We must practice this inner contemplative work to connect more deeply with our reality. Especially now, there is a strong tendency for us to focus on and get involved with things external to us: policy, politics, the current crises, and the others around us – some friend, some foe. If we are to engage with others and our environment in an effective way, however, we must work toward becoming non-violent, peaceful and powerful within ourselves, which will happen when we are able examine and resolve our own internal conflicts. I’m not saying I’ve got it figured out. I’m saying I hope we can be on this journey together. We all always have this inner work to do, and the degree to which we engage in it will be the degree to which we will be able to be part of solutions.

I use the following terms interchangeably to describe these inner practices: contemplation, meditation, receptivity, practicing presence, and listening prayer. They are all basically the same thing; you can use the one that resonates most with your experience. It is the way we connect with God and deeper truth. If we can open ourselves to those and connect with them, we can get to transformation and solutions that are complex and fit the complex situations before us. None of this is easy. We must become present in a different way, and then we will know how to act.

The entrance into this work is silence. We talk too much. As Brennan Manning says, we must “just show up and shut up.” Then God will show up, too. Think about your most intimate relationships. Intimacy is present, though no word be spoken. You can be in another’s presence without uttering a word, and the intimacy is something that is felt. You have that person inside you and you are inside them. All the experiences you have had of one another come together to form a felt sense of them in you, and yet the connection is something with a life of its own. It is spirit, not form. Now imagine being able to connect with God in this way, on this level. That is prayer.

We can also have a sense of resonance in relationship – the feeling that things are just working, that you’re in tune with your environment and with the universe. There’s a sense of ease and effortlessness and you probably feel more yourself at those times than any other time. You feel connected. In this way, prayer is more like getting into a groove when you are listening to or playing music, or it might be more like having sex than having a conversation with words. Connection and resonance happen, though no words are spoken.

I realize I am making this all sound very simple, but we are just getting started. This sitting in silence is not even easy. That is why we don’t do it. That’s when all the bad stuff comes up – our worries, insecurities, hatred for ourselves and others and our deepest questions and doubts. I am going to continue writing about how to deal with these internal conflicts, but suffice it to say we must be ready to deal with those. This is where what you believe comes in. What do you believe about God and the universe? Do you believe you are okay, even with the worst parts of you? Do you believe you can be reconciled with the universe, that there are answers out there? That way down at the very bottom of everything there is good?