Pride's Passing

Humility lit the spark
ego provided fertile timber
And on that sordid pile
of fleshy wood and flame
Pride breathed her last
'neath Love's fierce ember.

 "I'm happy and that makes me think that I'm either going crazy because who would be happy with all that I am going through..? Or on to something. I just have let go of so much of my ego lately that I can't help but feel my soul has a lighter load to bear. I feel a bit more liberated. "

That is what I wrote recently to a friend in response to the inquiry of how my day was going. Things have been challenging lately.  I know many of you can relate and have no doubt even more struggles than myself. It can take all the strength  we can muster sometimes to stay positive in and not get seduced by this reality of dancing illusions that catches our fancy and plunges us down the alleyways of delusion. To block the razor sharp arrows skillfully aimed and hurtling at the small pockets of peace we try to build around ourselves and our families. Often I take heart in the law of impermanence.... This too shall pass...this too shall pass...

An awareness of choice broke through my consciousness yesterday as I was taking a shower.  I have been in a difficult situation and it's easy sometimes to allow myself to get overwhelmed by it. To help solve the situation there were things I needed to do and say which would require me to lay down my pride and take up the banner of humility. Not always an easy thing to do. However, by doing so, the problem would find its solution and I would be helping someone I loved.

I thought about pride, how it's a symptom of the ego, and how it only binds us to suffering. I could tangibly feel and observe the energy of pride within me and it felt like a burden. I breathed it in deep and then exhaled and merely, with intention,  let it go...let it all go...Realizing its longevity in my consciousness was a choice. It was such a liberating moment spiritually. Immediately a deep peace came to me. Conceiving a beautiful joy it infected any seeds of negativity with spores of light that caused all darkness to flee in that moment.

It was a spiritual experience that provided me the hope and clarity I needed that morning. The clarity that I am not my thoughts, not my emotions, but that eternity rests within the center of my consciousness longing to shine outwards. The hope that, as with my attachment to pride I could someday recognize and release myself gradually of all other attachments that bind me to my ego. That, if I allowed it, this could be a real step in my spiritual progress. 


In the Bhagavad Gita 15.5 it says:

Not deluded by pride, free from selfish attachment and selfish desire, beyond the duality of pleasure and pain, ever aware of the Self, the wise go forward to that eternal goal.  (Eknath Easwaran's translation)

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says in the purport to his translation of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, "When one is free from the delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender."


I have come to accept the truth that to find the Truth one must surrender one's self-will.  How else can we achieve the objectivity and clarity to perceive things as they truly are? Pride is certainly a component of self-will. This is an idea that has been echoed throughout the ages by the world's mystics. I have a long way to go and very well might never fully achieve this goal in this life, but I feel there is no greater endeavor for me to embark on than this one. The more we empty ourselves of self-will the more the mirrors within us that reflect the Divinity within will be scraped clean. The more we empty ourselves the more we will be filled with God's love which we then can extend to those around us. The more we rid ourselves of the desires and attachments that we think bring us happiness but only breed misery the more we cultivate the desire within ourselves to draw closer to God and when that happens all around us benefit.

"As our desire to draw closer to the Lord within us deepens, it draws self-centered desires into it like tributaries into a great river. The power of that love swells until it becomes cataclysmic; we begin to inspire other people through the transformation we have wrought in ourselves."
 
~ Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness

 Releasing oneself of pride clears the pathway to forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.  I feel really blessed to have witnessed the death of pride within me and only feel relieved at its passing. Now I just have about a million more other attachments to release myself of! :)

 
What  attachment(s) have you recently let go of or are working on releasing yourself of? Please share in the comments section! Thank you!

The Freedom of Letting Go

 

                                                          Courtesy of Google Images


My three year old son often likes to wake up in the morning and tease my daughter. He runs up to her, eyes shining with mirth, telling her he had a dream. Now, I somehow doubt he has this recurring dream. Instead,  sense that he only longs to tease his older sibling and bring up a memory that was actually a very traumatic one when it had unfolded itself in real time.

"Guess what Tana? I had a dream!" He announced  this morning,  yet again, jumping on her bed.

"I know, I know Noah. You were were on a water slide and I lost my favorite hat!"  Montana no longer gets upset as she once had. Her initial reaction, tears immediately surfacing, is what I believe prompted my son to continue in his teasing for so long. I know, not very nice, but he is three. I'm working on the compassion part of things!

This summer we were at a local amusement park. We had waited an  hour and a half to get on a ride in which our family would set sale on a large raft and meander up a long incline only to swoop down a sharp decline that simulated white water rapids. I had told my daughter repeatedly as we waited to put her hat she was wearing, her very favorite one, in the safe confines of our backpack. She refused stubbornly. Ever since the moment the hat had become hers, on hot summer days she and it were inseparable. 

It was of no surprise when our raft descended down the sharp decline that her hat fell off. I was so close to catching it, but alas, my fingers were just too far away and I watched, my heart sinking, as the hat did, beneath the current's untidy water.

My daughter mourned the loss of her hat,  tears continuing on the rest of the day and intermittently in days to come.  Her hat had served as a tangible reminder  to a meaningful experience of a day that just her and I shared together at Provincetown, MA.  We had spent rare time together, going on a whale watch where we saw two whales breach, sea beasts of mammoth proportions defying logic with their graceful bodies pirouetting as they heaved their large masses out of the water in a display that challenged our senses. Sun's light blazing off wet slick skin. Eyes wide my daughter let it all sink in. She had been delighted at her new hat, sharing a fried dough on the pier in the lazy afternoon sun in the moments that followed.


Well, this morning when my son brought up his "dream", my daughter replied with her own counterattack.

"Well I had a dream too Noah. That we went down a water slide and lost YOUR favorite hat!"

My son coolly replied, "I don't have a favorite hat Tana, so ha!"

This reminded me of the principle of non-attachment.  That in order to find joy, clarity, God Himself, we must rid ourselves of the attachments that steal our sense of peace and muddy our experiences of the Divine in the present moment.  A current theme in many of the world's religions, coming from their many inspired voices,  from Jesus, to Krishna, to the  writers of the Upanishads, comes the message that we are not to invest our hearts into the temporary superficiality of the material. That within harbors eternity's real treasure. Eternity itself. And all of these things in the world that distract us are mere illusions promising a gratification that will only turn bitter in our mouths in the end, leaving us unfulfilled and craving for something more to satisfy us.


Sometimes it's as if my little son is a zen master. It's not that he doesn't take joy in the things of life. He does. With passion he dives into things, fully immerses himself in the moments that captivate him. But he doesn't become invested, attached to things in the sense that when they move beyond his reach, he feels that part of him does as well. He lets things rise up , enjoys them while they remain, and with what seems an uncanny wisdom, bids them adieu with grace as they vanish.

A few verses I memorized for passage meditation from the Bhagavad Gita flashed through my mind this morning as the discourse between my son and daughter ensued:

He lives in wisdom
Who sees himself in all and all in him,
Whose love for the Lord of Love has consumed
Every selfish desire and sense-craving
Tormenting the heart. Not agitated
By grief nor hankering after pleasure,
He lives free from lust and fear and anger
Fettered no more by selfish attachments,
He is not elated by good fortune
Nor depressed by bad. Such is the seer.

                 ~Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (emphasis mine)

When our love for the eternal and awakening to the awareness of His Being begins to take prominence in how we prioritize earthly things and pursuits, then our "Love for the Lord consumes us", and we are no longer tormented by the fleeting illusions of life.  We empty ourselves of our attachments to sense cravings and ego and in our emptiness God fills the void. And then we find the real treasure in which our soul can truly rejoice!

It's easy to let material things determine our sense of joy. But everything, except the eternal within us, is governed by the law of impermanence. Things that we become so easily and habitually attached to are constantly evolving. It's a given that the things of life will erode, fade and tarnish. Jesus told his followers, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19) Jesus was encouraging us to pursue spiritual treasures and not earthly ones, for it is the spiritual that is eternal and all other things merely fade away.


In order to unfold our layers of ego and encounter the Divine within, we have to let go of these attachments. Meditation and the practice of mindfulness can be powerful aids in helping us accomplish this.  To become mindful in our ordinary waking moments plunges us into the reality of God that stands poised between every breath we take. We begin to enter into a state of awe at seeing the divine everywhere, in and through life, and begin to sense a oneness with God.  The superficial starts to lose its charm as we realize there is no beginning or ending to God, all is God and God is all,  therefore there is no real reason to cling to anything.

 To become non-attached to the non-spiritual  definitely doesn't mean that we shouldn't enjoy the things that life has to offer, we just shouldn't allow them to define ourselves and become spiritually or emotionally invested in them to the point that they hinder us from maintaining an awareness of the present moment and contact with God. We shouldn't allow things to have the ability to steal the peace and joy God offers us for this wastes precious energy that we can be used to manifest His love to those around us. To lose our attachments towards earthly things is to enter into deeper stages of spiritual freedom loosening us from the chains of suffering and moving us to deeper states of peace and well being.


Thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear them! Please leave them in the comments section. Thank you!

Don't Be Tethered to an Ass

"There is a story from the middle ages of a preaching friar who had long distances to travel. Because of this, a wealthy merchant gave him an ass on which to ride. It was with pleasure that the preacher set out on his next journey. When he arrived at the church he tethered the animal outside. But throughout the service his attention was drawn to the ass. Was it properly secured? Had he left it in a safe place? What if a thief had come along and had stolen it? This went on until the service ended, the preacher was all the time distracted. When he came out afterwards all was well, the ass was where he had left it. But he knew that a new danger had entered his life. He untied the ass, slapped its flanks and drove it off. Then he walked away in the opposite direction. He was heard to say, 'God forbid that my soul should be tethered to an ass.' He was determined not to give himself to a lesser purpose than was his aim."

                       ~ David Adam, The Eye of the Eagle p. 133

The lesson of the story is not to get distracted on the trivial things of life but to pursue the greatest treasure there is: experiencing the precious presence of our Creator and growing in our relationship with Him. In our lifetimes the Author of Creation has given us a free offer: to know Him! Isn't that amazing? I think it is! All that we have to do is reach out with seeking hearts and He will make Himself known.

Now I'm not saying I believe trivial things are necessarily bad in and of themselves. For there can be lessons learned in the ordinary and God can be found in the most simplistic and mundane of moments. That's not what I'm referring  to. If we see glimpses of His glory made manifest through creation, glory be to God! That's a beautiful thing. But it's when we don't see God in things and let the things in and of themselves get in the way of our focus on Him that leads to a falling away of affection and pursuit of the greatest treasure one can ever experience.

So that guy in the picture, he doesn't look very happy does he? But would you if, metaphorically speaking, you were tied to things which perhaps brought you temporary pleasure, satisfaction, maybe convenience, but in the end were empty and hollow, bringing you nothing but a sense of distraction and displaced energy? The ass had a purpose, taking the friar from place to place and easing the burden of his travels but it had become a stumbling block for him, consuming his attention and taking it from God.

We will never find the greatest treasure there is for our mortal minds and souls to discover, or grow in our relationship or experience with Him,  if we are too distracted to see it. When we do discover the reality and presence of God we find that it is priceless and nothing else compares. Jesus illustrates it this way:

Matthew 13:44   ⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

When God is discovered in the depths of one's soul a curtain is pulled back and a light like no other is shined through the heart's corridors, once dark, now illuminated with His presence. There is no greater thing than experiencing God's love!

There's bound to be things in our life that distract us from setting our hearts on God and seeking Him first. There's always things in our lives that clamor for our attention unceasingly. If we simply ask God to reveal to us those things that are stumbling blocks to our faith and relationship with Him He will surely let them be known. If we then come to Him in repentance and earnest desire, petitioning that He help us overcome our being "stuck" in a habit or mired down in a distraction, He will help deliver us and we will undoubtedly enter into greater depths of His love and presence as we shed our attachments and illusions, drawing ever closer to the lover of our souls.

What is the "ass" you are tethered to? (you don't have to share, but might want to ask yourself) It's time for us all to walk in freedom. Let's let God help us cut the cords that bind us to the trivial and experience greater depths of the most holy and precious treasure that could ever be discovered. His great presence, His love, His light.

Any thoughts? I would love to hear them! They are always welcomed and appreciated! :)

The Falling Away of Sin

The work of the Holy Spirit in changing us is not to work directly on our bad habits but to make us admire Jesus Christ so much that sinful habits feel foreign and distasteful.
                                           ~ John Piper

I really appreciate this line from Piper. It makes a good point that reveals the natural progression of change that happens within the heart of a believer. As our souls feast on the spiritual manna of Scripture they are fed with food that is nourishing, that builds our characters up and helps train our minds towards what is right in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit impresses upon our hearts to move towards actions that build up God's Kingdom and not towards those which can help break it down.


As we are filled with the sense of God's love all things that are a contrast to that light which filters through the corridors of our hearts begin to feel magnified, distasteful, foreign and cumbersome. I know through personal experience that sins that I might have rationalized or justified for awhile began to be too burdensome for me to cling to once I opened my heart ever wider to the Spirit's light and instruction. It wasn't even like I felt that repugnant towards them but it was more like they were once leaves, thriving on the vine encircling my heart, keeping it from growing with the love of God and as I started to receive more and more light and love from God the source of the vine's life, my desire for sin, began to be eventually cut off. And like a plant recieving nourishment no more, my desire and attachment towards that which contradicted my faith began to just wilt away and eventually turn deathly brittle, breaking away from the hold they once had on my heart and at last falling away, allowing my heart to grow ever more and no longer be tangled with such destructive attachments and illusions. New leaves, vibrant and lush, watered by God's eternal fountain of living water, sprung up in their place.

Now, I'm not claiming to have the battle of sin all figured out. But really...does it have to be a battle, so to speak? We are all on our own individual paths towards sanctification where we become less and less part of the world and more and more in union with the likeness of Jesus. We have our whole lives to journey down this road for no matter how much scripture we read, how many prayers we lift towards God's throne, none of us will ever be perfect. I have a lot of faults! (Just ask my husband or kids!) But instead of focusing on them, and focusing on the sins that rise up from the tranquility of the day and threaten to lay claim on my peace and distract me from devotion towards God I am choosing instead (and sometimes I'm not always successful) in focusing on Jesus. Not my sins...but Jesus. For if I let the light of the spirit blossom within me, then darkness will have no choice to flee and I will find desire and attachments naturally shrinking back from the light and diminishing into nothingness, dissolved in the presence of the Spirit's love. 

Thomas Merton descibes faith as a "personal and direct acceptance of God Himself, a "receiving" of the Light of Christ in the soul and a consequent beginning or renewel of the spiritual life. "

He makes certain though that Christ is to be not only our main focus, but our only focus. "But an essential element in this reception of the "light" of Christ is the rejection of every other "light" that can appeal to sense, passion, imagination or intellect".  Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience p. 15

Not only do sins lose their hold on us when we focus on Jesus, but other things that might not have been sins but might have taken our attention away from God and distracted us from devotion, start to fall away as well, their taste becoming bitter to our soul's palate as we become accustomed to savoring the rich sweetness of God's glory.
  

When I was thinking of what might be a fitting prayer to conclude this post with I couldn't help but think of Psalm 51. It's all about sin, confessing our sins and allowing God to purify our hearts to move past our sins and then finding ourselves delivered from them and full of praise towards our creator. So, may psalm 51 be a prayer that we all can utter this morning and thank God for the truths it contains. For His unending faithfulness and love and for the mercy and redemption that is found in Jesus.

Psalm 51

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
   and cleanse me from my sin.

 ³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
   and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
   sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
   you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
   and blot out all my iniquity.

 ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
   and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
   or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
   and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
   you who are God my Savior,
   and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.

 ¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
   to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
   in burnt offerings offered whole;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The End of Self: John Piper

How shall this insidious motive of pleasure in being made much of be broken except through bending all my faculties to delight in the pleasure of making much of God! Christian hedonism is the final solution. It is deeper than death to self. You have to go down deeper into the grave of flesh to find the truly freeing stream of miracle water that ravishes you with the taste of God's glory. Only in that speechless, all-satisfying admiration is the end of self.

                  ~ John Piper

I was thinking this morning of this passage from Piper when in my mind I envisioned a scale and then did a little experiment, perhaps you might want to do it too. It's an interesting visual activity that helps us measure the priority God has in our lives.

Ok, here it goes...picture a scale....

You have stones of equal weight all around you.  On one side put the amount of stones that represents the time you think about yourself each day. Estimate how many thoughts you have and each thought is a stone. We all do it, we all daydream and have conversations and thoughts continually running through our heads. About our dreams, our desires, our plans for the day, what we are wearing, eating, conversations we've had, etc.

And then on the other side put the number of stones representing the number of thoughts you have about God each day. His plans for you, your praises and prayers lifted up to Him, time in His Word, reflecting on His laws and the beauty and gifts of His grace and mercy.

And then...see which way the scale tilts.

Are you more consumed with thoughts about yourself or are you consumed more with your passion and love towards God?

 Don't worry, only you and God know the answer!

I know there are times when the scale can tip either way for me. Some days I am transfixed with God, coming back to His Word again and again, lifting Him up in prayer, His peace penetrating my soul as I encounter Him in the present moment, wishing nothing more than to bring Him glory in word and deed. And then...there are those other times...the scale is dramatically tilted in the opposite direction. When I let my worries and fears, insecurities and bitterness consume me and I lose sight of God...kind of like Peter did when he walked out on the ocean's surface to meet Jesus. He looked away. And then started to sink.

When the scale is tilted in our direction that means we are sinking. Losing focus on the one thing that truly matters, the one supreme treasure that we are to hold dear above everything else ....God!

So it's important, at that point, when we realize we are sinking and losing focus, to come back. How do you come back after you've had a moment of groundlessness..when you feel you've stumbled and tripped? Do you turn to scripture first, prayer? I'd say that I turn to the psalms and then pray...and after that my heart is open enough for meditation. Whatever one's means, it's important to take the steps to get back on the pathway to God. Someone once told me, you can take a thousand steps away from God, but it only takes one step to come back to Him.

So let's take some steps today...away from ourselves and towards God.

Heavenly Father,

We thank You for Your great mercy and grace which makes eternal union with You possible. We pray that You help transform our hearts so that our strongest desire would be to dwell in Your presence, finding supreme joy and peace in you, and not in ourselves. As we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, in the process may we also learn to lose our attachments to self and world. Shatter our illusions so that we may be inundated with the pure reality of Your presence and Love. 

May we bring You all honor, glory and praise.

In Jesus' unmatched and precious name,

Amen.

True Hope: Beyond Intellect (Thomas Merton)

"The message of hope the contemplative offers you, then, brother, is not that you need to find your way through the jungle of language and problems that today surround God: but that whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you ever found in books or heard in sermons."

Amen to that! Thomas Merton is a man of God whose works have touched me deeply and have had a profound effect on my spiritual approach. The above passage was from a letter he wrote upon Pope Paul VI's request for him, and others specifically selected, to write a letter to the world sharing the contemplative perspective.

In his letter Merton emphasizes the need to abandon all illusions and attachments, all notions of self and ideas, and simply reach out in simplicity and pure devotion towards God. What a beautiful message!

In his letter, Merton assures readers, " All men can seek and find this intimate awareness and awakening" and tells us,

"...if you dare to penetrate your own silence and risk the sharing of that solitude with the lonely other who seeks God through you, then you will truly recover the light and the capacity to understand what is beyond words and beyond explanations because it is too close to be explained: it is the intimate union in the depths of your own heart, of God's spirit and your own secret inmost self, so that you and He are in all truth One Spirit."

Praise be to a God who offers His children the peace of having intimate union with Him! May we be continual seekers of His presence within us as we grow deeper in our faith.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being a God of love and unending faithfulness.  A God who dwells within us. Who makes it possible, if we give you all that we are and lay down at the foot of your throne all attachments and illusions of self and world, the extraordinary experience of your deep and abiding presence. An encounter that transcends words and surpasses understanding. A peace that anchors our faith and our souls firmly to you. May we never cease to seek you more and more  and through the peace you offer may we be strengthened to go out into the world, which is weary with the weight of sin and death, and carry your message of light and love and glorify your blessed name.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Letting Go of Attachments: St. John of the Cross

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."

                   ~ St. John of the Cross



I thought the image of a bird being tethered would be appropriate to include in this blog post, since St. John of the Cross uses it to illustrate how attachments can bind us to ourselves and our own egos, hindering us from true and unhindered divine union with God. I just want to say I,  in no way, condone such treatment to animals (I'm a vegetarian and speak out against animal abuse) and my stomach turned while flipping through images to find a decent one!

As much as I find this image disgusting...I find it appropriate and I think St. John of the Cross brings up much for us to think about. He raises good questions to ask ourselves. What is keeping us from experiencing God more fully? What are we attached to that hinders our relationship with God?...

Important questions to ponder...

How tragic to be attached to something, like that bird in the photograph, that keeps us from soaring to the unknown heights of union with God. May God illuminate to each one of us the things of this world and the things within ourselves, that we still cling to and give us the strength to let go of them and may our souls cleave to God, and God alone.

Any thoughts?

Enter the Gates

"The present moment is a wide-open gate leading to the depths of God."
 James Finley, Christian Meditation, p. 230

There are most likely as many ways to come before God and enter into His presence as there are people. Everyone is so unique, their souls and person stitched together in a unique and differing pattern. I would suggest ,though ,that we are all stitched together with the same thread, for we were all made in the likeness of God.  Those of us that have claimed our inheritance have God within us and if we learn to still our minds we can learn to open up to experience the presence of God and experience a peace that surpasses all understanding.

There is an immense amount of freedom I've found in experiencing the present moment. And I've found that using the tool of mindfulness in worship and prayer and in every moment is a powerful way of experiencing God's presence. I am going to write more on this, but perhaps this is sort of an introduction to this subject on my blog. Oh, and I just want to mention, these are just my own thoughts and reflections on this subject...I'm no way an expert (as this blog's intro states!). This is just an area that fascinates me, that I've experienced personally though am still a novice in fully comprehending and practicing.

I was reflecting the other day that our consciousness is like an onion with different layers. As we peel back the layers less of the onion remains but what does become even more real are the intangible qualities-it's scent and sometimes our physiological responses to it (like involuntary tears!). The more we enter into different levels of consciousness, peeling back the more superficial layers, peeling away our attachments, the ramblings of our mind, the more we start to get to the core of things. I would suggest, God is at our core.

When we let go of ourselves, or who we think are ourselves, and still our mind so that we are an observor to our illusions, to our mind's wanderings, we start to see things more clearly and we start to open our hearts up to God's reality more and more as we become less and less cluttered and hindered by the insufficient things we sometimes cling to for security in our ever-shifting worlds. The fact is, life is impermanent and sometimes it can be downright full of despair and suffering, filled with uncertainty, etc. That is why it is much to our benefit as well as salvation that we cling to the only sure rock there is in which to steady our uneven gait through this life...and that is God. And I believe there is much benefit in centering ourselves and our mind on God and in His presence. It provides us with peace, with direction and with a sense of compassion that we most undoubtedly will extend to others.

On this topic John of the cross wrote:

A soul makes room for God by wiping away all the smudges and smears of attachment. By uniting its will perfectly to God's; for to love is to labor to divest and deprive oneself for God of all that is not God. When this is done the soul will be illumined by and transformed in God.

There are many great writers who speak a lot more eloquently and with more experience than I on this subject. I will be sure to quote passages from them over time on this blog so that maybe we can learn together some of the wisdom and insight God has revealed to them. We all have much to learn from one another, but ultimately God is our infallible source of truth and all His truth is in His Word, so we will explore what His Word has to say about all of this as well.

What are your thoughts? Your experiences, if any on contemplative prayer and Christian meditation?

~many blessings