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'The Kennebec River - Bath, ME'
We live in one of two ways. First, we live conscious of Spirit - "awake." Or, we live unconscious - "asleep."
J. David Muyskens, tells the following in his book on spiritual contemplation, Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God -
One summer my wife, Donna, and I visited a cousin and her husband in Gig Harbor, Washington. We stayed overnight with them. In the morning we expressed a desire to drive to Mount Rainier, which was visible from our cousin's kitchen window on this clear morning. Often cloudy in that region, many days the mountain is not seen. My cousin encouraged us in our plans for the day. She looked out the window and said, "Today the mountain is out."
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The mountain is always present. But do we see the mountain? We can miss the mountain in three ways.
1) The mountain is covered with fog, or mist, or clouds.
Here is our inability to see - "see" meaning "awareness of, sensing, realization, the experience of." We could as well say the eyes are covered with fog, or mist, or clouds. This incapacity concerns the accumulation of debris, which desensitizes the heart to Presence's presence. The threat is through neglect of the inner life, one can become totally numb to Spirit; then, the mountain is of no practical concern, and this may be an unconscious slumber wherein one is anesthetized to Light.
2) We do not look to see.
Seeing begins with looking. Here, we ignore subtle Spirit, like a person not seeing the mountain on a sunny, clear day, for she is not looking to see the mountain. The more we ignore the mountain, the less capability and inclination we have to see; the more we attend to the mountain, the more potential and desire we have to see.
3) One mistakes the image of the mountain for the mountain.
This is where much religion is, likely most - institutionalized enchantment with what points to the mountain but itself is not the mountain. Why? Partly for leaders supposed to direct others to see the mountain are themselves not seeing the mountain. The apparatus of group faith can replace the living Inspiration that birthed the path. Leaders are then encouraged to sustain the faith like a relic from the past, rather than something living and evolving, ever-creating a new present. Yet, one who realizes Presence communicates that simply through her presence among others, while the realization and communication are ever-fresh.
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A scripture from the Christian Scripture, Ephesians 5.13-14 (ESV), reads -
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
This "awake" is conscious realization. To walk in the Light consciously, so aware of the Light, is the Way. One sees the mountain and knows she sees the mountain; she lives with a sense of the mountain. Wherever she goes, the mountain is; wherever the mountain is, she goes. Sometimes the mountain seems to manifest within her, sometimes outside her, and sometimes both. Can one say where she ends and the mountain begins? Can one even say "mountain" unless, also, saying "she"?
"Sleeper" - this can be rendered "dead one," "sleep" being a metaphor of death in first-century Palestine - and "from the dead" indicates a lostness to Grace - though Grace is never lost in Itself. One may frequent a worship group, confess a religion, affirm a creed, engage in daily acts of goodness and devotion; yet, she has lost this awareness of pervasive Grace. If she falls asleep, there is likely little in her surroundings to encourage her to wake back up - especially seeing most are asleep too, and the asleep cannot be instrumental in waking up those asleep. She may find, indeed, the faith community she associates with helps her stay asleep, without her knowing she is asleep.
This sleeping is widespread. Sufi Kabir Helminski, in The Knowing Heart, speaks of the consequent dividedness within ourselves. Sleeping, we lose the Center. We are thrown about by changing wishes and circumstances.
What distinguishes psychological polytheism from monotheism is not its willingness to admit diversity; rather, it is that polytheism has no center. Polytheism is a not an uncommon state in the modern world, an unconscious and chaotic idolatry of appearances, a fragmentation and disintegration of the psyche, which is a living hell. It is the state of the one whose identity is always shifting, a dissociation of voices and images absorbed from the mass media, an identity without integration.
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We can see the inner fragmentation manifests in the outer - religion against religion, political party against political party, race against race, conservatives against liberals and vice versa, ... Inner and outer complement each other, we cannot choose one or the other. If we lose one, we lose both.
To be awakened means a return... to the Center. This harmony brings healing to the inner dividedness, wherein aspects of the mind and affection conflict. This recentering is indicated in Jewish and Christian Scriptures, wherein the Ten Commandments (or, Decalogue; lit. Ten Words) and the Lord's Prayer (or, Our Father) begin with a signifier of Oneness - "I am the Lord, your God" and "Our Father, who..." (see Ex 20.2, Deut 5.6; Gospel of Matthew 6.9, Luke 11.2) . Hence, the moral code in Judaism and prayer in the Jesus teaching flow out of relation with a Center. And Islam, drawing off the Quran's teaching, shares how the "signs" are within all Nature, signifying the Source. Recognizing the signs, we practice "remembrance" of God, or the Center. Through remembrance - and all spiritual practice is remembrance -, we deepen our friendship with Spirit.
"Christ will shine on you" is this awakening to the mountain. "Christ" is not only Jesus; "Christ" is the Divine's ongoing manifestation of Itself before, during, and after the historical man Jesus. The one asleep does not awaken herself. The mountain awakens one to the mountain; for this to occur, that of the mountain must be within the one the mountain awakens. The Light awakens one to the Light. Awakened, one deepens this sense of Presence through inner nurture, moral living, and compassionate kindness. As a result of this, the sensitivity increases. In this sense, the Light awakening us is a process, and we may have moments in which we experience sudden shifts in our intimacy with or insight into the Way.
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Ironically, one becomes sensitive enough to sense Presence in absence. Before, absence felt like an absence of Presence. Now, the absence is simply one way Presence appears in our world. Due to this mature shift, one no longer tries to regenerate repeatedly a sense of Presence; instead, one experiences Presence equally in the passing states of thought and feeling. Presence becomes the one constant amid these changes. We are awake; we do not go back to sleep, while we keep being roused to an ever-more subtle intimacy with Spirit.
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Last, one need not equate being conscious of Spirit as being conscious of Spirit as an object other than oneself. Yet, we begin in this duality. We grow to a maturity wherein to be conscious is to be conscious of Spirit; or, better, there is no separation between the consciousness of and Spirit.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
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