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Wisdom Story
A frustrated Monk spoke to his Director, “Father, I have heard you say that we are always one with God, but I often don’t feel one with God.” The Director replied, “Well, I never told you that we will always feel one with God. I said we are one with God.”
Comments
Jesus told his disciples of his oneness with his Father. Not once, however, does the Gospel have Jesus speaking of feeling one with his Father in an emotional sense.
Jesus spoke of the prior Union of all affections of union, with God or any creature, or with Nature generally. He told of the Fact of oneness with the Divine, not an emotional sensation of oneness. Jesus was making an ontological, not a psychological affirmation, when he spoke of his union with his Father.
Part of our spiritual evolution is the purging of reliance on all human faculties in experiencing union with the Divine Ground. The most difficult such training in nonreliance regards the faculty of emotional feeling, likely, for most of us.
You might wish to reply, "But does that mean I will not feel union?" Well, sometimes you might feel a disunion; that is, your bodily emotions will not communicate positively a sense of union. Yet, this same emotional fact applies to any relationship of union.
Fortunately, and usually, there is a sense of union that is other than emotional feeling. The contemplative, or mystic, develops a spiritual sense of union that is inward and bodily, but the sense is not affective in a purely psychological sense. This is a spiritual sensation of oneness. The spiritualization of the consciousness is more like an atmosphere in which one lives than any particular emotion.
After a time of contemplative training, you will learn to sense the Divine in all states of affect. This is because consciousness has been transformed and the sense of the union is arising from the Center, or True Self, or spirit,~the pneuma~, and not the mind~the psyche~, or body~the soma.
Spiritual Exercise
(1) Complete the following...
When I think of being one with God, I ...
(2) Breath Prayer...
Breathing in: I enjoy oneness
Breathing out: With you, God
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