'Winter in Maine... at the Canadian Border'
in the act of creation, we die
in creating, we live
so we are always dying and living -
that is the only way we can live
* * *
Jesus, Gospel of John -
I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined with me, and I stay joined with you, you will yield lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me.
*Gospel of John 15.5
* * *
There is a passive aspect to the spiritual life. For this, one learns humbleness and, hence, surrender. A branch receives, while the vine provides - this is the natural order. The vine-life-energy-presence flows into its offspring. Vine and fruit share the same nature. Persons calling Spirit "Father" or "Mother" signify this recognition. One is saying, "I am not my Source. I am reliant on Another. I am childlike."
* * *
A hymn from my childhood came to mind. We often sang it in our little Baptist church - "Make Me a Channel of Blessing," written by Harper G. Smith in 1903. The refrain is:
Make me a channel of blessing today,
Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;
My life possessing, my service blessing,
Make me a channel of blessing today.
Such being made a channel of blessing means I cannot make myself that. Grace makes us that conduit. We become sacramental. Hence, too, the flow is sustained in continued receptivity - as we begin, we continue. So, "make me a channel of blessing today" - today - means one keeps becoming a conductor of sacred qualities. We need daily spiritual practice to sustain this connection with Life; our whole life is the practice. We do not stop to practice, everything is the practice. How you open and close a door is the practice.
We inbreathe Life and outbreathe Life... that is our practice, our life. If we are among the living dead, we exist, but existence is not in a spiritual sense living. We are like ghosts walking about. When religion prioritizes "right" morality and "right" belief above communion with the Vine - often ignoring the latter - the result is a fellowship of shades. Communion with the Intangible leads us to being tangible expressions of that unseen-but-real Grace.
* * *
"I am the vine" announces "Jesus" as a conduit of Spirit for his followers. He was to them a sacramental presence. Sufi teacher Kabir Helminski, in The Knowing Heart, defines contact point: "A person through whom we gain access to Higher Self." "I am" can refer to the intimacy between Teacher and disciple, Jesus being such a contact point. Anyone through whom we receive spiritual nurture or connection with God becomes such a point-of-contact for us. Anyone can be a Jesus to us. Jesus of Nazareth is the only Jesus of Nazareth, first century CE, but anyone can be a Jesus. Many Jesuses are walking among us, and there are Buddhas everywhere. The Light shows up as you and me, as strangers we meet along the way.
"I am" can refer to the Christ. In the Christian Scripture, we read of "Spirit of Christ." Jesus would be saying, "That Spirit in me, not I, the man before you, is your Vine."
Jesus was prophetic. Prophets in his tradition often spoke as God. At times, they spoke, noting they were speaking for the Divine. At other times, they spoke as the Divine without any notation they were doing so. Hence, "I am" here can refer to the One Jesus referred to as "Father." The Vine would be the God-in-Jesus - in you, me, everyone.
"I am" in reference to the man Jesus, the Christ, or "Father" does not have to be seen as mutually exclusive. To see Jesus is to see Christ and is to see God; to see Christ is to see Jesus and God. They are not the same, and they are not separate. Christ is more than the man, Buddha is more than Siddhartha Gautama, and you are more than your appearance.
* * *
That is our work - embody and serve as a conduit of Presence. How does one know we do that? One looks at our lives - how we walk, speak, treat others and ourselves, ... What is the produce? If one were to ask me, "How do I know if I'm growing spiritually?" "Look at the fruit." That is empirical. You do not see apples on a tree and mistake the tree as being an orange tree? You do not mistake a rose bush for a poison ivy bush? Everything in Nature - seen and unseen - witnesses truthfully to its nature.
Accordingly, to continue in fruition, one remains in fellowship with and consent to the Vine. All spiritual practice is an act of receptivity to what the Eastern churches have called the divine energies (i.e., grace). Hence, we guard against habitual distractions from this daily intimacy with Life. For Life is the source of Life.
* * *
A woman dreamed she walked into a shop. She saw a man behind the counter. She asked, "What do you sell here?" The stranger said, "Everything your heart desires." Astonished at what she heard, the woman asked for the best things a human could want. She said, "I want peace of mind, love, joy, wisdom, and freedom from fear." She added, "And not just for me. For everyone." The stranger smiled, saying, " I think you've got this wrong. We don't sell the fruit here, only the seeds."
* * *
And when doing good, we act in a certain way. Shunryu Suzuki said, "When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind). When we are one with what we do, the doer and that being done dissolve in doing, and no trace is left. One cannot say strictly, "I did that." We feel blessed to be graced to be a channel of blessing.
* * *
Last, fruit bears witness to the nature of the branch and, so, to that of the vine. Jesus says, in the Gospel of Matthew 7.21, "Not everyone who addresses me, 'Master, Master' (or, Teacher, Lord), will enter the Reign of the Heavens, but the one who does my heavenly Father's will." If, for example, you are kind, kindness will speak. We do not need to say, "I'm kind." No, the fruit does the talking.
So, be reticent about talking about what you do, have done, or plan to do. Beware of self-promotion. Just do and leave it. Promote your work only when necessary to fulfill its purpose. In this, a new self arises to be burned up in self-giving, for the fruit embodies you, as it could not be without you. You are in the fruit, and the fruit in you, and you are burned to ashes in the doing. Who is left to claim, "I did that"?
* * *
*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2023
*Brian K. Wilcox, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
