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LOTUS OF THE HEART
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
I know one in Christ who was taken up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. I don't know if he was in or out of his body when it happened; God knows. ... He heard things no one is to speak of.
*Christian Scripture, II Corinthians 12.2ff
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A townswoman came to the Sage disheartened. She had shared over the years, with others of her church and family, of experiences received in the Silence. She told the Sage, "I've never sought these revelations. I prefer not to receive them, but they come and have since childhood." The Sage told her a story, hoping this would encourage her.
One day, Eyes said, “I see beyond these valleys a mountain veiled with blue mist. Isn't it beautiful?” Ears listened for a time, saying, “But where is a mountain? I don't hear it.” Hands spoke; it said, “I'm trying in vain to feel it or touch it, and I can't find a mountain.” Nose said, “There's not a mountain, I can't smell it.”
Then, Eyes turned the other way. The rest of the Sense family began to talk together about Eye's strange delusion. They agreed, “Something must be wrong with Eyes.”
Said the Sage, "While you need to discern as to what you experience, as to whether it's fantasy or Spirit-given, never doubt an experience solely for it doesn't fit what others consider normal."
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Some persons are more sensitive than others to spiritual matters that do not fit the norm. These experiences are post-conventional, to which most persons are not receptive. I suggest no one should seek these experiences, but they arise for many. Persons are wise to divulge with caution what they receive outside the norm, as the following tale illustrates.
A man enjoyed singing. His best friend was his pig. So, because he enjoyed singing, he wanted the pig to sing, thinking the pig would enjoy singing too. After trying day after day to teach the pig to sing, the pig was still looking at him with vacant eyes. The men at the pub asked him one day, "Did you ever teach that pig to sing?" "No," he said, "I learned an important lesson." "What's that?" someone asked. "I learned trying to teach a pig to sing wastes both the pig's time and my time."
Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from the Spirit. Such persons do not understand them, and to them they are nonsense, for their value can be judged only by inner sensitivity to what is and is not of the Spirit.
*Christian Scripture, I Corinthians 2.14
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©️ Brian Wilcox, 2020
*Brian can be contacted at briankwilcox@gmx.com; his book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, is available through major online booksellers, including Amazon and Books-A-Million, or via the publisher, AuthorHouse.
*Story of Eyes seeing a mountain, adapted from Kahlil Gibran. The Complete Works of Kahlil Gibran.
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