Basic thesis of this retreat:

We have believed that the qualities of trust, forgiveness, faith, hope, and love can only be bestowed when earned. We believe life can be trusted only when the universe proves itself to be trustworthy. We think that the person who has wronged us can only be forgiven when they have acknowledged their wrong and sought forgiveness. But this is not about waiting until these qualities are earned or the planet somehow is perceived as trustworthy.

In fact these precious spiritual commodities are first and foremost spiritual substances, nutrients, subtle energetic compounds with real power. They are desperately needed for the well-being of this planet. Their absence is devastating for the planet. They have to be generated for planetary survival and well-being. Egoic consciousness cannot do this; but it can be done by the deeper more generous self that lives within us at a more subtle level.

It is up to those who he been doing contemplative practice to step up to the plate on this.  

When we let go and live beyond our familiar self, beyond our precious soul brought to completeness, we come into contact with something even more real and precious even than our soul.

Christianity’s gift is forming us in letting go, kenosis. The Fruit of the Spirit are created out of the alchemy of surrendering our pleasure and survival impulses. This brings us into right alignment with our real conscious purpose which is the only place where we might find real contentment.

Christianity has however been miserable at developing the subtle attention which enables letting go. Instead, we remain trapped in our stories of ourselves.

There is an inside and an outside of things. There is an “I” inside the I that you think is you.

Learning to live from the inside is the real work of the spiritual life. Who is this “I” in you who has the capacity to turn your life into a real expression of the body of Christ? Rather than living in our own little personal narrative, we need to develop an inner attention, perceiving the objective reality that is right here; there are transformational energies present.

Attention and letting go need to work together.

There is a quality of aliveness that is the “you” inside you. You are not your Enneagram type. You are this quality of aliveness that dances through you. Become in love with the taste of this aliveness, not the results of that taste.

Faith, hope, love, trust, forgiveness are spiritual, energetic substances with real power at a subtle level.

When we pay attention, we notice an actual difference in energy transmission.

Teilhard – God is a coherent being inside us and we are within the God who is within us. The withinness of God is an energetic field, the Divine field of love.

God and nature are not separate. The Universe is capable of becoming more subtle; it bends and is flexible; it breathes. It is responsive, ie. relational.

Our life is offered as a host to be transubstantiated = to be a living sacrifice. Trust that this can be so and that we are part of the continuing dance of Christ.

Teilhard, there are two kinds of energy:

1. tangential energy = physical energy which science describes and which is winding down, moving from higher to lower states of order

2. radial (Teilhard) /spiritual/ psychic (Tomberg) – subtle energy / force / substances. This energy works in the opposite direction from tangential energy; it pulls things into higher convergence, becomes more conscious. Not measurable.

Between these two energies there is a constant feedback loop. There is a mysterious impulse in the cosmos to express, to come into form, to manifest. Why does anything come into form?

Work to be able to bear more and more consciousness. Initially consciousness has no force eg. sperm and egg – grows and develops. There is an evolutionary tendency in the divine heart. This increases the radial energy.

Consciousness is a counter-entropic force for which trust is the mainspring providing the energy for things coming into relationship. Where trust is missing we lack the force of a wider more relational field.

Everything comes into manifestation within a relational field.

We have no idea how consciousness will manifest when it is coming into form. It has to be a pro-active, not a re-active force. There is an absence of radial energy on our planet.

Tomberg – things are only temporary freeze-frames. Matter is reducible. The table becomes ash when burned. Everything is moving toward another state.  

How to encounter ourselves in a moment in time. Matter is only condensed energy. Energy is only condensed psychic force (radial energy); force is spirit.

There are more subtle forces: prayer, will, trust, attention – psychic or radial energy. Consciousness/ spirit contains these subtle forces “with knowing” = relational knowing. Behind this is a more primordial knowing that cannot be defined = beingness, knowingness. It is not relational; it is the state before anything comes into manifestation. We do not aim to get rid of the phenomenal self, just not to identify with it. This is not about “my precious identity”