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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
This writing is a special edition and dedicated as a New Year's Gift 2010 to my dear Soul Companion, Bodhi. Thanks for All!
SPIRITUAL TEACHING
Most religious and spiritual teaching is like persons closed up in a jar of marbles, debating, researching, creedalizing, and preaching varied theories of the content of the marbles in the jar; all this while those inside act totally unawares of the immense Cosmos pulsating with liveliness and mystery outside that one little jar. Wars have been fought, persons killed, and creeds imposed on myriads – what for? - a jar of marbles. Yet, there is a divinely playful means to appreciate the marbles, the jar, and the immensity of the Universe. One way – Do not take what you believe too seriously. Allow sufficient doubt to dance in tune with the symphony of faith. And, likewise, never think you have the only version of Truth. Enjoy the Mystery!
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox
This writing is a meditation exercise, an invitation in verse to the use of language to transcend and encompass experience in a loving communion with Mystery. The intent is to integrate content in such a way to allow the slow meditative reading to usher one into a mystical experience of unknowing. Such linguistic devices as repetition and paradox are used as means of movement from mind to mind-less; a trajectory from ego to egoless absorption in appreciative, playful Joy. Reading this poetic practice requires slow, mindful reading. The meditator may find himself or herself needing to stop to experience only silence or seeking prayerful insight along the way. The reader need not feel the need to complete the poem at one time, but may experience it piece by piece. Likewise, putting it in audio first and, then, listening to it with eyes closed might prove helpful.
A Meditation Reading on Mystery
Soul
Mystery
God
Christ
Love
Grace ...
What do these mean?
Being mystical, contemplative, I feel a meaning for each,
But each escapes when I try to understand with my mind.
I play with the enigma, the paradox, and sense deeply the Truth:
I guess this is a reason I feel one with others who see these truths differently.
I guess this is a reason that mystics are always World Lovers,
Even while they struggle to fit in the necessities of particularity
I am amazed at how these men and women can love everyone, so truly,
And love their own particular contexts of meanings, also.
I am sure they suffer much, living this inner paradox,
And I appreciate them for doing that for me
Mystics are few in number,
But they remind me of a Larger Truth,
And the Love that seeks to wed Eternity with Time,
Including all, excluding none.
What Great Love!
I need to rejoice in this universal feeling in me, too -
Though I do not claim, here, to be a mystic, except as all have some mystical inside -
And honor that the feeling of these truths shows
My heart is being attuned to Love
I wonder what the world would be like,
If we would cease trying to figure out these truths,
And feel them from many different directions, based
On differences in culture, language, symbols, scriptures, sacred tales, parables, …
In the Knowing of the Heart,
All wars would cease
All religions become non-harming expressions of Grace
And humans respectful of Nature and its gifts to us
Christ would delight in this.
Am I willing to give up my religious prejudices to delight Christ
And better the world I live in?
Today
I choose Mystery, honoring the mystical in everyone,
To reflect on
And I will see where that leads
So, …
I need to reflect daily on something
I cannot understand
This keeps me from getting too intellectually confident
Reminds me I don’t know as much as I sometimes think
Keeps the Window of Mystery Open
With the Wind blowing in
Having faith
I do not have to fear Mystery
I can enjoy the Not-knowing
Knowing the Joy of That Knowing
So, what is Mystery?
Is it one thing?
Is it many things?
I sense it is No-thing.
I sense it, now, and envision Mystery
An Ocean I am submerged in and
Surrounding me; I am like an infant, curled up, resting in a Womb,
Being formed There
This Womb is my Father, my Mother, Life, Love, Everything, Nothingness
I sense Mystery, as peace, as strength, as being part of a Wholeness of
Compassion and Care
I sense others are there with me, too, though, right now
I see only myself, caressed in this Bliss of Infinite, Life-Giving Energy
I pause and ponder this scene
With my eyes closed
And heart open
I smile
Breathing gently
I feel This
What does this Mystery feel like?
Calming? Peaceful? Connection? Universal Mother? Heavenly Father? Protector?
Baffling? Disturbing? Threatening?
Whatever I feel
That is okay
I feel it
Offering it to that Universal Source
Even my feeling of Mystery is part of Mystery
To attune myself to this Mystery
I do not have to understand it
I can befriend It, today, by
Befriending the world
Befriending God
Befriending others
Befriending my Friend
Befriending myself
Through this befriending
Mystery shows Her face
So, today, again
I rest in Un-knowing
I experience Mystery
Moment-to-moment
In memory
In the present
In anticipation
All happening Now! Here! Wow!
Sometimes This makes me laugh
At other times I am stunned speechless
Sometimes I cry
This is more than a belief
This is an experience I sense, feel, live, receive from, give to;
more like a Love Affair than a lecture
like electromagnetic energy
like a beautiful poem
like a great work of art
like a beautiful dance
like a bud pulled out by the Sun into flower
like two lovers with hearts beating wildly in embrace
like Joy!
This Creator, Who is Mystery,
Is Create-ing me
This Love, Who is Mystery,
Is Love-ing me
This Christ, Who is Mystery,
Is Christ-ing me
Mystery!
Mystery-ing knowing out of me
Thus, I enter more deeply faith, trust, self-abandonment to His Plan, Her Will
I never dreamed I could be loved like this! Love like this!
I AM a creature of Grace!
I see God in everyone!
I cannot keep silent about this-
Though many dare not tell,
Fearing those who “know”
But, then, the mystics always know more
Than most are ready to hear.
So, every mystic, Heart Knower, holds
Sensations of meaning in the treasurer chest for later
I meet this Mystery I call by many Names
In every nuance of the Present
I come to appreciate more, today,
That Truth leads me to awe
So, I will enjoy this Mystery, honoring Her, Loving Him
Knowing intuitively that Voice speaks
From the edges of the known
Echoes from eons ago
Cradling every Creature of Nature in Grace
Always a little out of reach, Now
Knowing this
Another part of me is touched
That would not be touched if I understood Truth
So, I know, through my soul
I am attuned to heavenly realities
And I will hear more when I
Am attuned to hear more
I will sense more when I
Am attuned to sense more
I will feel more when I
Am attuned to feel more
And, continuing in Prayer and Meditation, daily,
I become more attuned to this Other World Lover
Which holds this world, and everyone: Eternal Life!
I discover and feel, at a level deeper and broader than Mind,
With what the mystics refer to as Heart
A Mystery I call
Love
And, from this Abyss of Not-Knowing, Wisdom speaks
“Brian, I Love You,”
And, I say
“Friend, I Love You, too”
So, I will live today
Gratefully
For this world is my friend, too
“Thank You!”
“YOU ARE BLESSED!” I SAY
©OneLife Ministries, Jan 3, 2010
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. While within the Christian path, he is an ecumenical-interspiritual teacher, author, and chaplain. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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