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LOTUS OF THE HEART
An Interspiritual-Interfaith Work
of The Lotus Fellowship and
Brian K. Wilcox
Brian K. Wilcox, a vowed Contemplative, offers an interspiritual work focusing on cultivating the Heart of Compassion. His book of mystical Love poetry is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. Brian integrates wisdom from the major spiritual Paths. May you always know that you are blessed!
*Christ the Redeemer in Rio..., Carlos Eduardo, Flickr
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In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
*Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
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Likely, we have each had a moment when the socialized barriers that appear to divide us, that tell us we are separate, disappear. Likely, then, there is a sudden shift back into a separative sense of Awareness.
Our natural mental habitat is Oneness, is Union. We do not become One, we are One. We do not evolve into Union, we are Union.
We, however, have been well-trained in mental ideas and bodily sensations of separation. The spiritual Path we take challenges this perception and experience, when It leads us beyond the thoughts and experiences of separation. See, Oneness is not in Itself a thought or experience, and this is why this Truth is True regardless of what you do or do not know or experience.
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One could inquire, "If we are One, then are we the same?" Somehow, Oneness manifests as Many, each bearing the being of Total Being in a unique manner. This division into Many does not mean separation: Oneness by Nature cannot be other than Oneness. We are not separate, only different.
Merton realized This in Louisville; he felt This Truth. Though of English descent and a Catholic monk, he realized such difference did not annul the Union of Love-We-Are.
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We can find edifying ways to honor our differences, knowing our differences are expressions of One Radiance. This can, likewise, inspire us to honor the differences among those who appear unlike us, as well as what makes us appear unique. With such deeply-felt respect, we can know Love and Compassion in ever-deepening Depths of Gratitude.
I see the Christ embodying this Union-of-Love in the Creative Presence. Christ shows us we are all living from and within and as the Radiance-of-One. Christ witnesses as Love to Love, for we are all One-Love. Christ encourages us to see in Christ, and each person, what is True of us all as Incarnations of Divine Presence.
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Yes, each of us shines like the Sun, regardless of the measure to which we truly know that to be True. And we can affirm this Truth, as we evolve to Know it more and more.
Take some time, when among others, consciously to remind yourself, as you see each person, that he or she shines with the Light of the One Sun.
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