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Opening Prayer
Breath of God, thank you for letting us speak about You. We try, but our words fail: Thankfully! Teach us how to be quiet and sink into Christ’s arms and rest our heads on his bosom, ceasing from trying to know what we cannot know and are not meant to know. Teach us to laugh with you, too. Yea!
Opening Meditation
All that the Eternal Father teaches and reveals is His being, His nature, and His Godhead, which He manifests to us in His Son, and teaches us that we are also His Son.
*"Sermon IV: True Hearing," in Meister Eckhart’s Sermons, as translated by Claud Field (c. 1909).
Spiritual Teaching
Boo!
Now, do I have your attention?
Some say I'm a logical guy.
Some say they don't understand much of what
Goes on inside my head.
I don't either.
I blissfully, don't care.
A clown just danced through Here.
I love the funny side of God!
Do you?
When I—like Now—have imbibed enough of Him,
I just speak, and I don't try to make sense.
To those outside the Tavern.
This is Tavern Talk, and
If others were not offended by it,
I would need to drink
Some more, then, speak again, or just
Stay sprawled out, speechless, on the floor,
Amazed that Someone loves me so.
Church can never give you
This amazement!
Often, it just hides
The Well of Joy.
A creed just fell
To the floor -Splash!-
Would you like to dance on it
With me?
If this scent rising from your neck, O Love,
Delights my heart, with such delight, tonight,
And the reflection of something unspeakably captivating
Pleasures me through your eyes: I know not what— ...
Oh! The blossoms falling through this dark sky,
Onto this bed of mine
(I always look forward to this tryst at night),
While the stars and I share secrets those who know
Would gladly give up all knowledge to know,
To have one taste of this Truth that our hearts feel
But no words have ever spoken, speak, or can speak:
Oh Bliss! Oh Bliss!—
Your essence, my Love, I hear only echoes of,
Your energies, my Beloved, have ravished my heart, tonight.
Did someone say “sleep”?—
And You left the mind totally a wreck.
I wouldn't try to pick up the parts-
Such would be futile-absurd even.
I have passed through the two worlds and, now,
Know This.
When we are like this, together,
I need no other.
All thought of need,
All thought of other,
Even memory or anticipation,
Are strangers to this Union.
Division cannot enter Here,
Where we two are mingling One
Inside the veil.
Sacred intercourse...
Hush!
And don't cover me up.
Someone just took a theology book and
Threw it against the wall...
Every thought of God died,
For there is only One, Love.
Now, why did we fear being honest about This
For so many years?
Should lions be afraid of house cats?
Should the bear run from the lizard?
How could a Lover not share the joy of Canaan
With those who are sweating and slaving in Egypt?
So, laugh at me
All you want.
I share, and in
Canaan tongue, not Egypt
words.
Some persons share ideas,
While we drink Wine—
In this Tavern, we are laughing
At theories of the scholars,
We are saddened by the sermons of pious preachers
Who speak husks to persons crying out, without knowing,
Wanting to Make Love with the Truth Itself.
You.
Simply because so many clerics want to dress up
In their knowledge,
And impress others with it,
Doesn't mean seekers of Love don't want
To run around nude in this Paradise of Grace.
Why share knowledge when you can share Grace Itself?
No creed ever made wild love with God.
No book ever led one to be penetrated by the Beloved.
No dogma ever birthed God in a human heart.
If only the citadel of thought and polity that
Guard the entrance
To the Holy of Holies would just burn down,
We could dance and sing over
The ashes left behind!
And kiss the Mercy Seat-
Without any religious oversight!
There are a myriad Resurrections,
And all lead to This Life.
Not religious.
Not spiritual.
Not anything.
Not no thing.
This!
The flowing Light of Godhead is
Dropping petals all around—
This is too much fun to keep writing about it...
Bye!
—Brian K. Wilcox, "Petals All Around."
* * *
From the early Church and emphasized especially in the thought of the Eastern Church, for example by Gregory of Palamas (b. 1296), is the distinction between God’s essence and God’s energies. As noted by James Harpur, explaining the distinction, “God, in essence, may be unknowable; but his uncreated energies, in which he is wholly present, can be known by divine grace” (Love Burning in the Soul).
Another Early Church Father, Basil the Great (b. c. 330), said, “It is by His energies that we say we know our God; we do not assert that we can come near to the essence itself, for His energies descend to us, but His essence remains unapproachable.”
This is one helpful way to speak of the paradox of the Divine, but in Union there is no longer distinction between essence and energies. Union is the experience of Oneness from which Multiplicity arises and returns.
As the Buddhists teach, when one has crossed the River to the other side—Surprise! There was never another side. Likewise, when one has passed through the energies to the essence—Surprise! There is only One.
However, this One is a One that manifests as Many. To know the One, know the Many. In knowing the One, one is able to dance with the Many. In the One, then, there is no longer heaven and hell, friend and enemy, love and hate, for One cannot in Itself be other than complete Singularity, one Unity, or it would not be the One; whereas the distinctions are qualities, all depending on their existence as made possible by the One. Therefore, the truth of the distinctions relies on the truth of Oneness, not the other way around.
Meditation plays within the Field of Many. Why? To usher us into the Unity of the Source - the One - the Godhead, and even before the worded distinctions of doctrines like the Trinity.
Mystics, then, tend to speak in exaggerations - as others would see it. You can compare my reference to a creed falling to the floor, breaking to pieces, and a dancing on it. This is a way to refer to the essential, ultimate insubstantiality of words, even scriptures and creeds ..., and the summons to go through and beyond all things - even those persons consider most revered - to the One, Love.
Quietly Responding
What metaphor most speaks to you of Union in God? If you do not have such a metaphor, give yourself time to discover one that fits your desire to enjoy Oneness with God.
Blessings! In Love! And Peace to All!
Brian Kenneth Wilcox July 23, 2009
briankwilcox@yahoo.com
Facebook: Brian Kenneth Wilcox
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group, and renounces all titles of sacredness that some would apply to him, but seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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