Enoch walked with the god (or, the God; Hebrew, HaElohiim).
-Genesis 5.22
"Walked with" connotes habitual closeness, familiarity, fellowship, nearness, and intimacy. This contrasts with the practical deism so prevalent in the churches, where God is treated as mainly absent in one's everyday life and compartmentalized to times of crisis or periodic worship. This is partly due to Christianity being reduced to institutionalism and theoretical belief. In Christian spirituality, one can say Enoch practiced the Presence of God as he practiced breathing.
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Does the Beloved only pucker at certain moments of one's life?
No way!
The One is the wildest of us lovers.
-Hafiz, Persian Sufi, b. 1325
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In English, we refer to puckering the lips to give or receive a kiss. We say, "Pucker up." Hafiz's puckering can be read as Spirit's readiness for intimacy with us.
In Spirit abides the invitation, for by nature, Spirit is Intimacy. Intimacy is a Quality inherent in Life. Any intimacy is finally intimacy with God. In such communion, be it with a person, a tree, or a rock, one responds to God. All such intimacies reflect the uncreate Intimacy. Hence, loving things can lead us consciously to love Love.
In some sense, when we enjoy fellowship with the Sacred, our experience is that the invite comes from the Other - at least in the initial stages of this enjoyment. Thus, spiritual practices prepare us to discern the invite and posture ourselves for the reply.
Romantic gestures, all intimacy, are usually reserved for privacy. In contrast, the Beloved is prepared for intimacy always, anywhere. When I reread this poem after some twenty years, this struck me - we do not need a particular or 'special' time or place to enjoy Presence. We can relish the Intimacy while shopping in the hardware store, working in the garden, lying on our bed before sleep or when awakening, kneeling before an altar, or meditating in sangha. If you cannot enjoy God while sweeping a floor or walking in your yard, how can you in a church or other 'holy' place?
Life is no less or more present anywhere. However, for varied reasons, we may be conditioned to experience Sacredness more at some times and places than others. Likewise, you may find it easier to be receptive in a group, due to its collective energies, than by yourself. All this, nevertheless, does not mean Presence is more available at some times and places or when alone in contrast to with others of like heart.
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Presence is not a presence among presences; God is not a thing. All things are located somewhere. All things have an address, even mental things, like thoughts. Presence, the Non-Thing, is not found anywhere. Being not found anywhere, we can reply to and enjoy it anywhere. The question is, "Am I ready to pucker up?"
In God is the reply to God. Go to God, and the response to God arises. It is always present. Are you present consciously to Presence? We want to cultivate that being-present... true? And the cultivation is ongoing, for we never, in this body, get to the bottom of the Ocean of Love. Who says there is a bottom?
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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.
*Hafiz poem from Hafiz. Love Poems from God. Trans. Daniel Ladinsky. Above adapted for modern readers.
