The purpose of slow (or contemplative) reading is not about getting through as many books as possible, but to gain from them a deeper understanding of prayer and through that to deepen our own prayer lives and relationships with God. The Cloud of Unknowing counsels a young student to seek the Divine not through knowledge or intellect but through contemplation motivated by love, and Thomas Merton wrote in Thoughts in Solitude:
Reading gives God more glory when we get more out of it, when it is a more deeply vital act not only of our intelligence but of our whole personality, absorbed and refreshed in thought, meditation, prayer, or even in the contemplation of God.
So here are some suggestions on how to read The Cloud and other books of wisdom, taking them slowly so that the text sinks in. Many of these words come from the transcripts of the Turning to the Mystics podcast that James Finley is recording for the Center for Action and Contemplation. Heartfelt thanks to him and them.
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First, you might like to read the book all the way through, then turn back to the beginning to read it slowly. Or take it chapter by chapter – read a chapter through, maybe re-read a number of times, then turn back to the beginning to read it slowly, passage by passage, sentence by sentence.
Each time you read, sit in prayer and meditation with your reading, and if you’re so inclined, you might find it helpful to journal. Write out what came to you, and the questions it raises, or how it reflects where you’re at, or how it bears upon your life. Then the next day, read the passage again, and after you sit with it, you journal again. So, after a few days, you would have sat with a reading several times. If you choose to do this, you might find that your journal reflections change between the first and the last. You have been on a journey. There’s a kind of deepening through sustained exposure where repetition is not redundancy.
Be very patient with yourself. The Cloud for example was published in the late 14th century, in a very different culture with different assumptions, and for much of the time you might not know what the author’s talking about. You might not grasp the meaning of a whole chapter, but what might wink at you is the one-liners. So when you read, take just one thing that rings true, one saying or one word. Write it out long-hand, and keep it with you during the day. Or write it out in your journal, and ask yourself three questions:
- How have I or how am I experiencing this?
- If I were to say it, how would I say this?
- What is this asking of me?
Your answers might be blank – “I don’t know. I don’t know how I would say that.” That’s OK – write down whatever is true to you at that time.
Some might find it helpful to use a mind map. Write out the sentence in the middle of the page, and the questions and any answers will radiate out around it. If a longer passage strikes you, take it sentence by sentence.
The next day when you come back to your reading, you could start from the beginning or pick up where you left off. You would take another word, phrase or sentence. And gradually, if you take time over it, you’ll start to connect the dots between your sentences. Later material may explain earlier material. You may start to find that a certain word or phrase will occur to you as you go through your day. Let it cross your mind and sit with it, stay present to it. You’ll start to soak in and absorb the text and internalize it in your life.
Good reading!