WELCOME TO THE PRACTICE OF THE WORD
Welcome to the Logopraxis community. Over the next few days, you will receive a series of emails stepping you through the Logopraxis process.
Why Logopraxis
The Logopraxis approach seeks to reorientate our relationship to Sacred Texts by placing the emphasis on reading for application, rather than for information. While both forms of understanding are needed, it is recognised that spiritual knowledge in the memory is of no benefit until it is applied to life. It is only through the application of the truths of the Word to the life of the mind, that an experiential understanding can develop.
One of the key principles in Logopraxis is that while we may think we are coming to study the Text, we soon discover that it is actually the Text that is studying us. What is meant by this is that when we approach the Text with an openness to receiving what the Lord has to say to His Church within us then, what is reflected back, what catches our attention as we read, what we are drawn to… is where our work lies. Thus, as we outwardly read and engage with the Text, inwardly, we can become aware of the Lord’s inflowing life and so the Text is the point of meeting. It is where we come into contact with the Lord.
Re-discover the Sacred Text
Logopraxis offers us a way into the Word that directly supports our regeneration in the here and now. If we engage with the Word with the intention of allowing it to speak into our life to direct our daily practice, then the Word will reach out to us with what’s required. The insights that come through the intentional practise of the Text then become the doctrine for our life. This is a saving faith. It is something very personal, having been tailored to bringing into being the unique form of mind or use we are created to be.
For most of us our training where reading is concerned is geared around extracting the information we need as efficiently as possible. This is a skill that has developed in response to the vast quantities of information that we are required to engage with in our daily life. It can take time for the necessary shift to reading for application to occur, that sees Logopraxis become established as a way of approaching and engaging with the Word.
So, as you enter into this journey be gentle with yourself and allow for this reorientation to unfold in its own time, as it has done for every other practitioner in this work.
To read or listen to more about a new way of being in the Word and the re-orientation of our approach to it, click on the following links…
From the Logopraxis Handbook: A Way of Being
and
From the Logopraxis Handbook: Logopraxis Reorientates Our Relationship to the Word
Step One – Read and Note
The Text
For Logopraxis, the Texts that form the Word are those books of the Bible that have an inner meaning relating to the Lord’s life, along with the works of the Heavenly Doctrines which have been given for the development of a new Church within the human mind. It is because these Texts reveal the Lord and His operation within the human mind that they are collectively called the Word.
The Word is the Lord
The Word being from the Lord is the Lord and this is especially true for those who receive it as such. Try to be aware that you are bringing yourself before the Lord as you approach the Text. This will help to open up an attitude of worship within which holiness resides. This attitude can have a transformative effect on how we relate to the Word and how it relates to us.
Logopraxis encourages us to try to view the Text as descriptive of our own states of mind. In other words, what the Word describes relates to the structures and processes of consciousness. Just remembering this or keeping it in the forefront of our mind when we are reading can be an aid to experiencing the Text differently to how we might experience it in our normal everyday mode of processing text.
Another way of thinking about this, is that we are to read with conscious attention. We come to the Text expecting to hear with our spiritual ears what the Lord as the Word is saying to us as He seeks to direct us in our spiritual work for the session. So don’t rush your reading. Georg Kuhlewind in writing about reading offers the following advice…
“Read no quicker than you would speak to someone who is in need of support and gentle encouragement.”
Centre Yourself
Prior to engaging with the Text, try to spend a little time (5 or 10 minutes) centring yourself. There is no set way of doing this but whatever you do it should be something that steadies the inner activity of your mind and lifts your awareness out of external life concerns.
Helpful Advice- Don’t Over Analyse
The goal is not to try and get your head around everything in the Text. Don’t over analyse what you are reading. If you feel yourself beginning to wrestle intellectually with it, step back and redirect your attention to marking up those portions of Text that “reach out to you”. Our reading at this stage of the process should have the feel of a devotional engagement and not one of intellectually dissecting what is read.
Step #1 – Read and Note
- Centre yourself
- Read the given Text with conscious attention
- Read slowly, with application to life in mind
- Mark the portions of text that reach out to you or move you
You may take time to sit with your impressions from the reading for a day or so, reviewing them and holding them in mind before moving to Step 2.
If you are keeping a journal, note your thoughts and any questions that arise as they will be useful to come back to.
You can read or listen to more on exercises on how to centre yourself and how to read with conscious attention by clicking on the following link…
From the Logopraxis Handbook: Reading with Conscious Attention
