The Eye ("I") Sees All Directions

The mystical way of perceiving is nondual. That is, the mystic can perceive difference and sameness, or any paradox, at the same time. This viewpoint is on one hand, a complete release of  either/or judgment and can also be an experience of myself as the object of my perception and the object of my perception as myself. In order to behold an object as myself, I have to relinquish my separate identity and realize oneness with the other. This, again, is done by releasing the judgment that there is a difference between us. The active intelligence does not release judgment. The passive or receptive intelligence does. There are many ways to say this. Thought is active, intuition is passive. We use our sensing/thinking (Myers Briggs) to perceive and analyze factual information. We use intuiting and feeling (Myers Briggs) to add memory experience to those facts. To experience nonduality as a mystic does, one must move conscious thought and memory aside in favor of mental quietude. One must move psychically beyond thought and through any inner feeling or intuition that prevents simply being still. It is in that stillness that one can realize one's self as no thing and everything.

Mystics (those who are adept at using the full benefit of their human perceiving functions) over the ages have understood reality as One. This is reflected in every religious tradition the thought process can conjure. Although it is not practiced by a majority of sensor/thinker intellectuals, or sensor/feeler emotional separatists.

Father Thomas Keating, a Benedictine and Christian contemplative, speaks of the spiritual journey this way:

1. I am convicted there is an "O"ther 

2. I try to become the "O"ther

3. I am One with the "O"ther

It is true that perception holds the key to what we call "Reality." The relationship between who I am and who God is, my relationship with other created ("originated") elements is completely dependent on my point(s) of view, the limitations of my thinking and intuitive/emotional memory.

This morning in my reading, I found an interesting coincidence of Christian and Sufi mysticism from the 12th-13thc, with regard to perception/vision/the eye. Below are two quotations, one by a Christian and the other by a Sufi, describing the perception of myself as Other and Other as myself.

 "The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love." ~Meister Eckhart

 ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

 In the final part of this hymnic opening to Ring Settings of Wisdom, Ibn Arabi introduces a key pun on the world insān, which can mean both “human being and “pupil of the eye.” The complete human is the pupil of the eye of reality, the mode of perception. As khalifa or regent, it is also the “seal” by which the order of reality in maintained. Were it to be removed, the articulated world would collapse in upon itself:

 That one was named insān (human being, pupil of eye) and khalifa (regent)

 He is named insān because of the universality of his nature encompassing all realities

 He is to the real

 As the insān is to the eye

 The medium of vision and perception

 So he is called insān

 Because through him the real views its creation

 And extends them compassion

 He is insān , originated and eternal

 He is the living being, without beginning, without end

 He is the word, discriminating and integrating

 He is the world

 As the ringstone of the ring is to the ring…

~From Mystical Languages of Unsaying, Michael Sells

Buddhists would call this the journey into Awareness, while monotheists contextualize it as "Union with God ('The Other')," and Hindus might call it Moksha. It is the spiritual journey of a human mind toward realizing her mental potential. It is the process of enlightened consciousness.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

With a prayer for reconciliation and peace, Peggy

 Ibn Arabi:July 28, 1165 – November 10, 1240) was an Arab Andalusian Sufi mystic and philosopher. He is renowned by some practitioners of Sufism as "the greatest master" and also as a genuine saint.

 Meister Eckhart (1260 – c. 1327), commonly was a German Dominican theologian, philosopher and mystic.

The Gifts of the Magi

Matthew 2:1,2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

 

 The Christian celebration of epiphany involves the travels of 3 wise men- commonly thought to be scholars/astronomers (recently a newly translated Syriac text –The Revelation of the Magi” identifies the magi as “Those who pray in silence.”) Most significantly, these men were not Jews or Christians, they were gentiles; people from outside of the Hebrew culture who were searching for a miracle. Not material wealth or intellectual status, they had that. These men understood the poverty of their souls and sought, with all earnest and amazing perseverance, to find the promised riches of new life.

Matthew 2: 9-11 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Gold: incorruptible immortal precious metal of the sun, symbol of divinity and royalty,
Frankincense: Exotic resin of divine communication and healing, and
Myrrh: in Arabic called “bitter”, the sweet resin of tears for healing and anointing, in life as at death, a symbol of fragile humanity.

But whenever a gift is given, a gift is received. And on this 12^th night, it was the magi who received a gift. They received the gift of an epiphany – the remembrance of a truth they had always known:  That God is revealed to the hopeful, the faithful, to those who have time to see. Here in a manger they found the Christ child, and in Him they saw a new light; a light that was reflected in their own hearts, a light for everyone – the light of the world.

And so it was that the magi came to find the Christ child and became truly wealthy, for they discovered the light of the world, the gift of truth and love, Jesus the Christ. And while their worldly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, symbolized divine importance of the birth of this child, the true gifts of the magi were these: hope, time and faith.

The gift of hope.  Hope that their emptiness of spirit would be filled when they reached their journey’s end.  Hope that spurred them to action; to risk all material wealth and seek the most important gift of a lifetime.

The gift of time.  We have no accurate record of the length of time it took for the Magi to reach Bethlehem. It may have taken months to years.  They set out on their journey with no time limitations in mind.  They set out to seek a miracle for whatever length of time it took. 

The gift of faith; faith that their journey would lead them to the truth, the light of the world. And it did.

 

May you have the wondrous opportunity to exchange gifts, to realize that all you need is already with you - hope, time, faith. Let these draw you into the presence (no pun intended) or the True Self, the Image of God Self, the enlightened Mind of Christ, the one who is "The Light of the World."

 

Epiphany Blessings! Peggy

 

In Quiet Silence...The Light of Peace

Wisdom 18:14,15, 21. Written 200-199 BCE

 

(14, 15) For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction.

(21) For a blameless man made haste to pray for the people, bringing forth the shield of his ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath, and put an end to the calamity, showing that he was thy servant.

The first of these passages has been variously used for Introits and Benedictions in the Roman mass for Christmas and Epiphany. The words proclaim the arrival of the Word, the Logos, for which the original meaning, per Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC) was, “a principle of order and knowledge.” Later, Logos was used by Stoic philosophers to describe “the divine animating principle of the universe.” And even later, the author of John’s Gospel (ca. 90 CE) called Logos the divine incarnation, the Christ potential in the man, Jesus. Isaiah predicts this event: Isaiah 9:6 (701-681 BC) For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

A man, an incarnate human, “the principle of divine order and knowledge,” a vessel for the “divine animating force of the universe” would break through the darkness, “the quiet silence of night,” and put an end to the chaos and destruction by the people on earth… And this person, blameless, praying and making supplication under the shield of his ministry, this human, would infuse Life with peacemaking. This Prince of Peace.

~*~ 

Holy and Compassionate God, Source of Life, Spirit of Goodness, Prince of Peace, may we be quiet enough to allow your light to cut through our chaos. May we, in the example of Jesus, be humble enough to order our worlds with prayer and supplication, rather than noise and defensiveness. May the power of peace so full and present in this season be our Logos in every season.

 

Amen      _/\_Peggy

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT: PEACE – BE STILL

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness

has not overcome it. The true light that gives light

to everyone is coming into the world. John 1:5,9

"Every gift of divine awareness benefits our receptivity for a new and greater gift. Every divine gift increases our openness and longing to receive what is higher and greater. To the extent that God is boundless in His giving, our souls are equally boundless in their capacity to receive." 

 

Just as Mary, in complete trust, emptied herself to receive our Lord, Jesus; when our hearts are open and free from preconceptions, when we desire nothing more earnestly than to be filled with the beauty and grace of God, then the gift arrives; the Christ is born in us…again and again and again.

~Meister Eckhart (1260 – c. 1327) was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic.

 

May you bring the quietness of mind and openness of heart to allow the light to birth new life within you every day, in all circumstances. Peace is the ever-evolving outcome of the integrated mind-body - soul. The grace of God in Life is magnified and expressed by our soul's receptive,"Yes!"

 

Namaste and Christmas Blessings! Peggy

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - JOY

What joy we experience at the birth of something new!
When we see a new home or a new car, when

we make a new friend, when we hear a new piece of music that touches us, or when we realize and understand something for the very first time; perhaps something that clarifies some confusion - a new insight. Think of all the ways we can realize something new!

 

Arthur Zajonc is a physicist, author of several books related to science, mind, and spirit and a   Buddhist friend of the Dalai Lama. He is also a  professor at Amherst College and president of Mind and Life Institute. He explained the process of coming to a new idea like this:

Sitting quietly we hold our existing knowledge and its implications. We have thought about the way these puzzle pieces fit together. We focus our attention on the point at which we can think it through no further, the very edge of our understanding or the place we meet the resistance of the unknown. Hold that. Look thoroughly at it in your minds eye and then let it go. Let it go so completely that it doesn't even seem to exist any longer, like turning your back on a wall. Be still. Be empty. Release resistance...completely. Wait. ...And a new way of thinking, a new way of perceiving, a new birth will take place.

Of course, this is the essence of any silent meditation practice and it explains why meditation can allow us to deepen our awareness.

This practice, Zajonc says, is the way Einstein came to his theory of relativity. In almost a sleeping consciousness, his variables came together in a new way..an epiphany or a revelation. Perhaps this is why Einstein says, "“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” He also said, ""A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way. That means it is not reached by conscious logical conclusions."

There is a lot more that can be said about this process of  CHANGE....of new awareness, of becoming.
(Hegel) thesis plus antithesis = synthesis or
(Gurdjieff) affirming plus denying = reconciling or
(Whitehead) process of occasions with entities plus prehension of subjective aim = new entity

These scholars describe how change takes place: whether changing the mind or changing the social milieu or creating a new being. New "beings," be they thoughts or people are created by a surplus of directed energy meeting resistance and overcoming it by letting go. What is known reality drives against what is unknown reality and, in the void of unknowing, new reality is born.

And so, from an Advent perspective, we wait in darkness. We embrace quiet. We LOVE by opening ourselves to this process of change. We HOPE, with a certainty that is more like Trust in the unknowing, the darkness. We realize JOY can be found through the process of awareness, the birth of the new coming through these postures: Waiting in LOVE, with HOPE...WAITING for light to break through the limits of darkness. 

 

“Where is he who has been born as king of the Jews?” MT 2:2

“Pay attention now to where the birth of Jesus has taken place. This eternal birth takes place in the soul totally in the way it takes place in eternity, neither less nor more. For it is only one birth and this birth takes place in the being and foundation of the soul....

God is present, effective and powerful in all things. He is only generative, however, in the soul. For all creatures are a footprint of God, but the soul is formed like God, according to its nature. Whatever perfection is to enter the soul, be it divine, unique light or grace or happiness, all of it must come into the soul of a necessity through this birth of divine awareness and in no other way. Wait only for the birth of Christ within yourself, And you will discover all blessing and all consolation, all bliss, all being, and all truth.”

~ Meister Eckhart 1260 – c. 1327 German theologian, philosopher and mystic.

 

JOY IS TO BEHOLD GOD IN EVERYTHING!
 ~ Julian of Norwich, 1342 – 1416 English Anchoress

 

May you be blessed to hold this holy process in your silent, waiting heart, as the baby is created in all the splendor of God's perfect New....may the JOY of Love and Hope be yours!

 

_/\_Peggy

 

Takers and Givers – inspired by Eric Butterworth

I woke Empty
With a hole
In the middle of me
And my oatmeal did not
Even fill it up.

Was it there yesterday?

How could it have gotten so big so fast?

When I walked to my car the cold wind blew through it and gave me chills.

No coat to cover this hole.

At the office people said,

“Good morning!”
And their words floated right
Through the hole to the
Other side.

At lunchtime

I ate a sandwich
Hoping it would fill me up.
My boss popped his head inside the door and said,
“Are you doing okay?”

“No.”

The hole was still there.

When I went home that night

I called a friend
And had nothing to say,
I ate ice cream
It numbed my tongue,
I watched a movie
And fell asleep.

Sometime

In the middle of the night,
In the deep
Darkness of the Taking
I said, “Enough of this hole!”
I reached through my belly
and grabbed the world.
Delicious!
This will fill my hole.

I gobbled it up like fried chicken

Finger-lickin’ good!
It slid down my gullet
And landed inside of me.
Satiated, filled…
…No…..Empty.

Then promptly,

It sucked me in
Inverted me like
A black hole
Vortex
Turned me inside out.
I floated in nothingness
Attached to nothing by
The length of my gut
Omentum dangling like
Rickrack in a low rider,
Tethered
Like an astronaut’s
Breathing gear.
But no breath
Just Emptiness.

Afloat in deep silence

No time to speak of
No me to speak.
No feeling
No form
Exposed, vulnerable
I touched everything
Owned it all
Was at its mercy.

Sensation

Overwhelming threshold
Of perception,
Such pain I could not bear
And thus, did not.

The Universe

On the other hand,
Held me tender
Naked sinew.
In submission
I rested.

And then,

Eternity.

I

Changed…transformed…
Found the lost
Fullness of Grace.

Consumed by the Taker.

Somehow in silence
Redeemed by the Giver.

Silence spoke,

“All is you. You are all.”
Nothing
Everything.

I woke Full

With a hole
In the middle of me

Was it there yesterday?

I don’t remember.

All I know is

Today
When I reach into
That hole
The world pours out of me.


© Peggy Beatty Dec 2010

This is a little different than my usual blog. Its pretty different than my usual poetry too. I wrote this after reading these passages from Eric Butterworth. Its about consumption and kenosis and grace:

 

"The takers are the people who believe their lives will always be the total of what they can get from the world. They are always thinking get, get, get. They plan and scheme ways to get what they want in money, in love, in happiness, and in all kinds of good... but whatever may be their spiritual ideals or lack of any, no matter what they take, they can never know peace or security or fulfillment.

The givers, on the other hand, are convinced life is a giving process. Thus their subtle motivation in all their ways is to give themselves away, in love, in service, and in all the many helpful ways they can invest themselves. They are always secure, for they intuitively know that their good flows from within."
Eric Butterworth

We live in a culture that drives us to consumerism and external fulfillment from the moment we can watch TV. Which is not to say that we aren't made that way to begin with. The "mine" stage of a toddler is certainly about getting what I need from outside myself, and rightfully so. Its a good survival  mentality for a 2 year old. The thing is, when we mature, when we realize that we won't always get what we think we need from outside ourselves, then we learn that our needs are not so plentiful to begin with. We learn to back away from always looking out there with expectation and, hopefully, we realize, that all we need is right here, right now. We draw our expectations into the presence of Now, a time/space intersect. Kairos, the "moment of opportunity,"  that graced moment (moment used figuratively here) when, if we open ourselves fully to life, we realize the paradox of being empty and full at the very same time.

May you find yourself enjoying many moments of opportunity, as you open humbly to the Spirit of the Universe, the flow of life, the arms of eternal Christ...may your taking become your gracious giving as the world flows through you~

Namaste, Peggy _/\_


About Kenosis~

In Christian theology, kenosis is the concept of the 'self-emptying' of one's own will and becoming entirely receptive to God and the divine will. Kenosis, or self-emptying, is only possible through humility and, in a Monotheistic sense, presupposes that one seeks union with God. Or stated another way, one seeks to humbly remove all barriers to Love. Kenosis is essentially the same as non-attachment in Buddhism. Relative to human nature, kenosis denotes the continual redirection of spiritual energies (self will and externally directed neediness) toward Loving humility.  Kenosis is a paradox and a mystery since "emptying oneself" in fact fills the person with divine grace and results in union with God. Kenosis is the process of transcending one's attachments to psychological ego needs. 

This Much I Know: I Cannot Know

 Everything has its time and place.

Ego is not in control of what’s happening.

LIFE is in control of what’s happening.

To insist that something can empower us,

all at once, to dive into ourselves

and see anything and everything we need to

see to awaken, is working at odds
with human experience.

Everything happens in its time. We’re not in control. This isn’t something we want to hear, though. It isn’t something our mind wants. Mostly we want to hear things that empower our sense of control. And we radically push away anything that does not empower or sense of control.

When you start to accept what you see as true – not what I say, but your experience – that’s when everything starts to change.

All I know is that I am. Everything else is in a state of flux and uncertainty. I don’t know what the outcome of that flux and uncertainty is. But I know that I don’t know. And this knowledge has not disempowered me. Quite the contrary, Life has a part to play through me, and I play that part. I am in union with the part of Life that changes all the time, no longer arguing with it, Life gets to play it’s part through my agreement. And it seems that when we’re in the deepest state of agreement, the part Life plays though us is very satisfying.

~adapted from Adyashanti, The End of Your World
Art: Helena Nelson-Reed

 

The phrase "I know that I know nothing" or "I know one thing: that I know nothing" (Ancient Greek: ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα hèn oîda ὃti oudèn oîda; Latin: scio me nihil scire or scio me nescire), sometimes called the Socratic paradox, is a well-known saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates. This is the nondual perception of a contemplative/mystic. She senses (knows what is) and she intuits (cannot know all that is). this is, in Christian theological lingo - kataphatic perception (I know what is;concept embodied) and apophatic perception (I know what is not;concept cannot be fully embodied).

 

Everything changes when we accept that the ultimate nature of, and outcome for, reality is Mystery and always Mystery. This is something theology and science have in common. Science can only determine what is objectifiable (created form). Theology imagines subjectively and attempts to impose it on the objective (story, philosophy). Neither can define What Is, for if it could, it would no longer be What Is. And BOTH are accurate depictions of What Is, within their own context, for they describe the same thing, What Is. The God of Israel's "I Am" is the most expansive thing we can put in words about "What Is." What we do not know, we cannot define with words. Or stated differently, we can only partially define with words. What we cannot define must be assumed larger than what we can, for it lies beyond and includes what we can define.

 

Hardwired for Truth as a highest priority, I have learned that in the relative world of physical form there are infinite truths, depending on context. In the absolute world of mysterious eternity there is but one truth, and it is mystery and will always remain mystery. The paradox is, mystery (what I do not know) contains all that I do know in physical form - all the words and concepts that I can imagine, everything that I say "I know" and more, all relative truths, and it is in mystery that we dwell as both object (what is known) and observer (the mysterious one who knows....and knows nothing).

And I chose to have Wisdom rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep. — Wisdom 7:10

 

Rest in the Mystery! Therein is the peace that passeth understanding. _/\_Peggy