|
This is the fourteenth of the series of reflections arising from a month in silence and solitude; the musings invite the reader to explore the Truth for himself or herself. May the writer's reflections be windows to look in, or out, onto the vista of our one Beloved, our deepest, truest Self. Peace! Brian
* * *
The important point is you can do something with your human body because it is more than just your body. You can do it because pure energy is always with you. It’s too close for you to know what it is intellectually, but you can be it. This is our practice.
*Katagiri, Dainin. The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life.
* * *
Sitting on the bench, facing the wall, alone in prayerful Contemplation. Timer sounds. Silent time ends.
After the quietness, surprising, sudden eruption of Joy. Hands and arms ascend into the air, hands begin clapping. Face smiling. Such Joy!
In that little room, facing that wall, hands keep going upward again and again. Laughter again and again. Overflowing bliss! From where is this coming, and so suddenly? What is this signifying?
Getting up, stretching the legs, life continues. Afterward, not much reflection on it. Experiences come, experiences go, like each inbreath and outbreath, like our lives ~ here, gone. Who knows what is next? Enough to be, now and here.
* * *
Who knows what happened? Who ever knows what is happening, anytime? Do we not fit some beautiful happening in something we have been told or experienced before, fitting it in memory, the past? Does this not happen so quickly, we do not notice how we move from the pure energy to dulling it by labeling it this or that?
* * *
This is one of the dangers to spirituality, being hooked into a system, reading all life through what that system gives you. My guru says. My church says. You've just got to read that book, it's a must read, that author is unbelievable. All nonsense, in an absolute sense. Absolute nonsense. In a relative sense, may or may not help you. What you experience as pure energy, cannot pass through thought, be published, be taught, be given by anyone, anywhere. This primordial Grace shows up in positively alarming ways sometimes, we can do nothing to assure how or when. We may go through long seasons, wishing for a single taste of blissful ecstasy. Who knows? No one. We may go through such seasons of being immersed in a sense of loving Presence. Who knows? No one.
Learn to embrace sorrow
look straight at its face and joy will reappear.
All action sways between contraction and expansion
both as important as the opening and closing
of the wings of a bird in flight.
*Rumi. Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit. Trans. Maryam Mafi, Azima Melita Kolin.
* * *
So, the Joy happened in that little room. There was no wishing for it, or pushing for it. Simply being space to receive. There is no way to say it is absolutely Joy either, but we are creatures of words. Simply hold lightly words within your experience and, at times, indeed often, drop them. You will come to a time they drop, without your dropping them. Drop. Drop. Drop. All the time.
* * *
We may feel threatened to receive the energy, in whatever way it arises. And some persons are more afraid of bliss than misery. We can work with simply feeling energy arising. We can practice this, letting the gift, the joy or sorrow, whatever, meet us and our not overlay it with an idea of what the energy is, an idea which itself is a collection of other ideas.
We may think "anger," then drop the idea, simply feel the energy. See how it shifts. Is there anything really there that can be called anything? Or, is the energy always in motion, moving on, subtle form to subtle form? Right there, in that space, that gap, of pure knowing, is Truth, is all you have ever sought for; in time, with patience, we all will see this, if we allow ourselves to receive this blessing of seeing. And a million so-called spiritual experiences are not equal in worth, to yourself or others, your receiving this insight. With this insight, you see the gracelessness of grunting along, laboring, for some particular exalted religious or spiritual experience. You can encourage others and yourself, kindly, in a direct, honest path of learning to receive, to be thankful, to learn the innate capacity to remain open to life, to be life, right here and now in the body.
* * *
So, enjoy the journey. Sit quietly each day. You may choose to take your palms, cup them, place them upward on legs in your sitting as a sign of readiness to receive. You may choose at the end of the time to say "Thank You." You may find yourself, through time and discipline, to be like that bird in the sky, wings opening and closing, in unison with Life.
May you feel calm bliss, always,
amidst pain and pleasure.
May all become sacred,
living inside your Heart.
May quiet confidence accompany you
each step of the Way.
Even if feeling alone,
may you be assured with a sense of
being companioned, always.
Amen.
* * *
*All material, unless another source is cited, is authored by the presenter of Lotus of Heart, Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Florida USA. Use of the material is permitted; Brian only requests that credit be given and to be notified at 77ahavah77@gmail.com .
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union, is available through major booksellers.
*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.
|
