Contemplation in a World of Hurry
A core contemplative insight is -- shockingly -- every human being is not simply "made in the image of the Divine", but, through and through, made of that same Divine Beloved. Duality, which is the daily mode of mind and eye, shifts with mystic insight into "no separation": Not Two, Not Two... or better, Only One, and better yet, One Love... As the edges blur, the Center sharpens and attunes to a higher focus... Prior thoughts of the reality of "thin places" where the divide between the visible and the invisible, between the individual consciousness and the explosive Christ Consciousness, are further clarified into another shocking development: the "thin place" is always everywhere and always present...
Obviously, how to access these insights is the question of this and every contemplative moment. It is one thing to intellectually affirm an interesting idea and possible truth. It is quite another to know by life experience that that "truth" is inviolable. So, how does one get from our "here" to "there"? Recognizing that we are all always "beginners", it is essential to cultivate each day as a new beginning: never assume that yesterday's insight will be a seed growing into a living plant of wisdom today. We begin and always return to Humility. We return to Simplicity. We return to Adoration. We pray. We surrender. We clean house. We work the garden. We cook our meal. We read Great Books. We never assume any thought we might have is a path for "walking". We question. We cultivate friends and companions for deep sharing conversations. We test our insights with the insights of the holy-wholly-contemplative-activist-guides who have gone before us...
The Divine Sophia -- the living Wisdom of the Divine Beloved -- is likewise living within us (remember: "no separation"). This, the Divine Feminine Face of G-d, is eternally tasked with giving birth to the Oneness of Mystic Insight within our activated, compassion-focused, hearts. This Wisdom is within our beating hearts: and it is always creative: birth unto birth, that which never was before is that to which we are tending. Sacred Imagination (the eternal What if? of the Divine Consciousness) activates the secret mind-centers of the heart, and the birthing of the eternal Why not? of the same Divine Consciousness is like a gigantic BOO! in the mundane of our lives...
Passionate desire -- holy desire -- is here key. Not the common desire of the sleeping being, but the wild, uncontrollable, desire of the awakening one... Do you wish to experience something of this ravenous desire... do you wish some sort of experience of It? Okay. Fast for three days. Water only. And then, after three days, sit before your very, very favorite food -- without a fork or spoon. Would you give a rat's ass if your fingers, chin, or any other body part got good and messy? Unless you hunger for the Divine Beloved as you would hunger for your favorite food after a three-day fast, why would the Holy One fill you with radical grace? When the ordinary "daily" of our lives-in-a-hurry indicate with absolute clarity that we have "no time" for loving without limits, why should we even hope for something to make our lives extraordinary?
Passionate desire -- holy desire -- for the revelation of our true nature is what we have been made for! We have been born with a supernatural longing buried in our mind-heart: we not only came from Oneness and we are not only returning to Oneness: but Oneness is who we are: Oneness is our very Name! And so we cultivate our proximity to the Path. We cultivate the possibilities for mystic-insight by placing ourselves "under the spell" of the Mystic Archetypes. These Archetypes are, as it were, the many Faces of G-d: they, each in a slightly different way, reveal the One Divine Face / Being. So we attach ourselves to the Mystic-Archetypes: Love-without-limits, Mercy, Compassion, Nonviolence, Forgiveness, Beauty, Kindness, Justice, and Contemplation are a few of the Archetypes clearly in dire need of student practitioners. As student practitioners, we not only attach ourselves to the Mystic-Archetypes, practicing each in the context of our daily lives and communities, but we develop "friendships" with the Masters of an Archetype. For example, one might attach herself to Yeshua the Poet of Nazareth to imbibe the Mystery of Love-without limits; another might attach himself to Nelson Mandela to attune to Justice, to the Dalai Lama to approach Forgiveness, to Dorothy Day to revel in Mercy, to Rumi to rejoice before Beauty, and on and on...
The Great Mystery of these days in which we are living is simply this: the Divine Beloved is offering each one of us the freedom to choose, not only the title, but the fullness and conclusion of the next chapter in the Book of Humanity: a wild and homeless Gospel is seeking refuge in our hearts, in our minds, and in our most passionate desires! This precious Blue Planet is not all that is at risk here: the very soul of humanity is! A general re-birthing is quite possible beneath the banner of the Mystic-Archetypes: incarnated in our individual lives and empowered in our new gatherings of intentional communities. The "wherever two or three are gathered" of Yeshua must needs become dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and tens of millions: in this Unity of Spirit. New forms of relating as persons to persons, persons to nature, and as persons to power will be formed. Old forms will pass away. The insights of contemplation, communion, and democracy will create new modes of being and relationship. The reconciliation of genders will surprise us with the obviousness of partnership and cooperation. And finally, we will build the Earth according to the Divine Dream of Oneness through and through, with no one and nothing left behind or left out... All of this is, of course, of Divine Feminine Design... 'OhMa'...
Obviously, how to access these insights is the question of this and every contemplative moment. It is one thing to intellectually affirm an interesting idea and possible truth. It is quite another to know by life experience that that "truth" is inviolable. So, how does one get from our "here" to "there"? Recognizing that we are all always "beginners", it is essential to cultivate each day as a new beginning: never assume that yesterday's insight will be a seed growing into a living plant of wisdom today. We begin and always return to Humility. We return to Simplicity. We return to Adoration. We pray. We surrender. We clean house. We work the garden. We cook our meal. We read Great Books. We never assume any thought we might have is a path for "walking". We question. We cultivate friends and companions for deep sharing conversations. We test our insights with the insights of the holy-wholly-contemplative-activist-guides who have gone before us...
The Divine Sophia -- the living Wisdom of the Divine Beloved -- is likewise living within us (remember: "no separation"). This, the Divine Feminine Face of G-d, is eternally tasked with giving birth to the Oneness of Mystic Insight within our activated, compassion-focused, hearts. This Wisdom is within our beating hearts: and it is always creative: birth unto birth, that which never was before is that to which we are tending. Sacred Imagination (the eternal What if? of the Divine Consciousness) activates the secret mind-centers of the heart, and the birthing of the eternal Why not? of the same Divine Consciousness is like a gigantic BOO! in the mundane of our lives...
Passionate desire -- holy desire -- is here key. Not the common desire of the sleeping being, but the wild, uncontrollable, desire of the awakening one... Do you wish to experience something of this ravenous desire... do you wish some sort of experience of It? Okay. Fast for three days. Water only. And then, after three days, sit before your very, very favorite food -- without a fork or spoon. Would you give a rat's ass if your fingers, chin, or any other body part got good and messy? Unless you hunger for the Divine Beloved as you would hunger for your favorite food after a three-day fast, why would the Holy One fill you with radical grace? When the ordinary "daily" of our lives-in-a-hurry indicate with absolute clarity that we have "no time" for loving without limits, why should we even hope for something to make our lives extraordinary?
Passionate desire -- holy desire -- for the revelation of our true nature is what we have been made for! We have been born with a supernatural longing buried in our mind-heart: we not only came from Oneness and we are not only returning to Oneness: but Oneness is who we are: Oneness is our very Name! And so we cultivate our proximity to the Path. We cultivate the possibilities for mystic-insight by placing ourselves "under the spell" of the Mystic Archetypes. These Archetypes are, as it were, the many Faces of G-d: they, each in a slightly different way, reveal the One Divine Face / Being. So we attach ourselves to the Mystic-Archetypes: Love-without-limits, Mercy, Compassion, Nonviolence, Forgiveness, Beauty, Kindness, Justice, and Contemplation are a few of the Archetypes clearly in dire need of student practitioners. As student practitioners, we not only attach ourselves to the Mystic-Archetypes, practicing each in the context of our daily lives and communities, but we develop "friendships" with the Masters of an Archetype. For example, one might attach herself to Yeshua the Poet of Nazareth to imbibe the Mystery of Love-without limits; another might attach himself to Nelson Mandela to attune to Justice, to the Dalai Lama to approach Forgiveness, to Dorothy Day to revel in Mercy, to Rumi to rejoice before Beauty, and on and on...
The Great Mystery of these days in which we are living is simply this: the Divine Beloved is offering each one of us the freedom to choose, not only the title, but the fullness and conclusion of the next chapter in the Book of Humanity: a wild and homeless Gospel is seeking refuge in our hearts, in our minds, and in our most passionate desires! This precious Blue Planet is not all that is at risk here: the very soul of humanity is! A general re-birthing is quite possible beneath the banner of the Mystic-Archetypes: incarnated in our individual lives and empowered in our new gatherings of intentional communities. The "wherever two or three are gathered" of Yeshua must needs become dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and tens of millions: in this Unity of Spirit. New forms of relating as persons to persons, persons to nature, and as persons to power will be formed. Old forms will pass away. The insights of contemplation, communion, and democracy will create new modes of being and relationship. The reconciliation of genders will surprise us with the obviousness of partnership and cooperation. And finally, we will build the Earth according to the Divine Dream of Oneness through and through, with no one and nothing left behind or left out... All of this is, of course, of Divine Feminine Design... 'OhMa'...