My goodness, friend, this was so beautiful. Thank you. I was thinking of you because I did an Ignatian silent retreat a few weeks ago! And lo and behold, we learned about the concept of indifference. I remember when I was in college and very drawn to Buddhism, that was a big part of it, the idea of detachment from things. From my retreat notes: "We need to develop and establish in ourselves an indifference to all created things and desire only what really leads us to God." This feels a bit tricky to me in that I do think surprising things can lead us to God (like our children), but I love the basic wisdom of the idea of letting go. (Hey! haha). It's so fundamental.
A silent retreat sounds amazing! That's an interesting thought about desire. I think there's a tricky needle to thread here: our desires can absolutely lead us to God (or God can speak to/work through us via our desires), but to live in service to everything we want is to believe a version of the prosperity gospel. I actually find that Buddhism and Catholicism have some overlap here! The difference is emptying yourself of attachments just to be empty, or emptying yourself to be filled with more of God. Ugh, it's just so awesome all this mystery/mystical spirituality. Always good to talk through the finer points with you!
My goodness, friend, this was so beautiful. Thank you. I was thinking of you because I did an Ignatian silent retreat a few weeks ago! And lo and behold, we learned about the concept of indifference. I remember when I was in college and very drawn to Buddhism, that was a big part of it, the idea of detachment from things. From my retreat notes: "We need to develop and establish in ourselves an indifference to all created things and desire only what really leads us to God." This feels a bit tricky to me in that I do think surprising things can lead us to God (like our children), but I love the basic wisdom of the idea of letting go. (Hey! haha). It's so fundamental.
A silent retreat sounds amazing! That's an interesting thought about desire. I think there's a tricky needle to thread here: our desires can absolutely lead us to God (or God can speak to/work through us via our desires), but to live in service to everything we want is to believe a version of the prosperity gospel. I actually find that Buddhism and Catholicism have some overlap here! The difference is emptying yourself of attachments just to be empty, or emptying yourself to be filled with more of God. Ugh, it's just so awesome all this mystery/mystical spirituality. Always good to talk through the finer points with you!