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* * *
The consequence of the loss of wonder is cheap entertainment. Lacking wonder, we look for substitutes, for essence seeks its likeness. When the personality cannot discover wonder, these substitutes arise. Yet, while wonder leaves a lasting impression of good and fullness, the substitutes leave a sense of emptiness. We could say, in fact, what is met in wonder is Love.
* * *
Wonder has a close link with Silence. Wonder lives in Silence. Wonder is only met in Silence. This is so due to the subtle nature of wonder. When wonder arises, one may notice a diminishment of its felt-sense, if he or she begins trying to speak of it with another. Wonder is felt as wonderful, and we wish to share this meeting with someone. That is okay. Yet, one needs to be discerning as to whom and when to share. Again, one cannot communicate the wonder and in the sharing cannot maintain or replicate the wonder.
the best means
to communicate a sense of wonder received
is through presence
not words
wonder
is best
at communicating itself
* * *
A natural, spontaneous response arising in wonder is to wonder, that is, to magnify. This is the root of true religious praise. Praise is the reply to wonder, of admiration, of Love. In religious praise, one feels drawn to express the wonder back to the Source, seeing the wonder as not rightly retained in even the pure subjecting felt within the meeting itself. This praise may be, also, a means to release the bodily tension created by the wonder, when wonder and body meet, body being a more coarse expression of Presence.
This praise need not be strictly religious, however. Do not lovers magnify each another? Indeed, one may go to great lengths to communicate to the loved one how wonderful he or she is? Praise can enter into all our relationships, human or otherwise, as response to wonder met in the presence of the other ~ I speak of 'other,' for the union of being, so of wonder, is experienced in duality, as 'self' and 'other' is the play of Spirit.
* * *
One gift of spiritual contemplation, as in varied spiritual paths, is the gift of communicating praise silently, through the expression arising in and through the Silence. In this, one can magnify another without the constraints of time and space, for Spirit time and space arise from Spirit, not the opposite way. One learns this, however, only from Silence.
Continued... |
