In this Prayer beyond Prayer - I know not - Beloved, mind restless but in Quiet Love is becoming Love we could say Love is awakening to Love this is the Wine tasting Itself how could we say God is becoming God? we can say, in some way, Only such Lovers know This
*Arem Nahariim-Samadhi
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The Jesuit William Johnston, in Arise My Love…, writing of mysticism for today, speaks of a stage of having awakened to Love. Here, the person in meditation becomes “increasingly passive—just waiting, doing nothing, allowing the Spirit to act.” Or, “she may enter the prayer of quiet, a form of contemplation in which the upper layer of the psyche runs wild with all kinds of distractions, while the deeper layer quietly enjoys the sense of divine presence.”
Here, one has evolved in meditation to a deep experience of letting go. Earlier, she may have been taught to let go of thoughts. Now, she is to let go of letting go of thoughts. This is really what advanced Mahayana Buddhists call "One Taste." That is, whatever arises is a manifestation of Grace. Yet, what is the spaciousness, the boundlessness, that is that from within what arises arises? That is not this or that, here or there. That can be called by many names, but it is unnameable.
The experience described by Johnston is a joyful experience of the mysterious, inner Work of Spirit. In Love, as we meditate, we can make the mistake of trying to calm the surface of the psyche, or mind, when we can let the surface be turbulent. We let the surface remain turbulent, when we experience this deep, inner repose in Quiet. This is a resting in Love, even while we cannot grasp the content of ways of Grace working, transforming the will spontaneously to Love, even when the response is simply to be.
However, this stage, generally, is something we have to grow into. We initially, possibly for years, will resist this. Initially, our will to know and control, as well as our lack of being comfortable with the inner mystery, blocks this loving, passive receptivity. Only after a long time of practicing meditation, can one expect to be consistently experiencing this Passive Prayer of Love. The joy of this intimacy waits, however, she who is faithful in opening to the Quiet work of Grace, being transformed to let go of resistance to the ineffability of the inner Work.
This is a reason meditation, as understood by the mystics, is not self-hypnosis or relaxation exercise. Meditation, as understood by mystics of the religious traditions, is a means of dissolving the resistance of the ego-self, or separate-self-sense, what St. Paul, in the Christian New Testament, called in the Greek sarx (translated, often, and unfortunately, “flesh”). One in passive Love can rest, cooperating in devoted surrender to the Mysterious Action transforming and healing inwardly. For most, if not all, the healing in the Quiet will continue throughout our lives, not coming to an end. Most persons do not know how deeply they are wounded and broken until the Quiet and Light manifests the subtleness of such shared brokenness-and this is a truer meaning of our being fallen, as taught in the Christian tradition, than is oft shared with us. When I see the brokenness within myself, I see that brokenness is not merely personal, but shares with and is present for its participation in the brokenness of creation itself. In the deepest sense, I see there is really no personal brokeness or fallenness, but only our brokenness, our falleness, and our need for healing. And we cannot get to this healing, this healing happens to us, like a gift given, and this is a reason we can speak of the working of Passive Love.
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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.
