How high is deep?  Remember the post entitled Coming to a Place of Purity?  Check it out if you don’t remember.  In that post I talked about my retreat experience and my conversation with Fr. George.   I simplified the message in that post and I’d like to elaborate a bit more now.   I actually drafted this post the day after the one about purity.  That was almost 4 months ago.  I didn’t post it back then and I have no idea why.   The Lord works in mysterious ways so I won’t question his motives, I just know today is the day to post it.

My conversation with Fr. George a few months ago had to do with integrating Zen contemplation with my “practice” of Catholicism.  I wanted him to help me understand why he supported and even encouraged it.  I feel a deep connection with God and a tremendous sense of peace  and oneness when attending his retreats and practicing contemplation, so I wanted assurance from him that I wasn’t doing anything against my religion.  He explained to me that my religion wasn’t being changed by my integrating Zen contemplation into my spiritual practice.

I’m paraphrasing but what I got from his explanation was that there is nothing wrong with integrating the techniques of other faiths into our own if they’re going to help us recognize our oneness with all of creation.

Elaborating on his “purity” comment (see my previous post), he explained that the ultimate goal of our spiritual journey is to get to a place deep within ourselves where duality no longer exists.  Our goal is to get to a place where we go outside on a cold winter day and we no longer say “It’s cold” but just “cold.”  My response to that thought was:  “Wow, THAT’S deep, or should I say deep?”  To which he quickly replied “how high is deep?”  My goodness, every sentence out of his mouth challenged me.  So, guess what?  I chewed on that for most of my weekend too and this is what I came up with:

My first thought was, deep is relative.  It has no set definition or height.  Deep for me may be different from what deep is to you.  But the more I thought about the “cold” comparison I realized it was about recognizing oneness.  When we begin to recognize our oneness with God and all of creation we stop referring to things as separate from ourselves.  No longer is it US and THEM, THIS or THAT, IT and ME.  So my understanding of Fr. George’s comment is there is no height to deep.  Deep is TRUTH.

I understand now that my “religion” is my guidepost to God.  It’s pointing me in the right direction.  It’s up to me to nurture my relationship with God, no one and nothing else can do that for me.  For me, routine is not enough!  I know there’s more out there, I know my relationship with God can still go deeper and that’s where I want to go.  Integrating Zen contemplation into my spiritual practice is good for me and I know all good things come from God!

I realize all these “challenges”, or more precisely koans, have no right answers. They simply serve to get one thinking and boy did it work for me.  You may come to a different conclusion.  Give it a shot. How high is deep?  I would love to hear your thoughts. God bless you!