Page 2 - July 2022 Listen 16-3
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CONTEMPLATION AND SPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP (CONTINUED)



        said “lack thereof”) the more we immerse               they too may gain the perspectives and insights
        ourselves in our contemplative practices.  Our         that flow from those discernments.  And so
        prayers, meditations, and other contemplative          that they might feel more at ease with the
        approaches help us gain insight into the bigger        temporal and the infinite, in one and the same
        picture.  On the relative level, as we swim out,       breath.
        we also witness our own personal, and often
        trivial, concerns as just that—small, and part         Of course, this picture would not be complete
        of a much larger and interconnected fabric             without mentioning that deep water
        between all beings and things.  As this fabric         swimming requires good skills!  We have to
        reveals itself to us, we can breathe even more         learn to swim at our own pace and measure.
        deeply, so that we might acknowledge that              And to discover our limits, so that we may
        our worries are really much less concerning            become aware of when we need to turn back to
        than we sometimes believe.  Of course, we              shore, lest we risk drowning.
        should certainly address them,  but keeping in
        mind their context, and how they seamlessly            So it is that even seasoned directors and
        interweave and interconnect with those of              companions need to be accompanied, and
        others.                                                supervised, ourselves, in much the same
                                                               way that we do for our own companionees.
        And again, as we turn our sights to the endless        Because ultimately, we are all in this together,
        sea and boundless sky, we see an even bigger           bound and liberated one and all in the flow of
        picture, that of eternity itself.  This helps us       the endless.
        with issues of life and death, and ultimate
        meaning, our central concern as spiritual                                Rev. SeiFu
        companions and directors.


        These contemplative practices feed what we
        can bring to our companionees, by inviting
        them to reflect and live into their own
        immersions with God and the Beyond, so that





                  “When we take a contemplative turn out to


                 the endless sea and boundless sky, we see


             an even bigger picture, that of eternity itself.”
















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