I had a pleasant conversation yesterday with Peter L'Esperance on his podcast, “The Fellow Traveller.” I kept my comments fairly basic, given the intended audience of the program, but the discussion touched on a number of subjects pertinent to readers of this Substack page. Below is a link to the page on Spotify, but it can be accessed via your preferred podcast provider. My only regret is that in one place I slipped and referred to Augustine of Canterbury as Augustine “of Hippo.” And I’m sure there are other things that some scrupulous listeners might pick up on that I missed or flubbed (thus is life). But on the whole, it was, as I say, a relaxed and pleasant chat. So, if you will, enjoy. It’s about an hour and twenty-five minutes in length.
The introduction to the discussion reads: “Addison Hart joins me again from Norway to talk about the intersection between Far-Eastern spirituality and Christianity. We discuss a little more about what Anglicanism is and where it came from, as well as how Zen Buddhism has influenced his spiritual and contemplative practices.”
You can access the podcast on Spotify by clicking here.
Great conversation! Thanks for sharing. Your most recent content has been very helpful to me—I’m a lifelong Catholic and have begun to explore the path of contemplative prayer over the past few years. I’ve always been devoted to the Christian intellectual tradition, but it suddenly dawned on me that, for all I knew about God, I didn’t know God very well. And so I found my way to the Jesus Prayer. I still make some of the errors you have described recently: thinking that reading books about contemplation is the same as sitting in silence, or feeling the pressure to construct a comprehensive metaphysical and doctrinal system. Your work has been very helpful along the way.
One perplexity remains for me in particular, though, especially when placing Christian contemplation in dialogue with traditions like Zen: from what I’ve learned so far, the Christian mystical tradition teaches that contemplation can lead to an experiential knowledge of God and perception of the immortal soul. How can the Christian approaching contemplative prayer be confident that what he encounters is God, when other traditions may use similar practices, but do not speak of (or outright deny) God and the soul/atman?
I’ll appreciate any insight you can share—you have already been an invaluable companion on the path.
Sir, I am a subscriber to this substack and a long time contemplative who's orientation to such matters, I think, is not so dissimilar to your own. I recently set up a substack that you might find to be congruent with your published outlook here. As inclination and time permit you can access that at:
< https://bewilderedmind.substack.com/ > Regards, George Vockroth