Making room for the Divine

                                    

                                     I know that for the right practice of it, the heart must be 

                                     empty of all other things; because God will possess the 

                                     heart alone;  and as He cannot possess it alone, without 

                                     emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, 

                                     and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.

Brother Lawrence, 

The Practice of the Presence of God

The Divine pours itself into our heart, breathing into us a profound joy and eternal aliveness. It is the center of our being and conduit through which the Divine connects with us, empowering, embracing and loving us. It is also where we connect with each other and gives us our meaning, joy, and identity.

Divine love contains all that we need and all that we long for. If only we could feel and experience it! The single most inhibiting obstacle to that inflow of Divine power, love, wisdom, consciousness is judgment's cruel blockage. Judgment is an insidious force that guards and blocks the heart like a watchdog. It builds walls, creates a million distractions and false liaisons, all blindly recruited by its terrorizing instruction to avert our consciousness from the vulnerability and sensitivity of the heart, which the ego perceives as weak. It keeps us feeling separate from others through induced guilt or a sense of unworthiness.

Since Divine consciousness is perfect love, it is without judgment, without prejudice, condemnation, and criticism. Obviously, it is not like our government rulers or oppressors who are driven by control, stemming from a selfish lack of love.

Love is freeing, going where it wills, honoring and uplifting, surrendering, rejoicing in simply being and allowing self and others to also just be and to move along their own life paths. That honoring means love is without judgment and is unconditional. Anything conditional, is, quite simply, not love.

To empty the heart of judgment - especially self-judgment which is comprised of a million scattered thoughts, each with a criticism - is the first step to an authentic encounter with divine reality, the only reality.

Honestly, it is that simple.

We've been taught to love others and deny ourselves. But, that wisdom has been so sadly misinterpreted. That which we call our "self," has been our ego, that which actually blocks our intuitive, life-giving, divine heart.

When the pain of living disconnected from the heart mounts to an unbearable level, finally we will notice that without its sweet wisdom and connection with the divine, we will die. Then, and only then, can a change occur and not one moment sooner.

Then, we decide to stop fighting and accept the pain of the expiring ego and invite God in, surrender and wait for the Divine. We also will realize that to choose to love ourselves and remain mindful of whatever it is that is condemning us will open the door to the heart. The first step is mindfully hearing what the ego - the inner critic - is saying and then choosing not to listen to it. In that first step is the beginning of our salvation from the tyranny of the ego or the inner critic, or all those controlling ideas that sweep through our minds.

If we listen carefully, we will hear the ego reminding us of all our mistakes and errors, which slowly erodes our sense of value and creative power. It makes us feel unworthy. It calls us sinners. It tells us we are without value. That is the victim's way, not the way to God. We can loosen its grip through a loving petition to God to forgive us until we feel emptied of its nagging criticism. Things that will fill our hearts are art, music, nature, walking until we are silent inside, gratitude to God for the sheer honor and joy to be alive in this moment.

Loving ourselves purely, praying for the in-pouring of God's love is the next step. And, if we become aware mindfully of the inner chatter that condemns and criticizes us, we can choose to chase those thoughts out of our minds. Under the tutelage of the inner critic we have been led to forfeit, abandon, forsake, even betray own heart and our own authentic self. It is that abandonment that causes us to feel alone.

It is not another person who will fill the inner need of the heart. It is the heart itself that needs to feel honored and welcomed and listened to by a conscious intention to love it. When it feels loved, it will sing to us. It will leap and dance and delight in its recognition and joyful reunion with us. It may even allow our real self, buried under years of judgment and condemnation, to step forward.

Finally, with awareness, we realize the divine chased away our ego - usually causing us enormous pain in the process. It doesn't go without giving a strong fight. But, after the fire fight with the stubborn, persistent, terrorizing ego, there is finally peace - a profound, deep, pervading, rich, velvet, radiant PEACE.

To love ourselves until we are healed and enriched with the divine presence, and then to love others with that same love, is truly the way to authentic and abundant life. First we have to believe that despite anything - anything - we must love ourselves. It is the first step to removing the ego and allowing space for an authentic divine encounter, which pours into our sacred chalice, the light, power and ineffable love which are the life force itself. It all can begin with a simple breath of intention to love oneself, first, and then another reciprocally.

My prayer for all of us, as we go into this new year, is to know the power and love of the Divine, and allow the Divine to fill our hearts with each beat and breath of authentic being.

Christmas light is everywhere

Cleave the wood, I am there.
Lift the stone, and thou shalt find me. 

Gospel of Thomas, verse 77

It's not science fiction.  While it may seem like a new idea, it's as ancient as the craggy rocks and the water flowing around them, or the soft luminescence of the tree branches lingering vibrantly over it all.  

It is the light of the life force itself that's everywhere.  It is the light of life. It may seem illusive to us as we run madly through our lives chasing and playing this huge collective global board game of economics, politics, poverty and wealth, sickness and health. All that is not real, really. We are so heavily invested in it, controlled by it with all its rules, all about who's winning and who's losing and what that means and what that feels like.  It is indeed the Matrix.

What is real is this effusive, luminescent life force, so subtle to our blind vision that we rarely see it.

Yet, it is there, spread out before us, if only we had eyes to see. If it is there to see in nature, certainly it is there in us and it would flow through our creations - even this tired old board game.  It is everywhere, whether or not we stop to take notice. It is our power source and it is something I don't dare frame within any religious language.  It is life, simply.  It flows where it wills, but it seems that it flows where it is least impeded.  

Why don't we see it? Why does it seem only visible under a microscope or special lighting arrangements to heighten it? I think it's because we're not looking.  The power of human consciousness is so strong - if only we all knew that - that it can amplify what we perceive only faintly.  While it may be able - according to a lot of scientific studies - to make a plant grow larger and heal someone of an illness, it is relatively not acknowledged in ordinary life, and rarely if ever in the mainline media.

How can we see it?  I think we need to cultivate a sensitivity to life itself a bit more, slow down our minds just a bit. Turn off the loud voices, noise and demands of our outer world, and adjust our minds to the silence within. Eventually that silence becomes more alive than what's outside of us. 

I used to hike a beautiful natural five-mile stretch along a creek. I would block out a couple hours and head out on it. In a short while all the thoughts of work and the kids and all the ordinary things in my life would slowly pass out of my mind. Gradually, I began to hear the birds, frogs. A spectacular sight of a beautiful blue heron sweeping above would hawk his annoyance at me being there.  Suddenly everything burst into life.  It had always been there, but I hadn't.   

My mind had been on everything else. When I realized I'd stepped into a beautiful symphony of song and dance, of absolute beauty, then I could see the luminescence of the tree branches. I brushed one long branch that hung out over the trail, lovingly, and acknowledged it. Suddenly, it seemed like all the other branches wanted the same acknowledgement. There was no doubt there was a pervasive consciousness to all this. 

And, then I saw it.  I saw their light.  It came as I began to feel so much love for all of them, for the birds, the heron, the frogs, the clear water of the creek, the rocks and pebbles, the trees.  It was beyond beautiful.

Then, a car drove by on the bridge where I was standing watching the heron.  It sounded like a thunderous clap of horses' hooves.  Everything went silent.  It seemed like this beautiful, vibrant world that I had been in, screeched to a halt as it held its breath at the loud intrusion of a single car crossing the bridge. I was surprised at how loud an ordinary car, driving across a bridge, could sound. 

Then, after it left, slowly one by one the birds returned to their chirping and singing. Life at the creek came back alive, the tree branches began conversing with me again and there was light everywhere.  As I slowly started back on the trail, I wished I had wings on my feet because even the sound of my sneakers, as lightly as I walked, sounded loud. Wonderfully and awesomely, I had made friends with the life around me, and they continued to teach me all about it.  

When I finally got home, I was ecstatic.  It all had been so beautiful, so powerful, so alive, so radiant and so wonderful. That is the light of life.  And, this light is in us and in our lives also, if we can only listen for it by softening our noisy imprints in life.

Recently, at work, I was feeling a bit badly about something related to one of our disabled people. I really just wanted to cry. When a coworker, who noticed, said something sweet to me, I literally felt her words.  I physically felt the light and life in them.  It was simple, but I was stunned and absolutely delighted when I saw light in her words. I knew in our words of kindness and positive intention, like the beautiful life along the creek, is life also.  

I think another example of seeing life's light is what happens when we turn off the lights.  At first we can't see anything in the dark, but slowly our eyes adjust and soon we can literally see in the dark.  I think the "Kingdom of God," is found like that. It is an inner realm of life that is there all along, but when we're focused on everything else, we miss it.  I truly think Jesus came to help us focus our eyes in the dark to see the light that is always there - in us and around us.  We just have to tune in, I guess.