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Similarly, Pure Love is a more mature form of much that goes as love, the latter seeing another as an object to validate oneself, or to self-reference oneself as another self. With no object, there is only Subject, or no Subject, only Pure Spirit, shining in myriad hues of Grace and Glory.
Thich Nhat Hanh, in No Death, No Fear, gives a striking statement: “Our true liberation is the liberation from notions.” He does not say, “Our true liberation means not to have notions.” Rather, he writes “from notions.”
So, I am not arguing that a person or group cannot have convictions and notions to represent convictions, nor that persons cannot love another person. I am saying that there is an Objectless Reality, which has no direction. When Scripture says, “God is Love,” then, this means, “There is a Love that is Love, that has no direction, no object to define itself.” This is what I mean by Pure Faith and Pure Love, as well as what we can call Pure Conviction (i.e., immediate intuition).
This Purity I write of entails liberation from notions, all notions. This is free, likewise, from the notion of having no notions, which would be another notion. And, in this Purity, we can enjoy a Love that is Love, without regard to any object or direction. Then, we can say, “I love you,” but that “love” will be Love loving; therefore, that Love does not need another to fulfill itself or to treat the other as object. That Love loves out of its own fulfillment as Love Itself.
We can, also, say, “I believe in,” and know a Faith that has no direction, no system which makes it faith, or Pure Faith. I have no evidence to suggests otherwise than that many persons of faith have faithfully transcended the prejudices inhering in all historical faith paths. I believe Jesus Christ transcended historical expressions of faith, even though much of Christianity has denuded Christ of that radical posture of nonattachment, and Christianity can become attached to its own “Christian” faith, forgetting the freedom given in Christ to exercise faith itself.
In contemplation, the test of faith and love is that one no longer can grasp any object, by whatever name, to believe in or express love to, nor does one have access to any notions of belief. Trust and Love, as One, has opened to a union with Objectless Reality. This is a reason I cannot teach contemplation. Our mind seeks contrast, and contrast is at the root of notions of faith and notions of love. Rather, in contemplation all notional differentiations lead to contemplation, and contemplation is a reference to Original Unity, for the basis is none other than this Undifferentiated, Differentiating Source of Life. In Christian terms, this freedom of which I write is from “original sin,” and Buddhists can say from “samsara.” Without differentiations there is no transcendence; however, without differences, no return to unity is possible.
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We could say that everything that leads to harmfulness and war, exploitation and manipulation, degradation and injustice, … arises out of a notional attachment that sets one apart and creates the other as a self absolutely other than oneself. Then, the other, whomever it is, is seen in contrast and comparison with oneself or one’s group, or both, and “gods” and “goddesses” of such divided minds are created to support the agendas of the divided, self-referencing persons and groups.
In contrast to such a divided mind is Pure Faith and Pure Love. With Pure Faith, faith is faith. With Pure Love, love is love.
You might say, “This does not make sense.” Well, this does not make sense to me, either, if I am trying to fit this Love and Faith into a mentality of comparison and contrast.
You might say, “I do not see the connection between this and real life?” Well, look around and see the world as it is based on the attempt to create the sense of True Faith and True Love within systems that are set up to deny such through the means by which they seek to affirm and maintain such. Just look, until you get wearied of seeing what both politics and religion do in the name of “God” or “justice," even in the name of "faith" or "love."
So, every system of notions will, finally, thankfully, die in the ashes of history. That will, finally, be Heaven, Nirvana, the Pure Land, the Kingdom of God fulfilled, … Those systems that can present notions, without clinging to them and allowing them to form as divisive signs that deny the inherent unity of Creation, can thrive into the future and help prepare for a true liberation from the notional.
Therefore, a contemplative is a person, of whatever “worldly” system, which bears within himself, or herself, the calling to live out the fulfillment of times within and through mind, body, and speech. The contemplative, with one foot in time and the other outside time, so to speak, incarnates the Pure Faith and Pure Love that others, caught in notions, long for and pray for.
Why is the contemplative not just another “Gnostic,” or one attached to notions that claim to offer the secret to Life? The contemplative, while living in systems, is free from systems and the notions that support systems. Likewise, the contemplative offers no form of “knowledge” as the secret to Mystery; rather, the contemplative offers the transcendence of knowledge in a unifying, all-embracing Wisdom. This is why contemplation cannot be fundamentalist, conservative, moderate, progressive, or liberal. Neither can the Christian contemplative fit contemplation in Christianity, as though there is a “Christian contemplation,” nor can anyone of any Path fit contemplation in a system, for contemplation pertains to the undifferentiated, differentiating Ground, the Being of every being.
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