Saying For Today: If a person lives a meaningless life, that is for he or she is living apart from life, merely as a biological organism, regardless of how presented well. By touching life anywhere, with anyone, at any moment, there is fullness of life.
LOTUS OF THE HEART
Everyone is Welcome Here
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
Heaven is nothing other than an unveiling of the Eternal One, where everything works and wills in silent love.
*Jacob Boehme. German Christian Mystic. 1575-1624.
The following parable is from Anthony De Mello. The Way to Love. De Mello had begun the meditation with a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, words attributed to Jesus. The passage reads: "For what would it profit a person, if he or she gains the whole world and forfeits his or her life." Now, the parable, and I think you can see the connection between it and the Gospel passage, and that this is not specifically about religion at all, but life.
A group of tourists sits in a bus that is passing through gorgeously beautiful country; lakes and mountains and green fields and rivers. But the shades of the bus are pulled down. They do not have the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus. And all the time of their journey is spent in squabbling over who will have the seat of honor in the bus, who will be applauded, who will be well considered. And so they remain till the journey's end.
We choose life, or not. Life remains, yet, we are drawn to life by choosing life. Grace means life drawing us to itself, before we choose life. No one can impose it upon us, and life does not impose itself on us. Daily, we choose, or not, life.
We do not mean life as succession of events, which is what most persons mean when referring to "life," "my life," or "our lives." I mean life. Yet, life is amidst the details of life, or the moments, persons, and places finding a place in the spaciousness of life. So, we do not ascribe to a wisdom path that negates the goodness of such things and persons.
Life itself - which is 'God,' which is 'Heaven' ... - leads us to a new, fresh, born again - if you wish -, relationship with everyone and everything. Says St. Paul in the Christian writing I Corinthians 5.17, "If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation, old things have passed away, all is fresh." Everything, in Love, is and is becoming fresh. This freshness is heaven, or heaven is timelessly fresh. And Christ is related to, but more than Jesus, long ago. So, life itself is not only present to persons who know intellectually a belief in or about Jesus. Life is timelessly present, and in time prior to Jesus. I say these things simply to point out that this is not about anyone having to avow Christian faith to know Christ and, likewise, enjoy life.
We find, then, the urgency to turn from petty distractions or clamoring for things and relationships that do not lead us more fully, deeply into life. There is nothing wrong with dissociating even from persons who are not attuned to the way of life, even if you still have to be around them, at times. No, you are here to live life in its timeless freshness. We, furthermore, may feel a desire to let go of many good things or good relationships to live more fully with life. I once knew a dear man, a husband, who left a good job for that was what he sensed life was asking of him. Thankfully, his spouse blessed his choice. Unlike persons in the parable above, we do not want to miss the heaven all around us.
You find there is no meaning to seek apart from life, life is the meaning of life. If a person lives a meaningless life, that is for he or she is living apart from life, merely as a biological organism, regardless of how presented well. By touching life anywhere, with anyone, at any moment, there is fullness of life. Long again penned the lyricist of his intimacy with his 'God':
You make know to me the path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy, close to you are pleasures on and on.
