|
Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. This writer is an interspiritual-contemplative Christian. Interspiritual is open to the wisdom and practices of varied faith Paths, and does not see any one Path as the sole means of relationship with the Divine. I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here, and this site can contribute to the unity of faiths in a world that needs religions to be a vital means of healing. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual-Contemplative Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Scripture Meditation
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
—Colossians 2.6-7, NRSV
Prayer
Spirit of Love, may I both rest and work from your impulse, ever mindful of the subtle leadings of your Spirit. Amen.
Quote
Our activity consists in loving the Divine and our fruition in enduring that One and being penetrated by Spirit's love. There is a distinction between love and fruition, as there is between the Sacred and divine Grace. When we unite ourselves to Grace by love, then we are spirit; but when we are caught up and transformed by Grace's Spirit, then we are led into fruition. And the spirit of the Divine Itself breathes us out from Sacredself that we may love and may do good works; and again the Divine draws us into Sacredself, that we may rest in fruition. And this is Eternal Life; even as our mortal life subsists in the indrawing and outgoing of our breath.
—John Ruusbroec (1293-1381). Adapted from Trans. by Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism.
Spiritual Teaching
The Persian poet Farid Ud-Din Attar penned a Sufi classic The Conference of the Birds (12th Century). Attar tells the fable of the Hoopoe's leadership of a conference with birds who make excuses for not going on to find the King of birds beyond the boundaries of the earth. While speaking with the fourteenth bird, the Hoopoe introduces the theme of the necessity of aspiration in seeking the Sacred, symbolized in the narrative poem by the Simurgh: Persian, "the Great Bird." The following tale, Ibrahim Adham, is recited by the Hoopoe to illustrate aspiration, what it demands of us, and where it leads us.
A man was always complaining of the bitterness of poverty, so Ibrahim Adham said to him, "My son, possibly you have not paid for your poverty?" The man retorted, "What you say is nonsense, how can a person buy poverty?" "I, at least," said Adham, "have chosen it voluntarily, and I have bought it at the price of the kingdom of the world. And I would still buy a moment of this poverty for a hundred of those worlds."
Men and women who have a thirst for spiritual wholeness stake both soul and body on the issue. The bird of aspiration is destined to soar to the Divine Being, lifted on the wings of faith, above things temporal and spiritual.
* * *
The word aspiration is a cognate of the Latin for "Spirit, spirit." To have aspiration means to be en-spirited, in-spired, in-vigorated, … This positive energy and its motivation is essential for spiritual development.
The spiritual path is not for persons who are lazy. To follow Essence, or Spirit, seeking wholeness in the Divine, demands that one give the whole body-self to the one goal of seeking to realize the True Self. This, also, is not necessarily gained by progressively becoming more religious; it is gained by becoming more human, truly human.
* * *
In the above story about Adham, the Hoopoe notes this need of unrelenting aspiration. With vitality and trust in holy Spirit, one soars to Spirit inspirited. Without Spirit inspiriting, one will need to withdraw and cease pretending, or seek the discovery of what is blocking the inspiration.
Jesus, likewise, was unrelenting in his stress on the uncompromising call to negation of attachment to temporality (Attar's "the kingdom of the world") and submission to discipleship (compare Attar's seeking "the Simurgh"). However, Attar points to a matter not understood in popular religion; that is, aspiration and faith lead one to transcend both temporality and spirituality.
* * *
Christians mystics have taught the darkness of unknowing is where we find pure faith. Buddhist teachers have taught that to be attached to form or formlessness is greed, or clinging, and one will suffer from such emotional neediness. Thus, pure faith, along with commitment soaked with ardency, leads to an object-less trust that demands no destination for its contentment, for it arises from the One and returns to the One in one eternal act of Gracious Fidelity.
This is one reason Christian mystics have taught that the highest form of Prayer is Resting in God beyond thought of God. We come to know Sacredness more fully, not as object, but as Being, as Isness is-ing.
I drank the wine
so dark, I could not see;
stripped of knowing,
I was free. Beyond other,
One in me, I in One.
—Brian K. Wilcox
Transcending-by-Including, Going Beyond, in Meditation
A Spiritual Exercise
This is a nondual exercise, transcending and including formlessness and form. Spirit is the Source of all things, and arises and falls as all things in a ceaseless rhythm of creativity. This is not pantheism. Or panentheism. Or theism. Or atheism. Or anything you can name. This is beyond all of that, an embracing of the Face of God beyond, in, as, through all things seen and unseen.
1.Go into the Quiet. I recommend for Christians to do the Sign of the Cross upon entering the meditation; persons of other faiths may choose another sign - persons may choose any devotional rite suitable. With eyes closed and properly breathing – for meditation, I recommend in and out of the area just above or just below the navel and through the nostrils. Breathe deeply several times.
2.Notice what you are feeling and how this shows up in your body, both physically and energetically. Do not do anything, simply observe.
3.For a time follow the breathe, in and out. Simply observe. Place a little more attention on the breath outward, with your awareness following it outward from your nostrils – as though your awareness is extending outside into the surrounding air.
4.Now, simply be. Relax. Observe whatever arises into awareness: sound, scent, thought, feeling, … Note it; then, let it go. Return to the breath if you need to, to do this; then simply be, and observe again. You may wish briefly to note at each manifestation something like, “This is Spirit manifesting” or just “Spirit.”
5.Before coming out of the meditation, dedicate your meditation. An example: “I dedicate this meditation to the spiritual healing of all creation”; “To the blessing of all children”; “To peace on earth among all creatures”; ...
6.When coming out of this meditation, smile. Say a prayer if you wish. Remain where you are for two minutes at least, before getting up. Before getting up, do the Sign of the Cross, or another sign - persons may choose any devotional rite suitable.
*While I recommend the above way of this meditation exercise, feel free to shape it to fit yourself. Yet, do not adjust it so that you negate the purpose of the exercise and fall back into a pattern simply for it is more comfortable to you, or less challenging. You may be surprised how challenging Just Be-ing can be for you.
**Also, I am not saying God is Nature; I am saying God is the Life Force that gives the energy for everything to be what it is: a thought, a hope, a sensation, a bird, love, … Each aspect of Nature shares in God, as God, in a limited way, for no creature is God, as all of God, and not all creatures encompass Divinity to an equal degree. A worm and a horse do not equally manifests God.
Responding
1. How does contemplation relate to transcending even spirituality? Have you had moments of felt union with God in which you did not sense God as an object of devotion? Have you ever Rested in God beyond thoughts of self or God? Explain.
2. Share how you see yourself inspired presently to persevere in commitment to be a person growing into a more whole, Divine-like being?
3.When you are undergoing lack of inspiration, what do you do to help yourself receive the flow again?
4.Are you giving the priority to your spiritual evolution you need to? If not, how might you increase aspiration?
* * *
*First edition, January 9, 2002; Second and Expanded edition, August 5, 2006; Third and Expanded edition, September 7, 2009.
*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.
|
