Strangeness & Strangers No More ~ On Spontaneous Recognition
May 24, 2019
Saying For Today: In the Silence we see Heart-with-Heart, and find there is only one Heart seeing itself.
*Brian Wilcox. 'A Gathering of Friends'. Flickr
Saying for Today: In the Silence we see Heart-with-Heart, and find there is only one Heart seeing itself.
Strange from Latin extraneus, "strange, external.".
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There are no "its" in a world diffused with Silence; there is only the holiness of the "thou."
*Robert Sardello. Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness.
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Meeting a stranger means one believes the other is other, so external to himself or herself. What happens when one realizes he lives within everyone, and everyone within him or her, that all live as an absolute Intimacy?
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An interesting scripture in the Jewish Scriptures is in I Samuel. Samuel, a prophet, is sent to affirm whom among the sons of Jesse is to be king of the Hebrew tribes, to replace the first king Saul. He sees Eliab and assumes this is surely the one.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse's son Eliab and thought to himself, "This man standing here in the the Lord's presence is surely the one the Lord has chosen." But the Lord spoke to him, "Do not attend to how tall and handsome he is. I have rejected him, for I do not discern as people discern. They look at the outward appearance, I look at the heart.
From the Silence one sees others differently. Not only does this allow spontaneous recognition of the natural self, which means insight into the hidden character of the other ~ that is, the shadow of the other. This recognition, seeing through and before the personality, recognizes the oneness of the other with himself or herself. This in-sight is free of projection, whereas the ego sees through projection of self traits into the other. The ego knows by appearance, and unity can never be cultivated or sustained by appearance. Love, within appearance, will always be limited and blocked from freely expressing itself. In appearance, we live among those we call those we are familiar with and all others are strangers, for the ego is within time, so within memory. Spirit, free of time knows free of memory, so knows immediately. In the Silence we see Heart-with-Heart, and find there is only one Heart seeing itself.
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Of central importance is the Mystery within the other. I would agree with the late Thomas Merton of our need to respect that in the other we cannot know, have no access to. While we recognize the other intimately, in unity with ourselves, there is a depth of Being we cannot penetrate with the mind. The Heart recognizes this, but, still, this depth remains a Mystery and cannot be otherwise. We could call this the inner sanctum, and this is known only in Love, not by mind. This is the same depth within everyone, and one, as embodied being, can only bow in reverence before this sublime Nothingness, an absolute Holiness that can be adored and worshiped, never known. We could say, this depth is known only in the unknowing of Love. This is the Heart, which knows only itself in the myriad display of forms, seen and unseen, each arising from Spirit and returning to Spirit.
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today, again, going out, going about walking through this town stopping here and there talking to her and him about this and that
why?
do I need a why? why step out of the spontaneity seeking causes and conditions for the naturalness of Love communing with Love?
what surprises me, however, is I once met many strangers
out and about
now, no one is strange, so no one is a stranger
I must be seeing through the eyes of Love
or is it Love is seeing through my eyes?
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When I began as a clergyperson as a teenager, I recall going into a church building I was to be visiting speaker in for the Sunday. This memory keeps returning to me, from the past. I had never been at this church community. I walked toward the altar, center aisle, rows of pews to left and right. I sat on the front pew, next to the aisle. There I waited for someone to come to me. I was shy. Had spent most of my life alone, being in a deep rural community, with no neighbors close. I had learned to be with myself, not with others. I had not learned skills of social concourse. I had a natural affection for persons, but did not know how to reach out and meet them, unless I already knew them, had history with them. For decades I lived in a world of strangers, with strange ones everywhere. I got better at interacting with others, including 'strangers.' Then, the strangers and strangeness was gone. I do not recall how it went, or when it was gone. I assume, partly, it was transformed into loving through decades of intense spiritual work, where I practiced with intent to become a more compassionate being on Earth, to live out a consciousness of unity with others.
The Fire of Grace, a burning flame of Love, burns away separation and, with it, the illusion of strangeness, so strangers. Thankfully, I no longer live in a world filled with strangers. When I meet someone, there is no sense of time, no need for a history with him or her; Grace, and with it, spontaneous recognition is present, eternally so.
This like with the young man with the camera, standing beside the road taking pictures. I drove next to him, we talked about cameras, about life in Maine, and shared what the early Christian community called koinonia, "fellowship, partnership, togetherness." This fellowship has different depths, part of our experience with Silence in silence and among others is the exploration of these depths. Then, these depths condition us to surrender to a more indepth experience of koinonia, so of Love. We, then, find the spontaneous recognition is arising out of the Love within Silence, is Silence reaching out to the Silence within the other, Love attracting to Love, mutually.
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This Gracefulness is mirrored in the Buddhist term bodhichitta, or "awakened mind, heart." The heart of bodhichitta naturally seeks the well-being of other beings. Awakened from the illusion of separation in time, this mind, or heart, arises from the timeless spaciousness wherein compassion goes forth to be and inspire peace within and among others. In bodhichitta no one is a stranger, no one strange, for each other is not other, but oneself. Other arises as the play of Grace, yet is experienced as a relative display of the absolute, living Mystery from which the play of energies in realms arise from. Every other is Buddha, is Christ, most deeply the Holy One. A spiritual path is to awaken this natural, spontaneous unity, and with it insight and compassion.
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may all beings feel loved and freely loving may their suffering be transformed into bliss and grace given to alleviate the suffering of others that all may live in the fullness of love, joy, and peace. Amen ~ We say joyfully It is so!
*William O'Brien Fine Art. 'Peace'. Flickr
(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2019. Brian can be contacted at 77ahavah77@gmail.com .
