Silence

THE REALITY THAT is present to us and in us:

call it being … Silence.

And the simple fact that by being attentive,

by learning to listen

(or recovering the natural capacity to listen)

we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness

that it cannot be explained:

the happiness of being at one with everything

in that hidden ground of Love

for which there can be no explanations….

May we all grow in grace and peace,and not neglect the silence that is printed

in the centre of our being.

It will not fail us.

Thomas Merton

Myth, Metaphysics and Mysticism

Myth, metaphysics and mysticism-what do they have in common? The union of finite and the infinite, of the defined and the undefinable.

Myth is a symbolic but concrete presentation of the union of the finite and the Infinite. Usually a story, it may also appear as a ceremony or icon, as a building, costume or dance--or even as landscape. Both concealing and revealing, it is immediately available to the imagination. Metaphysics explains theories about the union of the finite and the Infinite by using concepts and arguments, or by providing phenomenological descriptions followed by reasoning that leads to ontological insight. Many philosophical traditions in both East and West believe that the crucial insight into the basic relation has to come of itself and cannot be captured in concepts and exhaustively explained, although the way to such insight can be prepared. Mysticism then grasps the reality directly a lived experience, without any mediating story or explanation.

The Hindus say we should first listen, then we should think, and then we should realize. Receiving the myths is listening, doing metaphysics is thinking, living as mystics is realizing.

Dr. Beatrice Bruteau from Radical Optimism, Practical Spirituality in an Uncertain World

Path to wisdom

In seeking wisdom the first step is silence, the second: listening, the third: remembering, the fourth: practicing, the fifth: teaching others.

- Solomon Ibn Gabirol

Spiritual friendship

"The friend is the key and I am the lock."

Rumi



Rumi uncovers for us here a secret way into the bliss of the Divine Presence: the precious gift of spiritual friendship. The spiritual friend is not just a friend whose company we enjoy. Such friendships are important and nourishing to us in some necessary way, but they don’t touch our depth of being. Friendship in its mystical significance is always a relationship in the light of eternity: it is a bond related to our eternal mutual well-being. Although it partakes of all the joys of affection normal among friends, it has its origin and destiny in the Divine itself. The friend, in this sense, is a mirror for us, and we are a mirror for them. This friend is someone with whom we can share our deepest thoughts and fears, someone who inspires us, reminds us, and corrects us when we need it. Such friends share prayer, meditation, and reflection with us, and all the joys that arise in the mystical journey. These rare friendships are the highest form of love there is after Divine Love itself.

[The Mystic Hours]
By Wayne Teasdale

(Courtesy Elizabeth Chatterjee)

Words from the Holy Mountain

In one of the most enigmatic passages of the canonical Gospels Yeshua ascends the Mountain and is transfigured before three of his students. Their reaction is so unstable that they can hardly attend to what is happening all around them, but are instead focused upon themselves and their fear and unknowing. Recently while translating the Gospel of Philip from Coptic, I came to a section which is astounding. In it Philip records words from that scene and calls them "Eucharistic"--a form of great thanksgiving poured out in a cry of joy from the heart of Yeshua. Here is what is recorded:

On that very day in an act of great thanksgiving he cried, "O You who has united Perfect Light with sacred Spirit, let our angels be bonded to the icons.”

These words are full of a sense of the divine Presence in a cosmos of immense proportion and complexity. They suggest many things about ourselves and the understanding that the Christ has of what is happening "in Glory"--the realm of Transcendence. This prayer is not easy to understand given the conventional theology of western Christianity, but it does make sense within the framework of Semitic and Oriental spirituality.

The Way of Fire

Summoning all your strength, heed the Word in the world today.
Heed the fires of change, which rage and burn the old, which rid the world of a host of impurities. Fear not the damage done, nor the magnitude of them, for they purge the world and bring it forth anew. Remember: the phoenix and the ashes of regeneration, the ashes of resurrection, the ashes of sin and death are transformed by the Cross. Let the fire burn a swath into your very soul--burn a path direct to your heart--so that your heart is hence made clean and is made anew.

Only the heart risen from the ashes hears the Word. The Word is forged in resurrection light and shall be heard by those who have burned out impurities, who have burned up the unwholesome life and have started anew in Christ.

Tarry not with Death's forces; they vanquished be in He Who comes in Light and Life. Reflect deeply upon the Way, so that the Way bears you towards the Truth and the Truth in turn bears you towards the Life--they are interlocked in faith, the one leads to the other in holy succession, not logic of mind. Follow the succession and ye shall be free.

The burning of the Holy Fire, the Holy Spirit, makes clear the Path and the Way--the way of tears and trials aplenty--the clearing of the Way is indeed painful, painful as the Christ's walk towards Jerusalem. The Way of Fire is paved with glory and grace, and those who tread it are sustained by Spirit on all sides. Once the fire has made passage possible by reducing illusions to ash, the Truth and the Life may begin to be perceived: thus the pilgrim sets foot upon the Way and is assured to achieve the glory of Life in Him.

Go forth, little ones, and pry open your mouths to show forth praise. You need be salty, briny, and pure through tears aplenty, through soulic trial and temptation, through curses and prizes, fears and foes, fumbling and tumbling, building and tearing down, despairing and hoping, choking and laughing and sobbing...Til all clears and all is peace and all is centered in Him and by Him and through Him. Then will you rest your weary, spent soul--your head in His arms, your collapsed body upon His breast, the vision stilled and the gaze steadied by His look.

March on, little ones, march on apace and don't look back to where you started from, or you shall lose courage. Don't look back but face ever forward, ever plying through this life to reach the Life and the Light, which lies there at the center of your peregrinations. At your center He awaits, and He waits with infinite patience, love and wisdom. So be patient with yourself also!

Wisdom and impermanence

It is a defect in language that words suggest permanent realities and that people do not see through this deception. But mere words cannot create reality. Thus people speak of a final goal and believe it is real, but it is a form of words and the goal as such is without substance. The one who realizes the emptiness of objects and concepts does not depend on words. Perfect wisdom is beyond definition, and pathlessness is the way to it.

The wise one treads this path for the direct realization of impermanence and for the direct realization of understanding. This, then, is perfect wisdom. Such a one should tread this path knowing that attachment and attractions are neither good nor harmful, even enlightenment is neither good nor harmful, because perfect wisdom is not meant to promote good or harm for that person. However, even though there is no intention of good or harm, it does confer endless blessing.

-Prajnaparamita

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the business of the Church. C.S. Lewis wrote in 1947, "We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that he will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer: it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of his teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of the sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't , we shall be forgiven none of our own." Lewis would add, "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

"When we define ourselves by the people who have hurt us, or the people who hate us, we remain in bondage to them until we are able to forgive. When we are unable to let go of the past, our identity is defined by those moments of hatred and pain and, in the end, that will lead to our spiritual and emotional death. To forgive does not mean that we are to excuse. Many believe that when you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or intimidated or brutalized them, you are trying to demonstrate that there was really no deceit or maltreatment or assault. If that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. Forgiveness is much more demanding. It means, in Lewis' words, "that you must make every effort to kill every trace of resentment in your own heart---every wish to humiliate or hurt someone or to pay them out." Forgiveness springs from humility, in the realization of our own weakness, imperfection and sinfulness. If God, who is perfect, can forgive sinners, how much more should humans do so?"

Luminous Texts

In Occidental Christianity--the Christianity of the West--we inheret texts which are already being shaped by the tendency toward exclusivity. The hermeneutics of rejection, that is, the predisposition to reject anything that did not conform to the dogmatic assertions established by imperial Christianity under Constantine became the norm, and so many luminous and sacred texts from the early period of Christian formation were discarded and lost. Among them were the Gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Philip. These Gospel texts never fit into the rigid formulations of Latin "orthodoxy." They failed the dogmatic test, and so were deemed heretical. If they had appeared in any other tradition, however, they would have remained sacred, valued, and much studied instead of spurned, dismissed and avoided.

These texts are indeed luminous--filled with the light of wisdom and insight, and a form of spiritual seeing that will not be controlled by exoteric Christianity. They are from the esoteric (the inner dimensions) of early visionary Christianity and first-century Judaism. In an act of miraculous providence they have been recovered and restored to us again. That which was lost has been found and perhaps now Christianity can be made whole again.

The Religious Experience

"Most people lose or forget the subjectively religious experience, and redefine 'religion' as a set of habits, behavior, dogmas, forms, which at the extreme become entirely legalistic, and bureaucratic, conventional, empty, and in the truest meaning of the word, anti-religious. The mystic experience, the illumination, the great awakening, along with the charismatic seer who started the whole thing, are forgotten, lost, or transformed into their opposites. Organized religion, the churches, finally may become the major enemies of the religious experiences and the religious experience."

--Abraham H. Maslow

"Do not believe in what you have heard; do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; do not believe in anything because it is rumored or spoken of by many; do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage is produced; do not believe conjectures; do not believe merely in the authority of your teachers and elders. After observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

--The Buddha

"I am the eyes with which the universe beholds itself, and knows itself divine."

--The Hymn of Apollo

"In Heaven there are no religions. Thank God!"

--Gandhi

Unfoldment of the Virtues

April 1, 2006

Unfoldment of the virtues comes in its own time. One of the earmarks of the sublime alchemy of transformation is the unfoldment of 'caritas', the loving impulse of the Divine within the heart. In 'caritas' we see the other, not as one to shun or abhor, nor as one to consume with devouring attention, nor as one to circumscribe our own existence and insert meaning into our lives, but as one who is singular, holy, and beloved of God. Exalted is the one who can touch another's heart with their own; who can feel the other's presence as co-equal to their own in the world. Impressions upon the heart are indelible and true. They always make their mark and hold one to the truth as to a warm fire. Behold the soul, the essence of 'caritas'! Hold it near and dear and cultivate it as you would a near and dear friend--a friend of the heart. Give way unto others in whatever respect they are in need. In need and in deed one must come to love them and to love their needs as well. Each need is a chance to overtake them with your love, to hold them in that safe space, to let them let go and let you minister unto them. The moment this happens there is holy interchange; a holy moment transpires. Feel the warmth of the heart's fire and step near it; draw others near it too that they may feel its abundant heat, its rare fiery love and devotion, that they may also learn of this way of approach and apply it also to their own.

Karma and Beyond

In the traditions of both East and West, the law of cause and effect (karma, or “what you sow you shall reap”) is seen to be a fundamental, universal principle. It is not only observed empirically as a behavioral principle in the sciences, but it is seen as a moral principle as well by all the world’s great sacred traditions. It is easy to stop there. That’s the law, that’s the cosmic principle. It cannot be broken, and all our systems of legal and theological retribution are built around that notion of inviolability. But is that all? Greg, in his journal entry, raised this very important question.

“No,” say the mystical traditions, “there is more, much more.” As Gary O’Connor pointed out in his journal entry, Oneness, is seen to be an even greater universal truth. If that be the case, then, in the end, nothing can be fragmented (separated from the whole), and nothing is ever lost. This is summarized in the ancient teaching of apocatastasis (the reconciliation of all things, taught almost universally in the early Christian tradition). There is hope, more then we ever imagined riding the wave of karma.

But there is more—and this is where the retributive legal systems both morally and theologically are challenged. There is a law beyond karma, and it is this: good will be created out of evil. Yes, the law of cause and effect applies—and it seems as if evil ripples out across the cosmos as a result, and if the law of karma is true, then in some sense all that is evil will meet its just reward, but there is more. The law of love says that even evil and its inevitable consequences becomes the condition for the possibility of a higher, transcendent good. Love trumps karma. Compassion rules wrath. Mercy supercedes justice. This is the undeniable force of Good News spread from the epicenter at the coming of the Anointed One.

Thoughts on one-ness

"He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is -- immortal in the field of mortality -- he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others. Then he goes,indeed, to the highest path."

-- The Bhagavad Gita

"As a holistic being you shatter the illusion of your separateness and reveal your connection to everything. This empowers you in a way that the ego-driven self could never contemplate."

-- Wayne Dyer

"What is needed now is a universal awareness of our one-ness --the fact that there really is a single collective, and that we all belong to it."

-- Neale Donald Walsch

“A human being is a part of the whole we call universe—a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thought and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in all its beauty.”

--Albert Einstein

Reflections From the East

If it is true that the inspiration for the Gospel of Thomas springs from the same Source as, say, the Tao Te Ching, then what can we say about the Buddha's inspiration? Having recently visited Thailand and Cambodia I found myself immersed in a population with little doubt about the reality of karma and reincarnation. Most of them lack the resources for meditation that could lead to release from the wheel of suffering. In their own view, about the most they can hope for is to be reborn a little higher on the cosmic scale through small acts of merit. Far from the promise of any sort of heavenly eternal life in the Father we are told is within our grasp, they cheerfully embrace eons of consequences for their karmic actions. Even the "gods" are subject to rebirth!

I find myself looking for the connecting link between this vastly different metaphysic and our own. The only direct encounter between classical Buddhism and Christianity that I know of is reported in Palmer's The Jesus Sutras.

Excerpts from Sutra II, (The Sutra of Cause, Effect and Salvation, circa 640 A.D.), for example:

"The One Sacred Spirit controls everything and you should do as the spirit demands: good deeds in this life. This is the only world in which you can perform good karma....You will reap the consequences of this life in the next world, but can do nothing once you are there....So He came and suffered a life of rejection and pain before returning. To know this is to know who He was, to know that the One Sacred Spirit became incarnate in the Holy Sacred Spirit. A benevolent act done in the knowldege of this suffering is the only truly benevolent act....

Talk about alternative Christianities! Try pitching that one from your local pulpit! And here's the kicker--Palmer says it was originally translated into Chinese from an Indo-Greek source, and use the traditional four elements of western cosmology (not the five elements of the Chinese).

My question therefore is, have we lost some strand of the "true" wisdom tradition (perhaps going as far back as Pythagoras, for example) that the Oriental Orthodox Order "should" consider reweving and restoring to its right place, namely, karma and reincarnation?

A Message From the Elders

I just returned from a week-long school or academy in Washington State. After our gathering here for two weeks in Texas, and then this week in Washington, many convergences have occured, and one was brought to my attention by Pam Wilder, a participant in Washington. She sent me this "message" from a Native Elder--no one is sure, Hopi, perhaps, or Cherokee, but nonetheless, a good listening to the "drum-beat" of our current condition. I pass it along.

To my fellow swimmers:

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has its destination.
We must let go of the shore, push off into the river, keep our heads above water. At his time in our history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.