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This is much like being with someone. If you go to share with the person, you do not go to have a non-experience. Yet, to be receptive means openness for the experience that arises spontaneously, freely through the sharing itself. This is how we relate with Life, with open arms, and this adds a sense of curiosity which is not present if we seek to manage our life or Life Itself.
We may wisely decide to be decisive in generation of an experience, for we are led within by the Divine or through the context itself, to be assertive in this manner. Yet, the particular quality of manifestation of such experience is left to manifest itself freely, not our pushing both for the experience and the specific quality of it.
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The Christian Scripture says, "Do not quench the spirit (or, Spirit)." Here, we can see this occurring when using passivity, using surrender, as an escape from action. Surrender is not merely surrender to wait, but to act, to co-create as part of the Totality in which we live together. So, we can passively, even claiming we are waiting on the Divine, or through refusing the inner promptings, put the fire of Spirit out. So, we prayerfully seek balance, the being passive with openness to act, even sometimes with surprising assertiveness, to be faithful to what Life offers us or summons of us. Here, we move beyond the duality of passive or active, to passive and active, yet the action flowing from the receptivity to Life, to Grace, and the action flowing into the surrender to Life, to Grace.
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I often go outside to engage a receptivity posture, usually in the night. I open my arms to welcome the sense of Presence, yet not trying to manifest it. Simply being open invites the coming of a sense of Presence, subtle but palpable, not forced, received, embraced in quietness.
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We can be with Spirit without clinging to a name for or belief about God. We do not reject words or beliefs. We, simply, do not idolize them anymore or confuse them with trust. Also, we can enjoy a union with Grace that does not have to have a particular experience of Grace. We learn the bliss of resting in God beyond “God.” We have no way of speaking of this accurately; one must, ironically, experience this non-experience.
So, note what John of the Cross calls this night of spirit: passive night of the spirit. Passive means that this process of having our reliance on spiritual words, images, experiences, … transformed is something done for us. And such a process is not the rebellion against religion that many go through. Such rebellion, generally, is an emotional reaction, as all rebellion is more emotional than rational. Rather, the passive dark night happens as consequence of our relating with the Divine in ongoing love and receptivity to divine Grace.
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The Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in Journey without a Goal, from a nontheistic perspective speaks of a like idea: Crazy Wisdom. Here, one passively, but fully awake and present, is part of the spontaneity of the environment, not trying to manage the energies of life...
So crazy wisdom is absolute perceptiveness, with fearlessness and bluntness. Fundamentally, it is being wise but not holding to particular doctrines or disciplines or formats. There aren’t any books to follow. Rather, there is endless spontaneity taking place. There is room for being blunt, room for being open. That openness is created by the environment itself. In fact, at the level of crazy wisdom, all activity is created by the environment. The crazy wisdom person is just an activator, just one of the conditions that have evolved in the environment.
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