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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 – Inspirations for Living – Love, Joy, Peace.
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Enter this sanctuary time by becoming still and quiet, and breathing deeply. Remind yourself you are in the Presence of Love. This place you are entering, within, is the inner Temple, where you are One with God. You may wish to use a mantra, or prayer phrase, follow the breath in-and-out, or witness the rising and falling of all around you as the manifestation of universal-God. Enjoy these moments of quiet centering and come out when you are ready.
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I knelt, quivering temple
made from love of woman and man
in impassioned intercourse ...
hungry for Flesh
panting for Blood
Incarnation of God my meal
Spirit unfurled for human taste
Priest placed upon ecstatic tongue
a sinewy Form alike this world
Light exploding in my heart
as soon as came, so soon did depart
Sensuous veils, landscapes hiding secrets
underground, eyes cannot bear to look upon,
the mind cannot fathom to unfurl in sound
Still, veils, the pleasures and delights
of sensate sacramentals do please, and such
morsels of sweet sensations thrill the soul
and unite us as One with God
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox. April 16, 2010.
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We have ups and downs, and often we seek to get up by a high. This “high” is a dose of pleasure to stimulate us physically, to lift ourselves up, we say. Being rightly high and helping ourselves to be uplifted, or helping another like this, is in itself a healthy thing. Yet, we know not all getting high is beneficial. Even some "spiritual" highs may serve to uplift us but fail us later. Indeed, any quick high spiritually should be examined with care as to its wisdom.
In 1994 Gene Sloan, in USA Today, wrote undercover agents for the Arizona Department of Fish and Game arrested several persons for toad licking. Yes, toad licking. The violators had in possession the Colorado River toad. This toad deters predators by secreting a milky white substance. The secretion has a powerful drug classified as psychoactive under Arizona law. Persons get high by licking the toad or smoking the dried secretion. Yet, the drug, while giving a high, is known to be poisonous and dangerous.
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The spiritual Path guides us into a wise use of our senses. What we may see as restrictive, may be a wise guidance to avoid a high that might not be best for us. Therefore, the aim of purity is not about primarily obedience or morality, purity is about wisdom – a wise, beneficial use of our senses.
Being sensual beings, pleasure and meaning can coexist. The issue is not about avoiding pleasure, as though desire is inherently wrong. Purity is about wisely choosing the pleasures that will uplift us and, also, through sharing with others, form healthy bonds of friendship and fellowship, and join us as One with God.
What role does sensuality play in your spiritual Life? What are some wise pleasures you enjoy? Do you engage in some wise pleasures that help you bond in fellowship with another? Others? Or there pleasures you need to let go of? Do you need more wise, healthy pleasure in your life? How might you proceed to enjoy more beneficial pleasure?
©Brian Wilcox, and OneLife Ministries. 04/16/2010
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life, as an Associate of Greenbough House of Prayer.
*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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