WELCOME TO THE PRACTICE OF THE WORD
Hopefully by now you have been able to find something in the reading to work with. If not, then ask yourself a question:
When I can’t find something to work with, what happens within myself?
This in itself is a task that is evolving from your struggle to find one and it may indeed be your work for this Logopraxis session cycle.
Coming to See Our Proprium
It is only through the practie of the Word that we can come to see the hellish proprium for what it truly is. We have to see it, really see it, for what it is before we will be motivated to separate our sense of self from it and so find our life in what is of the Lord.
Through Logopraxis we come to see what the hellish proprium is on one hand and the operation of the Lord’s mercy on the other.
This is why in Logopraxis work, success can be said to be measured in failure.
Success In Failure
The purpose of the task then is observation; it enables us to see what we are given to see in the effort to work with the principle or truth, including what resists this. The point here is that whatever our experience is when we are trying to engage with the Text is what we are being offered to frame our inner work for the period.
In Logopraxis we recognise that the Text always offers us something to work with – even when things don’t seem to go to plan.
So, setting a task in Logopraxis is not concerned with achieving the task as an outcome but is about setting up conditions that remind us to observe a truth or spiritual principle at work in our life. The formulation of a Logopraxis task and the effort to implement it in life creates conditions in which something related to the spiritual life (i.e. the life of our mind, of our thoughts and affections) can be seen.
Our conditioning so far as setting goals where our external life in the world is concerned, can be described as an outcome-orientated approach. We set tasks to achieve outcomes and then measure our success or failure against the degree to which the outcome we have set has been achieved or not. This generally works well to serve the external life projects and goals and to meet the demands of the various outer life roles, responsibilities and occupations. Where our spiritual life is concerned, however, this approach to setting tasks with the view of achieving an outcome is bound to end in a sense of failure.
In Logopraxis work it is our failure to measure up to the expectations we set for ourselves that gives us the material we need to see. The struggle with the process will produce thoughts and feelings, inner self-talk etc, that can provide insights into the kinds of mental patterns that arise when we are struggling or unsure of things. It is being willing to see what’s offered in the light of the task, whatever that might be, which then turns our work with the task into a “success”. The gift of this seeing is that we come to understand what our sense of self looks like when it is separated from the Lord. This sense of self is what is referred to in Logopraxis as “the hellish proprium.”
To read or listen to how to use external life conditions when setting tasks and why failure is success in Logopraxis, click on the links below…
From the Logopraxis Handbook: Step 3: Setting a task (Part 2)
From the Logopraxis Handbook: Step 3: Setting a task (Part 3)
