most impressive literary figures in the
west century was Iris Murdoch the Irish
writer known for her fiction think of
like the severed head and the good
apprentice wonderful thoughtful novels
also her nonfiction work think of the
sovereignty of the good and many others
she was both a novelist and a
philosopher
maybe she's best known because of her
husband's book about her death
she died of after a long struggle with
Alzheimer's disease and her husband John
Bailey wrote this beautiful book about
her last illness but I recommend people
read the great iris verdict I bring her
up because some of her take on human
wife and her take and what I would call
Spiritual Exercises
she had really an accord with a I say a
Christian view of the world a rather
dark view of human nature she saw us as
tending toward self absorption self
preoccupation it was difficult for us to
seek the authentic good to break out of
our own you know self-interest and so on
and she recommended a series of
Spiritual Exercises that would help you
make this transition to help you get out
of yourself and they're very interesting
because they're not spiritual exercise
in the normal sense of the term a first
one she said was wrestling with a
foreign language and as someone who has
done that most of his life I've wrestled
a number of foreign languages I know
exactly what she means she means that
the language is there in all of its
majestic other knows there whether you
get it or not you know so there's the
French language which I spent a lot of
here study French with all of its beauty
and all of its complexity all of its at
least to our minds kind of weirdness the
weird Spelling's and the weird Julie ERA
T's of it and French doesn't care it
just doesn't care whether you get it or
not I mean you could you could throw the
book across the room French doesn't care
it's just there it is challenging you to
leave your comfortable linguistic world
and to move into
it's world and to operate according to
its demand or think of German another
language I've spent some years studying
to an English speaker it's confounding
word order I mean why do you put the
words in the order in a sentence it's
very complicated grammar think of Greek
I studied Greek when I was doing Bible
years ago in Greek with a different
alphabet first time I approach the
language where it just wasn't ABCD but
it's different alphabet you have to
learn and then then once you get past
that the grammar of Greek is beyond the
difficulty even of Latin Greek doesn't
care you know I was struggling to learn
it and I'm trying to read some of the
Bible which is pretty simple Greek day
it doesn't care whether I get it or not
it's there in all of its majesty at a
real concrete example is when I was
newly arrived in Paris years ago and I
went to a cafe with these friends of
mine and it was busy busy lunchtime you
know on the waiter was very agitated
nervous and pressed and over to the
table he comes to get our order wait you
know and so the other guys worker came
to me and suddenly at that moment with
this guy glaring at me
I just forgot everything I forget every
past participle I forgot every word and
there I stood sat just sort of babbling
away until the waiter left he left to
take care of our table but he's a symbol
for me what she's talking about of the
sheer other nurse
he didn't care that I didn't know the
right past participle now why is this
good well it's very good for us as iris
murdered because it breaks us out of our
little world of self regard the world
revolves around me no it doesn't much
the world doesn't care about you I'm
trying to draw these things into myself
to make them easy for me no you
shouldn't do that you should be cracked
open by the hard rock of these objective
beauties and truths so that you can be
drawn into them see spiritual exercise
here's a second example she gives the
confrontation with a real work of art
now compare for example you go into a
hotel and there's a painting over your
bed you know and it's a painting that's
designed just to kind of
please you or to calm you down or let's
say you're in a doctor's office and
there's a painting that's meant to
soothe your nerves
so it's you know easy it corresponds to
all the expected canons of what makes a
painting you know acceptable well it
doesn't it doesn't change your movie or
anyway it just kind of pleases you in a
superficial way now think of a real work
of art whether it's the Sistine ceiling
or its Picasso's Guernica or it's a
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or something
that isn't there to please you it
doesn't care whether you like it or not
you know I don't like the Sistine Chapel
I mean how stupid that sounds or you
know I don't really care for Beethoven's
fifth symphony well it's just
first of all stupid and secondly
Beethoven's fifth symphony doesn't care
less whether you like it or not it's
there in all of its beauty power
sublimity complexity and its purpose is
to break through the carapace of your
own self regard and self isolation and
break into a higher world that's why
James Joyce who knew this principle
really well in his great portrait of the
artist is young man has that scene of
its himself he's the narrator really
looking out at his beautiful girl who'll
become his wife and there she stands and
all of her beauty and he admires her and
contemplates her and at one point she
turns and it says suffers his gaze like
she she tolerates the fact that he's
gazing at her she's not there to please
him
that's pornography by the way it says
Joyce it is like a sexual presentation
meant to just please or titillate the
viewer but authentic sexuality for
example isn't like that at all it's
meant to break you out of your self
regard for iris Merrik this too is a
spiritual exercise because it gets you
out of the ego okay
I thought of Iris Murdoch because of
that great passage in the Gospels about
the Pharisee and the publican member the
two men that go into the temple to pray
and there is the Pharisee who stands up
very confidently and thanks God for
making them not like other people so
here I thank you Lord for making me so
good and
not like that poor Republican over there
that poor tax collector well what is
that but an exercise in self-indulgence
that is not a prayer it's not authentic
spiritually it doesn't break him out of
his self regard it's just
self-congratulation right there's
nothing spiritually viable in that
prayer then the publican barely raising
his head so his posture gives away his
attitude feeding his breasts you know at
mercy on me I'm a sinner I'm a sinful
man it's a real prayer or why because
he's not the principal actor and God is
the audience rather God is the principal
actor and this poor man is is barely
seeing himself worthy to stand in God's
presence it's the sheer power and
objectivity of the divine goodness that
breaks through his self regard that
breaks him into a higher world and so
even though he's like look Lord I'm I'm
a I'm a sinner I'm unworthy of you he's
uh turd an authentic prayer a prayer of
real spiritual power now think of how
his prayer in that beautiful parable has
made its way into the Jesus Prayer you
know Lord Jesus Christ son of the Living
God have mercy on me a sinner that's a
real prayer you're not in command
you're not Boston got around you're not
looking for God to please you just the
contrary Lord Jesus Christ I'm living
God have mercy on me a sinner that's a
prayer that breaks you out of this self
regard you know some years ago I was
reading Rolling Stone magazine and they
were asking a lot of classic rocker
types you know what's the first song
that rocked your world and I loved about
that question I got it right away I knew
what they meant not the first song that
you liked the first song that pleased
you the first song that you thought was
cool that's all a relatively superficial
the first song that rocked your world
that made you think in a different way
that broke you out of your complacency
you know I know what my woes is Bob
Dylan's like a rolling stone when I was
about 17 I first heard that it rocked my
world to this day it rocks my world it's
a song that breaks you out of your
normal
sections you know the thing is the
prayer of the publican is a prayer that
rocked his world you know the prayer the
Pharisee didn't rock his world in any
way it left him exactly where he was
spiritually speaking and so with Iris
Murdoch in mind think about your own
prayer life your own spiritual religious
life is it a superficial kind of ego
pleasing spiritual life or is it a
spiritual life that really rocks your
world