A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath.

A koan is a short story, or vignette that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen masters from the Rinzai school have been testing their students with these stories, questions, or phrases for centuries. Let's explore some together. After hearing the koan, rest in your meditation posture and contemplate the koan, or follow your breath.

The idea behind this method is not too dissimilar from the structure found in the 14th century spiritual classic, the Cloud of Unknowing, but conceptually reversed. In “The Cloud of Unknowing”, the anonymous author tells the reader to “continually place a cloud of forgetting between yourself and the creatures or forms of the world, and a cloud of unknowing between you and God.” In short, they’re saying, “let go of all the concepts that tie you to form, and let go of the concepts that you think characterizes emptiness” So that all is left is a naked intent toward the Real.

In this method, we use the image of a body of water, with its restless wind and waves at the surface (representing thoughts, feelings, and emotions) and we continually sink down beneath them. As a body of water is tumultuous at the surface, often it is supremely still at the bottom.

To get an idea of the type of visual image I’m referring to, take a look at the episode cover for this meditation, which is an original piece of artwork called "Anxiety" done by a good friend, Mike Reynolds.

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In this episode, we explore the divine vision account from the Bhagavad Gita. After a long collection of extremely dense spiritual teachings, finally Arjuna asks his friend Krishna to see his ultimate form as the Lord of the Universe. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God), Krishna reveals to Arjuna, a warrior, the true meaning and purpose of his existence - to know and be united with Krishna. Although the battlefield is a backdrop, the true subject of the Gita is the war within, israel, the true jihad. As such the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna is not so much an external one but an internal one concerning the supreme science, the brahmavidya which is the knowledge of self. It is a conversation between our egoic human personality always full of questions, and our deepest self, which is Divine.

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This is a look at the Divine vision account of Saint Julian of Norwich in her "Showings" or "Revelations of Divine Love. As she explains, these series of fifteen visions were received by her through bodily sight, spiritual sight, as well as words formed in her understanding. Julian composed both a short text, and a long text of the unpacking of her visions in no shorter than 86 chapters, exploring the graphic imagery of the crucifixion of her Lord and what she took from it over 15 years of examination. Julian's mystical message is rooted in the Pauline theology of sin, grace, and redemption in Jesus, especially the notion of the solidarity of humanity in Christ. But she goes beyond this often misunderstood perspective with her development of the concept of the Motherhood of Jesus.  Perhaps her greatest insight from her visions into the nature of reality is that both the ultimate subject, object, and final cause are one and the same: love.

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This is a look at the account of Divine vision from Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was both a visionary as well as a theorist of visions, having a strong interest in both cosmology and eschatology. But she was also a poet, playwright, composer, artist, physician, and one of the most remarkable women in the history of Christianity. One of the deeply interesting things about her is that she focused not only on the content of her visions, but the mode, transmission, and effect they had upon her consciousness.

This visionary account is one from her old age, in which she describes the non-sensory experience of what she calls, "The Living Light" that has the effect of healing, equanimity, and abundance.

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George Fox was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and war. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith. The Quakers have been a facet of the Church that has retained its contemplative and relational dimension, while emphasizing both tradition and experience, justice and mercy, action and contemplation. This non-dual tension of at times conflicting ideas may have its roots in what this groups founder, George Fox, experienced in his divine vision. He was very much influenced by Quietist mystics such as Madame Guyon and Miguel de Molinos, and placed emphasis on the supremacy of interior illumination, or inner light. Listen and try to get a sense of what he was feeling when he wrote these words, and maybe examine if you've felt that too.

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This is a look at the Vision of God as described by Saint Augustine. He describes several visions he received while in Milan in 386,  and in Ostia in 388. These narratives owe much to Augustines reading of Plotinus, but they also reflect his own deepening awareness of God's action in his life and the action of grace as a model for the meaning of human existence. Augustine's message is that finding God is not a solipsistic affair, but is essentially ecclesiological, given to those that awaken within the united whole of creation.

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Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation.

Today Clint Sabom of Contemplative Light leads us through a guided meditation based on Leo Tolstoy's book "The Kingdom of God is within you".

Clint Sabom is Creative Director of Contemplative Light and the writer of the book “Preparation For Great Light”. His areas of knowledge are Christian Mysticism, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Shamanism, NLP, CBT, psychoanalytic models, brainspotting, Integral Theory, body therapy, sound healing, Reiki, and hypnosis.

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Use this link to gain access to all of the amazing courses offered by Clint Sabom and Marc Shaw over at Contemplative Light!

https://contemplativelight.teachable.com/?affcode=107700_fntzp_ku

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Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation.

My name is Jory, and today we’re talking with Clint Sabom

Clint Sabom is Creative Director of Contemplative Light and the writer of the book “Preparation For Great Light”. His areas of knowledge are Christian Mysticism, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Shamanism, NLP, CBT, psychoanalytic models, brainspotting, Integral Theory, body therapy, sound healing, Reiki, and hypnosis.

FOR METHODS LISTENERS:

Use this link to gain access to all of the amazing courses offered by Clint Sabom and Marc Shaw over at Contemplative Light!

https://contemplativelight.teachable.com/?affcode=107700_fntzp_ku

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

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