Saying For Today: Once the eye of contemplation is developed through spiritual practice, this [unitive] seeing is spontaneous.
LOTUS OF THE HEART
An Interspiritual-Interfaith Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi
All is Welcome Here
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
*La Rose, J'åÐörê QåTår ²º¹º［(－－)］ZZzzz.., Flickr
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St. Bonaventure, a 13th Century Franciscan, presented a formula for accessing depths from which we arrive at meaning, or interpret signifiers: the eye of flesh, the eye of mind (or, reason), the eye of contemplation (or, Spirit). These are developmental stages, as normal as learning to sit up, then crawl, then stand, then walk, then run, … .
The mystic, or contemplative, sees things with a unitary vision, characterized by immediacy. Nicolas of Cusa, 15th Century German cardinal, taught that the only way to know spiritual truth is through this immediacy, this intuitive capacity. Once the eye of contemplation is developed through spiritual practice, this seeing is spontaneous. On the way to this unitive seeing, the contemplative may have endured repeated, even painful, transformation of lesser seeing. He or she may have felt within the tension, as his or her emerging network of contemplative signifieds [i.e., that denoted by a sign] more and more were in tension with conventional religion ~ which is full of persons who have not emerged to the eye of contemplation and do not see, generally, with the insight of contemplation. Henceforth, often the mystic is seen to be heterodox and heretical, a threat to the ideology and theology of the majority conventionalists.
*AREM . "Eye of Contemplation: On "Seeing," April 2005.
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When you are praying do not fancy the Divinity like some image formed within yourself. Avoid also allowing your spirit to be impressed with the seal of some particular shape, but rather, free from all matter, draw near the immaterial Being and you will attain to understanding.
*Evagrious Ponticus, b. 345 CE, Christian Contemplative
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From August 2010, prior to OneLife Ministries becoming Lotus of the Heart. Arem shares a humorous wisdom story encouraging you to remain loyal to your path unfolding, even though others may not understand, even those most close to you.
