A Radiant Life Secret
"See One. Say One. Know One."
-- Mahmud Shabistari
"The key to Self-knowing is to quiet the changes that usually occur in the mind and awareness...
Oneness-consciousness constantly prevails at the core of our being where we are always serenely self-knowing and aware of our relationship with the wholeness of life. Oneness-consciousness is our original state of consciousness to be reclaimed or 'remembered' rather than attained." -- Roy Eugene Davis (from the book Paramahansa Yogananda, As I Knew Him)
(Or, one could say, "There is No Reality, save for the Real.")
The Quest for the Real begins with the seeker embracing Unity through the interior "Multiplicity-into-One Mantra": Not Two, Not Two, Not Two... Meditation serves the purpose of denying separation / affirming unity, leading the meditator into a gradual identification with the Absolute (Only One). Meditation may be described as the seeker's "first hand"...
The "second hand" of the seeker is service for justice and peace. Again: "Not Two", but "Only One" -- then the relief of suffering becomes a primary responsibility of the seeker. Meditation and Service unifies the ego, readying it for dissolution into the Holy Secret within: there is no self separate from the One Self, and the One Self (which is the same in everyone) dwells within each person as her divine potential until she awakens...
Meditation and Service are sustained and deepened by Invocation. The seeker draws ever closer to the Sought by the primary mean of invoking the Name (s) and Attributes of the Holy One. The sacred gift of Invocation (or Prayer of Remembrance) will eventually become unceasing. The constant invocation of a Name of the Holy One will remove, veil by veil, all the appearances of separation... thus, one becomes "form without attachment".
Each successive awakening, leading up to and following after "form without attachment" is aided and supported by the power of an activated Imagination that "receives and polishes" the ability to draw into the heart every existent being or thing for Blessing... this awakening of the Heart Center settles one deeper into the Love-Breath of the Holy One. Love's alchemy works the magic of transformation through our willingness and ability to love, to love without limits, especially all those who otherwise would be forgotten, lost, or abandoned -- no exceptions!
this longing: peace,
through the mind's center,
into the stillness of the heart
where the Holy One
is Breath of our breath
and Love of our love...
there: we shall rest
and know without knowing,
Love's delight in our awakening.
Self-realization I hold to be impossible without service of, and identification with, the poorest.
Take God's name with every breath. -- Mahatma Gandhi
There is Only One.
Love Every One.
Feed Every One.
This daily practice -- from remembrance meditation to service for justice, from practicing beauty to political organizing -- is meant to steadily deepen insight and awareness. And this steadily deepening insight and awareness will inevitably lead to fulfillment, realization, and the delights found in a radiant life -- each breath One Love.
It is this that is the path of "the radiant life secret":
Only One, One Love...
