Being in a Trance

How many decisions do you make every day? And how do you make those decisions? Today, it seems we hear a lot of "I like it" or "I don't like it." I like a certain coffee shop. I don't like this other coffee shop? The real question is, why do you like one over the other?

How many major decisions do you make every year? Major decisions might be things such as, buying a car or a home, or choosing the school your children are going to attend. Or if you're going to college, which one to attend? Would you make those decisions simply based on whether you "like it" or not?

How many life changing decisions have you made? Things like, whether to get married, or get divorced? How about deciding whether to move to another city, or another country? What factors would you consider in making these decisions?

There can be dozens of factors that affect our decisions. And the uncertainty about the outcome can be paralyzing enough that we never actually make the decision. How often has fear kept us trapped in a situation we desperately want to change?

And where does God fit into all this process? Does God talk to us by sending us a text or an email, or maybe an old-fashioned letter in the mail box? How about skywriting? A still small voice? And how do we know it's God and not our own mind convincing us that our "certain feeling": is really the divine?

Recently, I had the great privilege of being a guest speaker at the OHALAH conference. OHALAH is a Hebrew acronym, that in English stands for, Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal. Jewish Renewal is a movement, not a denomination of Judaism. This association is a cooperative of Hasidic Jews who practice the inclusion of all people, including their potential for God's calling in their life to become rabbis, cantors, and chaplains through ordination. They practice Kabbalah and many of those in this movement would be considered mystics. The Jewish Renewal follows the teachings of Rabbi Zalman, who recently passed away just shy of his 90th birthday. Reb Zalman rewrote the Hasidic prayer book, infusing contemporary life and language into their daily practice. He insisted that life should be filled with a laughter, which would diffuse the temptation of taking ourselves too seriously. Hasidic Jews practice an integrated orthodoxy that includes the mind, body, soul, and spirit. They meditate on the many faces of God. They sing their prayers and move their bodies all as a means of worshipping the One Holy Living God.

They invited me to join them for morning prayer. They sang, chanted, and moved for forty minutes. Most of the prayers were in Hebrew, releasing me from having to intellectually know what was being said. This freedom lifted me into the space of feeling the prayers in my body. They created a safe space that fetched my soul to sway and rock with the rhythm of the sounds. The forty minutes felt like forty seconds and at the same time like forty years; the experience was timeless. It wasn't long enough, but it was like I had been there most of my life. These people made me feel at home.

We spent the day together discussing how to be pastorally present in a world filled with so much dis-ease. As pastors, we engage people on a daily basis who are frightened, disturbed, and confused by the state of our country and the world. And because of their fear, they suffer pain in their personal lives. Life is hard and people are looking for guidance from their pastor. People are seeking guidance on how to make difficult decisions in a world that's seemed to turn itself upside down. As pastors, we can't help but take on the feelings of pain and uncertainty of those to whom we minister. Then the question comes, "What do I as a pastor do with all of these dark emotions. How do I take care of myself? Lots of people making lots of important personal and corporate decisions. How do we make the best decisions for ourselves and for our community?

I believe that the best way to make decisions is by being at one with God. Being at one with God comes about through a lot of personal interior work. It's not something that happens over night or simply because you want it to. Some of you attended my classes on Carl Jung's The Red Book and the Three Mystical Mary's. In these classes I laid out the framework for the personal interior work required to become one with God.

When we are at one with God, then we can hear the Spirit of God. I call this living a life of discernment, the art and practice of being at one with God. It's a way to live, move, and have one's being in the world; including affecting the decisions we make on a daily basis. I believe that being at one with God will help us discern the myriad of decisions we face every day.

There are some basics in the discernment process. First, you have a brain, it's okay to use it. Studying and gathering information are vital to making good decisions. Second, if at all possible, take your time in making any major or life changing decision. Patience is a good mentor. Third, making decisions in a silo typically means we haven't explored all the options and haven't heard all the important voices. Not including others in our process most likely means we have left out some dimension of God's voice. And fourth, make your decisions bathed in prayerful meditation and contemplation. In other words, we must do our personal work at becoming one with God.

One of the many beautiful experiences I had at the gathering of rabbis was to witness someone in a state of deep meditation-a trance. As a part of my presentation, I asked those in attendance have to imagine an interior conversation with someone, a departed loved one, a biblical character, an angel. Several rabbis at the conference practice Kabbalah, a part of which is a deep meditation on one of the many faces of God. One of the rabbis sitting near me dropped into a trance-like state. For me, it was a mystical experience witnessing someone else have a mystical experience.

The Christian tradition of Ignatian spirituality somewhat mirrors the Kabbalah's practice of meditation. In one of the practices of Ignatian spirituality, you enter meditation through the scripture. For example, in today's reading, (Mark 1:21-28) we hear that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. To enter into the meditation, I imagine that I am sitting in synagogue. I spend time looking around the synagogue, taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells. Then, I see Jesus. What does he look like? What is he wearing? Then, I hear his voice. What does his voice sound like?

Then, Jesus turns to me. He's looking at me. He asks me, "What is your question?" And I ask Jesus what's on my heart. And I wait quietly, patiently, for him to speak. I sit as long as it takes. Maybe, Jesus doesn't answer in the first session. I have to repeat the meditation, again and again, waiting for an answer. After each period of meditation, I journal about the experience.

You may be wondering how one would know whether Jesus was talking to you are you were simply fantasizing. There are a few ways to help you feel more comfortable that you're hearing Jesus correctly. One way is, if this is your first time doing this kind of meditation, you most likely won't get an answer the first time you try it. It took a lot of practice for the rabbi at the conference I was attending to enter into a trance state. Faith requires patience. Another way to know you're hearing Jesus is that what he tells you is congruent with his biblical teachings. If it's not, you probably should share your experience with a spiritual director just to double check. A third way of knowing that Jesus is speaking is to recognize those moments when you hear something from him that you don't want to hear. That's probably Jesus talking.

In these meditations, you are asking Jesus about something in your life. You're not seeking answers on behalf of someone else. You must start with your own work. Once you do that, then together, the community can discern its own work.