A dear friend of mine who is an erstwhile student of historical Christianity has said: “Every spiritual discipline is an exercise in under-stimulation.”
I wonder if you think that is true and whether you think it concurs with what you’ve written here; if so, does valuing spiritual practices fed by under-stimulation and inhibited by distraction get us any closer to having any ideas how to regain our attention?
This is really interesting! Yeah, I think this seems right to me — or at the very least it’s a sort of dialectic between understimulation by the things of this world and overstimulation by God (thinking about ecstatic states here). I think you might very much be on to something, that thinking about ways to embrace understimulation might indeed help us regain and refocus attention.
Hi, Ben. Nice to find you here! Followed you on Twitter ‘back in the day.’
"Put the peace of the heart
above everything."
-@Paul Kingsnorth
When I researched this quote, I realized it is probably based on this scripture:
“Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23 AmpC
This is my third attempt to write a comment here. I'm going to send it now, before it disappears again.
🙄 Refer my earlier comment, do you see it? If our hearts are wholly captured then we will have perfect attention.
Nothing will distract us, not digital trash, not major world events, not suffering, not even festivals, cause we are prisoners.
It's a good prison...
Thank you Ben!
Love never fails 🌾
A dear friend of mine who is an erstwhile student of historical Christianity has said: “Every spiritual discipline is an exercise in under-stimulation.”
I wonder if you think that is true and whether you think it concurs with what you’ve written here; if so, does valuing spiritual practices fed by under-stimulation and inhibited by distraction get us any closer to having any ideas how to regain our attention?
This is really interesting! Yeah, I think this seems right to me — or at the very least it’s a sort of dialectic between understimulation by the things of this world and overstimulation by God (thinking about ecstatic states here). I think you might very much be on to something, that thinking about ways to embrace understimulation might indeed help us regain and refocus attention.
This was really valuable. To the side: the Hugh of St Victor quote was from where?
Thank you! It’s from De arca noe morali, I.1.