A Contrarian's Practice: The Lenten Feast

Lent is historically a time for fasting. In imitation of Jesus' forty days and forty nights of fasting in the desert, many Christians observe some kind of abstaining behavior in preparation for Easter.

As a child, I was encouraged to give up candy for Lent. The idea was to Just Say No to my beloved candy bars, and put the money I would have spent into a little can with a picture of starving children on it. When full, all of my candy money would be sent to some Catholic mission where it would do "good." I remember one year feeling so proud of all the money I'd collected that I broke open the can and took all I'd saved straight up to the drugstore where I bought a variety of fireballs, jawbreakers, Hershey bars and other sugary treats.

Self-denial, especially the religiously motivated kind, often backfires in this way. If we succeed in our Lenten intentions, our pride in having done good inflates us ("Look at me--I'm like Jesus!"), while, if we fail to follow through, our shame may reinforce some misconception that we aren't good enough ("I'll never get it right…."). In either case, we frequently end up more identified with our egoic self than before.

Over the years that I've been contemplating New Church ideas, I've noticed that many traditional religious practices end up doing exactly the opposite of what spiritual practices are designed to do. Because they promise a reward for doing things the right way, they tend to reinforce rather than transform the ego that's always trying to win.

This kind of ego-strengthening is necessary at a certain stage of development. Yet, as our souls long for Something More, when the ego begins to place itself in service to transcendence, the results of traditional methods tend not to satisfy. We thirst, not for resssurances about ourselves, but for the direct experience of our Oneness with the One, our true Self. We are no longer content to imitate Jesus but must have for ourselves the embodied knowledge of Christ-consciousness. We need practices that will liberate us to experience this.

So when our hunger is mostly for things of Spirit, we don't really have to be too concerned about saying a loud, self-denying No to our physical desires. We've pretty much know we can have all the candy we want, and we recognize that while it tastes good in the moment, it's clearly not what we really need. At this stage, it's going to be more helpful to engage practices that encourage us to say Yes to our ongoing evolution.

In The Orange Book, Osho outlines such a practice, "Following the Yes," that is an example of what might be called a Contrarian's Lenten Practice:

For one month only follow the yes, the path that says "yes". For one month do not follow the path that says "no". Give more cooperation to the yes--that is from where you will become united. No never helps to attain unity. It is always yes that helps, because yes is acceptance, yes is trust, yes is prayer….

The second thing, the no has not to be repressed. If you repress it, it will take revenge. If you repress it, it will become more and more powerful and one day will explode and destroy your yes. So never repress the no, just ignore it.

You know it is there and you recognize it. You say "Yes, I know you are there, but I'm going to follow yes." You don't repress it, you don't fight with it, you don't say, "Get out, get lost, I don't want to do anything with you." ….No, you don't do anything to it; you simply recognize that it is there. But you are following the yes, with no grudge, with no complaint, with no anger. Simply follow yes, not taking any attitude about no…. For one month follow yes and don't fight with no.

It's new take on the idea of Lent for the New Church that lives in your heart and mind. Enjoy the feast!

Copyrighted, NCM Press, 2002