Saturday, February 19, 2011

Holy Mystery: In Search of Us

One thing I have learned through experience:

There moves a loving presence,

Holy Mystery,
 
 Glow of Love, 

Compassionate Heart of the Cosmos, 

 in search of us.


The simple message of Christ:  "Come to Me."  Runs through all creation.  Is written in the stars.  Inscribed in our own hearts. 

It is the heart of every prayer.  Spoken or Unspoken.  Of every spiritual path authentically sought or followed.  Inspired sacred words and books reach out

This Love-Search, whose compassion is so far beyond our comprehension, so near and humble as to beg and bid us welcome - if we only grant a moment's pure attention - has no boundaries.   No deserving.  No evasion can outrun it.  No sin outwit it.

Doesn't matter whether you agree with me or not.  For like water seeping into every crevice, this message invades each cell, runs through every vein, tingles every neuron.  Nudges us at every moment.

Rejoice!  Or weep.  Fall on your knees.  Or hold out hands of supplication.

"Come to Me."

Learn humility.  Learn compassion.   Pass it on.

9 comments:

MBH said...

Hey Thera, I enjoyed this very deeply. I want to share with you a conclusion to the Vision Quest that you sparked three years ago. I think it's mainly how I see the Torah through grammatical logic. A lot of it is pretty technical and I plan to keep working on simplifying it. But, I hope it's an entertaining way of presenting what Jesus-as-Rabbi would have experienced -- only in contemporary terms, references, and even YouTube videos. I feel that nothing in it is original, that it's all been said before. If nothing else, it was wonderful art therapy for me. I'm grateful that you care enough to help people you don't know. Namaste. :)

I hope you enjoy <a href="http://ubunturising.blogspot.com/p/reconciling-kant-and-schopenhauer.html>this post</a>.

TheraP said...

Blessings upon you! I will indeed follow up.

The ability to put ancient wisdom in modern terms and images is vital in every age. Indeed, I think that was what Jesus was doing - as a Jew. Trying to help folks in his day "see" the wisdom that is already evident in the Torah. He wanted them to "experience" what he knew first-hand. Indeed, I've read a couple of times that one could read the entire Bible as a series of commentaries on the Torah.

Thanks for sharing this here! (Checking it out now....)

Namaste. (reverent bow)

MBH said...

My mistake was in searching for an end. The real vision is in what is without beginning or end. In that spirit, here is what I see: this time in simple, straightforward, and brief terms.

TheraP said...

Thank you for the link, MBH. Actually the other link made little sense to me - to be honest. But simplicity - without beginning or end - sounds like something up my alley!

Peace be with you.

MBH said...

It's taken seven years of study and meditation to get a decent grip on this. It was foolish of me to think I could show the terrain in a single post. The holy maps are already more than adequate. Nothing can be added, only colored in and punctuated.

TheraP said...

Multiply that times 5 and you get a sense of where I am on this timeline! Consider if what you've learned can be subtracted.... another type of simplifying.

I wish you well on your fascinating journey. I once talked to monk who told me that after many, many years what kept him in the monastery was no longer what drove him to enter. His perspective had become: What's next?

Let the Torah dwell within.... Namaste.

MBH said...

A mentor/friend used to reflect my attitude -- explicitly -- as "what's next?" to me. I would always laugh, and register it as a note about my skillfulness. But I see now what it really means. It's impatience and doubt, an inability to empty myself. I feel the Torah now, in the emptiness -- emptiness that couldn't hold another drop of peace. Namaste.

Peaceful Turmoil said...

I just found your blog and read some recent posts as well as some of those from the important older post list. Very interesting.

I suppose my reaction, especially to this entry, is that I agree with you but I don’t believe it. I will try to explain what I mean.

In my journey from a mild form of Protestant fundamentalism to a long period of not thinking about religion to agnosticism, atheism, Buddhism, a period of rediscovery of Christianity, and perhaps back to Buddhism (?), I have come to a deeper and deeper intellectual and moral understanding of the contemplative/mystic side of things.

From that (limited) perspective I can appreciate the core of Mahayana Buddhism--the teaching of emptiness--of limitless unfolding and potential, which gives rise to the realization of no-(fixed)-self, impermanence, interconnectedness, etc. I can appreciate the concept that everything we experience in the world is an interpretation and projection of our own minds, and that they in turn spring from a common universal awareness. I can understand the insights of a non-dual vision of the Gospels and Jesus such as that expounded in the book You Are the Light: Rediscovering the Eastern Jesus . I can formulate the idea that God is the source, substance and sustainer of all things, simultaneously transcendent and immanent, incomprehensibly mysterious and intimately familiar. And on and on and on.

But again, in a deeper sense, on a personal level, I don’t really think I believe it. Or if I do, it seems to be elusive and non-committal. It’s not a lived, direct truth that is experienced, but more like, “This is the most consistent view based on the sum of my experiences,” or "This is the sum of what has resonated with me when reading about other people's realizations." It is not necessary, as in I am not particularly compelled by it in an urgent way. Or at least I am not drawn clearly to a particular path. Maybe I don’t grasp or detect the ("feeling" of) the power of sacred.

I am not sure whether that makes sense to those who do seem to connect with it, but in any case I do appreciate those who share the light of their own journey through offering insight into their own personal experiences. Best wishes to you on yours.

TheraP said...

Peaceful Turmoil,

It took me a bit to figure out how to get this published - as it showed up in my gmail but not in the "comments pending"... Such is life!

Thanks for your interest in the journeys of others - even if they may not appear to elucidate your own path. Until the Mystery grasps YOU, it remains something "apart" from you. But indeed you are part of the Mystery... Try that on for size!