“We would rather be ruined than changed We would rather die in our dread Than climb the cross of the moment And let our illusions die.” - W.H. Auden Interview with James Hollis, Ph.D. on the key elements of a reflective life.

The Past Has Arms: Risking Relationship with Ourselves So We Can Grow Up with James Hollis, PhD

The Contemplify podcast kindles the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Through artful musings & conversations with scholars, creatives, and master teachers each episode delivers a subtly intoxicating* exchange on the contemplative lifestyle with practical takeaways to emulate in daily life. 

Host, Paul Swanson, is a husband, father and contemplative educator at the Center for Action and Contemplation and co-host of Another Name for Every Thing with Richard Rohr**.

*Contemplify is best served with a pint in hand. Please listen responsibly.

** All shenanigans, tom foolery and bally-hoo posted on Contemplify are my own. Contemplify is not representative of the Center for Action and Contemplation or Richard Rohr on any matter.

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A musing on time, eternality, and childeren

Turn the Morning into Forever

Reduced to the Scale of Our Competence

A musing on wild things and ingesting God

Eat the Wild Thing

Each solstice and equinox Contemplify offers a public Lo-Fi & Hushed contemplative practice session for both free and supporting subscribers of the Non-Required Reading List. For those interested, go tell it on the mountain…   The third week of Advent salted on joy. Not because of the circumstances, but despite them. The work remains to create the conditions for the gift of joy to emerge. The candlelight had built around the Advent wreath and solstice was breaking into a light jog. The arms of Advent and winter solstice were outstretched, reaching towards embrace. We were so close to completing the circle. Our own sweet darkness yields in a protected and patient trust. Let us welcome the gift. Wendell Berry’s “To Know the Dark” was the vessel for the Winter Solstice Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session. You can follow the link to peek at the entire poem. Welcome this dark knowing into practice. May we show up with expectation under its seamless cloak. Advent rejoices within the crackles of reality. Let us slow our pace to hear this joyful song. visit contemplify.com

Lo-Fi & Hushed / 2023 Winter Solstice Session / To Know the Dark

"Oshida’s life and legacy is an experience of the spiritual senses knowing the mystical voice. Biblical in sources and Buddhist in form, reading this book took me as a reader to the great pause of silence." — Sister Meg Funk, OSB   Lucien Miller received his PhD in comparative literature from Berkely and taught Comparative Literature and Chinese at the University of Massachusetts. He is a deacon, spiritual director, and author.   Lucien and I talk about his book, Jesus in the Hands of Buddha: The Life and Legacy of Shigeto Vincent Oshida, OP. Fr. Oshida taught with a clarity born of mystical devotion, bent towards right action, flowing from community.  Lucien regales me with stories about Fr. Oshida; his memorable first visit traveling to Takamori Hermitage that landed him in jail, Fr. Oshida’s elemental fire-mass, the foundational difference between word-idea and word-event, and much more. Visit Contemplify.com for shownotes

The Past Has Arms: Risking Relationship with Ourselves So We Can Grow Up with James Hollis, PhD

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