Paths to Contemplation - 19

A digression on distractions


A common problem that almost everyone who attempts a regular regimen of prayer has is concentrating on praying when there are some many other demands on his attention: thoughts bouncing about in the mind, stomach rumbling, the anxiety produced by all the tasks that still must be completed, an argument with a friend, the severe illness or death of someone close, etc., etc., etc.  The mind, the emotions and the senses all seem to team up to try to keep us from praying, particularly when we are trying to rest quietly in God.  Distractions may be less of a problem when we are talking to God, but they often become a significant issue when we find ourselves alone in silence.

Nevertheless, humans have an amazing capacity for filtering out interference from external signals in order to gain the information the signals contain.   For example, a television picture can be “fuzzy” due to poor reception, but the viewer may still have no trouble recognizing the images on the screen in spite of the fuzz.   Radio or telephone reception can include static, but much of the time, the listener can still understand what is being said.   It takes an unusual amount of fuzz or static before the picture or sound becomes unintelligible.  Another analogy we can use is traffic noise in the street outside our workplace.  The street noise is always there to a greater or lesser extent, but, unless the pattern of noise becomes unusual, as when, for example, there is an automobile accident close by, we do not find that the street noise is a significance hindrance to our concentration.

Likewise, if we think of distractions as simply static on the line, or street noise outside our window, we can more easily ignore it.   We do not fight the potential distractions but just filter them out so that we are left with the quiet resting.

We might think of placing our souls in the stratosphere high enough so that we are well above the clouds, wind and weather which are our potential distractions.  The clouds and weather float beneath us, but they do not disturb us.  They are simply there.  We need pay no more attention to them than we would the weather as we float high above it.

You may well say that this is all fine in theory, but it is difficult in practice, and you would be right.  The mind, emotions and senses are not quieted by God except in higher forms of infused contemplation, and they may well become genuinely annoying in the early stages of infused contemplation as God begins to communicate Godself directly to the soul, a communication that may yet be too vague for the soul to recognize, yet this communication bypasses the mind. emotions and senses so that these redouble their efforts to regain the attention of the pray-er.