Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
One of my favorite experiences is to be outside late at night in December. In the Midwestern states of the US, when there is no cloud cover, it tends to feel brisk and chilly. Therefore, often on a cold, dark night, one can look up and become pulled into the expanse of the dark sky, scattered with starlight. In these moments, I cannot help but assume that human beings have been pulled into the lure of starry nights for thousands and thousands of years.
I recall the teaching of Rabbi Arthur Green, who points to a belief that in order to bring forth creation, God must have needed to contract, to pull back, in order to make space for something other than Godself. This teaching reminds me of what scientists are telling us about the intense pressure of a highly compacted space that would have been necessary in order for the universe to come into Being.
Expansion and Contraction: a powerful pair. Not unlike joy and sorrow, the two seem mysteriously bound to one another. We may not like the pains that come with tightening in contraction, nor the discomfort of the unknown as we wait in the space of constriction before the expansion that follows. Yet, as in childbirth, a regular rhythm emerges in the dance of contraction and expansion and we can delight in the familiarity of the pattern, despite the ups and downs, the discomforts and delights.
With each breath that our bodies take, may we find fullness and wholeness through this rhythm of taking in and letting go, of tightening then loosening, of contraction that leads into expansion.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- What experiences, whether in prayer or in everyday life, help you to feel the expansiveness of the universe?
- What experiences lead you to feel limitations, pressure, the tightening of contraction?
- How would you describe your experience of the rhythm of expansion and contraction in life or in prayer?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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Christine Luna Munger
Christine Luna Munger, PhD currently serves as the director of the Episcopal House of Prayer. She previously served as Coordinator of the Spiritual Direction Certificate and Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University. She regularly writes, teaches, and leads group prayer sits at EHoP.
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