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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.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
Quote
Enlightenment is … making the darkness conscious.
*C. G. Jung
Scripture
Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, "I am the light for [or, of] the world! Follow me, and you won't be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life [or, light of life]."
*John 8.12, CEV
Spiritual Teaching
When Jesus speaks “I am,” he speaks from the essence he is. He speaks from his divine nature, the I AM. This is Being, as consistent amid the changes of nature. He speaks as One with God. This does not mean he excludes our bearing the same light. Rather, the I AM he embodied is the same I AM within you and me. The Light within you can lead others to Life, for that Light is the same Light in Jesus.
This Light is of life, or Life. This Light is of all qualities positive. Darkness is absence. Light is Presence. The Divine is the source of all positive qualities. This all flows from Grace, is one with Grace. For this Light and the fruit of Life, we do not strive for the fruit, we simply connect with God – the more we surrender, the more we are transparent to and able to be a medium of the Light – of Enlightenment.
Enlightenment is natural. When I am struggling, striving, pushing – then, I am not acting in consort, in harmony, with the Light. I am not acting Enlightened. But there is another choice, another way, an Enlightened way:
When you place God first in your life, everything else easily springs and grows naturally. … The degree to which you place God first in your life is directly proportional to the amount of ease and joy in your life. Putting God first lets your life experience flow out of your relationship with God rather than trying to use God to change your life experience..
*Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla. The Quest. Chapter 14: God First.
* * *
On the question of his own Enlightenment
the Master always remained reticent,
even though the disciples tried
every means to get him to talk.
All the information they had on this subject
was what he once said to his youngest son,
who wanted to know what his father felt
when he became Enlightened.
The answer was: "A fool."
When the boy asked why,
the Master had replied,
"Well, son, it was like going
to great pains to break into a house
by climbing a ladder and smashing a window
and then realizing later
that the door of the house was open."
*Anthony de Mello
The Zen Master, Dogen, said: “Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.”
Enlightenment, what Scripture calls the Light of Life, is perfectly reflected in each individualized life, each manifestation of Love, each expression of God – this you are. Your life, small and human as it is, is the place for the reception of the Universal Sacred.
* * *
I am wary of all the talk about Enlightenment. While I believe we experience many levels of awareness, I do not believe in striving for some ultimate state beyond all others. And I do not believe that is the purpose of Life. I do not believe Enlightenment is some pinnacle we climb toward, or we do not have it. No.
Rather, I agree more with the Zen tradition that says Enlightenment is always Now. What does this mean? Well, on one day, Enlightenment may be my looking at my life, which then appears so well-ordered and blessed, and saying “Yes” to it – or just looking at it for the beauty it appears to be in that moment. Then, on another day, Enlightenment may be looking at my life, which then appears so messed up and abandoned by the Sacred, and saying, “Yes” to it – or just looking at it for the debacle it appears to be in that moment.
Enlightenment is not principally about some ideal state of transcendence from the foibles and circumstances common to human persons, and other creatures. Enlightenment is about how we “see” the life we are given; this is about a profound acceptance of my life, your life, our life. This is not caught in the duality that leads us to some perpetual effort to see Roses amid the thorn bushes. This is seeing the Roses and thorn bushes, and knowing intuitively they are of the same Reality. God is equally in the well-ordered and the messiness of life. The Rose is beautiful and smells good, the thorn hurts, and both are what each is, and each is part of the same Garden of Life.
Again, this does not mean we cannot grow in a wider embrace of Love, or that we are not to seek to improve our lives. We can experience higher states of consciousness, and the more refined consciousness of this can help order and heal. Yet, the transcendence is not of the circumstances of life – or you would be like a spiritual zombie: translated, mindless, heartless, worthless. The transcendence is the unification of all life in the union of our heart within the Heart of God.
Osho, an India spiritual teacher, wrote of this everyday Enlightenment. He wrote: “Enlightenment is not an achievement, it is an understanding that there is nothing to achieve.” See, all our spiritual technique is means to God, the Sacred. Spiritual practice is to position us to receive, to surrender, to be humble to be given to, not a way to get something, or get somewhere else.
The moon does not try to reflect the sun onto the puddle of water. The puddle of water does not try to get the reflection of the Sun off the moon. The moon is being the moon. The water is being the water. The nature of the moon is to reflect light to earth. The nature of the water is to receive the reflection. This is the nature of Enlightenment. Indeed, it may be that the person who is Enlightened knows nothing of it, and cares nothing of it. He or she only wills and does live with humanness, dignity, and grace, and may have foibles and sufferings common to us all – possibly more so.
Responding
1) In your own words, describe Enlightenment, or Enlightened living.
2) What does the following mean to you, in your own view and practice of spiritual faith: "Putting God first lets your life experience flow out of your relationship with God rather than trying to use God to change your life experience"?
* * *
*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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