This week, with a lively and enlightening audio lecture entitled “What is Prayer?”, we introduce a series of lectures by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.

“…it is not necessary always to be asking for things, it is not necessary always to be using words: the deepest prayer is simply to wait on God.”

Some reflections by Fr. Graeme Watson on the poetry of the metaphysical poets and George Herbert (1593-1633) in particular: “Poetry and Prayer Beyond Words”.

“…we are drawn by the poet into that apophatic ‘space’ that takes us beyond all images, concepts and human formulations… towards nothing less than the beatific vision of God.”

By the late Zen Master Jiyu Kennet, the second volume of The Roar of the Tigress, “Zen for Spiritual Adults”, a collection of lectures inspired by the Shobogenzo of Eihei Dogen.

“…while these lectures were given to listeners who were within the Zen Buddhist tradition, the heart-to-heart message which they provide should be accessible to any person of faith…”

Finally, with thanks to Shasta Abbey, we offer a full translation of Dogen’s Shobogenzo itself, dense with challenging insights and powerful intimations.

“An enlightened one of long ago once said in a poem, ‘The blue lotus blooms amidst the fire.’ Thus it is that the blue lotus invariably blossoms forth in the midst of the fire. If you wish to know where ‘being in the midst of the fire’ is, it is the very place where the blue lotus blossoms forth. Do not neglect investigating ‘being in the midst of the fire’…”