Presentation from the Duluth Benedictine Oblate Meeting on Sunday, March 13, 2016. Focus on various ways of thinking about the self. The group's discussion explored how different ways of seeing the self affected one's worldview, and vice versa.

1. Dialogue with the Self
Duluth Benedictine Oblates
March 13, 2016
Sister Edith Bogue
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2. Schedule
• Midday Prayer –
Common Prayer
• Announcements
• Conference
• Discussion
• Refreshments –
Common Table
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3. Announcements
• Palm Sunday March 20 at 11am
• Easter Triduum Liturgies
– Holy Thursday March 24 at 4:30pm
– Good Friday March 25 at 3:00pm
– Easter Vigil March 26 at 8:00pm
– Easter Sunday March 27 at 11am
• Rape Culture, Spiritual Violence & Visions
of Healing – Lecture with Gina Messina-Dysert
Thursday, March 31 at 7:30pm – Mitchell.
(Theologies of Women lecture)
• RETREAT!! with Susan Stabile
– April 9, probably 9am to 3pm3

4. DIALOGUE
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5. Dialogue
• Dialogue challenges us
with multiple viewpoints.
• Dialogue increases and
alters our understanding.
• We need dialogue to
think well.
• What means do we have
for intentional dialogue
with our selves?
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Greynun.org,"ContemplativeDialogue"

6. WHAT IS SELF?
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7. Our Constant Dialogue
• Silently or aloud,
we talk to ourselves
– Instructions
– Encouragement
– Chiding and worse
– Memory
– Questions
• Who is it that we are talking to?
• Who is "real" in that dialogue?
• These big questions asked in many ways.
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8. A Word on Words
• Dozens of ways of thinking about self
• Theology – the logos (understanding,
meaning) about God including revelation
– Christology: the logos about Christ
– Christian anthropology: the logos about
anthropos, "man" or what it is to be human
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9. A Word on Words
• Philosophy – love (philos) of wisdom
(sophia) by way of the intellect
– What does it mean to be human?
– What can we know about transcendence
– (Modern) Knowing empirically alone
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Biology
• Anthropology
• Humanities
• History
• Medicine
• …
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10. Buddhist "No Self" view
"Wisdom meditations direct the meditator to
experience his or her conditioned existence
directly so as to penetrate the insights of
selflessness (anattā), impermanence
(anicca), and universal suffering or
dissatisfaction (dukkha). Watching, without
identification, the arising and dissipation of
physical, emotional, and mental formations,
the meditator sees with direct experience that
there is no self and nothing to cling to.
Ultimately the goal of insight practice is to
attain nirvana, or absolute awakening."
Buddhist Meditation, Christian Contemplation, and Their Various
Uses by Peter Feldmeier
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BuddhistMeditation,ChristianContemplation,andTheirVariousUseshttp://www.rk-
world.org/dharmaworld/dw_2015octdec_buddhist-meditation-christian-contemplation-and-their-various-uses.aspx

11. Sufi Mystic
• “You are not a drop
in the ocean. You are
the entire ocean in a
drop.”
- Rumi
• “The happiness of
the drop is to die in
the river.”
- Al-Ghazali
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12. Psychology
• Temperaments
– Recognized from ancient times
– Thought to have physical basis (sanguine,
phlegmatic, choleric – all body fluids)
– Modern: also recognized & biological
• To what degree is personality fixed?
• Illness model vs health / growth model
– Avoid depression vs become happy
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13. Christian / Catholic Anthropologies
• Human beings made in God's image
– Do we still retain any original goodness?
– Or are we totally fallen?
– Are some people predestined for salvation
and others not? How would we know?
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14. Christian View of Self
• God as relationship
– Trinity
– Creation: God's desire for relationship
– Personal God – relationship to each of us,
loving us one by one.
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15. BECOMING
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16. Divided Self / Fixed Self
• Psalm 1:
– "The one who delights in the
law of the Lord"
– "Not so the wicked, not so!"
• "For we know that the law is
spiritual; but I am of the flesh,
sold into slavery under sin.* 15I
do not understand my own
actions. For I do not do what I
want, but I do the very thing I
hate." (Romans 7:14-15)
• Carol Dweck: When we believe
in a fixed self, it is true. When we
believe in growth, it occurs.
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17. Christian Science: All spiritual
• Reality is purely spiritual and the material
world an illusion.
– Wilson 1961, p. 127; Nicholas Rescher, "Idealism," in Jaegwon Kim, Ernest Sosa , A Companion to
Metaphysics, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009 [1996]
• Disease is a mental error rather than
physical disorder; the sick should be
treated not by medicine, but by a form of
prayer that seeks to correct the beliefs
responsible for the illusion of ill health.
– Wilson 1961, p. 125; Margaret P. Battin, "High-Risk Religion: Christian Science and the
Violation of Informed Consent," in Peggy DesAutels, Margaret P. Battin and Larry May
(eds.), Praying for a Cure: When Medical and Religious Practices Conflict, New York:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999
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18. Heaven
• "See God face to face"
• See ourselves as we
really are.
• Understand fully, not
"in a glass, darkly"
• Our self in eternity is
a self in relationship
– Heavenly banquet
– Choirs of angels
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19. St. Benedict
• Names human frailty often
– "Sleepy" should be helped
– Bear with one another's weakness of body
or behavior
– Long penitential code, but all designed to
help the wayward person amend.
• "Never despair of God's mercy"
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20. HOW TO DIALOGUE?
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21. Forms of Prayer
• Lectio divina as listening for God's word
in my life.
• Imaginative prayer – Ignatian tradition
• Spiritual direction
– Modern form of the ancient desert Abbas
and Ammas who spoke "a word" that suited
the needs of a person
– Not a "boss" but a mirror, a suggester
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22. Monastic Contemplative Tradition
• Grounded in Scripture
• Begins with Lectio
– Reading. Read a passage slowly many times.
Read it silently, read it aloud. Try memorizing the
passage.
– Meditating. As words or phrases stand out,
focus on them. Dialogue with. What do they
remind you of?
– Praying. Do you find yourself asking God
questions? Do people or situations come to
mind? Allow the connections to become a
natural conversation with God.
– Contemplating. This is a gift from God. It may
not happen and it is not the “reward” for a well-
done lectio divina! It is the delightful “aha-
moment,” a sense of timelessness, an inner awe
at the beauty or love or wisdom or of God.

23. Prepare Lunch Using Speech
Only as Necessary
“One of the practices that all of us should
undertake from time to time is actual
physical silence. We need to practice NOT
saying even the good thoughts that we
have, NOT communicating them to
anyone. Part of this practice will show us
the places and the people that stimulate
us to communicate. Another part of this
practice will show the strength of our
desire to communicate and the strength of
our own will to resist that desire.”
Abbot Phillip Lawrence,
Abbey of Christ in the Desert

24. Other Dialogues
• Lectio groups – hear
how God is speaking
in the lives of others.
• Small groups or 12
Step Groups in which
people listen, do not
cross talk, but may
give advice.
• Need to seek it, and
not avoid it.
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25. Intentional Dialogue
• Journaling in many
forms – with prompts,
with scripture, with
The Rule, in art,
in song.
• Conversation with
trusted peers – listen
for God's word
coming through them.
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26. “Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work
together with God in the creation of our own
life, our own identify, our own destiny. We are
free beings and sons of God. This means to
say that we should not passively exist, but
actively participate in (God's) creative
freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of
others, by choosing the truth. To put it better,
we are even called to share with God the
work of creating the truth of our identity.”
Thomas Merton
New Seeds of Contemplation
Drawing by Thomas Merton

27. DISCUSSION
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28. Dialogue with the Self
Duluth Benedictine Oblates
March 13, 2016
Sister Edith Bogue
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