The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

The Divine Compulsion

2012-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest
exercise of the faculties God has given us--an
exercise that links these faculties with the Maker
to work out the intentions He had in mind in their
creation. Prayer is aligning ourselves with the
purposes of God... Prayer is commission. Out of
the quietness with God, power is generated that
turns the spiritual machinery of the world. When
you pray, you begin to feel the sense of being sent,
that the divine compulsion is upon you.
- E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Growing Spiritually

Letting Go

2012-02-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

“every question life could throw at her

swam in her head.

she had answers to nothing -and she was lost.

all she had was what was inside of her.

she knew that was enough if she

could just let go and trust that.

if she could just let go and trust herself.

lifting one finger at a time,

she began to loosen her grip,

she began to let go.”

~terri st. cloud

The Paradox of Meditation

2012-01-31T08:14:00.001-08:00

The meditation experience is interesting because on one hand it is about completely letting go of everything, and on the other hand, it is about paying more attention. It's a paradox. Let go of everything and have the courage and faith and conviction to keep letting go, fearlessly, no matter what arises. But don't let go of consciousness, don't let go of attention, don't let go of awareness. Meditation is the paradox between those two positions.

~Andrew Cohen

2012-01-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

In the heavens I see your eyes.
In your eyes,
I see the heavens.
Why look for another Moon?
Or another Sun?
What I see will always be enough for me.

~Rumi

On the WAY

2012-01-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up with only one aim --
to walk my way to myself.
There were sun and the grass and flowers;
There were river and bridge and animals;
There were also wind and clouds and rain.
There were me and you and others on the way.
Other things and beings, visible and invisible.
Today, while I was walking that way, something happened.
And I see that, while I was walking my way to myself—
it turned into a Way to the Self.
I don’t know if it is a rare mystery,
or ancient alchemy,
or something inevitable and ordinary,
but I stand here still,
going further without making moves,
thankful and peaceful --
needing no more words.

~ Eloratea

Hunger for God: appropos of "Hymn of the Pearl"

2012-01-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God,
it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied.
It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world.
Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for great.

~John Piper

Focusing on the Big Picture

2012-01-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

The evolution of our consciousness and our culture is an awe-inspiring task, but I believe it is possible for anyone who cares deeply enough about it. Those of us who feel compelled by the evolutionary impulse must be willing to embrace the dramatic scale at which the life-process is operating. When we awaken to the fact that we are part of a fourteen-billion-year process that is going somewhere, we begin to see our own day-to-day, moment-to-moment choices in a literally cosmic context. We see our own presence here on earth in relationship to the evolution of the cosmos itself.

This cosmic orientation is essential if we are to succeed in taking the next evolutionary step. If our orientation is not that big, we are always going to fall short. Our habitual ways of thinking are just too small-minded, petty, and personal. In order for authentic, profound, and meaningful transformation to occur, we have to make the effort to see all of our choices in this cosmic context. And that, in itself, is evolution. That's what our next step is: awakening to a cosmic orientation to being a human being, here on earth, right now.

—Andrew Cohen

The 7 Modern Sins

2012-01-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

Politics without principles
Pleasures without conscience
Wealth without work
Knowledge without character
Industry without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.
- Canon Frederic Donaldson

Sleep As Devotion

2012-01-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Being observant of God is an act of devotion towards God. Sleep is an act of God drawing us near. That which is conferred upon us by God without our choice is positively superior to that which we send to Him. Sleep therefore is a wonderful gift of God bestowed upon His creatures.

- Junyayd, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"

Spun from the Darkness

2012-01-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

I see everywhere

in this place of shadows and deep sorrow

How love is being created

and then woven thread by thread

into some invisible fabric

stretching across space and time

and beyond it.

I see how it stretches and strengthens

between hearts and minds

being spun out of the darkness itself

and then dyed by grief into Light.

I see how it unites and binds in the fragmentations

and changes those who spin or weave

or are simply covered by the warmth of the cloth around them.

And I see it is a tough love

and fierce.

And it must be against the dark cold or the fires of grief

that grip the world.

Yet what comes is a covering for our nakedness

when the fig leaves were stripped away

in a garden long ago

and we began our sojourn into “shadowland.”

This priceless mantel—this robe of Light

will last beyond the darkness

for Beauty has allowed us here

a glimpse of the Eternal

and the fabric of love fills with Light.

Freedom's dangers

2012-01-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Freedom is thrust upon us, and we must take it whether
we will or not. Happiest is he or she who takes it
most completely and most joyfully, but also most
seriously and with the deepest sense of its dangers.
- Phillips Brooks (1835-1893),
Life and letters of Phillips Brooks, v. III

Early Morning Dreams

2012-01-19T03:51:00.001-08:00

I awoke this morning to a sultry wink
The Lover had donned a sheer, silky veil
and was winking at me with her golden
early morning light.

I awoke this morning prepared to struggle
another day, only to find that the Lover
had other plans.

I awoke this morning to a sultry whisper
and my eyebrows rose at the Lover's erotic
desire for me, just me. No hero, No model,
only SOUL.

I awoke this morning to The Lover's passion,
and I would die another day for Her.

Silver-edged Cloud with a Slice of Moon

2012-01-17T06:51:00.001-08:00

A moon white scimitar of wonder sliced
through the ego fog and stopped me in my
tracks. The Beloved had been waiting
for a moment of opening, so of course
She caught me mid-stride, mouth open.

"How do you like my cloud-moon show today?!"

Such child like exuberance over a common
place delicacy, like a cloud, melted my
heart and I saw the cloud and its lace
tatted edges caressing the moon, as if
for the first time.

"I have seen the moon today, I have seen
the clouds in the sky, I have seen, really
seen the buds of the trees and the universes
that are their back-drop."

These gifts that are so present, so delicately
fringed. Where have they been?

THEY ARE PRESENT!

These exquisite wonders are hidden in the mind
fog of our heavy paced world. And we are like
zipping midges, seeing a blur, because a silent
present moment is what is necessary for our
Gifted Moment.

The Beloved beguiled me today and my wanton
quiver of delight was satisfied by a cloud with
silver edges and a slice of moon.

Christ is essentially something different

2012-01-11T06:19:00.001-08:00

Social enthusiasms have such power today, they raise
people so effectively to the supreme degree of heroism
in suffering and death, that I think it is as well
that a few sheep should remain outside the fold in
order to bear witness that the love of Christ is
essentially something different.
- Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting on God

From Yunus on Friendship

2012-01-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

This has been submitted to the blogsite by Ed Clifford

That by which our hearts are held
Whole worlds love it too.
I can't deny the Truth-
Many Ways lead to the One.

Those whom the Beloved loves,
We must also love.
If someone is a friend of the the Friend,
How can we afford not to be friends?

If you would be a lover,
Befriend him who loves your Friend;
And if you cannot,
Don't call yourself a friend of mine.

Whomever you tend to despise,
Hold dear instead.
Don't belittle others, respect them.
This is where the Path leads.

If your heart is filled with love,
Your way is sacrifice,
Through sacrifice you will find your place
In the ranks of Love.

Hearts which truly love the Truth,
Truth will open a door wide.
Dismantle the house of selfishness,
Put a away your self-regard.

High and love, enemy and friend,
the Friend serves them all.
Whoever wants to spread this Word
Must first go out of his home.

This counsel that Yunus gives
Is like buried gold.
Those who love the Friend
and the friends of the Friend,
Find Peace in both worlds.

Before we are required to bear it

2012-01-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo
in the course of the year to a great bundle of
kindling, far too large for us to lift. But God
does not require us to carry the whole at once.
He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us
first one stick, which we are to carry today, and
then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and
so on. This we might easily manage, if we would
only take the burden appointed for each day; but
we choose to increase our troubles by carrying
yesterday's stick over again today, and adding
tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are
required to bear it.
- John Newton

Friendship

2012-01-07T08:01:00.001-08:00

When the conventional mind shatters and one moves from the exoteric forms of religion to their esoteric core, the heart opens and welcomes all mystics of whatever tradition into itself as friends, and some as teachers (just as Yeshua was such a teacher).

All these are friends of the Friend, for they too have found the Beloved One (You) without whom they cannot and will not live. And it has changed everything—transformed every last thing in the universe. And this “finding” is the key to life, and so now, nothing else, all the details, the obligations, the duties and the rules fail to excite or unite. They simply fall away to meaninglessness, and cannot hold the soul in thrall (or enthralled) any longer.

The household of friends has entirely changed. It is now filled with the lovers, poets, saints, and sages from everywhere, and we all sit down in friendship together at the feast in that vast Kingdom that both is and eternally awaits us.

Soul Consciousness

2012-01-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

"In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore says that the greatest illness of modern times is ‘loss of soul.’ I do not think that we have lost soul, but simply have not yet discovered it, and therefore live in a soulless way.

The new consciousness on the planet today demands that we no longer neglect this vital aspect of who we are. Ignoring this reality has dire consequences, as Moore points out: “When soul is neglected, it doesn’t just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or to try to eradicate them one by one; but the root problem is that we have lost our wisdom about the soul, even our interest in it.”

Becoming soul-conscious or expanding consciousness is not a choice. It is a deep and natural urge within all of us that is being emphasized by the needs in the world today. The only choice is whether or not we will cooperate or resist the expansion of consciousness once it begins happening. And consciousness expands in all aspects of life where we have gained sufficient awareness and learning.

When we resist this movement of soul within we become ill, we have accidents, we are unhappy, we have money problems, emotional pain is experienced, relationships don’t work well. In general, our life sends us signals to which we must pay attention. Through developing soul consciousness, we learn what these signals are, how to interpret them, and then what to do about them. The Soul Journey will assist you with this.

The evidence of the drive for expanded consciousness, or soul, is found in everyone’s deep yearning to be free. The liberation we want is the release from duality – the very stuff that the challenges of life are made of. But we cannot find this freedom unless we deal effectively with the challenges.

All challenges that we experience are initiated by the soul, even though it can appear that the challenges come from other people, the world around us, society, circumstances and situations. What is the nature of these challenges? What is their purpose? How can we master them?"

~Andrew Schneider

Voice that calls us the beloved

2012-01-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

But what I would like to say is that the spiritual
life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen
to a voice that says something else, that says, "You
are the beloved and on you my favour rests."... I want
you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice
because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very
deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to
gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that
voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks
the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is
where the spiritual life starts - by claiming the voice
that calls us the beloved.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Non-duality

2012-01-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

There is only one Self in all creatures. The One appears many, just as the moon appears many when reflected in different pools of water. The Self appears to change its location but does not, just as the air in a jar changes not when the jar is moved about. When the jar is broken, the air knows not; but the Self knows well when the body is shed.

- Amritabindu Upanishad

In All Our Imperfection

2012-01-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

It's important to remember that your ego—your separate personal self-sense and all its culturally conditioned tendencies—is just not awake to the urgent need for your participation in the evolutionary process. That's why your ego is convinced that it has all the time in the world to be eternally busy with its own self-improvement. It says, "Well, I'm not ready because I'm not perfect yet." But that's just the ego's perennial excuse to avoid the overwhelming urgency of the evolutionary context of being alive. Did you ever meet anybody who was actually perfect? I don't think perfection exists within manifestation. If you want to experience perfection—inherent perfection; unborn, uncreated perfection—meditate. As you gain the capacity to transcend a conditioned relationship to thought, memory, and time, you will eventually awaken to the timeless, formless, infinite ground of your own being and you'll experience that which is perfect. But when we reenter the manifest realm of time, space, and form, we leave perfection behind, in order to create ourselves anew through the evolutionary process. And perfection will never be reached here.

So when the ego tells you that because you are not perfect, you are not ready yet, it traps you in a spiritually and evolutionarily self-defeating cycle. A big part of awakening to spiritual maturity is realizing that, even in all your imperfection, you are ready to take responsibility. While you realize that perfection is unattainable, you aspire for it, always reaching higher and further. You are ready to be responsible for creating the future, right now, even though your ego may kick and scream all the way. And your liberation, your enlightenment, in every moment, depends upon that. It's not easy. You have to be a warrior, you have to be an exemplar, even though you know that you're not perfect. So you have to deal with the reality of your human frailty, with the inherent contradictions in your character, and still be bold and brave enough to be willing to take responsibility for all of this. If you do, then the power of spirit will enter into your heart, your body, and your mind and you will begin to express That, in spite of all your imperfection. And then you, as a human being, don't have to be perfect, because Spirit already is.

—Andrew Cohen

Sing everything I am, I AM

2012-01-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

When you wake up and
Reality tells you what to be.
Don't accept what looks into your eye.
Breathe a breath and
Look through the Beloved's eye
Fall into the Beloved's eye and See

Don't accept the face of it.
Express the face of it and
Sing a union with the divine.
Look through the eye of the divine and
Intertwined with it, interspersed with it,
Filter reality with the Beloved and

Live a poem, live a song.

When reality lands on you.
Sing everything I am, I AM.

Melancholy

2012-01-02T14:19:00.000-08:00

Melancholy may enter your soul, and ambush your happiness; but it will prepare you for true joy. Melancholy drives out all other emotions and feelings, so the source of all goodness may occupy the whole house. It shakes the yellow leaves from the tree, allowing fresh leaves to grow. It pulls up old bodily pleasures by the roots, allowing divine spiritual pleasures to be planted. Melancholy takes many things from the soul, in order to bring better things in return.

- Rumi

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.

--Marcel Proust

According to one spiritual tradition, the first 12 days of January represent the whole year. January 1st stands for the month of January, January 2nd stands for February, and so on. By practicing loving kindness, openness, and generosity while giving thoughtful attention to the significance of each day, we can consecrate the coming year. The real spirit of the New Year--the heart and core of inner life--is love. We need to celebrate the beginning of a new year through expressions of love for ourselves, one another, and God.

Changing Consciousness

2011-12-31T05:24:00.000-08:00

Changing consciousness is not a matter of a desire that can be fulfilled. Instead, it’s a growth process that occurs from within. You cannot make a flower bloom – it will bloom when it gets to that particular stage of unfoldment. But just as the flower needs nourishing and support to get to that stage, so too every person needs nurturing and support to move through the stages of unfoldment.We can assist people to fulfill their needs. If a person is dependent, we can help them to become more independent by supporting them to recognize and meet their own needs. We cannot help people take responsibility for their choices, which is part of the process of becoming independent, but we can encourage them to take responsibility.If a person is independent, and is ready to move on to soul growth, we can assist them to understand what those stages of growth involve. We can also invite them to participate in group activities that are soul-based. This might involve group meditation or service of some kind. We can also exemplify through our living the qualities of soul consciousness, which then creates a resonance within others.Every step of the soul journey necessitates a free and conscious choice for GREATER INCLUSIVENESS. And therefore, there is a letting go or sacrificing of something personal that might inhibit one from being more inclusive. This would be some thoughts, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that are exclusive, separative, self-centered or judgmental.No one can help another to make such shifts of perspective. We cannot force such shifts in ourselves, either. One arrives at that stage when the choice is a natural step based on the loving, intelligent unfoldment of heart and mind.The step toward inclusiveness is inspired and supported by the soul within rather than based solely on personality efforts. When the personality releases its blocks to soul expression, the choice is simply a consciousness assent to the life and impulse of the soul within.

~Andrew Schneider

Form and Formless

2011-12-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

Whatever takes form is false. Only the formless endures. When you understand the truth of this teaching, you will not be born again. For God is infinite, within the body and without, like a mirror and the image in a mirror. As the air is everywhere, flowing around a pot and filling it, so God is everywhere, filling all things and flowing through them forever.

- Ashtavakra Gita

Stumbling into Life

2011-12-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

I stumbled into life this morning.
I was dragging a used up Christmas tree
to the curb.
God leaped on me and dragged me to the
ground.
I turned to shout at him. "What is your problem
old man?"
But before the words left my mouth, I was
astounded by the frozen tangerine display,
against a vibrant teal blue.

Tangerine cotton balls of frozen ice crystals
with that particular orange from the sun just as
it breaches the sky.

"What a whale of a mornin', don't you think?"

I nodded my head, because my heart had
been seized, my mind lay stunned.

My head in her lap, I revered the sky.

Sam Roberts

Changing Consciousness

2011-12-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

Can we change our consciousness? We cannot change who we are, but we can shift our identity from being the personality to being the soul. This is a shift from identifying oneself as one’s self-image to identifying with one’s essence. In truth, we really ARE the essence, the soul. And we HAVE the self-image or personality. To say that we ARE the personality is tantamount to saying that we are our sensations, our emotions, and our thoughts – which we are not. We do not HAVE a soul. We ARE soul and HAVE a personality. In ages past, people did not speak of changing consciousness. It was not relevant. Consciousness is identity. In the past, people were their personality. And still today, the majority of people identify with their personality as who they are. However, there are more and more people able to disidentify from their personality and identify with their essence, the soul. In many ways, these two levels of self, of ‘I,’ are opposites. It requires an extremely radical shift in perspectives to make the change from identifying with the personality to identify with the soul. One must re-evaluate all previous ways of understanding, of thinking, of acting, and of being motivated.The change in consciousness from personality identity to soul consciousness can only occur when a person is ready. Readiness is determined by:
Having sufficient experience from which one has learned a great deal about oneself.
Being willing and able to face the subconscious realities that one has previously repressed.
Having built up a strong ego, so one is able to withstand the vicissitudes of life.
Being independent and responsible for one’s own well-being.
Taking responsibility for the consequences of one’s choices.

~Andrew Schneider

Awakening to the Possible

2011-12-26T06:48:00.000-08:00

When you have the profound awakening that you are part of a cosmic process that's going somewhere, you find yourself falling more deeply in love with what's possible than you are with what has already happened. And this shift inevitably challenges almost all of your values and beliefs, including your ideas about what it means to love another person. What are the conscious and unconscious values that inform your relationships with other people? Are those relationships primarily based on the past—on shared personal history and outdated cultural ideals? Or are they evolutionarily inspired, informed by the understanding that we're part of a process that's ever-aspiring to go somewhere new? Are your relationships alive with the evolutionary impulse, with a shared love for what's possible? Once we awaken to them, these future-oriented spiritual values are going to impact, in the most profound way, every notion we have of what life is supposed to look like.—Andrew Cohen

The Magic of Christianity (and Christmas)

2011-12-21T14:53:00.001-08:00

You see for me the magic of Christianity is not in the miracles, or in the beliefs, or in the written word. It is not even so much in having the correct information about the historical Jesus. The magic of Christianity is in the living and being. It is more about the way we live than it is about belief. It is more about trust than it is about blind faith. The transformative “magic” can only be discovered in the doing, by opening, not closing, by letting go, and not by clinging. It is not about trying to decide what is divine and what is not. It is about discovering the divine in all things. Or as Lloyd Geering suggests, only when the sacred and the secular are made one, will the Kingdom of God have come. We can find the “magic” of Christianity by taking Jesus’ teachings seriously and by “living” the compassionate path toward self discovery. That is the way we uncover the essence of the Christianity. That has always been the way we can discover who Jesus really was and in the process discover who and what we are. ~John Plumer

Christmas Meditation

2011-12-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

Contributed by Catherine Crews, author unknown:

If we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi? or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds? or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us, there is a desert to travel, a star to discover, and a being within ourselves to bring to life.

Inner Awareness

2011-12-20T05:23:00.000-08:00

Contributed by Gary O'Connor:

I wish to be conscious of this unknown energy that is in me. For this I need to get rid of the idea that I know my body. I must see that the memory of my body, of the known sensation of my body, imposes itself as an answer at the moment of questioning who I am, the moment of incomprehension. And because this answer appears spontaneously, I remain passive and do not wake up and look. I must see this constant tendency to let the memory of sensation preempt the direct perception. I need to see that my body is also unknown.

I feel my essential "I' like an echo of a distant vibration of which I am barely aware. It is as though submerged in my body, and because it is submerged, it cannot differentiate itself. I need to dissociate myself from my thoughts, ordinary emotions and movements, my sensations. Their vibrations of inertia, which condition me, are an obstacle to the consciousness of 'I'. Yet I have the power to ignore them and not let them invade my consciousness if I concentrate on 'I,' this echo of a powerful vibration that could transform me."

~From Jeanne de Salzmann's new book, The Reality of Being

The World to Come

2011-12-20T05:18:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from Charles Upton's book, Knowings (224), on the coming world order:

When you find yourself in a state of fear or grief over the evil of the world, the degeneration of humanity and the ruin of the earth, know that this evil, ruin and degeneration are nothing but the mass resistance of the world to the impending advent of ... the Messiah--and that the fear or grief you are presently experiencing are your way of participating in that resistance. Knowing this, simply stop resisting Him, and let the Messiah come. Stop trying to maintain the world in existence by the power of your ego; let it go. Let it end. Let your ego end. You've been fight off the Messiah: cease hostilities now, 'resist no evil' (which is how your ego experiences Him), lay down your weapons, and let Him break through 'the clouds of heaven,' the clouds of individual and collective egotism which have separated earth from its divine Source ever since the fall of man.

God Lovers

2011-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

God Lovers
magnify each crack
of light in night’s monotony,
arouse the dawn,
intone: Allah, Allah from the wooden bench.

God Lovers

graze camels on la illaha il’Allah,
water vast herds with life-giving sound,
drizzle it across
an afternoon sun nothing is new under.

The grit and zeal of God Lovers
bring Zaynab to tears. She
feeds them her own modest supper.

Dhikr and the desert air at nightfall
oversee and instruct the darkness.

God Lovers
don’t stop for anything. The angels
hold hands with them night and day;
so said Muhammad, and someone
wrote it down.

~Tamam Kahn

Contributed by Gary O'Connor

Bursting with sunbeams

2011-12-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

The portal to my soul opened and grounded all of my
heartache. My sigh aroused my Being.

With a loving look, the Beloved had answered my prayers
becoming the "plumber" of my experience.

I answered her knowing look with ineffectual words.
"I would have found it, eventually."

Laughter filled me up and over flowed. I was buoyed
up and shown pictures of wonder in the wings of a
cloudy morning, bursting with sunbeams.

Sam Roberts

If you learn to wait

2011-12-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

Wait with blazing desire, deep humility, and much
eagerness. If you learn to wait, you'll surely
receive our King, who comes to us humble and meek,
and seated on a donkey. O endless love! You
confound human pride. We see You, the King of kings,
approaching humbly, seated on a beast, disgracefully
rejected. Let those who seek worldly honor and glory
think on this and blush for shame.
- Catherine of Siena, Letters

The Image of the Reality

2011-12-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

You alone have been made the image of the Reality
that transcends all understanding, the likeness of
imperishable beauty, the imprint of true divinity,
the recipient of beatitude, the seal of the true
light. When you turn to him you become that which
he is himself.
- Gregory of Nyssa,
Second Homily on the Song of Songs

The grace of contemplation

2011-12-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

The grace of contemplation is granted only in response
to a longing and importunate desire: Nevertheless, God
will not present Himself, even in passing, to every
soul; but only to that soul which is shown, by great
devotion, vehement desire, and tender affection, to be
His bride, and to be worthy that the Word in all His
beauty should visit her as a Bridegroom.
- St. Bernard [12th C], On the Canticle of Canticles

I have nothing more to say

2011-12-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

There come times when I have nothing more to tell
God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would
have to repeat what I have already said. At such
times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in
Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to
Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence.
- Ole Kristian O. Hallesby

Raising of the inward eyes

2011-12-08T06:17:00.001-08:00

If faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and if
this gaze is but the raising of the inward eyes to
meet the all-seeing eyes of God, then it follows
that it is one of the easiest things possible to do.
- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963),
The Pursuit of God [1948]

When we are powerless

2011-12-07T06:18:00.000-08:00

You may rest assured that God will not allow you
to be tried beyond your strength. It is when we
are powerless that God does all, and thereby
manifests His power and goodness in a striking
manner.
- John Baptist de La Salle

Why Are We Here?

2011-12-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the world--a patchwork of darkness and light. A shadowland of amazing beauty and love, of cruelty and ugliness. And so why are we here?

The Qur'an says we are here because we were given the Mandate to come, and we accepted the responsibility as Covenant, and our work was (is) to be here ... really be here in this amazing underworld and to bridge heaven and earth, not in principle, but in fact, in our very being.

One poet says that we are to be here and not deny the stark and cruel mystery of the world (Oliver). Another poet says we are to add our lone song to a chorus of music which sings and is being sung by the Creator, for in the end, we have fallen into the place where all is music (Rumi).

Another poet says that we are "bees of the invisible" gathering the nectar of the world and storing it up as golden honey for the great living hive of future humanity. So why are we here? ... our task is to stamp this provisional, perishing earth into ourselves so deeply, so painfully and passionately, that its being may rise again, "invisibly," in us (Rilke).

Closer than our own breath

2011-12-05T06:28:00.001-08:00

When our hearts are tenderly responsive --- and it
suits His greater plan, then the Lord will lift the
thin veil that separates us. And we will be stunned
to realize that He has been closer than our own
breath all along.
- Patsy Clairmont

Stop tinkering with your soul

2011-11-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

Like the eye which sees everything in front of it
and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the
Object upon which it rests and pays no attention
to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we
do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The one
who has struggled to purify himself and has had
nothing but repeated failures will experience real
relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and
looks away to the perfect One.
- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God

We never perceive our sins

2011-11-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

Never let us be discouraged with ourselves; it is
not when we are conscious of our faults that we
are the most wicked: on the contrary, we are less
so. We see by a brighter light. And let us remember,
for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins
till He begin to cure them.
- François Fénelon (1651-1715),
Selections from Fénelon

The Subtlest Level of Reality

2011-11-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

In our modern world, we think of the most mysterious of realities as photons, electrons, quarks, and neutrinos. For us these substances underlying reality are the most subtle of all, giving rise, of course, to the "real world" of shapes, forms, and living creatures where we live. But Sacred Tradition says otherwise. This not all. Underneath all quantum, microcosmic reality, deeper still, holding all else, is a Realm of transpersonal relationships called "God's Infinite Nature" filled with potentialities and qualities that give rise to every other substance that human beings know directly or that can be detected by science.

Those potentialities have names and possess qualities--we call them the Names and Qualities of God out of which everything else arises. This Ultimate Reality is the foundation of the universe and is a network (or tissue) of transpersonal relationships between these qualities just like human society is a network or tissue of personal relationships.

And we human beings not only have an inner instrument called the heart that can detect this, the finest and most subtle reality of all, but that instrument can also take on (or absorb) those qualities and distribute them throughout the whole of human existence both personal and collective. Everything, then, from the most subtle qualities of God (in living relationship) to the most material of all, forms a web called the "Unity of Being" in which the heart lives and out of which it helps to build its own unique reality called "the Kingdom."

Interestingly, the prophets, the carriers of this most subtle energy and light of the Divine Nature, embody these qualities and make them available to us. They live in these relationships and each in their own unique ways open the human soul through the doorway of the heart to this level of the most subtle of all realms so that we also can embody and manifest (make real, or realize) these qualities ourselves and through them help establish or build the Kingdom--that ultimate realm of human habitation. We also in ourselves on earth can live in the lattice of these relationships--in the living tissue of the Divine Nature beyond quarks, neutrinos, electrons and photons.

It is a great gift made to us--this opening--and it is called a "grace." As the prophets have said, "We have opened you."

2011-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Renunciation of the world is followed by peace; its desire brings sorrow. Restrain your desires, discipline yourself, and do not allow anyone to oppress your soul.

~Rabi'a, "Rabi'a the Mystic"

Awakening

2011-11-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

Awake! I've been sleeping

I've been restless and reckless

I've jeapordized my viability

This is not me! This is not me!

I've come up from the grave

and met You face to face.

Awake! Awake! I'm awake.

~Harp and Lyre

Choosing

2011-11-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

In a world of opposites woven out of the double cloak of life and death, division and cooperation where we are forced to make choices or we are torn asunder. How do we choose?

In a world of fast rushing events and the all engulfing world of relativity and formal manifestation where we are forced to act or we are caught simply in the downward swirl to the lowest common denominator. How do we act?

In this world that wounds us by its very nature, we come to realize that to ignore it is fatal. We must act and choose, but also as wisdom seekers, we must transcend the pairs-of-opposites that make up the fabric of the world--not privileging one to the exclusion of the other. We learn, sometimes the hard way, that this is not done by failing to distinguish between them, but by choosing always the 'lesser of evils.'

We do not transcend good and evil by treating them as if they were the same thing, but by always choosing the good as we understand it and at whatever cost, until the Sovereign Good is finally won--that Eternal Good which lies beyond the opposites of this world, because by being Good, it has no opposites.

We are not there, but that day will come.

The Great Mystery

2011-11-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

In a book called Showings (177), Charles Upton explicates the Great Mystery of our existence in time and place. He speaks of this Mystery in the context of Homer's great epic journey in which Helen of Troy plays a pivotal, sapiential role. He says,

Only she knew the darkest secret of existence: that in the depth of the Great Mystery, the loss of God--felt and fought against and suffered through and finally redeemed--is in fact the deepest realization of God, that after 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me,' comes 'Into Thy hands I commend my spirit; it is finished.'

This, I believe, is core and key to our understanding of and on the wisdom path.

I hope, trust and love

2011-11-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

I am viewing the world with the facts at hand
and I am discouraged.
I realize that any idea such as faith, hope,
love and trust are not rational.
I realize that this situation that Lynn stated
so well, will not have a rational end.
It will be a miracle of trust and evolution.
Humanity will have to shift its track,
gain new insightful conclusions
and choose to be irrationally
changed.

What we see is the oncoming train,
what we fail to see is the end of fear.
Fear can be rationally explained.
I fear because of this and this.
I love because my heart is moved,
but I cannot prove it to you. I trust
because I choose that outlook on life,
not because I can prove that trust works.
I hope because despair is my other choice.
I choose not to live in despair,
so I hope, trust and love.

Sam Roberts

Love and Knowledge

2011-11-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

Certainly one of the most curious of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas is Logion 22, where Yeshua speaks of male and female becoming a single whole. This image accords in some fundamental way with our modern sensibilities that the male and female aspect of our human person (the anima and the animus, to use the psychological terminology) has become bifurcated, and in order to be whole, healthy human beings psychologically, at least, we must reunite them into a unity of personal well-being.

But there is more here than a psychological interpretation of this saying. This image also clearly points toward the esoteric figure of the hermaphrodite. This idea may be both compelling and repelling in its own way, but when one looks deeper at the origins of the word itself something important emerges. Etymologically, a hermaphrodite is the union of the god Hermes (knowledge) with the goddess Aphrodite (love). This figure is portrayed in medieval iconography as a double-headed person (one male, one female) holding in its hand the symbolic rose of enlightenment.

Could it not be that this is precisely Yeshua's meaning; that only when love and knowledge figured as masculine and feminine are united in a single individual can there be true fullness (or oneness)--which is the prerequisite for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, because the Kingdom itself is the place where love and knowledge exist together in equilibrium. It is there also that heaven and earth are united (the higher with the lower) and together all these images symbolize the essence of Wisdom which has overcome fragmentation into a new wholeness. It is that wholeness, that oneness that Yeshua sees clearly.

Isolated from its source, becomes an idol

2011-11-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

Holding [the Way of Affirmation], we see that every
created thing is, in its degree, an image of God,
and the ordinate and faithful appreciation of that
thing a clue which, truly followed, will lead back
to Him. Holding [the Way of Rejection], we see that
every created thing, the highest devotion to moral
duty, the purest conjugal love, the saint and the
seraph, is no more than an image; that every one
of them, followed for its own sake and isolated from
its source, becomes an idol whose service is damnation.
- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), ArthurianTorso

Reaching 7 Billion Souls

2011-11-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

Planet earth has reached another milestone--we are now 7 billion souls inhabiting a small planet in the immense ocean of space. Is this to be celebrated or mourned? We could see it from both perspectives: celebrated because of the critical mass that is necessary, perhaps, to change the consciousness of humanity. Mourned because we are putting unbearable pressure on the limited resources of the earth and rapidly reaching a tipping point of unsustainability.

Clearly we must "grow up" or destroy ourselves. The earth and its riches are not limitless, but as has been proven, they are supple and elastic--they can bend and change as the environment evolves. What we possess is a legacy of life that is a rich, rich heritage. The planet holds millions of species of plant and animal life, each possessing unique qualities that make them special and precious in their own way. We inherit this abundance, this richness--it is our heritage (our biological inheritance), but perhaps like spoiled "rich kids" born into affluence (inheriting wealth and fortune and the privileges that go with them)... we can miss the whole point, act carelessly, out of total self-interest and of benefit to no one but ourselves, exploit the planet and squander our inheritance, destroying the very richness that was the basis for our life in the first place. Here is a poignant observations about the current state of affairs and our attitude toward the living-heritage of our planet.

In the Western tradition, we pay lip service to the"sanctity of all life," but in practice, give little consideration to the spirits of living things other than people. In fact, we tend to view other species as little more than commodities for our food, clothing, medicine, entertainment or economic exploitation. The implication is that if the species in question does not provide a direct benefit to humanity, it is expendable--even to extinction. (Gregory R. Huth, Awakening, 76)

We can go on like this, or we can grow up, take what we have inherited, cherish it in every detail, preserve it, add creatively to it, and pass it along to the coming generations as our gift (our legacy) to them and to the universe. It is a choice, and the window of opportunity to make this choice appears to be closing.

Listen for the Voice of God

2011-11-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

If ye keep watch over your hearts, and listen for
the Voice of God and learn of Him, in one short
hour ye can learn more from Him than ye could learn
from people in a thousand years.
--Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), The Inner Way

The Divine Wisdom has given us prayer

2011-11-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

The Divine Wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means
whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a
means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a
means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby
we become strong to meet it.
- Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853)

Only You; Non-duality

2011-11-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

"As you contemplate the nature of consciousness and you awaken to this pure subjectivity in your own awareness, ask yourself: Could there be anyone else here? Is there another? Could there ever be anything separate from this One Self? If you really go into it, you will find the answer. If you go all the way back to the beginning--before thought, before feeling, before your body or your mind, before the world and the whole universe was created--what is there? There is only you, and you are everything."

~Andrew Cohen

Kenosis and Compassion

2011-10-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-10-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-10-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-22T07:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-14T06:18:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-12T06:16:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-10-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-10-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

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

In and among the circumstances of life

2011-09-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

"Books," said St. Augustine after his conversion,
"could not teach me charity." We still keep on
thinking they can. We do not realize ... the utter
distinctness of God and the things of God. Psychology
of religion can not teach us prayer, and ethics
cannot teach us love. Only Christ can do that, and
He teaches by the direct method, in and among the
circumstances of life. He does not mind about our
being comfortable. He wants us to be strong, able
to tackle life and be Christians, be apostles in
life, so we must be trained by the ups and downs,
the rough and tumble of life.
- Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941),
The Light of Christ

This religious desire

2011-09-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

This religious desire and effort of the soul to
relate itself and all its interest to God and his
will is prayer in the deepest sense. This is
essential prayer. Uttered or unexpressed, it is
equally prayer. It is the soul's desire after God
going forth in manifestation, ... --the soul
striving after God. This is a prayer that may exist
without ceasing, consisting, as it does, not
in doing or saying this or that, but in temper
and attitude of the spirit.
- Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910),
Essence of Religion

Searching in Silence

2011-09-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

"i looked for you in their stories,

and i couldn't find you there.

i looked for you in my own stories,

and i lost you there.

crying, i released all parts of you

and waited in silence.

a forever silence.

wondering if i'd ever see you again.

wondering if i'd ever touch you again.

slowly, you crept back into my being.

slowly, i understood you never left.

quietly i watched.

quietly i felt.

trembling, i stood in awe.

trembling, i bowed my head

as your presence filled me."

~terri st. cloud

If you have failings

2011-09-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

If you have failings, ask God often whether it be
His honour and pleasure to take them away from you;
for without Him you can do nothing. If he takes
them away, thank Him; but if He does not do that,
you will bear it no more, however, as the defect
of a sin, but as a great trial with which you are
to gain merit and practice patience. You should
be content, whether or not He accords you His gift.
- Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?),
Works of Meister Eckhart

Christ as a foundation

2011-09-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

Whoever has Christ in his heart, so that no earthly
or temporal things--not even those that are legitimate
and allowed--are preferred to Him, has Christ as a
foundation. But if these things be preferred, then
even though one seems to have faith in Christ, yet
Christ is not the foundation to that person.
- St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430),
The City of God, v. II

Expand your awareness

2011-09-09T03:39:00.001-07:00

"No matter what your spiritual condition is, no matter
where you find yourself in the universe, your choice
is always the same: to expand your awareness or
contract it."
-Thaddeus Golas

Virtues of a more exalted mould

2011-09-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

We do not very often come across opportunities for
exercising strength, magnanimity, or magnificence;
but gentleness, temperance, modesty, and humility,
are graces which ought to colour everything we do.
There may be virtues of a more exalted mould, but...
these are the most continually called for in daily life.
- François de Sales (1567-1622),
Introduction to the Devout Life

Anywhere on earth

2011-09-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who
is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it
was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in
falling and rising again we are always kept in
that same precious love.
-- Julian of Norwich

Before you...

2011-09-01T06:04:00.001-07:00

"Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before
you die, give." —William A. Ward

Impossibilities become possibilities

2011-08-31T06:12:00.000-07:00

A renewed mind has an utterly changed conception,
not only of reality, but of possibility. A turn
away from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom
of God provides a whole set of values based not on
the human word, but on Christ's. Impossibilities
become possibilities.
- Elisabeth Elliot

He bids him come and die

2011-08-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

The cross is laid on every Christian.... When Christ
calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a
death like that of the first disciples who had to
leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a
death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery
and go out into the world. But it is the same death
every time - death in Jesus Christ, the death of
the old man at His call. Jesus' summons to the rich
young man was calling him to die, because only the
man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ.
In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die,
with all our affections and lusts. But we do not
want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call
are necessarily our death as well as our life.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Love does not inquire

2011-08-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

Love does not inquire into the character of the
recipient but it asks what he needs. It does not
love him because he is such-and-such a person but
because he is there. In all this it is quite the
opposite of natural love: it "does not seek its own"
. It does not perform the characteristic natural
impulse of love and life. Therefore it is basically
independent of the conduct of the other person;
it is not conditional but absolute. It wants nothing
for itself but only for others. Therefore it is also
not vulnerable. It never 'reacts" but is always
"spontaneous", emerging by its own strength - rather,
from the power of God. Love is the real God-likeness
of man for which he has been created. In so far as
love is in man he really resembles God and shows
himself to be the child of God.
- Emil Brunner

Non-duality

2011-08-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

"Subhuti asked: "Is it possible to find perfect wisdom through reflection or listening to statements or through signs or attributes, so that one can say 'This is it' or Here it is'?" The Buddha answered, "No, Subhuti. Perfect wisdom can't be learned or distinguished or thought about or found through the senses. This is because nothing in this world can be finally explained; it can only be experienced, and thus all things are just as they are. Perfect wisdom can never be experienced apart from all things. To see the Suchness of things, which is their empty calm being, is to see them just as they are. It is in this way that perfect wisdom and the material world are not two, they are not divided. As a result of Suchness, of calm and empty being, perfect wisdom cannot be known about intellectually. Nor can the things of the world, for they are understood only through names and ideas. When there is no learning or finding out, no concepts or conventional words, it is in that place one can say there is perfect wisdom."

~Ashtasahasrika

Enlightenment as beginning

2011-08-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

"In traditional mystical teachings, enlightenment means it's all over. You have reached the end of becoming. But in an evolutionary teaching, enlightenment is where it all begins. Everything begins when you become enlightened. That's when you become available--free from narcissism and self-concern and available for the noble endeavor of creating the future. That's when new life opens up before you. That's when the work of evolutionary becoming starts."

~Andrew Cohen

Chaos

2011-08-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

"love transcends the chaos

and brings a calm.

but don't be fooled-

for in that calm

the real chaos cooks-

bubbling up our answers."

~terri st. cloud

The Center

2011-08-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center."

~Buck Ghosthorse, Lakota Medicine Man

"The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

~Basho

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."

~Kurt Vonnegut

A transfer of our worship

2011-08-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

A sinful act involves worship of the wrong kind,
submitting ourselves at that moment to serve the
appetites of our pride or lust, and so repentance
is literally a transfer of our worship back to the
One who rightfully owns it..... Worship has been
misunderstood as something that arises from a
feeling which "comes upon you," but it is vital that
we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act
of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
The feelings, the joy of having been forgiven, follow
on as a consequence of our reunion with him.
- Graham Kendrick

God, invade and conquer us

2011-08-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us,
for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand
foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own
disintegration...The strength of our flesh is an ever
present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us
only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come
only after we have been forced to our knees...So He
conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us
for Himself.
- A. W. Tozer

You are a light

2011-08-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Has it never dawned upon you that the essence of
witnessing is just plain honesty? You are salt -
whether you feel like it or not. You are not
told to act like salt but to be what you are. You
are a light. God has done a work in your life.
Don't try to shine. Let the light that God put
there shine out. It demands no more than honesty.
It demands honesty before unbelievers. In fact such
honesty is ninety per cent of witnessing. Witnessing
is not putting on a Christian front as to convince
prospective customers. Witnessing is just being
honest, that is, being true to what God has made you
in your speech and everyday behaviour.
- John White

It is necessary to die

2011-08-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

It is necessary to die, but nobody wants to; you don't
want to, but you are going to, willy-nilly. A hard necessity
that is, not to want something which cannot be avoided. If it
could be managed, we would much rather not die; we would
like to become like the angels by some other means than
death. . . . We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we
don't want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands
Necessity saying: "This way, please." Do you hesitate, man,
to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you?
- St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), "Exposition II, Sermon I on
Psalm 30"

Our Role in an Evolving Creation

2011-08-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

In the way that I use the term, God is the energy and intelligence that created the universe and is driving the process forward in every moment. And that energy and intelligence cares desperately about change and innovation and the release of potentials that have not existed before. So it is constantly looking for portals through which it can enter into the world and consciously engage with creating its next step. As conscious human beings who have been blessed with self-awareness and free agency, we are those portals. Each and every one of us is potentially a portal for the energy and intelligence that created the universe. You have a human body and a human personality, but from a certain perspective these are merely sheathes through which the cosmic creativity can shine. From the vantage point of the creative process, your human form, your personality, with all the particulars of your own history, your personal relationships, and your life circumstances, is a vessel for an infinite process that is trying to go somewhere. How conscious are you of this? How conscious is any one of us that in this very moment the cosmic process that produced us is now dependent on us to take its next step?

~Andrew Cohen

Don't Wait

2011-08-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

"don't wait for it.
know it's there already.
don't stop to feel it,
move in its flow without thinking.
don't test the wind..
just lift your wings and leap."

~terri st. cloud

Find Center

2011-08-01T14:10:00.001-07:00

"Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center."
~Buck Ghosthorse, Lakota Medicine Man

"The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
~Basho

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
~Kurt Vonnegut

Devotion

2011-08-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Devotion is not a passing emotion--it is a fixed,
enduring habit of mind, permeating the whole life,
and shaping every action. It rests upon a conviction
that God is the Sole Source of Holiness, and that our
part is to lean upon Him and be absolutely guided and
governed by Him; and it necessitates an abiding hold
on Him, a perpetual habit of listening for His Voice
within the heart, as of readiness to obey the dictates
of that Voice.
- Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), "The Hidden Life of
the Soul"

The kingdom of self

2011-07-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

Many people not only lose the benefit, but are even
the worse for their mortifications [i.e., sacrifices,
abstensions]. It is because they mistake the whole
nature and worth of them. They practice them for their
own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them
to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them, and
look no further, but grow full of a self-esteem, and
self-admiration for their own progress in them. This
makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all
those that fall short of their mortifications. And thus
their self-denials do only that for them, which indulgences
do for other people--they withstand and hinder the
operation of God upon their souls; and instead of being
really self-denials, they strengthen and keep up the
kingdom of self.
- William Law (1686-1761), "The Spirit of Prayer"