Visiting family in Australia and listening to the commentary of a lady and like-spirit now living there, near Perth, who is called Mother Mary by her immediates, as she spoke concerning the Rule of St Benedict, I could not help but note that this Rule is relevant to seekers after truth on many levels.
Speaking of the interpretation of that Sixth Century text today from the perspective of modern times insists that great cautions are to be drawn in its exercise. And, not only to such texts but all such sacred writings from so long ago. I use the tern sacred to infer inspired writings.
On a topic of the moment, the group ISIS despite having positive intentions of laying down a life for Muslims more in line with how the Prophet Muhammad would have it, they err greatly with their violence and that is because those carrying out the duties pertinent to the deposition of the Caliphate are not guided by their own deeply felt convictions stemming from personal experience – which is not just an excited emotionality at all – but rather rely on others who themselves have not found their own internal peace either.
However, to dwell on misformed groups is not the intention of my writing but rather, noting the content of the said text and a by-chance uncovered newsletter of Mother Mary, I felt it would be informative and indeed useful to incorporate those remarkable sentiments so noted into what is being attempted in our experiment with Gardening as a Craft here in Mui Wo, Lantau Hong Kong [just coming to its end in its first session – December 2014 to May 2015].
Mother Mary points out that when it becomes clear that the Rule of St Benedict can no longer be taken simply and straight-jacket-like as a rule book, it is important to see those rules as part of the Christian spiritual heritage (as she is speaking to fellow Christians). The way to peruse the text is by way of the heart, from heart to heart.
To gain a monastic heart – as St Benedict is the quintessential Christian monk – which is aptly one way of describing the aim of Gardening as a Craft taken as a non-denominational practice, we need to expose our own inner depths to that heart we wish to harken to.
To quote from one of Mother Mary’s newsletters: “The heart is not something easily definable, just as monasticism is not something easily definable. A heart is the deepest part of ourselves, the part from which all the rest flows. If the heart is right, the rest will be right. If the heart is truly Christian and monistic, the lifestyle that flows from it will be the same.”
This term lifestyle has importance for us who swim in the wake of Silo.
Another contributor to the circular is Simeon Daly, a priest-librarian at Saint Meinrad’s … He quotes St Augustine: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Simeon adds: “Those of us who have sensed this void in our lives do well to look to the masters of the spiritual life for guidance and direction. The Gospel dictum, loosely expressed, “to lose oneself is to find oneself”, is spelled out in various ways in their writings [the Saints].
For us Siloists it equates with seeking selflessness – surely that raises a smile, how can the self seek selflessness?
“A shift in one’s priorities from personal gain to concern for the common good though difficult to accomplish, is an almost sure path in inner peace,” Simeon Daly continues. Also, that St Benedict, who speaks of love, specifies this ‘love’ [for one another] and what it entails: “We are to have an exuberant love that even anticipates the needs of another. This basic principle of Christian life can be found in a number of New Testament passages….”
“These ways of showing love can be many and as varied as the imagination of each individual. These are the small courtesies that take the edge off a confined intimacy. It may be as small as a word, a gesture, or a smile, a note written, thanks given, a task performed, a meal carried, a dish washed, or a caring surprise. These are positive outgoing things, but this love calls also for more passive but equally challenging dispositions that bear patiently the weaknesses of oneself and others. One may be forgetful, another mean spirited, one thoughtless, another overbearing. It takes little imagination to realise the countless opportunities for patient, loving endurance that arise in daily life; a bad throat, a noisy nose, a heavy foot, a slamming door.. The list could go on. St Benedict covers them all by teaching us to endure patiently another’s weaknesses of body or behaviour.”
Can ‘Gardeners’ see this practicality in our efforts at ‘concerned detachment’?
“Monks do not have a corner on this kind of love. Certainly the family and other non-monastic communities have countless opportunities to exercise this way of relating to one another. These principles laid down for monastics are equally valid in other social settings…”
“… to bear with grace and without resentment, the little hurts that come by way of forgetfulness, inconsiderateness, or even the selfishness that occasionally creeps into the actions of all of us. The balm of forgiveness, even in hidden moments, and single instances, eases the pain of a troubled world one drop at a time. … Loving actions and patient endurance help us to enter more fully into the mystery of the life and death of Christ,” ends Simeon Daly.
The term Christ can be taken as meaning Truth for those outside the Christian mould; in Buddhist terms, Original or Pure Mind or Buddha Nature.
