The Spiritual Exercises Of Preston Flatt – Page 2

This is an actual way to mystically pray the rosary either with or without rosary beads. I have previously written detailed articles on exactly how to pray the rosary without beads using the fingers of the hands as landmarks to count on in place of beads. Those articles have been very valuable in showing the exact contact points on the fingers and hands, and in which locations to pray each part of the rosary without using rosary beads. I will put a link to that article at the bottom of this post. The post that you are reading now, explains the mystical side of it- how to mystically pray the rosary. Either with or without rosary beads. Begin By Setting Up The Mystic Yoke, Or Mystic Scale. When you are sitting down, you will be able to feel where both sitting bones are resting upon the chair. There is one on the left and one on the right, and you can adjust your posture to feel them both evenly in the place where you sit. When you sit in this way, even as you try to maintain that feeling of evenness at both sitting bones, you will notice that that feeling of evenness will still vary. It will actually fluctuate. You will feel it drifting, sometimes too much to one side, and sometimes too much to the other. But you will also notice that you can surf that place of balance. You can adjust your posture as you sit on the chair so as to continue to feel both of them evenly. The reason that you will feel those changes, and that changing balance, is that life is not stagnant. It is always presenting itself before you in new ways. And as it continues to present itself, you will tend to lean toward what you like and lean away from what you don't like. But now, there is a way that you can surf this place between left and right. You can abide in this changeless place between opposites. You do this by simply using the frame of the human body as a tool. To set up the equivalent of a mystic scale. It is not different than the yoke mentioned in scripture. And you abide in this place between opposites while you pray the rosary. Why We Start By Using The Sitting Bones To Set Up The Mystic Scale Or Mystic Yoke. When you first learn this, the sitting bones are used because you are used to sitting. You are also used to having the weight of the entire upper body relaxed downward into the place where you sit. It is possible to be relaxed while sitting and to use just the tiniest bit of additional relaxation to surf or adapt the posture to abide in the center. That is why this is good. Using the sitting bones is a beginning way to learn. Later you will learn to choose other points that will allow you to move about freely while practicing. So that you will be able to practice this spiritual exercise as you are going about your daily activities. You will be able to practice this while you are standing, walking, and moving about. So this spiritual exercise teaches you to comfortably use relaxation to find and abide in the place between opposites, the place between left and right. And to abide in that place between opposites, surfing it, using the tiniest, most subtle movements. Only Missings Of The Mark Are Considered Movements. Strange as it might sound, these movements toward balance are actually not movements. Mystically they are considered to be non-movements. That is because in mysticism, a restorative lean toward, or into balance is not counted as actually leaning. It is also not considered a movement. Mystically, only missings of the mark, that create unfinished business, or a stirring up of the world of creation are considered movements. When you lean, or return toward balance, this non-movement, toward the mark, toward reconciliation, is not missing the mark, and it is therefore not a movement. You could also say that it has a value of zero. Those traditions that use the term Karma would say that this spiritual practice is beyond karma because it doesn't create unfinished business. And it is not different from the "inaction" or Wu Wei in Taoist mysticism. This is because it is possible to surf and abide in this place steadily, even while externally appearing to move about. In Christian Mysticism, This Is A Way To Be In The World, But Not Of The World. Practicing in this way, as you go through life, even though you are moving right along with the rest of the world, all those movements are generated in "choosing the better part", holding to the one good thing, and not departing from it. In all times, and all places. The net change is zero. Even without doing this though, I will explain to you later that you are always effortlessly abiding in the inescapable zone of being you. I wrote a different article on that, explaining how this is. This Place Is Instructive. If you feel yourself leaning too much to the right or too much to the left, you will feel exactly when, where, and how much that departure occurs, and you will know exactly how to bring it back, to evenness. And that is because this place is instructive. It is self-evident exactly how to correct it. It is self-evident exactly how to abide in "Me". And because you know how to correct it, you know its inverse, the nature of its departure. You know exactly what it took to bring it back, to reconcile it, and therefore you can know what the reconciled departure was all about. You know this, not in a "thinking" or movement of the mind kind of way, but experientially. And life is new, from one moment to the next. This newness continues presenting itself before you, something similar to the way the still, changeless needle on an old-fashioned record player, though actually going nowhere, is able to witness and know the variety of changes arriving on the grooves of a vinyl record. With this spiritual exercise, you can know something about the nature of this ever-new presentation of life, that would invite a turn-away or a departure from the center. Creation and change have directionality to them. Left, right, up, down, front, back, and also center. When you set up the scale and abide as balanced, as all of the variations and modifications of these directionalities continually present before you, you can find rest in choosing to abide in the midst of them. How Practicing In This Way Relates To Mystically Praying The Rosary With Or Without Beads. To pray the rosary in this way, you will be setting up the equivalent of a scale. You will choose a point on each side of the body, and gathering those points, rest between them. And you will surf this place, the place between opposites, without leaning, as you pray the rosary. The first established place of abiding (In this example, the sitting bones) is held to steadily, changelessly as you gather two additional points (the rosary hand positions, on both the right and left hand). Each new beadless rosary hand combination is gathered into the already established one place and is surfed as one center. And you do not depart from that changeless place during all the rosary hand postures, during all of the transitions. And not just during all of the transitions of finger and hand rosary positions, but during the prayers too. The forming of the words, the rising and falling of breath and of speech, and the places between sounds, syllables, and words. Even the wetness and dryness of the words you form as you pray. There is a place between too wet and too dry also. All the opposites of creation. All these sweet spots merge in the one place where you sit, and indeed, you will find that they never departed from each other. This is called "abiding in Me". The changeless place that you hold to, and surf, becomes as an offering table. And change and endless creation, parade up, are weighed, measured, and reconciled. As It Was In The Beginning, It Is Now, And Ever Shall Be. With this information, you can enjoy finding yourself established in the place between opposites, find stillness in the midst of a changing world, and no longer be tossed to and fro by the parade of appearances that continually presents itself. Holding to the one good thing in spite of the many and varied invitations of these presentations to go outward is the real meaning of devotion. You set up the scale, abide as yoked, holding to the one good thing, and surf the place between opposites. This is done at first with effort, with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. And then you will realize that that which you have held to with effort is not different than that which you already have and are, without effort. And it is finished. Because you are always You, inescapably at the ground zero of your own existence. And as the world of opposites presents itself, it is reconciled and finds rest in the place that doesn't overreact or underreact. The place that doesn't mismatch it, but welcomes the return of its prodigal expressions. The place that doesn't further stir up creation, but is actively searching the horizon to bring back and reconcile it, in the place that doesn't lean. Praying the rosary in this mystical way, even though you have counted across the varied combinations of the fingers of both hands in the praying of the rosary, you will find that you have remained as you were. In the midst of all the changing appearances of the world, you have neither come nor gone. You started in the place between opposites and remained there. And indeed, even the place you sat has been steady. All while experiencing the varieties and combinations of the rosary hand placements and of the surrounding presentations of creation itself. You can find rest, and live life established in the place that doesn't miss the mark, the bullseye, the space between things. And it is helpful to pray the rosary by counting on the spaces that are between the finger segments, because each change, and every thumb placement, can be placed as if on a microcosm of the place between opposites. It works in this way: Each joint space can also be seen as a space between things. In this way, it is a smaller version of the place between opposites in which you sit without leaning, and which you are surfing while you pray the rosary on the fingers of the hands without rosary beads. Each contact and each finger position is prayed as being in the space between things. You have a place in the world, and if that place is seen as a thing, it will be easy for you to be caught up in the world. But if you are abiding in the space between things, you can surf the balance point between opposites, between things, and remain ever untouched. That space can be counted as having the value of zero. And each additional rosary hand position that is made, is just another zero. And the countings of both hands begin, move, and arrive at the same time, surfing this changeless place. You maintain the first two points that you initially established (for this beginning example, at the sitting bones), and do not bail from abiding in that place, as you form the rosary hand positions on the hands, and rest evenly between the rosary hand placements. The addition of these two additional points does not form a second center. It might seem that that should form a second place to rest, but it doesn't. There is a verse that says, where two "or more" are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. The words "or more" can point to the fact that it is possible to sample, or gather "more" than just two points while abiding in the place; abiding in Me. It is possible to gather more than just two points. It is important to learn to keep the energy sunk downward in the beginning though, and that is why I always recommend using the sitting bones when you are first learning. In this way, you can become established in using relaxation rather than tension to abide in the center while keeping the energy relaxed downward. There are many invitations to locationally miss the mark which present themselves from moment to moment. Invitations to no longer "watch with me", but to turn outward into creation. Being able to choose instead, the One good thing, and abide there, is to love "Me" more than "these". To love that which is always, changelessly present, at the center or the heart, more than any outward invitation to miss the mark. "Trust in the Lord with all thy Heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths". https://youtu.be/OOPXrAc6F3o How To Mystically Pray The Rosary On The Fingers And Hands Without Rosary Beads. By Preston Flatt Here is the link to the article showing the exact contact points on the fingers and hands, and in which locations to pray each part of the rosary without using rosary beads: How To Pray The Rosary Without Beads, Using The Fingers Of Your Hands As Landmarks.