wasnot a denial or renunciation of his unique personhood, but non-attachment to the divine honor and glory he could rightly claim. Jesusthus entered freely and completely into the depths of human suffer-ing. The Father did not abandon Jesus in his self-emptying, but raisedhim from the dead and restored him to eternal glory.Now all creationpraises and honors him as Lord. Similarly, purity of heart involves aself-emptying that does not destroy our personhood; rather, it opensus to the fullness of life as we share the spirit of the risen Lord who isgiven to us.16

The Holy Spirit purifies us interiorly for God.As we cannot praywithout the help of the Holy Spirit,17 neither can we purify our heartswithout the Spirit’s assistance. Paul reminded the Corinthians:

You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will notinherit the kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idol-aters, and adulterers.These are the sort of people someof youwere once, but now you have been washed clean and sanc-tified, and justified through the name of the Lord Jesus Christand through the Spirit of our God.18

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TheHoly Spirit TheHoly Spiritwithin us continually supports ourefforts to put to death the self-indulgent passions and desires that causeour disordered behavior;moreover, the Spirit produces in our conductthe enduring fruits of interior freedom—love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control.19

Thus,we imitate Jesus in his self-emptying,not as an ascetical prac-tice for its own sake, but because it purifies our heart and opens for usthe door to freedom, love, peace, and life everlasting. This is the mys-tery of Christian faith. This is our daily rhythm of life. Indeed, purityof heart, poverty of spirit, mortification, non-attachment, and self-emptying not only lead to eternal life; they are eternal life already pos-sessed, a risen life under theHoly Spirit’s constant guidance lived hereand now in this world, a life that promises joyous completion in theeternal vision of God.

Purity of heart, then, is like the little mustard seed in Jesus’ storythat grows from a very small seed to a large bush providing shelterfor the birds of the air.20 It is a hidden and humble activity, yet it bringsus every blessing—happiness, gospel living, healing and transforma-tion in Christ Jesus, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, eternal life. Thesepermit us to experience God now in faith and to see God later inheaven.

Purifying the Heart

But how,precisely,dowepurify our hearts? First,by our love for Jesus.Our hearts become pure as we listen to his words, practice his teach-ing, follow his example, and, most importantly, die daily to self-lovein union with his death on the Cross.Ancient traditionsWecan also learn fromothers.Long before the

time of Jesus, the Hebrew Bible psalmist prayed, “A clean heart cre-ate for me,O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.”21 Like thisancient poet,we can purify our hearts by humbly asking God each dayfor this blessing in our lives.

In addition to prayer,we can learn the ancient practices of the purein heart. Following his own enlightenment around the year 500b.c.e.,

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the holy man of India, Gotama, the Buddha, taught his followers theimportance of purifying the heart by abandoning evil and doing good.He stated,“Strive quickly.Get insight.Purged of impurity and passionyou shall enter the blessed abode of the saints.”22 Meditation,he taughtthem further, is the practice that cleanses the heart.“Frommeditationarises wisdom. Knowing this, conduct yourself that wisdom mayarise.”23

Meditation purifies the heart of disordered desires, hatefulthoughts, harmful memories, fear, and other negative emotions. Itreplaces these conditions with sharp mental awareness, clear under-standing, strength of will, and attentiveness to each passing moment.It develops wisdom and compassion, and finally opens one to ultimatetruth, unconditioned being, or Nibbana. Over the centuries, theBuddha’s followers have preserved their meditation practices withsuch care and precision that they are now available to those who wishto use them in response to Jesus’ call to purify the heart.Meditation and purification Christians, too, have developed

effectivemethods forpurifying theheart.The sixteenth-centurySpan-ish Carmelite friar John of the Cross meticulously described in TheAscent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night the progressive interiorpurification necessary for union of the entire person with God. Hegave counsel on how to systematically purify desires, thoughts,mem-ories, andemotions so thatourheartsmaybedisposed to receiveGod’slove in contemplation.Contemplation purifies, heals, and,ultimately,transforms all of the human personality, both sense and spirit, andunites it with God.

John taught that only God’s love for us fully purifies our hearts andunites us perfectly with God’s will. Divine love makes us God by par-ticipation, enables us to experience God in this life through faith, andafter death to see God and live forever in God’s presence.24 Neverthe-less, through the faithful practice of meditation and continual recol-lection, we can attain a purity of heart, a poverty of spirit, and anemptiness of self that irresistibly invites God into our lives and freesus to receiveGod’s purifying and transforming love in contemplation.

Purifying our hearts and reforming our lives each day according to

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the gospel make us fit to know God. “It is not those who say to me,‘Lord,Lord,’whowill enter the kingdomof heaven,but thosewho dothe will of my Father in heaven.”25We try during daily mental prayerto empty sense and spirit completely and surrender ourselves totallyinto God’s hands as Jesus did on Calvary. This prepares us fully forliturgy,where we celebrate Jesus’ paschal mystery and apply its fruitsto our lives.Christian insight meditation The chapters that follow in this

book bring these two venerable traditions—Buddhist meditation andtheChristian spirituality of Johnof theCross—together into an asceti-cal practice we call Christian insight meditation. This contemporaryapproach to purifying our hearts lets us know, as Jesus promised, thehappiness of seeing God—first in this world by dark faith, then bydirect vision in eternity.This practice aims, in the spirit of the beloveddisciple’s first epistle, to help Christians purify their beings as Jesus ispure. Then their hope of seeing him and being finally transformed inhim can be fulfilled.26

In Christian insight meditation, regular attention to the breathdevelops a growing consciousness of the presence of the Spirit whomJesus breathes upon us. It readies us to follow where the Spirit leads,even into unfamiliar territory. “The wind blows wherever it pleases;you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or whereit is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.”27

The meditation discipline of staying in the present moment, refus-ing to give mental energy to thoughts of the past or the future, trainsus formoment-to-moment attention to the here andnow.This enablesus to live fully in God’s presence as we involve ourselves in the end-less tasks that make up our day.“Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesusreminds us, “for tomorrow will have its own worries. Let each day’sproblems be sufficient for the day.”28

Close attention to present experiences also puts us deeply in touchwith our beings.This brings understanding that helps usmanage prob-lem thoughts, emotion, and impulses. It results in better conduct,calmer minds, and greater purity of heart.

Although not all of us pray in the same way, the goal of all Christian

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prayer remains the same: continual communion with God and trans-formation of our lives in Christ. Christian insight meditation bringsthis. Before explaining this practice further, we look first at brief his-torical overviews of the Buddhist tradition of insight meditation andthe Carmelite tradition of prayer.

KC/MJM

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