[The Word] emptied himself [itself], taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness.
"Emptied," Greek, ἐκένωσεν (ekenōsen)
*Philippians 2.7, NRSVUE, Christian Scripture
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July 2006 -
The morning of July 19, 2006, after reading in silence from St. Basil and St. Augustine, the Psalms, and Micah, I laid my body onto the floor. Amidst many changes going on in the external life, I rested in contemplation. I witnessed fatigue with words. What a blessed fatigue! What a gift when even religious words make the soul nauseous with their banality and triteness. I enjoyed the grace of it.
This oft-resting has become to me a witness to what Buddhists call One Taste. This is freedom, freedom I have learned to relish as release from need to make religion and spirituality another thing to do, to make happen, to prove myself by. In this, I know what St. Paul says in Ephesians 1.6 of the Christian Scripture [to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (NRSVUE)]. I know and can relax into the Truth that I am already accepted in the Beloved, the Word. I am thankful that Buddhism helped me learn what the early Fathers of the Church taught, also, about this fecund and clear Silence.
In the Spirit, experiencing the kenosis, or self-emptying of the Christ, in Prayer, it is not foremost that I choose to be empty. I rest and witness the Emptiness I always am. In this, we continue the kenosis of the eternal Word emptying in "descent" to birth as Jesus. We "descend" in humility to "ascend" in Love - there is no other way for the transformation of "ascension" to occur regardless of how such self-emptying may run counter to the values of our larger society. For this self-emptying, which is by Grace and to Grace, runs counter to the contorted desire to self-affirm the self rather than relax into the intrinsic worth of self in Grace.
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November 2023 -
This self-emptying is an opening to connection. What is left is not a void except the void of self-centeredness. The void was being enclosed in on the self enamored with the self. This is like the eye trying to see itself. How can it live in compassion and wisdom toward others when the eye keeps its eye on the lookout to see itself? The whole world becomes that one eye, and the 'i' reigns supreme even if it is a miserly reign. That 'i' can join a group like itself, but it is still one 'i' fascinated with itself. The 'i' is center stage, the 'i' is the superstar. What a miserable and misery-causing group - yet there are many!
In self-emptying, the self remains but in connection with all selves. Emptiness is speaking through the negation of fullness. Emptiness is boundlessness. To be empty is to be full but not of the self. Self becomes a self with we. Self, then, based on its unique graces - for the self remains - serves we. Even in its being, before action, it blesses we. It is blessing, so it blesses. In blessing we, it blesses God, and God blesses we, for no 'i' apart from we can receive blessing, for no 'i' is except as we. God can only bless what is. The doctrine of the Trinity, as metaphor, hints at this, regardless of the truth or falsehood of how it is usually taught in the churches.
We witness moments of this Opening outward. We feel it in the body, for the body responds. The body lightens, like it thins out like the heart-bud unfurling its petals. One such time is when we do something kind for someone for no reason but to be kind. This spontaneous action is the action of pure Presence. Pure Presence is boundless Love.
In prayer, we practice this through Silence. We learn to release the self-constriction. Self does not release self. Consciousness participates in the release. Unseen Grace always plays a role. Grace is like the Sun drawing the bud open. Through Opening times, we learn how often we can be closed and how wonderful the sense of the Opening is. The more we undergo the Opening, the more we wish to live the Opening not just have temporary Openings.
If prayer and worship is simply the ego praying and worshipping, is that prayer and worship? Possibly, it helps some. I am not sure, but that such does little, if any, good, for even in such prayer and worship, the self reigns supreme. In such devotion, there is no self-emptying.
Such devotion validates the self-enclosed in on itself. Maybe the most one can hope for us is that such self-worship can lead to a conversion wherein the self opens to the world outside its cramped, even if pious, enclosure. Then, prayer and worship draws the self into the larger Self, the Whole. In time, one lives this prayer and worship as the norm of her life.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2023. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
