Kenosis and Compassion

We are told in the Christian scriptures that the “self-emptying” (kenosis) of the Christ is the key to the restoration (salvation) of the world—to its ultimate completion. Kenosis is often interpreted as “self-denial,” giving up what one wants and acceptance of that which goes against one’s desires—a kind of severe and painful, but necessary asceticism.

This definition seems to me to be incomplete at best, and false to a deeper, better, clearer understanding. Wisdom does not teach a pious asceticism, but the path of deepest compassion. Compassion and love are predicated on the capacity to set aside the limited agenda one has for one’s own self (to let that go—or empty it out) in favor of something greater, more perfect, more complete.

There is in this act not a kind of painful punishment (not an ultimate agony—though we may indeed feel the immediate pain of personal loss), but an ultimate ecstasy—to lose the restrictive contractions of the self and fall into the divine fullness, which is ultimate joy. The liberty of loving beyond the selfish limitations of the ego (kenosis) is the foundational key to compassionate living.

We know from our own personal experience that identification with and attachment to our own limited ego diminishes our capacity for love. For the contracted self, immersed in the affairs of the ego, the slightest irritation is almost too much to bear. We cannot take on our own suffering, which is the definition for compassion (to suffer with), let alone deal with the suffering of others in a compassionate way. But to transcend the self—to let it go, not only expands the capacity for the true experience of compassion, it gives the soul the capacity to “suffer with” all things without becoming fragmented and “lost” in this experience.

To the degree that we realize this form of self-emptying from our egoic-natures and selfish agendas, just to that degree are we capable of becoming compassionate “hosts” for the illusory self-natures of others, and thus open to their varied experiences, and, yes, to their suffering which is the inevitable result of the painful illusion that the ego is truly real and not a necessary but passing epiphenomenon of our eternal Self. This, I believe, is the deeper meaning of the teaching that says kenosis is inseparable from compassion.

Creating a Wisdom Culture

Humanity is clearly at a cross-roads. We have reached 7 billion living souls on the planet and the planet cannot sustain the pressure of the fast use of non-renewable resources for long.

Like teenagers about to leave the comforts of home, we must either grow up and take adult responsibility or, failing that, become dependent beings whose ultimate state is self-destructive. We have a choice--to create a new, vital wisdom culture or destroy the very home that has sustained us for 100s of millions of years. We are at that threshold.

So entrenched are our current self-destructive attitudes toward ourselves and our relationship with the earth that we assume that our economic well-being and ecological stewardship of the planet are at odds. Tragically the earth which is the source of our happiness, our current prosperity, and our very survival is in peril. If we destroy that source (our beautiful home with all of its rich gifts), then we destroy ourselves.

There has to be a way forward that can balance these things, reverse the trend, and love the planet...that way is the "wisdom way of knowing and being." Our work is to imagine and create, person-by-person, community-by-community a wisdom culture where balance and equilibrium both personally and collectively are maintained.

This is our work--and we are partners with the divine in learning how to do this. And it is a daily business--and the "devil is in the details" as they say.

True Freedom

"Our freedom is not in being saved troubles, but is the freedom to take trouble for our own good, and make the trouble an element in our joy."

~Rabindranath Tagore

Relating Love and Knowledge

I have been reflecting much on the relationship between love and knowledge lately and how they are linked. It is clear from reading in the tradition that love transforms--it is the transformative element that catalyzes growth. Knowledge, then, gives understanding about the process to the one being transformed. We are, in fact, meant (and designed) to understand, because we are the creature who seeks, knocks, and asks questions. Yeshua encourages that response in us. He said at one point, "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Love and knowledge are clearly linked. However, one further element is needed that combines (or links) them--it is praxis. Praxis gives wisdom because it allows us to embody all that we know and love. It is an embodiment in the form of light--the creation, perhaps, of a light-body that is unseen to the outer eye, but perceptible to the heart. This light-body is perhaps also what is meant by the single Pearl in the Gospel tradition.

The Apparent Failure of the Cross

In the last analysis, the service the Christian
does is not his [hers, etc.], but Christ's.
Therefore he must not feel too keenly the burden
of responsibility, because at the end of the day
all he can say is, "We are unprofitable servants."
This knowledge, far from inhibiting action,
actually releases the Christian from that appalling
feeling of responsibility that has driven so many
high-minded humanists to despair, even to suicide...
Work done conscientiously by the Christian is
his share in Christ's service; but it is Christ's
service, and therefore the Christian need neither
be proud because it has succeeded or overwhelmed
because it has failed. The service of Christ is
supremely expressed in the apparent failure of
the Cross.
- Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991),
The Church of the Servant

Make the existing model obsolete

"You never change things by fighting the existing
reality. To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete."
-Buckminster Fuller

Balances and Paradoxes

We who live in time stand between paradoxes. We are either balanced between them, or find ourselves off-balance because of them. Our quest in time is to achieve balance and insight (wisdom) within the paradoxical structures of the matrix of being. For the spiritual path three such structures present themselves as paramount:

Transcendence/Immanence

The Integrated Self/The Individuated Self

Unity/Diversity

We “walk between” these worlds, these domains—participating in each, learning to know what it means to achieve balance and understanding in the midst of them.

Transcendence is the wholly other nature of Ultimate Reality beyond thought and concept. Immanence is the absolute nearness of the Divine as interior Beloved. Together they represent the fullness of God (Divine Reality) to us.

The Integrated Self is the cosmic collective of the spiritual body of humanity (the great Transpersonal Mystery of our humanity) in which we participate and to which we belong. The Individuated Self which carries our unique “soul essence” belongs to both aspects of the whole because it is transforming away from the isolated “egoic-construct” that we normally think of as our “self.”

This Central Self (consisting of the two poles of our existence--the Collective and the Individual) belongs ultimately to the Absolute Divine Unity (or Oneness) which is the Unmanifest Source of All (containing all potential and yet Infinitely Transcending all manifestation) which pours itself out into Being, manifestation and diversity like a fractal pattern replicating through the web of being which is existence.

We (you) as conscious beings live between and among these paradoxes (these opposite poles). Our work is to achieve equilibrium and balance between them. We are called to be the “synthesizers of all realities,”—to span and mirror the entire cosmological structure in our own being. We try to preserve our mortal identity at the expense of our cosmic identity (the Supreme Identity) which is our true Self and ultimate manifestation.

A Source of Infinite Renewal

Those of us who are interested in the future need perpetual access to mystical empowerment and spiritual energy--a source of infinite renewal that will enable us to bring into creative action the highest evolutionary potentials we have glimpsed. It's one thing to have an intuition of what's possible, but it's another thing altogether to have enough spiritual self-confidence to translate that kind of inspiration into action. And the place we find that confidence, that fearless willingness to take responsibility for creating the future here and now, is through awakening to what I call the evolutionary impulse--the ever present energy and intelligence that gave rise to the entire cosmic process.

~Andrew Cohen

The Source-Field and the Divine Names

We come into existence from the Infinite Source (the Source-Field) and we return to that same Source loaded with treasure carrying the Pearl of Great Price (of infinite value). In the universal web of existences which is the matrix of our present conscious life, we encounter the Names and Presence of the Divine which carry the resonances of the Infinite Source into the matrix of our existence.

We have an inner mechanism which can receive these patterns flowing to us from the Infinite, and which can download and integrate them into the fabric of our lives (and ultimately our being). That mechanism is the spiritual organ of the heart--a place of continuous, unending wisdom and knowledge, which is the seed-bed of all spiritual life.

These Divine Names (perhaps themselves infinite in number) carry the power which will germinate the seeds planted in our hearts. They are each a reflection of all that is, the relationships between all nodes in the Web of Being, and are the gift of the divine energies which are essential if we are to make the journey of return to the Source.

Actions of a simple and common life

Let us give ourselves to God without any reserve,
and let us fear nothing. He will love us, and we
shall love Him. His love, increasing every day,
will take the place of everything else to us. He
will fill our whole hearts; He will deprive us
only of those things that make us unhappy. He will
cause us to do in general, what we have been doing
already, but which we have done in an unsatisfactory
manner; whereas, hereafter, we shall do them well,
because they will be done for His sake. Even the
smallest actions of a simple and common life will
be turned to consolation and recompense. We shall
meet the approach of death in peace; it will be
changed for us into the beginning of the immortal life.
- Francois Fenelon

Increase of blessedness that is new

Christ is like a river. A river is continually
flowing, there are fresh supplies of water
coming from the fountain-head continually so
that man may live by it, and be supplied with
water all his life. So Christ is an ever-flowing
fountain; he is continually supplying his people,
and the fountain is not spent. They who live
upon Christ, may have fresh supplies from him
to all eternity; they may have an increase of
blessedness that is new, and new still, and
which never will come to an end.
- Jonathan Edwards

Dark underestimation of ourselves

I believe that we all have this dark underestimation
of ourselves. Sometimes it is masked as arrogance,
overestimation, superiority, but underneath the
brashness the problem is insecurity and only unqualified,
unmerited, unconditional love can assuage it.
- Madeleine L'Engle

God offers to manage our affairs

Since God offers to manage our affairs for us, let
us once and for all hand them over to His infinite
wisdom, in order to occupy ourselves only with
Himself and what belongs to Him.
- Jean-Pierre de Caussade

God wants our attention

We must pray not first of all because it feels good
or helps, but because God loves us and wants our
attention.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Form or Essence?

"The outward form of things passes away, but the essence remains forever. How long will you be besotted with the shape of the jug? Cast aside the jug, and seek the water. If you look too closely at the form, you miss the essence. If you are wise, you will always pick out the pearl from the shell."

~Rumi

The Spiritual Impulse

When you feel the vibration of the spiritual impulse, the impulse to evolve at the level of consciousness, it's not just a feeling that you or I might have. This impulse is something much bigger. In fact, I believe it is that very same impulse that caused something to come from nothing fourteen billion years ago, that compelled an entire material universe to miraculously emerge from complete emptiness. To me, at least, there is no doubt that a great and mysterious energy and intelligence with enormous power is driving this entire evolutionary process forward in every moment. And our own direct personal experience of spiritual inspiration is the most tangible expression of that very same drive.

~Andrew Cohen

Nothing without asking

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the
Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His
Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see
how absolutely vital prayer is.
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Spiritual Methodology

Concerning the influence of the scientific method of monasticism: "The idea was that if you set up the right conditions, a kind of laboratory for prayer, and if you carried out the experiment according to instructions, you would get the desired result....  This concept has by now evolved into the simple pharmacology of contemplation: you take the right pill and you turn on. Hence the idea of discipline was corrupted into a kind of methodology, and ....instead of really praying and meditating, people became obsessed with their 'method' and observed themselves at prayer.....  This transformation of discipline in a broad, human measure and in a theological climate of love and grace into a methodology of will and concentration has been fatal to Catholic contemplation."

~Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action