|
Open to the Light
* * *
Surrounded by discord and division, what is better than being quietly present - One?
*John Butler. Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment.
Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. Not as the world-system gives to you, do I give to you.
*Gospel of John 14.27
* * *
Abba John the Dwarf (b. 339), a Coptic Christian and among the early Desert Dwellers, traveled to worship at Scetis, west of the Nile. He heard some Christian brothers arguing. So, Abba John returned to his cell. He walked around the cell three times before entering it.
Some brothers saw the Abba's circumambulation. Wondering why he did this, they went and asked him. Abba John said, "My ears were full of that argument, so I circled round to purify them, and, so, I entered my cell with my mind at rest."
* * *
George Fox, to Friends (Quakers), 1659 -
And keep down, and be master over all passion, and the hasty and cross spirits [emotions], and silence that which is sudden [reactive]; and let love have the pre-eminence in all and over all.
*Selections from the Epistles of George Fox: Abridged.
* * *
We are easily infected with the toxin of dispute. And devotion to the inner life entails guarding oneself against such emotional poison. This is not self-defense in denying one's own afflictive emotions. If one feels upsetness, that is the invitation for more healing. Yet, neither does healing require one to expose oneself unduly to the emotional toxicity of others. And this toxicity surrounds us in our modern culture, meaning even when not directed at us. The psychic environment can be as polluted by waste as the outer environment. Hence, we are to choose wisely what we listen to, watch, and the persons and places we associate with. Peace within you begins not outside you but with you yourself.
Suppose you have a garden. You love the garden and cultivate it. Would you allow anyone into your garden to infect it with poisons? Would you not do what you could to protect the garden from such harm? Would you expect someone else to guard your garden? Is it not rational, likewise, to act in care for your heart garden?
This is not, first, about those who would harm your garden. This is, first, about your reverence of and responsibility to your garden. Hence, often when we feel infected with the emotional toxicity of another or others, we have allowed it to take place or continue to. Is that logical?
* * *
To live in peace, we need a space of quiet and calm. It is not enough to seek this within; we need a physical space to cultivate this tranquility. This is our refuge of outer quiet, complementing the inner Quiet we wish to carry within us among others.
When we enter our quiet space, we choose peace for others and ourselves. Another story tells of Abba John going up to Scetis with some brothers, and their guide lost his way, for it was nighttime. The brothers said to Abba John, "What shall we do, Abba, so not to die wandering about, for the brother has lost the way?" The Abba said, "If we speak to him, he will be filled with grief and shame. But look here, I will pretend to be ill and say I cannot walk any more; then, we can stay here till the dawn." The brothers said, "We will not go on either. We will stay with you." They sat there until sunrise, and in this way, they did not upset the brother.
So, to choose peace for yourself is to choose the same for others. We not only wish not for others to upset us, but we choose not to upset them. Life is too precious to waste on unnecessary conflict. Hence, often contentedly remaining uninvolved in conflict is the wise way. Giving yourself permission not to involve yourself is important. Possibly, living without upsetness - peacefully - is one of our most precious gifts to others and to Earth.
So, suppose you wish to live a path of inner peace. In that case, you associate with places and persons of peace and enter your outer cell and inner cell for cleansing from all that would detract from peace. Even as your body has ways to clean the toxins from itself, the inner body needs a like cleansing. So, we immerse ourselves in the gracefulness of Grace.
* * *
We live in a world that can be harsh. And the inner way sensitizes you to both the light and dark of it. You can be deeply moved by the edifying and the unedifying. You become more sensitive not only to the apparent energies about you but to those subtle.
* * *
Self-love is loving the-Sacred-in-you, for self-love and God-love is one, not two. Do not consider it, then, selfish to choose for yourself peace, avoid unpeace, and spend the time you need to nurture the seeds of peace within you. The world is warring; you do not have to join in. While you can have compassion for all, to allow yourself to be drawn into unpeace is not wise or helpful to you, including those who invite you into such vain wrangling. Life is too precious, and you, too, to engage in such frivolous futility.
Jesus -
How blessed! are those who spread peace,
for they shall be called God's children.
*Gospel of Matthew 5.9
* * *
*© Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
|
