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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. 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 Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; see www.compassion.com .
Affirmation
Go into quiet, and spend a brief time repeating inwardly the following. Or you may want to chant it.
I enjoy time alone with You, my Lord.
Quote
Faith does not make sense, it does not make reality, unless it is repeated, unless it perseveres. What do we persevere in? And how is it that simple perseverance brings about an expansion in depth of life, consciousness and being? Faith is perseverance in the real identity that is ours, in the enduring identity that only commitment can reveal. Unless we are committed we have no constant identity. The ego is the self before it has found commitment in something beyond itself. . . . The level at which we commit ourselves is the degree to which our identity is realized.
*Father Lawrence W. Freeman. “Patterns and Identities.” From The Selfless Self. Taken from www.wccm.org ; Readings for the Week of September 13, 2009.
Spiritual Teaching
Once a student approached his Zen Master, asking, “Master, how is it that you seem so at peace and joyful about your meditation practice, when most of us seem to find it such a struggle?” “Well,” replied the Master, “I quit trying to meditate.”
A church member visited her pastor. “Pastor,” she spoke, “I have tried to find peace, but despite all my good intents, I seem to fail.” “Then, quit trying to get peace.”
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The above vignettes present a universal spiritual law, or principle, found in all the great spiritual traditions. Alan W. Watts, in The Wisdom of Insecurity, noted that this “law of reversed effort” had always fascinated him. Sometimes Watts called it “backwards law.” And Watts referred to Jesus to exemplify the law of reversed effort:
People who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them.
*St. Luke 17.33, CEV
Likewise, a passage often associated with the Resurrection of Christ applies this spiritual insight:
Jesus said: The time has come for the Human One to be given his glory. I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life.
*St. John 12.23-25, CEV, Inclusive Adaptation
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Western culture is a culture of pursuit. We want to master the world, and we dare not live with much uncertainty. We seek to gain security, at the least little loss of it. We believe in our capacity to create a life which satisfies us, whether by seeking the mate of our dreams, the job we always wanted, eating a particular diet, making certain we have everything ready for retirement, getting rid of wrinkles, making and saving as much money as possible... Then, sadly, one generation passes this value to the next, to continue the same futile, frustrating, and exhausting pursuit.
We, essentially, in our society have a humanistic motto, based on a linear logic: “If you want it, go get it.” The great Wisdom traditions offer a paradoxical Way. This says, essentially, “If you want it, don’t try to get it.” We, then, are able to receive, to be given to. A beautiful discourse on this way is the Tao Te Ching, and the entire Pascal Mystery embodies it, as exemplified in Philippians 2.
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This is a reason I teach meditation. And I see students come to meditation the same way they approach the rest of life. They come to meditation to find a spiritual technology to get what they want: peace, or love, or a sense of oneness with God, … I tell them that meditation is meant to fail and will fail them. They do not understand, until they discover it for themselves.
Meditation, and religion and spiritually, generally, are paradoxical. Spiritual technology and teachings are means to cease grasping for what we need – or think we need; then, we find that we have it. Do you want to feel loved? Be content feeling unloved. Do you want peace? Accept your lack of peace. Do you want security? Admit such is unattainable. If you want to know, then, give up knowing.
This is the way of Grace. And when you can sit in meditation without caring if you are meditating, then, you are experiencing how Life universally operates. Life gives Itself when we are unselfish enough to discontinue trying to get It for ourselves – indeed, cease trying to get It period.
Responding
Christian Meditation
This is the practice of a meditation form called Christian Meditation, as termed by the late Father John Main. One process in this Prayer is to use a prayer word throughout the meditation, or at least until ready to release into the Quiet beyond words and thought – or contemplation. We need in mediation to allow ourselves to feel free to release into contemplation at any time. You, also, like I do, may find yourself being disturbed by the inward repeating of the word – this is a likely sign you need to let it go and rest in the Quiet, heart lovingly open and spacious to the Universal Christ. Sometimes, this Christ may feel to you like the immediate – sometimes physical – nearness of Jesus, at other times like a Universal-Personal Consciousness or Cosmic, Pervasive Presence. In the way Jesus Christ manifests, be receptive, not trying to force the experience into what you are more comfortable with or how you think Christ should manifest.
1.Go into the Quiet. I recommend for Christians to do the Sign of the Cross upon entering the meditation or to quietly pray a prayer of invocation or the Our Father, or Lord's Prayer; persons of other faiths may choose another sign - persons may choose any devotional rite suitable. With eyes closed and properly breathing – for meditation, in and out of the lower abdomen. Breathe deeply several times.
2.Notice what you are feeling and how this shows up in your body. 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 begin using a prayer word, your mantra, in the following manner: On the outbreath, bring the word into awareness, on the inbreath let the word go and relax. Keep doing this. If the mind wanders, do not be upset or critical of yourself; simply go back to your prayer word.
a. You can reverse the use of the prayer word. Either on inbreath or outbreath is fine.
b. You can use a word with enough syllables to be done comfortably on the combination of outbreath and inbreath. An example: Ma-ra-na-tha [Aramaic, meaning, “Come, Lord," used in the New Testament as a prayer]. So, inbreath – Ma-ra; outbreath, na-tha. Say it as four equally-stressed syllables. The “a” in each syllable has the sound “ah.” “Ah” is one of the best sounds for inwardly repeating; it is a universal sound in faith traditions.
5.If at any point you feel yourself drawn into pure silence, let go of the word. You may return to it to recenter yourself – and as many times as you need to.
6.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”; … You may choose the pray slowly the Our Father, or Lord's Prayer, or choose another appropriate rite.
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*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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