Other Mudras

"the soul must empty itself to be filled with God." by St. John of the Cross

While many perceive the yogic mudras as part of esoteric Asian practice, the Simple Mind would confer with others who see them as signs and gestures, common in all human communities. Everything from the simple upheld hand to hail a taxi in New York to the upturned palm to indicate sincerity in Beijing or honesty in Rome, hand gestures or mudras are everywhere. In some spheres of life we are all connected in some way or another. It is part of what makes us human as opposed to another animal species.

Writing in the book, Christians talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists talk about Christian prayer, edited by Rita Gross and Terry Muck, Donald Mitchell writes "One's day is offered to God in a way that changes one's attitude toward others -- one lives more for their happiness... Vows [are] aspirations to pursue a higher good...' Mitchell continues, speaking on his topic with reference to the Buddhist teacher, Robert Aitken, he notes: 'as Aitken says, realization must be sustained; healing and reconciliation must be sought when unity is broken... this healing and reconciliation includes one's relationship with God. Dharani, Mudras and chanting, in both Buddhism and Christianity, [each in its customary forms,] creates an atmosphere... where one's mind is transformed." Gestures, both great and small, play their part.


With physical practice and devotions such as prostrations, chanting and other physical responses the practitioner may then move the awakened mind into a sense of wholeness, unity and glimpses of the divine, moved with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes Mitchell, concluding his essay. Resting in the 'now moment' there is the experience of life as it is, just this moment. 

The Buddhist precepts as discussed by many, lead the practitioner to awareness that there is no lesser nor greater, no aware or unaware, not even large or small; yet there is just this moment. Likewise Christians too, it seems, seek to live in the 'now moment.' The practice of Christian symbols, or Mudras have long played a part in that from the earliest times of persecution to modern devotional practice. Today mudras are part of many personal and communal practices worldwide.

Saint John of the Cross

The Simple Mind is away from the computer

Saint John of the Cross is as modern a mystic as any. Born in Castile, Spain in 1542, the product of a 'love match' between his prosperous father and his mother, a former serving woman. The families of the lovers were most displeased at this unlikely match. Yet theirs was a home which knew of a deep, enduring love; in this home the future saint was born.

The Way of Self-Denial,

by Saint John of the Cross

That you may have pleasure in everything

Seek your own pleasure in nothing.

That you may know everything

Seek to know nothing.

That you may possess all things

Seek to possess nothing.

That you may be everything

Seek to be nothing.

In detachment the spirit finds peace and rest because it covets nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, nothing oppresses it by dejection. It stands in the center of its own humility.

Desire to be empty and poor for the Christ's sake. This state must be embraced with a full heart, and you must really desire it. If your heart is truly engaged, in these efforts, you shall speedily attain great joy and consolation.

Be continuously careful and earnest in imitating the Christ in everything, make your life conform to his.

From Daily Reading with St. John of the Cross, edited by Ruth Burrows and Sister Elizabeth Ruth, ODC, England

The Cloud of Unknowing

"Our intense need to understand will always be a powerful stumbling block to our attempts to reach God in simple love..." --14th century English mystic

The modern reader of spiritual texts may surely have come upon this 14th century text. Its roots go even farther and deeper to the days of Plato and before. Some may deduce that they have come into an esoteric knowledge after reading excerpts of The Cloud of Unknowing when called by another name.

Indeed this ancient text again finds currency in 20th century spiritual thought. Yet the simplicity and the point which its author sought to bring forth was one that expressed the vitality of love as the central authority and force of all created beings; that, when at the 'end of words,' one must turn to the "cloud of unknowing" to further enter into the mystery of love.

For its writer expounds, there is no other way to knowing the All [god, god-head] save through love in its expanded form, a form that is not intellectual. Today's thinker is familiar with the term 'mysticism' which the Cloud's writer was not. He thought of it, simply, as hid [middle English-- hide, hidden] divinity. In this mind, he delves into the secrets of divine love. The heart of his revelation is disarmingly simple: love. We are all creations of love, he says.

He seeks to lead the practitioner of his method of meditation to the very being of god, which he says is being itself. Employing the simplest of methods, this mystic teaches a "here-there" or a "from-to" way of meditating a person between the everyday world into a world of light, of humility, of charity. The Cloud states, "for in this [everyday] life, no man can see God."

With simple confidence the Cloud says, 'The one who perseveres, who walks with courage, with faith, hope, and most of all, love, guides his soul through all manner of difficulty, which if faithfully followed leads the seeker to loving, in union with the One, the God.'

Throughout the ages and into modernity, many have loved and been moved by the writing, The Cloud of Unknowing. They would include thinkers such as St. Bernard, St. John of the Cross, French theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, and Pope John Paul II.