Thinking of Walter Hilton
A Zen Meditation on the Mixed Life Today
The Fourteenth century in England was a classic example of that famous curse about living in interesting times. There was the Great Famine, the Black Death, and the Peasant’s Revolt. In fact, the Hundred Year’s war began in the Fourteenth century. During this time about half of England’s population perished.
In the midst of all that Fourteenth century England also gave us five great mystics. The anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle, Margery Kempe, and Walter Hilton.
For a time some thought Hilton was the author of the Cloud.
I believe the only certain date we have for Walter Hilton is that he died on the 24th of March, in 1396. He was probably born in the 1340s. We do know he studied at Cambridge. He may have been a hermit. He did eventually become an Augustinian canon regular. He was a member of and eventually the head of an Augustinian house, Thurgarton Priory, near Newark in Nottinghamshire. He also was connected to the Carthusian order, although never a member.
Evelyn Underhill said of Hilton how he was “One of those . . . quiet and secret friends of God who have never failed the Church.” He seeps into many lives. An old friend writes about a dream of a Hilton Hotel, a magical place to stay.
Hilton is best remembered as the author of the Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection. The Scale is a map of the spiritual journey. Scholars say it’s based on the work of Richard St Victor, but simplified, made more accessible. And that it was. The Scale was wildly successful and celebrated for its practicality throughout the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century.
Underhill offered how
“The Scale of Perfection, although commonly described as a mystical classic, is really — like many of the works of the mystics — concerned as much with the moral and ascetic as it is with the contemplative life. It is not a storehouse of esoteric wisdom, but a way-book for the soul travelling in spirit to Jerusalem, “the which betokeneth contemplation in the perfect love of God”; and has more to tell us of the difficulties of the road than of the consummation at the journey’s end.”
But here I want to consider another gift Hilton brought to us.
What is particularly important for me is how Hilton was so deeply concerned with what he called the “mixed life.” He wrote two treatises touching on the subject, The Mixed Life, and Treatise Written to a Devout Man.
His thesis for the mixed life was that one can achieve holiness living in the world within all its obligations and distractions. This was not believed to be so by everyone at the time. Nor today, really.
However, I think this is something important for our moment, especially for those of us called into the Zen life. But really, anyone following one of the many aspects of the intimate way.
But specifically for Zen. There are those who think one must throw anything not directly connected to the practice of Zen away. Enter a monastery and train hard. A wonderful thing. And. Indeed, in East Asia Zen belongs to “professionals,” monks, nuns, and in Japan and Korea married clergy.
Lay people do practice, but not in significant numbers.
And then there’s here in the West. Here Zen has become predominantly a practice for householders. So, what about that?
Hilton sings of this way that is naturally blossoming here. He calls it the mixed life.
Even from that vast distance, from his Medieval Christian context, I find Hilton speaking to us. And speaking true. He’s writing for Christians, of course. But, there are universal threads. And so, yes, he also writes for those of us walking the Zen way. Should we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear. Really, within the quest for the intimate, a gift for anyone trying to integrate a mystical path into or alongside of a life in this world of work and relationships and responsibilities.
At base Hilton sees three real options for a spiritual life.
One is fully throwing oneself into the life of engagement. I imagine in this something similar to Hinduism’s following one’s personal dharma. And bowing fully into it as a sacred act. Arjuna as a warrior and a prince. Worth some reflection on its own, I think.
The second is the classic of just withdrawing from the world. The monastic, the hermit, the person devoted only to the wonderful and mysterious madness of the quest for God or Enlightenment.
And then there is the third, that mixed life. By this Hilton means living fully into one’s worldly obligations while also maintaining an authentic inner life.
In his essays he describes how this is done, integrating a prayerful life into what is apparently a worldly life. He offers another gift when he says boldly how for many this may in fact be the highest calling of all. This is important. His use of Jesus and the apostles as examples of that mixed life is particularly striking. At least as I find it.
From there Hilton digs into the matter. He underscores the need for bringing contemplative elements into daily life, allowing those practices to inform a whole life. So seeing how one’s actions might change because of this reorientation. Probably will change, almost certainly will change when informed by the deep work. We see how our choices then become righteous actions.
And he is realistic. He offers cautions about the particular temptations of life in the world: wealth, power, and status being leading examples. Worthy warning signs for anyone, they certainly resonate for a Zen person following her own mixed life.
And additionally, he calls us to be mindful of external obligations not standing in the way of inner work. Something that can be very hard.
This is not an easy path. Honesty with ourselves is critical on the inner way. Doubly so, I suspect, should we try to walk it in the mixed way…
A real gift.
He hasn’t been enrolled in the official calendar of saints in the Catholic church. Yet, anyway. Although he is recognized in the Episcopal Church together with Richard Rolle and Margery Kempe on the 9th of November. Although Walter Hilton’s life and ministry is celebrated in the Church of England on the 24th of March.
The image is David Gerard’s portrait of an unknown Augustinian monk, circa early 1500s