"A Thin Place"
Themes from Celtic Spirituality
According to the ancient Celtic spirituality -- and to mystics in general -- there exist very special "thin places": where the veil of separation between the Divine and the Human, between the infinite and the finite, is nearly transparent. Iona, off the West Coast of Scotland has long been revered as such a "thin place"... the burial mounds of Northeast Iowa (Effigy Mounds National Monument), overlooking the Mississippi River is another... as is the desert, now in the Navajo National Monument in the Southwest... Perhaps in the garden that you cultivate, and in the bed in which you make love, there is another "thin place"...
There are at least two essential ingredients for the "habitation" of a "thin place": and to the cultivation of a spirit capable of opening into the Infinite. The first is the spirit, the will, to companionship beginning with one's own soul. We start by adopting the sacred perspective that we do not "have" a soul, but rather that our soul encompasses, within and without, our minds and our bodies: we are soul through and through. To live fully "in soul" is to truly accept one's aliveness and to bow in humble adoration to the Oneness that is us: body and mind in sacred soul, one with the One... Practices which cultivate soul include meditation, laughter, service of others in need, the creative arts, meandering in nature, sacred sex, gardening, conversations, cooking, and eating in community... Altogether, such practices deepen mindfulness: that attentive awareness that each and every moment is of our creation: for good or ill, for beauty or chaos, for blessing or needless hurt... Companionship is the activated intention to live as a daily invitation to friendship and communion...
For many of us, the mere thought of companionship with ourselves is enough to send shivers down our spines: "I could give years to loving the homeless, but love myself? You've got to be kidding... I know myself too well to have anything to do with that..." Or, consider the story of Robin Williams... an actor and comic beloved by millions, who suffered grievous depression, and who committed suicide... Again, for many of us, we came into life truly "hard-wired" for empathy and compassion -- for others -- and the words of the Master, "Love one another as I have loved you", actually point us further away from ourselves. Nevertheless, it is an essential mystic-truth that all love begins and ends, moment-by-moment, within the being of every person: this moment, this breath, is meant very specifically to be our moment of complete surrender to the One Love Heart Consciousness: it is this surrender into Love that is our very life-line... And it is not a philosophical surrender! It must be through and through our every layer of consciousness and into every cell of our bodies: first with "I am good enough"... into "I am beautiful"... and then on into "Damn right I am worth it! I am worth the very best! I am worth Love!"... Until, finally, we arrive at Love's door knocking, only to wake up and realize that we were knocking from the inside of the House!
Start with your body: not a fictionalized Hollywood body, but your body... Sexual abuse is rampant, almost to the point of including everyone. Who has never been harmed? Who has never been rejected? Who has never felt betrayed or abandoned? Who has never dreamt of a love so true that it could be possible to surrender to another being, with utter amazement and sheer delight? To even hope for a spiritual awakening of any sort beyond the recitation of a creed and a life of following a particular crowd in order to at least belong somewhere, we've got to begin with our very own bodies and minds: we must come to cherish our body... care for it well... perhaps strive to get a little bit closer to health and vigor... probably drop some ancient idea like Original Sin and replace it with that of Astounded Blessing... maybe we have harmed others: it's time to ask for forgiveness... maybe we have been harmed: it's time to reject any remaining notion that somehow we deserved it... it could be that we need to slip our hands between our legs and really bless what we find there with affirmations of goodness, worth, and beauty... Of course, none of this would be at all possible without the re-creation of our minds!
"The re-creation of our minds"... this is where the rubber really hits the road: how many thoughts do you have on any given day? The average person has around 65,000! Since no one reading this is "average", perhaps you've got some 80,000 thoughts a day! Holy moly! Ah, but what if your mind is full of shit -- I mean, what if 90% or 75% or 50% of those 80,000 thoughts are negative? What impact would those negative thoughts have? Here we have it: the very source of our every addiction: sure, chemicals ensure certain reactions in our bodies and brains: but it is the thought patterns themselves which are the real under-lying addiction. Why is it so hard to kick a drug? Because the mental habits are not transformed! Why is it so hard to be happy? Because our mental habits are 90% or 75% or 50% negative! Change your mind and you change your life: if you are unwilling to create "a thin place" within your very self, how could you recognize "a thin place" in Scotland, Iowa, or Wisconsin? Will beauty suddenly pop into your bed if you are angry and mean all the time?
How to cultivate a changing of the mind is a key question with a dual answer: first, forget yourself, and secondly, remember who you are... If you were a carpenter, which tools would you think to be essential to your kit? As the carpenter assembles her tools to get the job done, so too the aspiring mystic must gather his tools. Regardless of spiritual tradition, "forgetting and remembering" are mystic-essentials: forget: the illusion of a separate self, negative and false self-images and definitions, and all the psychological props of fear, judgment, hate, greed, and prejudice... remember: you are a "unit" at-one with Divine (the Christ) Consciousness; you are a co-creator of both your life and reality; you are an original blessing in the Universe; and you are responsible for your thoughts and your actions. Since our patterns of thought inevitably become our experience of reality, "intention" is like erecting an "under construction" sign in our brain: we first declare our intention of re-creation and transformation: for example, "I am choosing to pattern my thinking and actions after the example of Yeshua, the Poet of Nazareth." Was Yeshua hateful, prejudiced, and violent? Was Yeshua mean-spirited and un-kind? Was Yeshua disrespectful towards women, children, the stranger and the poor? So neither can you be! Was Yeshua creative, daring, inclusive, non-judgmental, kind, just, and compassionate? So too you must be!
Intention requires the grunt work of affirmation: every negative must be resisted to be overcome: resistance will be futile if it is not a fore-shadowing of your future. In other words, you must not expect roses if you plant thistles. You won't change if you meet habit with force: "God-damn-it negative thought, you will surrender!" You'll always end up losing that battle! Instead, when you become aware of a negative thought, you don't offer up immediate resistance, but you simply turn to its opposite: give voice to your emerging truth: hear it: say it again and you will begin to actualize it. It goes something like this: the thought pops up, "Damn it again! I'm such a fuck-up!" Oops... you become aware... then you voice your intended affirmation, such as, "I am a beautiful reflection of the Infinite Spirit of Love. I exist to channel that Love into every aspect of my life and every life around me. I choose to unleash that Spirit!" At this point, (and never will that point arrive) you can't now just sit back and relax. You've got to begin manifesting your new truth: do something kind -- out of the blue -- to help someone in need (preferably someone who can't pay you back)... attend a rally or some such thing for peace, justice, or equality... invite someone over for dinner -- like an undocumented immigrant or an LGBT person to share their personal story -- with you and your family or friends... By beginning to re-write your story from self-identified victim to a co-creator (a "quantum mechanic") of the Universe: through a change in both your thoughts and your actions you will not only become who you were meant to be, but also a spark of possibilities for countless others... by the daily, slow motion, work of "forgetting and remembering" you will be constructing, in your own life, "a thin place"...
Intention and affirmation together generate the possibility of "re-wiring" one's thought patterns... which can be described as a "forgetting". Now the next essential mystic-tool is invocation: the path of remembrance... Altogether, intention, affirmation, and invocation, set the stage for our spiritual transformation and identification with the Divine (the Christ) Consciousness... Invocation is the primary technique, or tool, in the mystic's kit. The actual practice of invocation is rooted in the metaphysical "knowing" that the Divine Beloved and the Name we ascribe to That One, is truly one and the same. Quieting the mind through the devout repetition of a Holy Name mantra, linked with the breath flow, steadily leads to a stillness in which thought is brought to a sublime focus on One... and the one essential "thin place" is discovered within our own mind as it descends into the heart: in this remembrance we come to a deep interior peace, harmony, and bliss: ready for a full-throttle engagement with life and action: for the creation of the "beloved community" in beauty, equality, justice, compassion, kindness, simplicity, reverence, satisfaction, pleasure, and contentment...
Sacred Intimacy and Imagination
Intention, affirmation, and invocation are primary mystic-tools: to what end? The "end" that we seek is "oneness": our complete identification with the Divine Beloved. Some would have us believe that both imagination and intimacy are barriers to Divine Union. But if our essential nature is already One, how do we divide that which is indivisible? Now it is plain to see that we do in fact get off track: a mere glimpse at the news will confirm this: but a task of the mystic is to combine mysticism with action and to affirm in every possible way the Beloved Community toward which we must all tend...
If compassion is the identifying characteristic of the Divine Beloved, then shouldn't compassion, in a like manner, become our primary characteristic? If you were to write the word "compassion" on the center of a page and then to surround that word with a number of circles we would have the beginning of an exercise... In the first circle, write single words about yourself: such as, body (you have one), mind (you do think), soul (you are one), home (where you care for your heart), and anything else that comes to mind as to how you self-identify. In the next and somewhat larger circle, write names of relations and friends, co-workers and perhaps acquaintances... In the next circle, write the names of people and places you would like to know or visit... In the next circle, write about your loves and lovers, your fantasies and desires... In the next circle write about your self as an imaginary lover and hero -- create a myth about yourself... If you follow this thread of a thought and exercise, you might come to see that all of it is inter-connected: your body is not in just the first circle, but in fact extends outward into every circle -- even into your active imagination... everything free-flows... everything inter-penetrates... everyone's circles inter-face with our circles: as not a single one of our atoms are solid and stationary, but likewise free-flow and inter-penetrate with other atoms -- existing from the first moment of the Big "What If?" Bang: starlight to human being: always and Only One... Compassion through and through! The great mystic secret is to see and to seek out the connections: in compassion and harmlessness...
Sacred intimacy is a gift of pure being. Massaging, caressing, kissing, every giving and receiving of delight and pleasure with another Divine-Human Being is an aspect of the balance of Tao: love-in-action-in-non-action... Eastern yogi's practiced sacred sex as both meditation and mutual delight: in many other ancient cultures, sacred sex was fundamental to mystic initiation: one was "anointed" by the Holy One while engaged in sacred sex... Very little of these perspectives have survived to influence either modern culture or religion. With the advent of the "masculine" spirituality of mainstream Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there is precious little room to maneuver towards a holistic interior life: to be tarred as "heretical" could get you killed: and yet, if boundaries are not overthrown, we will never discover our true beauty, goodness, and potential... so what is a body to do? Love your lover: seek out the utter delight of mutual surrender: recognize the legitimacy of pleasure as simply Divine... encourage exploration of possibilities within a spirit of harmlessness... allow all the "others" in your life to enter into your newly discovered radiance... there is no shame in sacred sex... cause no harm... ah...
It is not a mere note to add that sacred sex is also celibate: the intentional wise use and non-use of our sexuality! While it is true that everyone is a sexual being every moment of our lives, and while it is also true that sexuality is not a simple add-on for reproduction purposes only, it must become equally true that no longer will any of us use our sexuality in a harmful way with others. The following points really must become our common human practice: child marriage must be - completely - understood as forbidden; adult-with-child sex must be - absolutely - understood as forbidden; every act of violence that can be associated with sexuality must be accepted as forbidden; it must be understood and accepted that women are equal with men as sexual beings; and, it must be understood and accepted that homosexuality is as valid and sacred as heterosexuality. Rumi wrote that "how we make love is how God will be with us"... in other words, every aspect of our sexuality is also our essential spirituality: this "no difference" is vital for our well-being. "Aware of the sacred nature of every being, I will cause no harm to another being, especially sexual harm."
Sacred imagination begins with the inner life of the child... If allowed free expression, it need not be lost as the child grows: foster imagination by means of art and music... recognize beauty everywhere and create it wherever you can! Sacred imagination usually veers into sexual fantasy: not just the fantasy of the "perfect" lover, but in the fantasy of always being good enough to be wanted by someone / by others... But sacred imagination is much more than the beauty and pleasure of sexual fantasy: it is the door that opens to the realization of our natural state of communion: again, it all inter-penetrates -- atoms to genitals to work to recreation to ideas to commitments to passions to the pursuit of the Beloved Community in justice, solidarity, equality, beauty, harmlessness, and peace. Without imagination, we wouldn't see the angels dancing on the barbed wire, we wouldn't see the world in which everyone is fed and homed, and we wouldn't understand that every single problem of human life -- and all life -- upon this precious blue Planet is destined for adoration!
Living a daily life with purposeful intention towards the good, kind, and beautiful we approach the "secret garden" of identification, or Oneness, with the Divine Consciousness. As our life experience deepens through mindful sacred intimacy and imagination, we may begin to look for breakthroughs -- or thinning places -- where before we might have noticed nothing. Now, the hands of the old woman, fumbling for a piece of candy from her shoulder bag, are as a revelation: each crease somehow conveys a story of such lusciousness that you are tempted to simply disappear into adoration... or the gleaming eye of a child, or the notion of a new act of civil disobedience, or the first line of a new poem, or the curve of a buttock walking in front of you: everything can become a moment of spark, of grace, of Holy Breath -- precisely because the Divine Beloved is yet alive and breathing as graciousness into the Universe... Are you searching for "a thin place", some mysterious place where the distance between "heaven and earth" is reduced to the bare minimum? The entire point of these ruminations has been to arrive at this sentence: you, oh precious splendor of human being... you are alight with the Divine: right now!
The Divine Feminine
Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian mystic-philosopher, near the end of his life is said to have remarked, "If there is to be a future, it will wear the crown of feminine design." (The Return of the Mother, Andrew Harvey). What might this mean? First of all, feminist spirituality is essential human spirituality: the great insights of Woman are those of wholeness, oneness, mutuality, universality, and applied compassion: this is the voice of Sophia, Mother Wisdom... Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men are addicted to violence? Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men pursue power in whatever way they can, be it sexual, political, religious, or economic? Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men organize themselves into "camps" that require others to be demonized, violated, oppressed, exploited, and victimized? Of course, that is not the whole story -- or we would not as a specie have survived for so long... But go ahead and try to read a Holy Book, written by men (hearing the voice of a masculine God), and find passages of harmony, gentleness, caring, universal reverence, and harmlessness... and contrast those passages (which are evident in every scripture) with the number of passages in which the supposed Holy One requires the harming of any of His supposedly beloved children. Feminist spirituality is acknowledging these contradictions and choosing to identify both the Holy One and ourselves with Love-Without-Limits...
Could it be that Sophia, Mother Wisdom, is alighting once again this "Dark Night of the Earth"? Well into the 21st century now, and the epidemic of violence -- and its apologists and justifications -- is simply extraordinary. There is no division whatsoever between the combatant and the non-combatant: indeed, that is now the essence of warfare: the carpet-bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thrust open the door to unlimited warfare: falling napalm on children and secret campaigns of terror placed new emphasis on guerrilla tactics of resistance. Hitler's efforts to exterminate the Jews created the justifications for oppressing the Palestinians: and every colony that overthrew a colonizer opened the door to just another oppressor -- home grown perhaps -- but an oppressor just the same. But meanwhile, the banks have flourished! On any given day, over two trillion dollars are "in movement" in the world economy! Big business thrives while perhaps as many as 35,000 children still die everyday of hunger and the effects of malnutrition. I suppose if there is anything to be considered as "icing" on this current "cake of reality" it would be the roughly one hundred life forms that go extinct on this precious blue Planet everyday: and the vociferous denial of climate change on the part of the right-wing pundit, preacher, or politician. It is at this very precise moment that we need to consider Sophia, Mother Wisdom...
The "feminine design" of Sophia, Mother Wisdom would, I believe, be a renewal of faith: of every faith. It is not that any religion is "bad" -- that would be a much too simplistic thought to warrant any consideration -- but it is that every religion can and should "re-read" it's Holy Book from the perspective of the Feminine: we human beings are each and all sacred! All life is meant to be nourished at the Mother's breast: wisdom is the delicious food of both babe and adult. Earth is our Home: we must protect it, revere it, and preserve it for every generation forward. To harm another being is the great and really the only sin. We are here for such a brief span so that precious time should be given to service of the common good, the cultivation of personal possibilities and passions, and the perfection of our Earth Community. The purest way of giving love and praise and gratitude to the Holy One for the gift of life that we have received is to love every other by practicing kindness, mercy, compassion, justice, and solidarity. It is, without a doubt, possible to read every Holy Book and find in them this clear and present "feminine design"... perhaps this design has been obscured by centuries of traditions -- not needing our judgment -- but instead our forgiveness and our leadership!
Sophia, Mother Wisdom would have us enter a New Age of Inter-spirituality -- not a mix and match -- but a dynamic realization of our essential Unity within the One Love. From this Wisdom perspective we can gaze out upon the Earth and, using Sacred Imagination, see a Garden in which beauty thrives: in which everyone is wanted, loved, and fed: in which everyone is allowed the liberty of a beautiful expression of their sexuality in passion and in harmlessness: in which every culture and people are respected and cherished and allowed the freedom to determine their own nonviolent destiny: in which economics and agriculture focus on regeneration, sustainability, and caring: in which surrender and adoration are the applied science of prayer and meditation: in which Love-in-action is known to be the Father-Mother of Every Good: and in which to believe is to see gardens of grace and possibilities everywhere... Barbara Marx Hubbard taught that "crisis precedes transformation", and so we must believe also in our Sacred Duty to fully engage with our self-development, our education, our meditation, our commitment to social action and justice, and our renewal of faith.
The Absolute Unity of Consciousness -- Divine and Human -- is our starting point (as it is also our ending point). Here we begin: we learn, we act, we create. We become Light. We lift up in Love. We insist upon Justice and practice an Activated Compassion. We become the Beauty and the Oneness that we seek. We make connections and we build: we build as if the survival of both faith and this precious blue Planet are at stake. In a way, one could say that Sophia, Mother Wisdom is anointing us the New Monk-Warriors of Paradise: that is how serious a matter this is: and how very important each of our lives are... As we step out in faith, there will come a time in which we will be able to look back and say to ourselves and to one another, "Look! We have brought heaven and earth a little bit closer! Everywhere is beginning to appear a thin place!"
Resources:
Listening for the Heart of God / J. Philip Newell
Beauty, The Invisible Embrace / John O'Ddonohue
Celtic Benediction, Morning and Night Prayer / J. Philip Newell
Celtic Daily Prayer / The Northumbrian Community
The Book of Common Prayer / The Episcopal Church
The Rebirthing of God / J. Philip Newell
There are at least two essential ingredients for the "habitation" of a "thin place": and to the cultivation of a spirit capable of opening into the Infinite. The first is the spirit, the will, to companionship beginning with one's own soul. We start by adopting the sacred perspective that we do not "have" a soul, but rather that our soul encompasses, within and without, our minds and our bodies: we are soul through and through. To live fully "in soul" is to truly accept one's aliveness and to bow in humble adoration to the Oneness that is us: body and mind in sacred soul, one with the One... Practices which cultivate soul include meditation, laughter, service of others in need, the creative arts, meandering in nature, sacred sex, gardening, conversations, cooking, and eating in community... Altogether, such practices deepen mindfulness: that attentive awareness that each and every moment is of our creation: for good or ill, for beauty or chaos, for blessing or needless hurt... Companionship is the activated intention to live as a daily invitation to friendship and communion...
For many of us, the mere thought of companionship with ourselves is enough to send shivers down our spines: "I could give years to loving the homeless, but love myself? You've got to be kidding... I know myself too well to have anything to do with that..." Or, consider the story of Robin Williams... an actor and comic beloved by millions, who suffered grievous depression, and who committed suicide... Again, for many of us, we came into life truly "hard-wired" for empathy and compassion -- for others -- and the words of the Master, "Love one another as I have loved you", actually point us further away from ourselves. Nevertheless, it is an essential mystic-truth that all love begins and ends, moment-by-moment, within the being of every person: this moment, this breath, is meant very specifically to be our moment of complete surrender to the One Love Heart Consciousness: it is this surrender into Love that is our very life-line... And it is not a philosophical surrender! It must be through and through our every layer of consciousness and into every cell of our bodies: first with "I am good enough"... into "I am beautiful"... and then on into "Damn right I am worth it! I am worth the very best! I am worth Love!"... Until, finally, we arrive at Love's door knocking, only to wake up and realize that we were knocking from the inside of the House!
Start with your body: not a fictionalized Hollywood body, but your body... Sexual abuse is rampant, almost to the point of including everyone. Who has never been harmed? Who has never been rejected? Who has never felt betrayed or abandoned? Who has never dreamt of a love so true that it could be possible to surrender to another being, with utter amazement and sheer delight? To even hope for a spiritual awakening of any sort beyond the recitation of a creed and a life of following a particular crowd in order to at least belong somewhere, we've got to begin with our very own bodies and minds: we must come to cherish our body... care for it well... perhaps strive to get a little bit closer to health and vigor... probably drop some ancient idea like Original Sin and replace it with that of Astounded Blessing... maybe we have harmed others: it's time to ask for forgiveness... maybe we have been harmed: it's time to reject any remaining notion that somehow we deserved it... it could be that we need to slip our hands between our legs and really bless what we find there with affirmations of goodness, worth, and beauty... Of course, none of this would be at all possible without the re-creation of our minds!
"The re-creation of our minds"... this is where the rubber really hits the road: how many thoughts do you have on any given day? The average person has around 65,000! Since no one reading this is "average", perhaps you've got some 80,000 thoughts a day! Holy moly! Ah, but what if your mind is full of shit -- I mean, what if 90% or 75% or 50% of those 80,000 thoughts are negative? What impact would those negative thoughts have? Here we have it: the very source of our every addiction: sure, chemicals ensure certain reactions in our bodies and brains: but it is the thought patterns themselves which are the real under-lying addiction. Why is it so hard to kick a drug? Because the mental habits are not transformed! Why is it so hard to be happy? Because our mental habits are 90% or 75% or 50% negative! Change your mind and you change your life: if you are unwilling to create "a thin place" within your very self, how could you recognize "a thin place" in Scotland, Iowa, or Wisconsin? Will beauty suddenly pop into your bed if you are angry and mean all the time?
How to cultivate a changing of the mind is a key question with a dual answer: first, forget yourself, and secondly, remember who you are... If you were a carpenter, which tools would you think to be essential to your kit? As the carpenter assembles her tools to get the job done, so too the aspiring mystic must gather his tools. Regardless of spiritual tradition, "forgetting and remembering" are mystic-essentials: forget: the illusion of a separate self, negative and false self-images and definitions, and all the psychological props of fear, judgment, hate, greed, and prejudice... remember: you are a "unit" at-one with Divine (the Christ) Consciousness; you are a co-creator of both your life and reality; you are an original blessing in the Universe; and you are responsible for your thoughts and your actions. Since our patterns of thought inevitably become our experience of reality, "intention" is like erecting an "under construction" sign in our brain: we first declare our intention of re-creation and transformation: for example, "I am choosing to pattern my thinking and actions after the example of Yeshua, the Poet of Nazareth." Was Yeshua hateful, prejudiced, and violent? Was Yeshua mean-spirited and un-kind? Was Yeshua disrespectful towards women, children, the stranger and the poor? So neither can you be! Was Yeshua creative, daring, inclusive, non-judgmental, kind, just, and compassionate? So too you must be!
Intention requires the grunt work of affirmation: every negative must be resisted to be overcome: resistance will be futile if it is not a fore-shadowing of your future. In other words, you must not expect roses if you plant thistles. You won't change if you meet habit with force: "God-damn-it negative thought, you will surrender!" You'll always end up losing that battle! Instead, when you become aware of a negative thought, you don't offer up immediate resistance, but you simply turn to its opposite: give voice to your emerging truth: hear it: say it again and you will begin to actualize it. It goes something like this: the thought pops up, "Damn it again! I'm such a fuck-up!" Oops... you become aware... then you voice your intended affirmation, such as, "I am a beautiful reflection of the Infinite Spirit of Love. I exist to channel that Love into every aspect of my life and every life around me. I choose to unleash that Spirit!" At this point, (and never will that point arrive) you can't now just sit back and relax. You've got to begin manifesting your new truth: do something kind -- out of the blue -- to help someone in need (preferably someone who can't pay you back)... attend a rally or some such thing for peace, justice, or equality... invite someone over for dinner -- like an undocumented immigrant or an LGBT person to share their personal story -- with you and your family or friends... By beginning to re-write your story from self-identified victim to a co-creator (a "quantum mechanic") of the Universe: through a change in both your thoughts and your actions you will not only become who you were meant to be, but also a spark of possibilities for countless others... by the daily, slow motion, work of "forgetting and remembering" you will be constructing, in your own life, "a thin place"...
Intention and affirmation together generate the possibility of "re-wiring" one's thought patterns... which can be described as a "forgetting". Now the next essential mystic-tool is invocation: the path of remembrance... Altogether, intention, affirmation, and invocation, set the stage for our spiritual transformation and identification with the Divine (the Christ) Consciousness... Invocation is the primary technique, or tool, in the mystic's kit. The actual practice of invocation is rooted in the metaphysical "knowing" that the Divine Beloved and the Name we ascribe to That One, is truly one and the same. Quieting the mind through the devout repetition of a Holy Name mantra, linked with the breath flow, steadily leads to a stillness in which thought is brought to a sublime focus on One... and the one essential "thin place" is discovered within our own mind as it descends into the heart: in this remembrance we come to a deep interior peace, harmony, and bliss: ready for a full-throttle engagement with life and action: for the creation of the "beloved community" in beauty, equality, justice, compassion, kindness, simplicity, reverence, satisfaction, pleasure, and contentment...
Sacred Intimacy and Imagination
Intention, affirmation, and invocation are primary mystic-tools: to what end? The "end" that we seek is "oneness": our complete identification with the Divine Beloved. Some would have us believe that both imagination and intimacy are barriers to Divine Union. But if our essential nature is already One, how do we divide that which is indivisible? Now it is plain to see that we do in fact get off track: a mere glimpse at the news will confirm this: but a task of the mystic is to combine mysticism with action and to affirm in every possible way the Beloved Community toward which we must all tend...
If compassion is the identifying characteristic of the Divine Beloved, then shouldn't compassion, in a like manner, become our primary characteristic? If you were to write the word "compassion" on the center of a page and then to surround that word with a number of circles we would have the beginning of an exercise... In the first circle, write single words about yourself: such as, body (you have one), mind (you do think), soul (you are one), home (where you care for your heart), and anything else that comes to mind as to how you self-identify. In the next and somewhat larger circle, write names of relations and friends, co-workers and perhaps acquaintances... In the next circle, write the names of people and places you would like to know or visit... In the next circle, write about your loves and lovers, your fantasies and desires... In the next circle write about your self as an imaginary lover and hero -- create a myth about yourself... If you follow this thread of a thought and exercise, you might come to see that all of it is inter-connected: your body is not in just the first circle, but in fact extends outward into every circle -- even into your active imagination... everything free-flows... everything inter-penetrates... everyone's circles inter-face with our circles: as not a single one of our atoms are solid and stationary, but likewise free-flow and inter-penetrate with other atoms -- existing from the first moment of the Big "What If?" Bang: starlight to human being: always and Only One... Compassion through and through! The great mystic secret is to see and to seek out the connections: in compassion and harmlessness...
Sacred intimacy is a gift of pure being. Massaging, caressing, kissing, every giving and receiving of delight and pleasure with another Divine-Human Being is an aspect of the balance of Tao: love-in-action-in-non-action... Eastern yogi's practiced sacred sex as both meditation and mutual delight: in many other ancient cultures, sacred sex was fundamental to mystic initiation: one was "anointed" by the Holy One while engaged in sacred sex... Very little of these perspectives have survived to influence either modern culture or religion. With the advent of the "masculine" spirituality of mainstream Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there is precious little room to maneuver towards a holistic interior life: to be tarred as "heretical" could get you killed: and yet, if boundaries are not overthrown, we will never discover our true beauty, goodness, and potential... so what is a body to do? Love your lover: seek out the utter delight of mutual surrender: recognize the legitimacy of pleasure as simply Divine... encourage exploration of possibilities within a spirit of harmlessness... allow all the "others" in your life to enter into your newly discovered radiance... there is no shame in sacred sex... cause no harm... ah...
It is not a mere note to add that sacred sex is also celibate: the intentional wise use and non-use of our sexuality! While it is true that everyone is a sexual being every moment of our lives, and while it is also true that sexuality is not a simple add-on for reproduction purposes only, it must become equally true that no longer will any of us use our sexuality in a harmful way with others. The following points really must become our common human practice: child marriage must be - completely - understood as forbidden; adult-with-child sex must be - absolutely - understood as forbidden; every act of violence that can be associated with sexuality must be accepted as forbidden; it must be understood and accepted that women are equal with men as sexual beings; and, it must be understood and accepted that homosexuality is as valid and sacred as heterosexuality. Rumi wrote that "how we make love is how God will be with us"... in other words, every aspect of our sexuality is also our essential spirituality: this "no difference" is vital for our well-being. "Aware of the sacred nature of every being, I will cause no harm to another being, especially sexual harm."
Sacred imagination begins with the inner life of the child... If allowed free expression, it need not be lost as the child grows: foster imagination by means of art and music... recognize beauty everywhere and create it wherever you can! Sacred imagination usually veers into sexual fantasy: not just the fantasy of the "perfect" lover, but in the fantasy of always being good enough to be wanted by someone / by others... But sacred imagination is much more than the beauty and pleasure of sexual fantasy: it is the door that opens to the realization of our natural state of communion: again, it all inter-penetrates -- atoms to genitals to work to recreation to ideas to commitments to passions to the pursuit of the Beloved Community in justice, solidarity, equality, beauty, harmlessness, and peace. Without imagination, we wouldn't see the angels dancing on the barbed wire, we wouldn't see the world in which everyone is fed and homed, and we wouldn't understand that every single problem of human life -- and all life -- upon this precious blue Planet is destined for adoration!
Living a daily life with purposeful intention towards the good, kind, and beautiful we approach the "secret garden" of identification, or Oneness, with the Divine Consciousness. As our life experience deepens through mindful sacred intimacy and imagination, we may begin to look for breakthroughs -- or thinning places -- where before we might have noticed nothing. Now, the hands of the old woman, fumbling for a piece of candy from her shoulder bag, are as a revelation: each crease somehow conveys a story of such lusciousness that you are tempted to simply disappear into adoration... or the gleaming eye of a child, or the notion of a new act of civil disobedience, or the first line of a new poem, or the curve of a buttock walking in front of you: everything can become a moment of spark, of grace, of Holy Breath -- precisely because the Divine Beloved is yet alive and breathing as graciousness into the Universe... Are you searching for "a thin place", some mysterious place where the distance between "heaven and earth" is reduced to the bare minimum? The entire point of these ruminations has been to arrive at this sentence: you, oh precious splendor of human being... you are alight with the Divine: right now!
The Divine Feminine
Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian mystic-philosopher, near the end of his life is said to have remarked, "If there is to be a future, it will wear the crown of feminine design." (The Return of the Mother, Andrew Harvey). What might this mean? First of all, feminist spirituality is essential human spirituality: the great insights of Woman are those of wholeness, oneness, mutuality, universality, and applied compassion: this is the voice of Sophia, Mother Wisdom... Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men are addicted to violence? Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men pursue power in whatever way they can, be it sexual, political, religious, or economic? Is it safe to acknowledge that a profound number of men organize themselves into "camps" that require others to be demonized, violated, oppressed, exploited, and victimized? Of course, that is not the whole story -- or we would not as a specie have survived for so long... But go ahead and try to read a Holy Book, written by men (hearing the voice of a masculine God), and find passages of harmony, gentleness, caring, universal reverence, and harmlessness... and contrast those passages (which are evident in every scripture) with the number of passages in which the supposed Holy One requires the harming of any of His supposedly beloved children. Feminist spirituality is acknowledging these contradictions and choosing to identify both the Holy One and ourselves with Love-Without-Limits...
Could it be that Sophia, Mother Wisdom, is alighting once again this "Dark Night of the Earth"? Well into the 21st century now, and the epidemic of violence -- and its apologists and justifications -- is simply extraordinary. There is no division whatsoever between the combatant and the non-combatant: indeed, that is now the essence of warfare: the carpet-bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thrust open the door to unlimited warfare: falling napalm on children and secret campaigns of terror placed new emphasis on guerrilla tactics of resistance. Hitler's efforts to exterminate the Jews created the justifications for oppressing the Palestinians: and every colony that overthrew a colonizer opened the door to just another oppressor -- home grown perhaps -- but an oppressor just the same. But meanwhile, the banks have flourished! On any given day, over two trillion dollars are "in movement" in the world economy! Big business thrives while perhaps as many as 35,000 children still die everyday of hunger and the effects of malnutrition. I suppose if there is anything to be considered as "icing" on this current "cake of reality" it would be the roughly one hundred life forms that go extinct on this precious blue Planet everyday: and the vociferous denial of climate change on the part of the right-wing pundit, preacher, or politician. It is at this very precise moment that we need to consider Sophia, Mother Wisdom...
The "feminine design" of Sophia, Mother Wisdom would, I believe, be a renewal of faith: of every faith. It is not that any religion is "bad" -- that would be a much too simplistic thought to warrant any consideration -- but it is that every religion can and should "re-read" it's Holy Book from the perspective of the Feminine: we human beings are each and all sacred! All life is meant to be nourished at the Mother's breast: wisdom is the delicious food of both babe and adult. Earth is our Home: we must protect it, revere it, and preserve it for every generation forward. To harm another being is the great and really the only sin. We are here for such a brief span so that precious time should be given to service of the common good, the cultivation of personal possibilities and passions, and the perfection of our Earth Community. The purest way of giving love and praise and gratitude to the Holy One for the gift of life that we have received is to love every other by practicing kindness, mercy, compassion, justice, and solidarity. It is, without a doubt, possible to read every Holy Book and find in them this clear and present "feminine design"... perhaps this design has been obscured by centuries of traditions -- not needing our judgment -- but instead our forgiveness and our leadership!
Sophia, Mother Wisdom would have us enter a New Age of Inter-spirituality -- not a mix and match -- but a dynamic realization of our essential Unity within the One Love. From this Wisdom perspective we can gaze out upon the Earth and, using Sacred Imagination, see a Garden in which beauty thrives: in which everyone is wanted, loved, and fed: in which everyone is allowed the liberty of a beautiful expression of their sexuality in passion and in harmlessness: in which every culture and people are respected and cherished and allowed the freedom to determine their own nonviolent destiny: in which economics and agriculture focus on regeneration, sustainability, and caring: in which surrender and adoration are the applied science of prayer and meditation: in which Love-in-action is known to be the Father-Mother of Every Good: and in which to believe is to see gardens of grace and possibilities everywhere... Barbara Marx Hubbard taught that "crisis precedes transformation", and so we must believe also in our Sacred Duty to fully engage with our self-development, our education, our meditation, our commitment to social action and justice, and our renewal of faith.
The Absolute Unity of Consciousness -- Divine and Human -- is our starting point (as it is also our ending point). Here we begin: we learn, we act, we create. We become Light. We lift up in Love. We insist upon Justice and practice an Activated Compassion. We become the Beauty and the Oneness that we seek. We make connections and we build: we build as if the survival of both faith and this precious blue Planet are at stake. In a way, one could say that Sophia, Mother Wisdom is anointing us the New Monk-Warriors of Paradise: that is how serious a matter this is: and how very important each of our lives are... As we step out in faith, there will come a time in which we will be able to look back and say to ourselves and to one another, "Look! We have brought heaven and earth a little bit closer! Everywhere is beginning to appear a thin place!"
Resources:
Listening for the Heart of God / J. Philip Newell
Beauty, The Invisible Embrace / John O'Ddonohue
Celtic Benediction, Morning and Night Prayer / J. Philip Newell
Celtic Daily Prayer / The Northumbrian Community
The Book of Common Prayer / The Episcopal Church
The Rebirthing of God / J. Philip Newell
A few of the youth who enjoyed Camp St. Francis with Michelle and Robert... at the Salinas River