Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Namo Namo Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Namo Namo Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Namo Namo Kundalini Mata Shakti, Mata Shakti, Namo Namo
First force of all creation, to You I bow Divine force, everywhere, to You I bow Creative force, primal force, to You I bow Rising up, Divine Mother, to You I bow
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That is, while Grace Herself fits us into Grace, She fits into the diversity we are part of to imprint upon us the image of the Holy, realizing the Three and One.
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The visiting speaker spoke of "God" being fully here yet out of our reach. This impressed me, partly for such insight rarely do I hear from a Christian speaker: his words, likely unknown to most, if not all, present in the small South Georgia, USA, town, presents in a nutshell profound teachings from thousands of years ago among the pre-Hindu and pre-Buddhist sages, as well as great Christian sages, most notably Meister Eckhart. As he continued speaking, I heard both him and the internal rumination on that concept: fully here, totally out of reach.
Later reflecting led to linking this more with the teachings of nonduality, as Grace, or God, seeks to unite fully here with totally out of reach. In Grace, harmony of apparent opposites are not-two but potentially two, three, four, ..., for diversity rests on the Ground of unity: "God" is a sign of the Unity. So, unity does not rely on diversity, but diversity on unity, which is to say that all Nature arises from and relies on the Creator - Oneness (Creator) being prior to, or Primal Reality, all else (Creation, Nature). Diversity is the sign of the tendency toward Communion within the One, even as the diversity of the Trinity arises as the fulfillment of the Godhead, or One prior to Trinity-as-diversity. Again, Eckhart pointed to this in teaching that the Godhead, or One, is prior even to the Trinity.
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Practically, this means in drawing close to Grace, or being drawn by Grace more fully into Grace, we will sense these opposites and, gradually, feel the tension between them be unified within us. What Christians have called the wedding of Christ and the soul will occur, but in diverse ways, based on varied factors pertaining to varied personal traits and tendencies we each have in this Unfolding. That is, while Grace Herself fits us into Grace, She fits into the diversity we are part of to imprint upon us the image of the Holy, realizing the Three and One.
During this process, we will sense a shift within from totally here to completely not-here: the latter being what I have called the Totally Other. We will witness the movement within between close to beyond reach.
What we are receptive to in nonduality is to allow the play of opposites to occur within us. We are receptive to the sense of Immanence and of Transcendence; we are receptive to the devotional practices of loving the One in diverse disguises, and to the allowance of the Knowing of Oneness beyond any act of devotion and leads us into abstinence from any act of devotion, even beyond all sense of personal in Grace or self.
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Pantheism is the denial of Transcendence, seeing nature as the Absolute, while Transcendentalism is the denial of Immanence, seeing Grace, or God, removed from nature, as above and not with nature. The Sacred Marriage is the unification of both tendencies in a Consciousness that harmonizes these opposites and, so, in not denying either, embraces and celebrates the arising and play of both. The trap of getting caught in a denial of one or the other is a subtle trap of spiritual seekers. For example, to say here-now, does not mean here-now in the simplistic sense of pantheism or materialism, this other here-now means here-now as the manifestation, the expression, the divinization of Oneness that makes all life something of depth, of intimacy, that is, at the same time, infused with Inscrutability and Awe. And to say Totally Other means a Totally Other fully present within nature and gives depth and otherness to the hereness of our life together, inhabiting this Earth.
So, see, Grace, or God, is as intimate as here and, at the same time, is unreachable by us. Yet, in this immanence is transcendence, and in this transcendence is immanence. In the Christian tradition, the Holy Spirit signifies the Love that unites these two - Transcendence (Father), Immanence (Son)-; so, to pray "Come, Holy Spirit" implies a prayer for the Harmony of Grace within yourself and all life. Simply accept and enjoy the Dance, allowing Grace to manifest Grace with unpredictability. Enjoy the freedom of not-being-in-control, a knowing infused with Mystery. Amen.
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*Embracing the Light, Fe Langdon, Flickr
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
