Ordinary People As Monks and Mystics

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Review:

"A hidden gem of a book...One is blessed in finding it."
         Body, Mind and Spirit.

"...She is at home with Zen masters, Thomas Merton, modern psychologists and medieval mystics. As a Campus Minister, I find this book very helpful."
         Fr. Benedict Auer, O.S.B., St. Martin's College
         Professor, History of Spirituality

Excerpts From Ordinary People As Monks and Mystics

Edited, from the Introduction:

"My research began several years ago [i.e.,1980] when my own inclination and interest made me pull away from the way I saw most people living, in favor of a more solitary, silent, reflective way of life. Although it isn't my purpose to describe my own experience in this book, every book is in some sense autobiographical, and surely this one is no exception. In a very real sense, I am one of the subjects I studied....

...There was nothing sophisticated about my methodology, quite the reverse - I call it communication, pure and simple. I was willing to talk to anyone (through a written survey first and later - if the survey response proved interesting to me, and if the others were willing -through... a face-to-face or teleconference discussion, if they lived far away.

Although I come across many self-actualizing adults in my professional life, I wanted to interview those who had pulled away physically as well as perceptually from conventional life... At best, such tendencies are the high points of contemplation, the "let-it-be" attitude of non-doing which we read about in mystic and especially in Zen literature. At worse, pulling away can be a sign of an inability to function - at any time!."

.... Edited Excerpt #2:

"... I call the monk one who had detached emotionally from a known, familiar and comfortable way of life in order to embark on an uncharted inner journey. The monk responds to an inner call, reinterprets his/her basic way of being in the world - which might include reinterpreting the way s/he relates to others, work, marriage, Church or other organizational status, and even includes a renewed definition of self and his/her basic place in the scheme of things.
And I mean more: I use the term monk without reference to gender, material statuls, occupation, or place of residence, and with full knowledge that some I'd call monks would not, and do not in fact, call themselves "monk."
...I simply needed a word which embraced the imagery of silence, the dignity and obedience that automatically accompanies those who embark on an inner journey, whatever route that may take, whatever the costs...
[As for mystics} mystics are the ones who hunger and thirst after righteousness, as the Bible puts it, the ones who year for continued or increased union with the Divine they themselves feel is real -- the Reality that heals and makes all things new again.... Unlike those I call monks, who wouldn't call themselves that, the mystics always knows that's what they are."

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