Sacred chamber

Thy heart is my home; sanctify it for My descent. 

Thy spirit is My place of revelation; 

cleanse it for My manifestation.

- Bahá'u'lláh

Life is a mystery in so many awesome ways.  I've often wondered if we know anything really.  So much of what I learned in school as a child has been revised, updated and so much of what I learned in seminary has also been supplanted by so much new theology, biblical archaeology and mystical spirituality that I wonder if we can know anything at all.  I also think the key to knowledge is not in our limited human brains, but rather through our hearts in which is the portal to heaven and is also the sacred chamber where we encounter God's Holy Spirit. 

I often think of our brains, our intellects where so much of our scientific and rational deductive reasoning is done, as a cold place, lacking the passion and compassion of the spirit in which we know something of God. There is something sad about the brain's lonely existence, always feeling threatened by its own self comparison to others, all the vanity and fear it feels because in the back of its own mind is this little truth that would undo it. That little truth is the brain is limited.  It is not the king of us as we always thought.  Rather, it is the servant thinking it's the king.  

The heart is the true royal throne which the brain has dismissed as sentimental and weak due to the heart's spiritual power of which the brain knows nothing because it doesn't have the lens with which to see or know who resides in that holy place.  The world has believed the brain's haughty bravado for too long. It's like the little man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.  It has limited power but we have believed its fallacies almost to our own undoing.  Now, we must awaken to where the truth is and somehow relearn how to listen and see through our hearts. 

Some might call that aspect of knowing as the feminine spiritual aspect and the rational, intellectual, brainy way of knowing as masculine.  Perhaps that's true and with all the science and technology, theology and philosophy, and all we think we know of everything, we don't know God and we don't even have enough spiritual vision to realize that we don't know anything.  

The intellect will keep us blind, constantly dismissing the spiritual as weak, as unnecessary, as irrelevant as Karl Marx believed, who said "religion was the opiate of the people."  I think without spiritual consciousness, we'd need opium to dim the pain of our stark ignorance. We are still blind to the multidimensional realms that are right here among us.  We don't see because we don't believe and we don't believe because we have been looking for heaven through the wrong lens.  

The heart has been discounted as a soft, girly kind of thing - a Hallmark card kind of thing - and we failed to see that the heart is utterly brilliant, powerful and vastly unlimited.  It is a portal as well as a temple and we have been terrified to open that inner door and allow ourselves to experience the greatest encounter, meet and see the angels - for real - and enter into an authentic relationship with God who is waiting for us, loving us and hoping we will open our heart to Him, His Holy Spirit, which is love and the greatest power the universe contains.

This is not so complicated.  The brain, which can't do this at all, tells us it's impossible - because it is for the brain. Not true.  It's so simple that the children can do it.  One of the most brilliant spiritual children I ever knew was a little boy who had cerebral palsy back in Tonawanda, New York.  He was the delight of his parish and sparkled with the love and obvious presence of God within him.  He seated people with a church program as they came in to the church door.  He was an angel in a little boy's body.

So, is it really any wonder that Jesus said that the children and those who have open hearts like children are entering the kingdom before the wise and learned?  

The way is simple.  Love God, love your neighbors, yourself and all people - all of life - all those who challenge your ability to love because they are your teachers of the heart.  If someone is cruel to you, offends your vanity, thank God for the lesson they provide you to love without any conditions.  Love, love and love some more.  Make it your number one priority.  Love even if it seems unjustified. Love even if the other person cannot love.  Remember that when you are choosing to love, you have in your words and your hands the most powerful weapon to fight against the blind apathy that has steeped our world in darkness too long.  

Take up your sword of love, and bring down the walls of hate that have kept us all imprisoned in this fog of unconsciousness and ignorance too long.  Be brave and love despite the cost.  If you would give your heart to God by loving others, God will give you His power and wisdom and your life will expand beyond your wildest imagination. I also believe God will help you to have the faith you need to do this.  Remember God is always on your side, and God will give you His love which is always enough.