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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. I hope persons of varied wisdom paths will find inspiration here.
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Teacher, Author
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is OneLife Ministries A Contemplative Interspiritual Fellowship.
Todays Story
A disciple goes to his Spiritual Teacher. The disciple asks, "Teacher, how may I find God?" The Teacher replies, "Would you please just be quiet?!"
*Story by Brian Kenneth Wilcox
Wisdom Quotes
Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them.
*Henry David Thoreau (b. 1817)
You have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until finding rest in You.
*St. Augustine (b. 500 BCE)
All men's miseries result from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
*Blaise Pascal (b. 1663)
Contemplative Musings
Imagine that you have a radio. You have that radio on. A number of stations are coming through. You are trying to listen to all the stations at once; so, you find yourself really moving from one to the other in haste. While you are listening to one station, you are thinking of the next station. While you are listening to one station, you think about the last station. You do that, day after day, month after month, and year after year. Would you call that sanity? Or insanity?
Now, imagine someone comes to you and says there is a better way to listen to the radio, and a more efficient way. "What, you mean I can let go of this jumping from station to station?" Yes. Would that discovery relieve you? Obviously.
Then, why do many ignore the greatest spiritual teachers? These men and women have consistently said this: Noise is a horrible master, and haste kills love of Life. They teach that we cannot even have intimacy with life or God, or ourselves, unless we grow a relationship with inner solitude, faithful living in the moment, and openness to the Sacrament of Grace in all things.
Habitual unquiet is resistance to quiet. I do not simply speak of an outer quietness; we can never escape outer noise. I speak, principally, of inner quiet. That quiet has within itself, indeed is, an inner sanctuary of presence, a faithful abiding in the atmosphere of Graceful Spirit: mysterious and enlivening. Here we meet God, to meet God everywhere else.
And what is mystical spirituality if it is the rushing addition of one spiritual practice onto another, one workshop to another, one book to another ... thereby avoiding the efficacy of any one means of Grace by thinking the next or more will somehow be better than the holy poverty and genuine intimacy of one time-proven practice? The false self focused on itself, what St. Paul called flesh, will gladly add spiritual busyness to a busy agenda, in avoidance of surrendering its life to the Life of Divinity.
How shall I hear what matters most if I cannot close my ears and mind to what matters less? When I cease fleeing the Silence, I cease fleeing from God. Then, in intimacy with Christ, I discover True Life, Intimate Love, Joyful Being, and Peaceful Gratitude.
Suggested Exercise
I invite you to adapt the following exercise to your wisdom tradition.
Sit alone for ten minutes. Get in a comfortable sitting posture, with hands folded in your lap; or lie down with hands folded on your chest, stomach, or resting beside you. Close eyes. Say a prayer, like, "Christ, I am here just to enjoy being with You." Breathe naturally. Feel whatever sensations arise bodily. Keep smiling. Listen deeply to sounds. Keep smiling. Resist nothing that arises, cling to nothing that arises. Keep smiling. End the time with a simple, heart-felt, smiling "Thank you" or with the Lord's Prayer, or another prayer of your choice.
©Brian Wilcox, and OneLife Ministries. 10/20/07; Revised Edition 02/26/2010
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*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.
*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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