(this first piece is new 2012)
Experiencing Divine Presence
Experiencing God, experiencing Universal Presence; this is the same. There is individual presence and there is Universal Presence. We each can develop our own individual presence, which is the power and radiance of our own conscious beingness. But Universal Presence is the Whole Beingness of the Universe. It is even more than this. It is the Whole Beingness of Infinity. In other words, there is nothing even possible that is not of this Whole Being. This means the same as God. There is not God and Universal Being, as though they were different; there is only One – One Source, One Being, One Essence, One Universal Presence. Presence is an important descriptive word because this is how we can directly experience God the Universal Being – as the greater Presence in us, with is, and around us. This is the Presence of Infinite Being.
In meditation and in certain kinds of mystical prayer, it is possible to actually experience the Divine, Universal, Infinite Presence. It is experienced as both within and all around, and finally as being all there is, while one’s individual sense of self dissolves into This.
Now, within this Presence are three fundamental qualities; each found, potentially, in the experience. These are Love, Light, and Will. One is the Presence of Love. That is, we experience God, Infinite Universal Being, as Love. And we feel this Presence of Love in our heart. We recognize this Love, and know this Love as real. Next, after this realization of the Presence as Love, realized by the heart, we can open our heart to fully be in this Love and to be loved, allowing our self to be wrapped and embraced in this Infinite Love. And finally we can surrender ourselves into this Love, to be fully immersed and dissolved in it.
Another quality of the Presence is Light. This is the mystery of greater Consciousness. Remember that God is Super-Conscious. In fact, all individual consciousness’, including our own, are extensions of the One Consciousness – which can also be called the One Light, or the Universal Light, or the Essential Light. If one is sufficiently ready, this Light of Divine Consciousness can be experienced in ever-greater possible degrees of intensity and completeness. This is also known as the expansion of Lighted Presence.
Everything and everyone all around will also be seen as light presences – to varying degrees. Just as everything and everyone all around will also be seen as love presences – to varying degrees. This brings us to the wisdom realization that all of life is permeated with Divine Presence. This includes, of course, each person in the world; but it may not be noticeable in some cases if that person’s heart and mind is too clouded over with self-absorption or with negative reactive. Yet in general we can open up our heart and mind to experience the Divine Presence in all of nature and including all people. The One Universal Spirit, Universal Being, Divine Presence is in all life. God permeates all of life, all of nature, all things. Because really, there is essentially only One Being, which permeates everything, and from which everything comes. So it is possible for us to practice noticing of this and actually experiencing it – the Divine Presence is all of life, and all around us.
Now, to go back again to the three fundamental qualities of Divine Presence, the final quality to explain is Will. To understanding this one might first realize that every living being has some will. And normally, this can be understood as the individual will of someone or something. It is the direction. It is the intention. One might also understand this as the desire or aim of that being. For example, a tree would have the will to grow, to produce fruit, and to generate offspring. A person might have a will to live, socialize, and enjoy; as well as other aims or desires.
So, the Divine Will has similarity to what we know of the will in ourselves, except that the Divine Will is not merely self-centered, nor limited to any particular individual or group interest. It is the Will of the Whole, rather than being a will of any single or group part. Furthermore, it is the underlying essential Will of life. It is the fundamental intended direction that is inherently within the presence of each life. It is the Will that is in the Divine Presence of life.
And when we are consciously in this Will, both realizing it and being willing participants in it, then we are in a coherent alignment with the Divine Will. We are then, in other words, following in the Divine Path. But in order for this alignment to actually be, there will have to be various sacrifices of the personal will (the self-centered will) for the good of the greater Will; which then results in gradual phases of self transformation and spiritual alignment.
To be consciously in the Will of God, or to be willed by the Highest Universal Wisdom, is a very profound proposition of possibility. It would be certainly difficult and perhaps even worrisome to claim this about our self. This is because there are so many possible deceptions and delusions in such a claim. But nonetheless, it is a profoundly worthy Aim. Thus, we can have this as an Aim, yet refrain from speculating about how well we have achieved it. The ideal here is to enter into the Presence of Divine Will – such that one then becomes willed by the Divine. One becomes a voice of the Divine, a hand of the Divine, and even a presence of the Divine. Historically, this person was called a saint, or a prophet, or a master. Essentially, one is being guided by the Universal Love Wisdom.
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It is possible, in relating with others, to come from the Universal Being.
Realize this: To the extent that one is consciously in the Divine Presence is the extent that one is coming from the Divine when engaged in any relationships or activities. Perhaps this is the goal of the whole spiritual path.
The archetype of this would be Jesus, as in the Christian teachings, which gives us an archetypal Ideal to aspire towards; even though we may only get near to this at best. The reason I say mythos is not to degrade Jesus as unreal; but if the ideal is a mythos, then it bypasses any skepticism about the truthfulness of the Christian story. For even if the full story of Jesus was not factual, the mythos and the ideal cannot be so easily dismissed.
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I allow God to embrace me and to bring me into this Divine Presence,
this Greater Beingness, this Infinite Light.
I allow the Divine Love to bring me into Itself.
Let God bring you into Him/Her.
You must be willing to allow this,
but it is God Who actually takes you in.
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------ this below all was here and now on web
The experience of God, or as some say 'the remembrance of God', is not about something outside of this world, and its not about something outside of ourself. It's not out there somewhere; it is right here. God has to found right here. The 'out there' perception of God is but a mental concept, or a fuzzy image of the imagination. A real experience of God is always right here, right here in the world or right here in oneself. God outside our world of experience is an incomprehensible God, and thus a meaningless God. So we need to experience God right here in this world. Of course though, this is not probably a normal experience. Rather, it is an extraordinary experience, requiring preparation and intentional practice. It is like a development on an inner sense; or much like the development of our aesthetic sense, this is a development of our spiritual sense.
There are three very important themes interwoven in this possibility of experiencing God in everyday life, in the everyday world. The first is the necessity of gathering all of our consciousness to this purpose, and keeping a unity of self throughout our everyday activities. Consciousness needs to be gathered and strongly intense. But this intensity of whole-consciousness is not like the more usual mode of concentrating on one thing or one activity. As has already been said, the concentration of specific activities is important in our normal life; but spiritual consciousness is not quite like this concentrated focus on something specific. One can still be very aware of specific people or things in the local sphere of one's world, but the spiritual consciousness is greater than any single focus and its intensity will diminish quickly if single attractions or needs of our environment steal away the wholeness of consciousness. In other words, the wholeness of consciousness must remain strong and intense, even when dealing with specific happenings of life. This is the most difficult ability to develop. But we cannot really hope to experience deeper levels of reality, or experience God Reality, unless our consciousness is all-ready gathered, unified and whole.
The second important theme is unity. Of course this is connected to what has just been discussed. But what needs to be emphasized now is that the spiritual practice of coming into a more direct experience of God is itself an entering into greater Unity. It is as though one opens a door (the door of separation) and enters into Unity. It is as though one shifts from the world-of-plurality to the world-of-Unity. In this Unity there is (still) diverse plurality, yet the Unity-consciousness encompasses and embraces this diverse plurality. It is an experience of our perceived world being held together in One Unity, One Being, One Love. In one sense, the world is felt to be embraced in the infinite space of our heart; in another sense, we are felt to be embraced in the deeper Unity of life.
The third important theme is trust. We are trusting in the deeper unity of life. And we are trusting of our own relationship in this Whole Unity. Ultimately, we are trusting in God, that God is unfolding through us and through this world right now, right in this very moment. It is as though we are trusting enough to jump into the Divine Unity.
This doesn't mean that the world is always perfect. It doesn't mean that everything is God's Will, nor that every event in the world is really for the god. What is actually meant by these themes of unity and trust is that the manifestation of this moment immediately shifts from usual mechanicalness to divine unfoldment, when our consciousness shifts from mechanical scatterdness to awakened unity. That last sentence may need a bit of study. The gist here is deep and profound, and it may surprise even the more advanced student of spiritual studies. The unfoldment of this world actually changes in the very instant of our spiritual awakening, and in the very instant of our self-gathering, our unity of consciousness, and our trust in the Divine unfoldment of the moment. It is not that we need to trust that the whole world is absolutely perfect or divine, in the sense that every event is always God unfolding. It isn't. The usual world is manifesting some variety of karmic mechanicalness. It's like a complex pin-ball game; where this thing or this person bounces into that thing/person, which then effects the next thing, etc. So we should mistakenly confuse karmic mechanicalness with true divine unfoldment. So what is being suggested here, regarding trust, is not a naive trust that all things are in divine harmony or of God's Will. Rather, it is our trust in Divine Unfoldment at this very moment. It is not about the past, nor is it about the whole world in some abstract way. It is about our own self, right now, trusting that the Divine is unfolding right now and right here, at this very moment of our trust and opening to It. Our own trust, in how we are intimately related with the divine unfoldment, suddenly brings us into divine alignment and also changes the world and events around us. It is this shift in consciousness that actually changes the ourself and world from mechanical-karmic manifestations to higher divine unfoldment. Ponder on this.
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Also important to remember is that trust does not dismiss the needed qualities of caution, alertness, and discretion. The human being, in every single present moment, is at a crossroad with two possible directions. One direction is unconsciously allowing the mechanical karma to proceed. This road may not be bad, but it may not be good, and it is not necessarily God's Will or fulfilling to divine purpose. It is basically circling in the same way of past karma. The other possible direction is an actual evolvement in life, and so it can be rightly called a divine unfoldment. It has some degree of newness or original creativity, rather than merely repeating previous events or ways of doing things. It might not be a complete change in patterns, but it does involve some kind of positive change or evolvement. For example, imagine doing a religious ritual which you have done the same way over and over again. But in a present moment of consciousness and intention, you add more heart and sincerity to the ritual. This might not seem to be much of a change, but there is an evolvement in this simple action. Or maybe you add more discretion to a moment, or maybe more openness to the Divine. Even a newly added quality of trust will evolve the direction of life. Every newly added quality, even if not a physical action, will change the direction of things. Yet to do this, one must be awake in the present moment and awake to one's power of choice. Even the simple quality of more alertness in life will help evolve the direction and manifestations of life. Though remember to add positive qualities, not negative ones.
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God experience and Higher experience
Sufism speaks of "remembrance of God". The linguistic value of this terminology may be in recognizing that we are often forgetful of God by being preoccupied with issues, thoughts or emotions at hand. Yet the essential practice, to which this terminology refers, is not at all like a remembering involving memory of something past, nor the remembrance of a concept or a belief. The true practice, the deep practice, is to actually EXPERIENCE God (or Divine Being).
When I speak of experiencing God, though, I am not implying that one is able to experience the Very Fullness of God, for I assume this Fullness is infinite and cannot be contained completely in any human conscious experience. Neither can one experience being the Universal all-Knowing God or the Power of the Creator God. Yet nonetheless, God can be experienced in limited degrees or in varying intensities, and these experiences can be quite intense, profound and transforming. These experiences of God are experiences of being IN God and participating in the emergent Presence of God, and there are various possible degrees of this.
I believe it is true to say that we have the potential to experience the very Essence of God. Religious purists would argue against this, saying that God's Essence is transcendentally beyond our knowing. But the truth is that God's Essence, which is Conscious Being, is transcendentally immanent everywhere, and It is the essential true reality at the core of everything. Thus, the Essence of God is always right here. When the veils of mind protecting its separate ego identity are lifted, when the content of mind disolves and the heart is empty of self-concern; then the Conscious Being of God emerges into experience. Essence appears. Our individual being is like a drop of the Infinite Ocean of Being. The Divine Essence is like the substance of Ocean. Our individual being may be just a drop, yet the essential substance of a drop of Ocean is nonetheless Ocean. So individual being is none other than Essential Ocean; it is completely made of Ocean. And so, as we experience our own essence, we are experiencing the Essence of God.
I will attempt to describe the experience of God emerging through individual being. I experience God being here and emerging through me. It is a consciousness of Greater Beingness, like the consciousness of a Greater Love moving through the heart of one's being. It's a greater Presence and Light emerging from the depths of myself. It's an experience of being within a Greater Being, God, and this Greater Being is my greater Being. The experience of God within my being is always an emergence of Greater Being as well as an expansion of my own sense of being. It also always involves a greater degree of consciousness, or waking up to the Reality of Being. Thus, the Experience involves a greater degree of Light, Love and Truth.
Here, in inner contemplation, one can feel and realize Finer Qualities of Divine Being. These Qualities of Divine Being are also qualities of my own true being, just as the finer qualities of my being are reflections of Divine Being. For example, when I am experiencing love within me this IS God's Quality of Love. So experiencing God may be as simple as experiencing our deepest true nature. The experience of God emerging from within may also involve a listening to God Speak, or it may be a feeling of God's Presence. We might hear God saying, "I am here," or "I love you," but we won't hear God at all if we are thinking or if our mind is chattering, for we can only hear God when the mind is deeply quiet and receptively listening. Mostly though, God is experienced in the feeling-sense of our heart, but the heart must first be quietly at peace and receptive to God. This is how God is experienced from the inside, what is called 'inward remembrance' (though better translated as inner divine experience).
One can also experience God in the sensed or perceived space around oneself. Here God is experienced as a Greater Presence in the space around me. Here I know that God is present all around me, and I am IN this Presence. I can open to this Presence, receive the Presence, and breathe in the Presence, to be filled and transformed by the Presence. I love and revere this Presence. And those in the space of this Presence are loved. So, God can be experienced as a surrounding and permeating Presence, a Presence of Greater Being, Greater Love and Greater Light. This Presence may also be experienced as comforting, healing, and maybe even guiding. So outside of myself I open to the Beauty and Light of the world. I open to the Qualities of God emerging in this world around me. This practice can be called 'outward remembrance' (but better translated as outward divine experience).
Sometimes the Qualities of God are not evident or perceived in the world. Sometimes the Divine is obscured by various ego ploys of other people or sometimes by painful events, but often the Divine is obscured by our own ego or by our negativity or by our preoccupations or mental chatter. The Divine Presence and Qualities of God can be experienced better in some situations than in others, yet we can make it a practice to try to see and experience an emerging Divinity (or God manifesting) in any situation. Often in any situation we can experience at least some degree of Light, or Love, or some other Quality of God in the outer world, if we at least open our minds and hearts.
Often, a divine experience will result from outward contemplation in natural environments, or the aesthetic experience of being in nature. This does not mean that other people will necessarily spoil the nature experience, but the contemplative focus should be on the natural environment rather than on human activities. Natural environments have a kind of purity not often found in human created environments. Natural places have a primordial beauty and subtle peacefulness. Here, we can let go of our usual concerns and enter into a contemplative experience with nature around us. We can let go of our little self and become absorbed in nature.
In deeper contemplation, we may enter into an experience of unity with nature, whereby we experience being part of nature or when there is nothing but Nature. And this can all be done with eyes and senses open, whereby the nature around us fills experience with just itself. When we come into a full and unitive experience with Nature, through an aesthetic or loving relation with some part of Nature, we have entered into an experience with God. The Spirit of Nature, as God, then enters our being. Then there is a unitive resonance between our own divine nature and the divine nature around us. Finally there is nothing in experience but the resonance of Nature or Spirit, and we feel united in the beauty and harmony of Nature.
This union-with-Nature experience is a Divine experience, because Divine Being lives and permeates through nature. Some experience this as the Great Spirit of Nature, or as Mother Nature, which is the same as God. The Spirit or Presence of Nature is one way that we experience God. I am not saying that the physical world of nature is synonomous with God, nor that God is reducible in meaning to physical nature or to any one part of nature. Rather, the Spirit of Nature, the Living Presence and Life of Nature, is the Spirit of God. The Presence of Being around us in the natural world is God. And consciously being in Nature is consciously being in God. So while in the natural world, be conscious in God and meditate in the Presence of God.
So, consideration has been given to two basic kinds of God experience: the inward and the outward. In one, the emphasis and focus is inward or within, while the other kind emphasizes and focusses on what is outward, outside or surrounding oneself. Both kinds should be considered equal in value, though different in how the experiences are. The ideal practice would be a balance of these, for it would be an imbalance to focus solely on God emerging from the inner self while neglecting God emerging from the world outside of ourself, and vice versa. What we might consider now is an experience of God that is a kind of blending of the inward and outward experience. This blended experience, or what we might call a unitive experience, is more difficult to speak about, and we should not mistakenly think that it is a replacement for the other two kinds or superior to them. What distinguishes this unitive experience is its lack of emphasis on either looking inward or looking outward. In this experience, God is found neither within the self nor outside the self, but rather just Here. That is, God is experienced as simply present (equally through oneself and through the space around us). This experience is most easily attained in deep conscious meditation, though it can also be experienced while walking about.
The practice for attaining this experience involves both a letting-go surrendering and an intentional wakefulness. One must surrender or let go of all inward focussing and all outward focussing, while intentionally being awake to the present experience of here and now. The key is listening for the Silence, which is both a silence inward and outward. For in the Silence is emptiness, and through emptiness the Presence of Being emerges. One comes into a state of being content and at peace in this Silence. At first this may be experienced as a surrounding Silence or Stillness. This is the experience of Divine Presence surrounding us and embracing us. Or at first one may experience the Silence, Peace and Stillness within. This is the Divine Presence from within. So at first the Silence of Divine Presence is experienced as either surrounding us or within us. But however one experiences it at first, either inward or outward, this Silence begins to unify our whole experience, bringing both the inner and outward into Total Silence. Then, Divine Presence fills experience and there is only Divine Presence, a Presence of Loving Stillness and Peace. For sufis the sound of this is HU, which is the sound of Divine Being permeating all experience and existence. So in the unitive experience of God, the inward and outward blend as One, One Beingness, One Presence. The separate self has dissolved into this One Being. Yet from this Silence or Pure Presence comes an awakening and realization of Divine Qualities of Love and Insight.
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God Consciousness (or Divine Consciousness) is our goal. This is the goal of the mystic, yet our goal is not to be a mystic disconnected from the world, but one who is engaged fully in the world with God Consciousness. Now this will seem like a mighty goal in deed. It might even seem to be a ridiculous goal, or some might say it is a blasphemous to even think that a human being could possibly have God Consciousness. The answer to such doubts is that we can rightly have God Consciousness as our spiritual goal, but of course there will always be some limitation as to the degree of attainable God Consciousness. Thus, we admit to an inevitable limitation on the human capacity to be fully in God Consciousness. And yet we can nonetheless have this very high aim, and see the spiritual journey as a continuing approach towards God Consciousness. We may not have the capacity for absolute, full God Consciousness, but we can come ever-closer in approaching God Consciousness.
Remember that God Consciousness, or Divine Being Itself, is seeking to embody (or be manifestingly creative); which is the driving purpose behind the creative, spiritually unfolding Process. So the spiritual evolutionary Process involves God Consciousness becoming more and more embodied or activated (through the plural centres of human selves). From the perspective of the Divine Consciousness, it is in a process of ‘becoming’ or embodying into the manifest world. The Divine Potential is gradually (through time) coming into manifestation.
Yet from the perspective of our limited and plural selves, that is, from the perspective of the organic lower in relation to the Higher, this spiritual evolutionary Process is like a waking-up from sleepiness, or awakening to the self-reality that was previously unconscious. So, from our limited/lower perspective, the spiritual process is like waking up. It is also experienced as an ever-greater degree of God Consciousness (or Universal-Being Consciousness). It is like more and more God Consciousness entering into our being, or becoming present in us. And this can be seen as the goal of our spiritual path, that more and more God Consciousness enter into us and become present in us. It can only happen in degrees and it is always limited to some degree, because our capacity to receive and contain it is limited. Thus, we need to develop our capacity for receiving and containing God Consciousness.
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Divine Presence
One might experience such a Presence as emerging from within oneself, and one could also see this Presence as an inner level of who one really is, or as the over-soul behind our own soul. Or, one might experience such a Presence as coming from outside of oneself, or outside of one's own inner being or mind. One could envision such a Presence as being above oneself in the hierarchy of spiritual ascent, somewhere between this earthly world and Absolute Spirit (or God Itself). Where exactly a particular Presence is, along the vertical of this hierarchy, is not something we need be concerned about, nor is it useful to compare the spiritual merit of our particular Guide with another. In other words, it would be stupid to fight over which Master/Guide is higher/better than another. Just accept the value of Who is presented to you, as guide and transformer, and respect others in the recognition that you don't really know the quality of their experience anyway. Also, the way we experience such Presences is partly dependent on the reality of that Presence and partly dependent on our own mental preconceptions and spiritual preparedness.
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Presence: found in the world, and through oneself.
Probably the highest and greatest experience is to feel the Presence of God in oneself.
This Presence is a Knowing Presence. We know this Presence in the heart as Love and in the mind as Light, though the distinction between heart and mind soon fade away in this ultimate experience of God as Presence - since Presence simply IS. Presence is itself an experience. It is how we experience God. Presence is how we experience God in the fullest, most comprehensive way. Presence has two aspects, like two sides of one coin. These aspects are Being and Consciousness. Being and Consciousness are what we come into contact with when meeting God. When we open up to God around us, in Spirit, we are opening to the Greater(st) Presence, and what we experience is Greater Being and Consciousness.
This Greater Being is felt as Presence, like the feeling of being within and surrounded by a Greater Presence-Being. More particularly, this Presence (of Being) will often feel as Love, or sometimes as Peace, for these are Qualities of Being. That is, Divine Being IS Love and IS Peace, and so the Presence is felt and known by these qualities, or by other related qualities. Yet we should not forget that Presence is also Consciousness; for there is Greater Consciousness in this Presence.
People may tend to think of consciousness as a property of oneself; like, 'I am conscious' or I have consciousness'. This is fine to speak in such a way, but one begins to fall into a separative delusion if thinking that 'my consciousness is different from yours'. Consciousness is actually a universal property that we each share. In other words, consciousness is a transcendental reality and pervades the whole of existence. There is really only One Consciousness, of which we all share in, or in which we have to some degree; and thus our individual consciousnesses are as smaller microcosms of the One Consciousness. In fact, what makes us seem distinctly individual, in mind, is not the essential property of consciousness itself, but rather the differing contents apprehended by consciousness. In other words, there is nothing essentially different about our 'individual consciousnesses', nor the essential properties of mind; what is different about each of us is our different contents (such as different thoughts and memories) of mind and our unique perceptual perspectives. What we are 'conscious of' is what makes us uniquely different (though also in many ways similar); but 'consciousness itself' as a property-essence is no different from one person to the next. And metaphysically speaking, there really is only One Universal Consciousness, in which we more or less participate, and of which we are vehicles for.
Anyways, back to the experience of Presence as Consciousness. We experience our own self-presence as an experience of beingness, and also as consciousness. That is, the experience of our own self-presence is not only a feeling of beingness, but also a self-consciousness. Thus, we can experience the two aspects of Presence in our own fundamental self-experience. Now, if we open up to a Greater Presence (or The Great Presence); we will experience 'being within', 'surrounded by', and even 'permeated by' Greater Being (and the Qualities of this Being). As well, we will be filled with Greater Consciousness, which is actually the Self-Consciousness of God. For the Divine Being Itself, God or Presence, is Self-Conscious. That is; this Being, this Presence, is Conscious-Being, or Conscious-Presence. So by opening to Greater Presence we are opening to a greater Consciousness. We are opening to the wider, universal Self-Consciousness, which can also be called God-Consciousness. May we open to this greater Consciousness, this greater Beingness; and may we soak in it, then breathe it in and through our being, until our own being is dissolved into that greater Conscious Being, until there is nothing but Conscious Being Itself, with all the essential Qualities of this Being such as Love, Peace and Light. This is the great possibility of transformation, by allowing the Divine Presence to soak through us and en-lighten our being, until being surrenders fully into this and there is nothing but Divine Presence, Being and Light. This describes a mystical experience and transformation, which is not something one would be practicing in the everyday-practical settings but only at certain times in meditation or in forms of worship. However, a contact and relation with Divine Presence can be practiced at any time, which is also transformational. For example, we can feel the Divine Presence around us, and surrounding us in Love and in Peace. We can also open up to the wider universal Consciousness, which gives us a wider perspective on the situations we live in and work in.
One of the most significant realizations we can have is the realization that we are IN a Greater Being, which is Divine Being or God. We are all in this One Divine Being; we are all within God. Physically we are in the Divine Universe of Being, and mentally we are in the Divine Mind of Being. One might not realize this, and so be in a phenomenal delusion of separateness, but in reality we are always in the One Divine Being. This may be difficult to realize when we are in cities filled with cars and rushing people, but behind the surface of this is the Divine Being. More often, in the purity of nature, we can experience and realize this Truth. It may also be difficult to realize this when our mind is preoccupied with concerns of self and practical matters, but behind this is the Reality of Divine Mind. So if we can break through our little boundaries of mind and open to Greater Mind, we will realize that our own mind is within the greater Universal Mind. It may be useful to first realize that we are all within the greater ecology of Earth. We are a part of this greater ecology of life, and we are dependent on it. Our physical existence is part of this greater system of life, Earth. From this ecological realization we might further realize that we are within a greater Intelligence, the intelligence of Earth but also the Intelligence behind life itself and universe itself. We are within a greater Mind and a greater Consciousness.
The next most significant realization is that within us is the Divine Conscious Being. Within us is God. God is the ultimate, primary Intelligence within our physical bodies, and God is the ultimate intelligence within our mind, and God is the ultimate Presence within our heart. So, not only are we within the Divine Being (God), but the Divine Being is also within us. These are simply two perspectives of our relationship with Divine Being. We are within it, and it is within us. We are part of it, and it is the Essence in us. So we are in the Divine, and the Divine is in us. In Truth, we are Divine. We are the Divine Being Itself, manifesting as part of the Divine. If we do not seem to manifest as the Divine, this is because of our un-realized and conditioned thinking; and behavior follows from conditioning and from thought. So we need to break through the conditioning, the old habits of thought, and begin to realize our Divinity within and the Divinity in which we are.
A first step is realizing and coming to know the divine soul within. Within our regular personality is our divine soul, the soul of our being. This soul is a pure reflection of the One Divine Being. It is Divine through and through, without any fault or sin (as in the false teaching of original sin). Our soul is purely divine, a light of the One Light, love of the One Love. In one sense it is our connection with the Great Divine, though in another sense it is the Light of Divinity Itself. One could think of the soul as a particular intensity of Divine Light-Being; yet each soul is essentially Divine Being Itself. Our soul is what we feel or realize as our essential being, or the real truth of our being. So as soul, we realize ourself as a being of Light, or a being of Love, and as a being of the One Divine Being. Then, even more deeply, we come to realize and experience Divine Being Itself - for this is the Real Truth.
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Nurturing Spirit
One of the higher spiritual practices is to seek out and realize the Nurturing Spirit in the space around us. Then allow the Great Spirit to nurture oneself. This is the same as experiencing Divine Presence in the world. It is the same as experiencing God while walking in the world. God is all around us and through all things, yet this is only fully true in the subtle dimension of spiritual Essence. For in the world of particulars, the fullness of God is only expressive in varying degrees, Thus, in certain particularizations, people or phenomena we may discover a very full degree of God Quality, while in other perceptions there is not much God Quality being actually expressed. So in the phenomenal world of particular people and things, the amount of God Quality that we can appreciate and be nurtured by is limited. Sometimes it is more, and sometimes less. But if we perceive beneath phenomenal appearances or expressions, and perceive into the subtle dimension of Divine Essence or Potential, then we can experience God beneath the appearances. This could be called deeper spiritual perception, for we are perceiving deeper into everything.
It is possible, then, to perceive or experience two dimensions at once, the absolute dimension of pure God and the phenomenal dimension of God in limited expression. However, these two dimensions are not strictly separate. Rather, they are related in a way like electrical power is to effect, or light-energy is to biological form. The effects and degrees of electrical power vary, though the power source remains potentially abundant. The forms of life which are made from sunlight vary, and no one form carries all of the light source within it, but the light source remains abundant. So it is possible to perceive the Source and the effect at once. They are not exactly the same, yet certainly related.
So we can perceive and experience the Divine Essence, or Divine Presence, which is beneath and also pervading all form and phenomena. And we can also perceive the Divine actually expressing through people and forms, though in some limited degree. It is wonderful to perceive the Divine that is actual in others, but if we cannot perceive a high degree of actual divinity then we should practice perceiving the Potential Divinity or the Divine Essence in others. Thus, we can experience the Divine Essence everywhere, and we can perceive the Divine Potential in everyone. And by doing this we help nurture the Divine Potential to come forth into actual expression. This is one of the great secrets and powers of the human being. For it is possible to nurture forth the potential Divine Qualities of another being into actual expression. Potential become actual. And one way of doing this is by our subtle perception of the divine essence-potential of another, almost like seeing God-in-potential in that being. One must first see the potential, or the possible, before it can come into actuality. But not only this, the very seeing of the potential has power to help bring it into actuality. This is the power of perception. As you see, so it becomes. This is also has to do with what one believes and the agreement we give or not give to what we see as potential.
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Experience of the Divine
Experience of the Divine can be divided into two kinds, inner and outer. Inner experience of the Divine Self (or God) is usually called realization or spiritual knowing. This is experiencing God within. Yet one can also have outer experience of Divinity, and this too could be called realization or spiritual knowing. For there is an inner aspect of God and an outer aspect. The inner is known within us, and the outer is known in the world.
Now having said this as a foundation, let us briefly clear up some possible confusions. One area of possible debate is whether it is correct to believe that God can be experienced within oneself and in this world. Some religious authorities might call this heresy. Why? Because God is thought to be beyond any person and beyond the world, so they would believe it is wrong to suggest that God can be experienced as such. Now there is truth in this view, but it does not really contradict the other view, because the quarrel is based on a semantic confusion. This will be explained.
If we mean by God the pure Essence of Divine Being or the absolute Divine Gnosis, then of course this cannot be fully experienced in oneself or in the world. For every experience, whether within oneself or about the world, is limited to some degree and thus cannot be the full Essence or Gnosis Itself. Every spiritual experience is like a snapshot of reality, but however wide-angled it is, any one picture cannot be the whole landscape. Every spiritual experience is like a gathering of nectar into a container, but each gathering and each containment is limited, so no single experience can contain the whole Divine Reality of Being. Thus, any spiritual experience cannot be the whole picture or whole containment of Divine Being; for Divine Being (God) is an infinitely deep and wide Ocean, or an infinite realm of possibility. So in this sense of meaning, God (as Pure Essence or Absolute Gnosis or Infinite Being) is always beyond any human experience or knowing and also beyond the manifest world. We can call this the austere meaning of God, and with this meaning we can speak of God in relation to ourselves or the world, or as in a logical polarization of Essence and form.
Yet if we loosen up the meaning of God, to be most general and all-inclusive, then God does include ourselves and this world. And how could God not include us and the world, if there really is only One Being? So in the sense meaning of God as the All-inclusive One, every spiritual experience (within or about the world) must be of God. Here is where we begin to speak about Divine Attributes or Qualities, because each spiritual experience can be understood as a Divine Attribute or Quality. In other words, any single spiritual experience or revelation of God could not be the Whole Gnosis, nor contain the infinite Fullness of God; thus in the strict, austere meaning of God, such experience could not be of God Itself. Yet, in a more general meaning of God, such experiences are of God; in a similar way that pictures of a landscape are truly of the landscape yet not the landscape itself. If one knows something about a friend, then this knowledge is certainly about the friend or an attribute about the friend, but it is not the whole reality of the friend. A piece of apple pie is not the whole pie, but it is nonetheless apple pie. An individual person is not the sum total of what a human being is, but he/she is nonetheless a human being. So any limitation or portion or containment or particularization of the Divine is not the whole potential of the Divine, but it is still the Divine. Every spiritual experience is thus a knowledge of God, but it is also a limited knowledge.
Therefore, one can see God in creation and in oneself as well. But any single instance of seeing is but one particular containment or portion of the Whole. The meaning of any spiritual seeing is an attribute of God. It is like one statement of divine truth, or one true description of Divine Being. Thus, it can be called a description of God, even though it is limited and not the full possible description; in other words, it is but one attribute, not all attributes.
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Spiritual experience can be either inner or outer, or both.
An outer spiritual experience will usually be either an aesthetic or a social kind of experience; - whereby the heart opens more with love, and spiritual light is perceived in the aesthetic field or in the persons of the moment. Outer spiritual experience is very important, because most of our conscious time is involved with outer phenomena, or the physical and social world. But outer spiritual experience is more difficult to initiate and maintain, because the outer world tends to entrap us into a contracted consciousness rather than inspire an expanded, spiritual consciousness. Nonetheless, outer spiritual experience is possible and needs to be worked on in order to develop it. Inner spiritual experience will help, and inner spiritual experience is easier to initiate.
Inner spiritual experience, without outer senses, can be our most profound experiences. First of all, it is directly intuitive and immediately present. It is like experiencing experience itself. If one is experiencing spiritual light, or a spiritual awakening, or if one is experiencing God, this experience is direct and immediate. Furthermore, it is immediately sincere, or at least it tests our sincerity. For one could ask, “Is this a sincere experience?”, or “Is my feeling here sincere?” or “Is my feeling of spiritual connection and relationship a real, sincere experience?” So the inner spiritual experience is about the spiritual truth within us, and it is also about our own inner sincerity of feeling in relation to Spirit or God. An inner spiritual experience may also be a sincere and true experience of spiritual qualities within us. For example, it may be a direct and sincere experience of love. And if this is realized as a truly sincere feeling, then the experience is profoundly transformative.
Inner spiritual experience can reach a depth of Being, a depth of truth and a depth of sincerity, that is not possible in outer sensory experience. Though it is still possible to realize inner spiritual experience through outer experience.
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Inner spiritual experience can be more intense and concentrated than outer spiritual experience, and here in the inner spiritual experience one can deeply know God. Here in the inner space of the heart-mind, in the inner-knowing experience, God can touch us and be known to us. For God, and the revelations of God, can directly emerge through inner meditative experience. The Light of Divine Being can directly emerge through inner meditative experience. And what makes this special and truly significant is that it is my experience and my own knowing. It is not merely something that I read about or heard about, and is not merely a belief; but rather, it is my direct experience, my direct knowing. This is what we want. We want direct experience, not just information about God or Truth, and not just an accumulation of beliefs that we obtained from others. For only sincere and direct experience is really transformative. We need real experience, not just hearsay beliefs. Then, this becomes real faith, not just the simplistic faith that requires us to merely believe what others say is true.
Faith has two kinds of meaning. First, there is faith in spiritual-metaphysical truths, such is the unity, or God is love, or God is good and compassionate. Second, there is faith in our personal relationship to the Divine, or faith in our symbiotic connection with divine nature. Both of these kinds of faith are based on intuition or direct knowing. These are the important kinds of faith, because they are based on our own intuition or experience, rather than a third kind of faith that is simply based on what religions or religious books say is true.
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Mystics believe that one of the great purposes of life is to know God. Yet mystics are not content with simply knowing that God is the Creator and Sustainer. They seek to know God and God’s Will much more intimately. The knowing of God can be divided into two kinds, the innerness of God and the outerness of God. The outerness of God (or God-external) is all around us. It is found in this world of phenomenal and sensual experience. It is the world of form, in the world of people and other kinds of life. So it is only in this world that we can know the outerness of God. Where else would we find outer forms of God?
Now some might argue that God has no outer forms, no outerness at all. But this is a mistaken notion, probably based on a belief that God is solely transcendental and that this world is God’s creation rather than God Itself. Our theology here is that this world is indeed God’s creation, however a creation emergent from God’s very Being. Thus, in this metaphysical-theological understanding, the world of creation (this world of form and appearance) is none other than the outer form of God, or God’s creative emergence, or the emanation into form of God’s Being. We will call this the mystical View.
So from this mystical View, we look around us and see outer forms of God. And to mention again, there is no other place or dimension where we can know or experience the outerness of God. There is no other outer world and no other world of form, so the outerness of God has to be right here in front of us. It is found in the forms and phenomena of nature, it is found in people around the world, and it is found in the living form and expression of ourself. This is quite a radical shift of perception from traditional religious views. Now, some might argue that this View is giving too much spiritual credit and reverence to the forms and people of this world, and the traditional theologists might declare this as pantheism. These criticisms are valid, but that is because we have not finished explaining the View.
First of all, no one particular form or person should be viewed as God [in totality or completeness]. However, each form or person can be rightly viewed as God – in the sense that each is a part of the God-Totality, each is a portion of God-Being, and each is a limited expression of God’s diversity. If one pours some ocean into a glass, one can rightly say that this is ocean water, without necessarily meaning that it is the total ocean. And even though glass containers are different shapes, we can still rightly say that each contains some ocean.
Second of all, each particular form or person is part of a Process of God-Emergence, and thus it is not fully complete in its potential perfection. In other words, we should not look at any particular form or person as being a perfect God-expression, because they are most likely still in a process of completion or maturation. However, each person can be rightly viewed as God – in the sense of God in the process of becoming more complete and comprehensive. That is, we can perceive others and the outer world as God in process of becoming, and each person and circumstance is God-ly to some degree (more or less). We might even speak of some places or some communities, or some people, as having a lot of God being actualized. In other words, in some places there is a lot of God present (a lot of God-Presence). While in other places there is less of God, or less of God-completion, (though God is still subsistent in the space), or one might say that God is much more of a subsisting potential than an actualization.
So in conclusion, once we understand these important qualifications to the mystical View, we can enter into this Mystical View, to perceive and experience life with much more unity and respect. And we begin to perceive the Spiritual Light of God reflecting through nature and other people. Sometimes it comes through in greater degrees, and sometimes lesser degrees, but overall we begin to perceive this Spiritual Light emerging and reflecting through the whole world around us. This is God’s reflection. This is how we know God’s external aspect of Being. And we begin to perceive the Qualities of God actually emerge through this outer world and through people around us. This can be viewed as a presenting emergence of God. How else could God emerge into view, if not right here?
Of course, God does not just emerge outwardly in sensible form, but also in the expressive qualities of people. For the most part, this is how God emerges in the world, and it is how God is known in the world. It is by the expression of spiritual love and spiritual wisdom, coming through human beings. In other words, God is emerging through human beings, through their expression of spiritual qualities, essentially love and wisdom. That is, when true spiritual love comes through a person, this is God in expression. We can say, “here is God coming through this person.” It is God, because God is Love, or at least we have to acknowledge that an essential Quality of God is Love. Now here, we are not saying that the person is exactly God, but that God or God-Love is expressing through the person. To say that Christ is expressing through the person would mean the same, for the meaning of Christ is God incarnating, or God in pure expression. Likewise, when true spiritual wisdom comes through a person, this is God in expression, or God-Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Christ. And when there is true spiritual healing or any other spiritual work coming through a person, this too is God in expression, for it is the Power of God.
Next let us consider knowing the innerness of God, which is knowing God from the inside of God. Most theologians would say that this is quite impossible. How could we possibly know God as God knows Himself? Yet the true mystic believes that nothing of God is beyond possible experience, because God is essentially everywhere, in and through all life. But how can one get into the Mind and Heart of God? This would be quite impossible if God is strictly outside of our own self. But God is here inside of us. God is the true essence of our own self. So it is through our own inner self experience that we come to know the innerness of God. In fact, the only possible way to know the innerness of God is through our own self. Yet our self-knowing of God is God-dependent since God is the Source of knowing, while God-knowing in Itself is not dependent on our self-knowing.
The more essential innerness of self-experience is closer to pure God-experience, while the more surface self-experience is a more limited and partial experience of God. So we need to get to our deepest innerness, or deepest essence, of self-experience, which necessarily involves a practice of self meditation. By deep self meditation, or deep self-experience, we realize our deepest qualities of self/being, such as love. And once again, since Love is the essence of God, this quality of love within us is really God-Love. And if we realize that Love is God, then it is true to say that our own inner experience of love is an experience of the innerness of God. Thus, God is here in us.
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The traditional mistake in religious belief is thinking that God is separate from oneself. God is thought to be outside of oneself, and so to reach an experience of God is thought to be impossible, or if one attempts a path to reach God the chasm is great. But the truth is that God both surrounds oneself and is within oneself, and so there really is no great chasm of separation. We are within God, and God is within us. This is the great truth. Each self is within the God-Self. I am within God, the Great I Am. So the path to God is simply a matter of awakening to the Greater Self in which I am.
Another way of understanding this is to know that we are an instrument of God. This individual self is an instrument of God. It may not be the most perfected instrument possible but it is still an instrument, such that God expresses and experiences through this instrument. This is actually quite a responsibility on our part, since we have freedom in allowing more of God to express through us, or not. We are not mere puppet instruments of God, as though God were forcing us to act in this or that way. Rather, we are a free kind of instrument.
The main point here is that the individual self is significant in the divine scheme of things, and that the ideal goal of the mystical path is not to eliminate experience of the individual self. There may be experiences in deep meditation of self-annihilation into God, whereby the individual self dissolves, but in practical life there has to be some sense of our individual self as an instrument for Divine Emergence. This gives due respect to the reality of being a self. Though remember that this self is within the Greater Self and is an instrument for the Greater Self. It is also a temple of God. This is a wonderful realization, yet also a responsibility. So in our spiritual experience, there is still a recognition of I am experiencing, I am doing, I am enjoying, I am loving, etc. In other words, ‘I’ am still a necessary reality in the scheme of things. The fact of the self-instrument has not been eliminated, nor should it be eliminated.
The self is significant, because the instrument is significant. As a great mystic once said, “I am the flute, yet the music is God.” So the instrument is just as important as the music. Thus, I experience yet God experiences through me. That is, God experiences through this individual ‘I’. This ‘I’ is the instrument for God’s experience. God experiences this particular perspective through this particular self. Furthermore, God acts through me, or through this ‘I’. God can do through me; yet it is still true that I am doing. So both are true, that God is doing and I am doing. There is no dichotomy in this, because God is doing through me. For then we can say that God is doing and also that I am doing, since the ‘I’ is within God or is an instrument of God. It is not an either or. It is not that one statement is right and the other is wrong. The same can be said with I am loving or I am enjoying. The self-‘I’ is still significant, even though it is also true to say that God is loving or enjoying. God is loving through me. God is enjoying through me. So both God and me are significantly important in the reality of things. This is spiritual reflection.
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So the self might be viewed as an instrument of God, or an agent for Divine Creativity. From this way of viewing reality, we can respect and honor the self, our own self and others as well. We can value and honor the self, as a necessary instrument in the spiritual reality and in the unfoldment of spiritual purpose. For if God is the music, and we are the instruments, then we should give honor and respect to the necessary value of the instrument. The instrument (the self) is really just as important to the whole purpose as is the music (the divine inspiration). Both in this relationship are essentially important, and neither can fulfill the greater purpose without the other.
Thus, it is silly to suggest, as a few spiritual mystics have, that the final elevated stage of the spiritual path is a complete abandonment of one self, or the self. It is true that in deep meditation (or zikr) the self surrenders itself and allows itself to dissolve into the pure Being-Essence [of God]. This is the practice of self-annihilation into the Being-Essence. Here, and at this time, there is no need or necessary function in having a separate, individual self perception - or experience of self. But when involved in the world of plurality and practical life, there is a necessary function and value in the experience of individual selfness.
One important function of this individual selfness is to protect against unhealthy influences and coercion coming from others or society in general; for without the integrity and healthy boundary of oneself, one is apt to become a passive instrument for the mere purposes of other people’s ego, or a passive commodity in the economic and political agendas of those in power. We should realistically acknowledge the fact that many people, and institutions as well, are out to manipulate us from their positions of power, which is often subtle and disguised; whereby we become passive instruments for their purposes. We do want to become a finer spiritual instrument [for God or for Divine Purpose], but not merely a passive instrument for other people’s ego or for the powers of society.
The second important function of this individual selfness is to be a conscious and intentional instrument (or agent) of the Divine Purpose.
I am doing. I am a doing instrument of the Divine.
I am experiencing. I am an experiencing instrument of the Divine.
I am a power.
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Certainly, any experience of God depends on God, for it is God or True Being that is being revealed. But if we believe that God is all-Loving and equally Compassionate to everyone, it doesn't seem to make sense that God would whimsically choose to emerge in one person but not in another. So the Experience would more crucially depend on our own state of being, depending on our own readiness and our present degree of awareness and receptivity. At certain times God may spontaneously emerge in our experience, without any apparent effort on our part, but this is rare. What holds us back are preoccupations of mind and heart. What holds us back are the conditioned, compulsive, willful-selves of our fragmented being, that which routinely gets fixated on myopic desires or thoughts, the parts of ourself which will not surrender to the Greater Being or Greater Will.
So is there anything we can do to support or promote the Experience of God? Mystical teachers and schools have taught various practices and rituals to help prepare us for the Experience and bring us into a state whereby God may more easily emerge into experience and transform our being. The essential aims of such practices are to increase conscious receptivity and openness to God, increase present mindfulness, and go deep into the heart of sincerity and self-truth. This is to make a conscious connection with God. We could list a whole bunch of necessary qualities and attitudes for preparation and promotion of the God Experience. This would include increased wakefulness, awareness, sincerity, receptivity, openness, gratefulness, humility, surrender, conscious breath, and the desire or will for experiencing God and to serve God. Other significant qualities could be mentioned as well.
Meditation practice is obviously significant, which is a deepening of pure inner self-awareness along with an openness to the Greater-Self emerging into experience. Important in meditation is the letting-go of present thoughts and emotions, or whatever is pre-occupying the mind and heart, because the mind and heart need to be empty and simply receptive and listening, in order for God to enter into our experience. When we are truly empty and receptive, God emerges. When our intention is 'Only God', that there be 'nothing but God', and when we let-go of everything obscuring the pure conscious mirror of God, then God emerges into consciousness. When there is a total emptying of everything preoccupying the mind and heart, and total surrender of self, then Only God remains (for God is the eternal Reality of Being). God emerges from the emptiness. Then, our only experience is God and God's Will emerging into conscious experience. Then, there is transformation of self, as God's Being emerges through the medium of our clear mind and heart.
Another important way into God experience is through conscious breath. Conscious breath brings us to consciousness of Life and to the Living Presence of Spirit. Conscious breath also brings about a finer knowledge of our inner true self, and it brings our mind and feelings into closer connection with Divine Will as known within. It also brings us into the present moment, since conscious breath can only be in the present moment. Every moment IS a movement of breath, the Breath of Spirit or God. So conscious breath can bring us into an experience of the Spirit of Life, God, moving through us in this present moment.
The first stage of conscious breath practice is simply to be aware of one's breathing. The next stage is to, along with awareness of breath, become aware of thoughts and feelings, thus being aware of the inner world of oneself. This is basically being aware of what's going on with oneself, and in this present noticing one can learn more about oneself. Yet we can make a great leap into a very profound stage of breath practice, which is to harmonize the breath, or bring the breath into harmony with our Greater Being. This means coming into harmony with the True Being within and also in harmony with the greater Universal Life in which we live. The general attitude or intention of this practice is to come into harmony with God, or Nature, or true Being. For as we bring our breath into harmony, we bring our inner being into harmony. Breathing in harmony with the felt Presence of God or the deeper nature of Being is a key in the transformation of energies, and it brings us closer to the Love and Will of God.
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Now it may seem that having an Experience of God is far beyond our capacity, or that this Ideal seems rather too high to reach. I have tried to explain experiences of God in relevant experiential terms, yet maybe this all still seems too far beyond us. Admittedly, the Experience of God in daily life is rare, unless we are closer to a state of mastery or sainthood. Yet however rare, we might still accept the proposition that God could be experienced more frequently if we would just make more present-moment efforts at coming into a conscious connection or relationship with the Divine, both inwardly and outwardly. It might also be proposed that there is an intermediate spiritual experience that is not so evidently an experience of God, but nonetheless divine. This is an experience of one's higher self.
The higher self can be thought of as our better self, or a higher potential of being. It is being closer to God-Self, raising ourself closer to God. The higher self is a greater reflection of the God-Self or Divine Being. In a sense, then, the higher self is God expressing more perfectly through us. It is just a short step to then realize that the experience of our higher self IS, in fact, an experience of God present (or presencing) through us. But what makes the experience of our higher self a useful intermediatory step is that it is more easily attainable or realizable. We all should be able to at least raise ourselves to a higher state of being. In other words, at any one moment of self-noticing we are able to BE more conscious, more loving, and generally a better person.
The experience of higher self is easily distinguished from lower self experience. We can conceptualize these distinctions, but more importantly we simply KNOW the difference (when in the higher state), for it is a qualitatively different experience. The higher self feels and realizes its freedom from the lower self, being free and detached from lower self's preoccupations, reactions, distractions, habitual emotions and thought sequences. As well, the higher self experiences an open and expansive love, a loving embrace for all beings and the beauty of the natural world. The higher self experiences concern and compassion for all of life, rather than the lower self's myopic preoccupation with its own little concerns and desires. The higher self is ever-ready to respond to both the love and needs of others. The higher self feels grateful, rather than resentful. The higher self has left behind fear and is now open to what life presents. Fundamentally, the higher self has freed itself from the little bubble of lower self, so it is now consciously expansive and receptive to Greater Divine Presence.
The higher self could just as well be called the deeper self, because here we are more deeply at the core of our true being. We are more deeply sincere in our being, more deeply true in our being. In this deeper self we are more conscious and feeling of the true qualities of our being. This deep being is our own mystery to be explored and realized. But in order to realize our deeper self, we must abandon or let-go our superficial emotions and reactions. As we let-go of regular emotions and compulsive thoughts, it may seem that we enter into an emptiness or even a kind of death, but out from the depths of emptiness emerges deeper feelings and deeper understandings from the mysterious core of our being (which is in essence the Divine Being).
So, these two ideas of self, the higher self and deeper self, are both meaningful on the path to God Realization. The idea of higher self has meaning in its being higher in value and above the habits of lower self. It is also higher in the fact that one is raised into the heart.. from the lower centres of physical compulsions and solar plexus reactions. The idea of deeper self has meaning in its being more centered at the core-essence of heart-truth, as we come to know more deeply who we truly are. And all of this relates to experiencing God, as we experience an ascent towards the Highest Self (God) or go more deeply into our inner essence (God).
The higher self or deeper self could also be called the soul. Our soul is who we really are. Our soul, in contrast to the conditioned personality, is a composite of divine potentials, qualities, or characteristics. In reality we are each divine souls with the purpose of being realized and expressed. Having a soul means nothing if our soul is not consciously realized, explored, and expressed. To know thyself means to know our soul, our deeper, higher nature. The soul is what God has given to us, and the awakened soul is God's reflection. Thus, our soul is the divinity of our own being, to be explored, consciously known, and finally manifested (through the vehicle of 3-fold personality: thought, feeling, and action). So if we cannot seem to reach a God experience, then at least we should be able to reach a soul experience.
One significant question regarding higher self, deeper self, or soul is the issue of will and control. How does the higher self express will in the world? We are more commonly familiar with how the lower self/personality expresses will in the world, which is often to manipulate other people or other elements in the world for the limited purposes of our lower-self desires, or to gain some personal advantage in the world. We see this pattern in the archetypes of the one who uses others for personal gain, or the one who seeks to acquire more from the world than they are willing to reciprocate. This is the will to get more and more for oneself, without considering the needs of others or the earth. There is also the will for acclaim or status, with the focus on me, me, me. We ourselves may not seem to portray any of the grosser forms of will, but we probably sometimes manifest lower forms of will at least in subtler ways, often unconscious to our awareness.
But how does the higher self express will in the world? The higher self must have will, just as we envision that God has Will. The higher self has higher forms of will, such as the will-to-love, will-to-good, will-to-know, will-to-truth, and the will to beauty and harmony. These of course are reflections of God's Will. So besides the qualities of increased consciousness and embracing love, the higher self (or soul) has will. This is the will to bring God Qualities through oneself and into the world, just as God's Will is for His/Her Being to be realized and manifested in the world. Yet this will of the soul is not a will to manipulate others, use others, or seek to gain an advantage over others. It is not to become controlling, such as trying to control all aspects of our environment.
And yet the higher self needs to control and achieve mastery over the lower self and personality. The higher self cannot just be passive, allowing the lower self desires and wills to take charge. Instead of being passive, the higher self seeks receptivity to Higher Will, to God's Will. So in higher self, we become receptive to the Higher or Deeper, and we become active in relation to the world of expression or manifestation. Remember that the higher/deeper self is not a fixed point, but rather a temporary station along the infinite Path to higher and deeper experiences of God.
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Now for many people, the idea that one could realize or experience the Divine Being Itself, or God, is either too unbelievable or too far off. According to some mystics and teachers, it is possible to completely realize and experience God, even to the point whereby 'I Am That One Truth, One Light, One Love.' Others say this is not possible in the fullest sense of God, which would mean that in this manifest existence any self-realization or self-noesis can only be but a portion of the fullest/absolute Self-Knowing of God, though we may come closer and closer to this Absolute. This is a classic debate which we will not delve into any further. But importantly, both sides of the debate at least agree that the highest spiritual ideal or goal of man is to enter evermore fully into the Divine Self-Knowing; so whether or not it is possible to finally realize the Absolute/Infinite Self, this is nonetheless the Goal of the path.
Some spiritual teachings say that ultimate enlightenment, or ultimate spiritual awakening, can be instantaneous -- that instant spiritual awakening is possible. This is true. We are already the One Spiritual Being, so there is only the need to realize this. And realization of Truth can be in an instant, in any moment. At any moment, in this very moment, we can free ourselves from limited self-concepts, to realize our Pure Beingness. The Absolute Essence of Being can be experienced right now, but only through absolute sacrifice of ourself. So the absolute Realization is here and ready for us, and God is here and ready to be known, but a price has to be paid – which is the price of self-sacrifice. The little self, the little ‘i am’, must be sacrificed. This is the true meaning and ritual of human sacrifice. Once the little ‘I’ gives up itself, surrenders itself, or allows itself to be dissolved into the greater Unknown; then the Absolute Essence, the Absolute Being, is all that remains in the field of experience. But this requires purification of oneself, which is sacrificing and letting go of everything (in the world and about ourselves) that we hold on to. So absolute Self-Realization is possible at any moment, but it requires absolute self-sacrifice and absolute freedom from everything.
We are the Essence, and this Essence can be known. The Essence of Being is knowable. The Essence of Love and the Essence of Divine Will is knowable. But this is a direct and pure knowing; rather than a conceptual knowing, or knowing by thought. Thought is not involved here, and this is not a knowledge in the ordinary sense of that term. The pure knowing experience of Being-Essence, which is Self-Realization, is more like a direct taste of wine or a direct scent of rose. It is prior to any thinking or thought, so the experience is really pre-conceptual. This direct experience of Essence even transcends image, so it is completely pre-phenomenal.
Yet at the moment when the absolute Being-Essence reflects upon Itself, or discovers a quality or truth about Itself, the absolute Essence congeals into a limited form of knowledge. We are God in Essence, the Self-Essence, which can be known in Its Essence; but each distinct act of knowing is not the Whole Knowing Itself. Absolute Gnosis of Essence becomes distinguished as forms of knowledge, which is part of the process of self-understanding and also the understanding of Divine Being (God). This is also how the Knowing Essence descends through the levels of existence, through the mental plane of knowledge and the emotional plane of being, and finally into qualities and forms of physical manifestation. There is nothing inherently wrong with this formative emergence of limited knowledge, for it is the creative unfoldment and development of self-knowledge. One just needs to remember that any form of distinct knowledge, any distinct knowing, or any distinct idea about Being, Love, or Will, is not the whole knowing, nor is it the pure Knowing Essence.
So it could be asked, “Is it possible for a human being to be God-Conscious, or to be God-expressive in the purest sense?” As already discussed, it is possible to be God-Conscious, but only if one has abandoned oneself and surrendered into That One Being-Essence. Then, there is God-Consciousness right here on earth, and right through this living vehicle. But this pure God-Consciousness will, at some point, reveal Itself as a self-consciousness. At this point, then, there is self-knowing, self-identification, and self-being. The quality and degree of this may be supremely fine, and we might call a person “enlightened”, when there is a greatly expanded level of self-knowing and self-being. Yet, any degree of self-knowing and self-being is but a limited coalescence of the absolute and unlimited God-Self. Therefore, no living self-being can truly be identical to the absolute God-Being, except in its unlimited essence. As well, no self-knowing or no self-realization can be truly identical to the absolute Self-Gnosis or absolute God-Consciousness, except in its unlimited essence. In other words, Self-Being and Self-Consciousness can only be particularized in the world as some limited degree; and thus, no one self can be truly identified as God. And particularization of God-Being or God-Consciousness can only be a limited self-being and self-consciousness. Any self can only participate within the great Self-Being, God, but never actually be that absolute Self-Being, except in essence or in the pre-particularized experience of Essence.
In Christian terms, Christ (or Jesus) cannot be absolutely identical to God. In other words, Christ and God are not absolutely the same. Of course this touches upon a possible mistake in Christian theology, or at least in how some people tend to treat Jesus as being God. What is true is that Jesus is ‘representing’ God on earth and expressing the Love of God, and Jesus can be regarded as God-Being and God-Consciousness in particularized form. Yet as already stated, any particularized form of God-Being and God-Consciousness must be limited and is thus a ‘self’, or a being within Being, and a self-knowing within the absolute Self-Gnosis. Therefore, Jesus was still a being within Being (not God-Being Itself), however it may be that he was or is the greatest of all possible beings. We are not here presenting a Christian theology, so there will be no final speculation or conclusion about the status of Jesus, in comparison to other esteemed religious figures. In this discussion, we will only suggest that Jesus was a great spiritual light of God, and hope that this moderate view is not offending. The light of God, the being and consciousness of God, within the vehicle of Jesus, is the meaning of Christ. That is, Christ is the incarnating and redeeming light of God. Another way of understanding this is that Christ is the immanence of God in every living being. Thus, Christ is within us. Christ is the essence of our being, which is the Divine-Being and Divine-Consciousness at the very first point of particularization. Christ is the Divine Being (God) emerging into selfhood, or the point at which God-Being and God-Consciousness first appear as self-being and self-consciousness.
A further leap of consciousness-view is seeing that everyone is really Christ, or a Divine being. Each is essentially the same One Divine Being, not really essentially different than I myself, though each is unique in their specific process and in how they creatively manifest the divine. We may not see others as perfect, or as perfectly complete, but no one is. For everyone is in process of divine completion. This is the great realization, and worthy to remember and practice. See everyone and everything as the Divine in process of completion. See Divine Essence in everyone. See their innermost truth, their innermost being. See the Divine Being in them. See them as the Divine Being in process of realization and manifestation. If we look deep enough we see the Divine Being smiling with love at the core of their being. Look right into the core of their being and see the Divine Being. Look into the core of yourself and see the Divine Being. This is the great awakening, to see the One Divine Being in all people and in all life. This realization sends us into a new level of being. It is leap into a new level of consciousness.
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So one could possibly say, in truth, “I am the Christ”, though it would be disingenuous or simply confusing to say “I am the God.” One could say “I am God”, in the sense of being of God - though not exactly identical to God. In likewise manner, one might say about light in a room, “here is light,” but one wouldn’t be meaning that this light in the room is identical to all light of the universe. The essence is the same, it is the same essential substance, but light contained in a room cannot logically mean the same as all light of the universe.
Become the Christ by allowing Christ to be in oneself.
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Man/woman can have direct experience of the Divine Essence, as pure Conscious Being; yet any understanding of Being is limited and partial, because any understandings are a form of 'capturing' a partiality or delineated quality of the unlimited totality of Being. In other words, in understanding Being we can only understand or comprehend some partial quality of Being, not the complete Treasure. Understanding cannot grasp the Full Totality of Being, because any moment of understanding is always limited. This is still an understanding of Divine Being, yet partial in view. The Divine Essence, nonetheless, can be directly experienced. This is the Pure Conscious Beingness of God, prior to mental comprehension or intelligent understanding. It is from this direct experience of Being that we can begin to explore, discover and understand the various treasures or qualities of Being.
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Spiritual Peace in oneself
A very deep way of experiencing Divine Being is by discovering the Deep Peace in oneself. Peace is one the beautiful Qualities of Divine Being. It is one of the most tangible Qualities of Being. In other words, one can immediately feel the degree to which one is in peace, and this feeling is unmistakable. Related to the Quality of Peace is the Divine Quality of Silence. At the very Essence of Being is Peace and Silence. This is the undercurrent of Divine Being. It is the Essence and Space behind all inner and outer phenomena, behind all thoughts and all manifestations. It is the primary Substance of Being. It is what everything comes out of, and to which everything will return.
So Peace and Silence is the very Being of God. We find this in the deep being of our heart, but only if the mind is quieted down and the heart is settled. One cannot expect to experience deep peace and silence, if the mind is raging or babbling on, or if the emotions are in states of attachment or reaction. One could be sitting in a remarkable church or sanctuary, yet never experience its deep peace and silence, if there are people around who are continually chatting or if there are emotional struggles going on. So this is how it also is in oneself.
Thus, the first key to discovering the Deep Peace of God, or in oneself, is a process of relaxing, letting go, emptying, and quieting. Deep Peace and Silence is at the end of this process. It is that which remains, after everything going on in oneself is let go of. The way into Peace and Silence is by relaxing, trusting, letting go, and settling down into the Peace and Silence that is already waiting. Many get close to the absolute Peace, but then tighten up and avoid it, because it may seem like death itself. So there may be a tendency in some people to fear and avoid this peace, because they fear emptiness, they fear silence. They fear disappearing into it all, so they hold back, they hold on to at least some thinking, some inner dialogue, or some kind of focus, like holding on to familiar furniture and clothes, and so they feel a need to keep filling their inner space with some kind of dialogue or images or inner drama in order that they do not fall completely into an empty void.
Yet in order to experience the deepest peace and silence, there can be no fears, no avoidances, no running away, no attachments. The whole inner realm of self phenomena must be let go of and dropped. And this does require a kind of courage and trust, but the end result is more beautiful than one can ever imagine, this deep peace and silence of Being, which really is God. The Divine Being, in essence, is like a deep inner lake, a lake of peace and silence. So the way into this is very much like a falling into the inner waters of Being. Relax and fall deep into the lake, and experience how this is. The way is a settling down; allowing the heart and mind to settle deep and deeper into the essence behind what is known. If one can really fall into this Depth of Peace and Silence, then one returns back to the world from this pure reservoir of Peace.
Now the act of falling is much like surrender. In surrendering, one allows oneself to fall. But this kind of falling is not a bad thing, like falling into drugs or falling into crime. It’s a good falling, like falling into a deep relaxation; except that in this relaxation one is remaining conscious and enjoying the peace.
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The path is to live from the soul, rather than the reactive and demanding personality. But first there needs to be a willing sacrifice of this reactive, demanding personality. The next step is to go deep into the soul, which is like going deep into oneself, or into the heart of oneself. It is like sinking into the peace of oneself. It is like quieting the self enough that the peaceful lake of the inner soul can be experienced. In other terminologies, the soul means the same as what some call the higher self. It also means the same as the reality of one's inner heart or essence. It is a very truth of our being. And the experience of our soul can be recognized as inner silence, peace, and love. So the Way is to consciously live from the soul, rather than the mechanical personality, but one must first be in this soul vibration - which is the vibration of inner silence, peace, and love. If we can live from this soul experience, then we are living from the Divine Source and we are in the Divine Way. This is the Way we must continually resolve to be in. And we must continually return to this soul-consciousness.
The path to one’s spiritual soul is to come to the Lake of Peace within oneself. This deep water of peace in oneself is one’s soul, and it is also the Peace of God. It is one’s portion of the Divine Essence of Peace. Remember that peace is God, just as love is God, for these are realities of God. Thus, when one experiences deep peace one is truly experiencing God, for God is Peace, or the Divine Peace itself, or one could simply say that the peace in oneself is God's Peace.
So we have to find this peace in oneself, which is one’s soul, and then come into this peace. This is the path into one’s soul. And in one’s soul is also silence and love. It is not necessarily a love that is directed to anyone in particular, but rather just a feeling of love. What is important is that one comes into this deep water of love, peace and silence. Next what is important is that one comes from this place of love, peace and silence.
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We have been considering God and the soul as peace, or like a water lake of peace in oneself. Yet within the soul and within God is also a fire, a fire of love. Love has these two polar aspects: the water of peace and the fire of purposeful passion. The heart can be immersed in the water of peace, yet it can also be enflamed with the fire of purposeful passion.
This fire of love’s passion has two significant directions. One is the passionate longing to experience God and divine union. The other is give and share one’s love with others and the world. The longing for God and union is an inward direction, while the passion to give is an outward direction.
Peace and passionate longing feel to be opposite qualities of being. Peace is a contentment in oneself and with the world. But longing is not content, for it seeks a movement or change to what is better or more complete. Yet both complement one another in the rhythm of our spiritual life. Both are significant qualities; neither has greater importance over the other, just as water and fire are equally needed in life. In most of one’s spiritual life these two qualities pulsate back and forth. But it is possible to hold both together, or be both at once; that is, being at peace, yet also longing and being passionate. In other words, one can be passionate but with peace, or one can be at peace but with longing.
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The ultimate spiritual goal of the mystical path is God-Consciousness. We might call this knowledge of God or spiritual Knowledge; but using the term knowledge may be misleading, because knowledge normally implies some content, such as thoughts or ideas. This content-knowledge is important, but it is not what is meant by God-Consciousness. No human mind can know everything of the whole universe, because human knowledge is inevitably limited. Yet it is possible to be in God-Consciousness. This is not about knowledge-content, it is not about knowing a whole lot of stuff. Rather, pure God-Consciousness has no content at all. It is just pure Consciousness - being what it is. It is pure Open-Consciousness, not closed in or fixated on any particular content. It is Free-Consciousness, free from the world. It is free from the world, but not divided from the world. It is unattached to the world, but not separate from the world. It is in the world, but not attached to the world.
There are three aspects of God-Consciousness, three aspects of the realized Mystic. These are wakefulness, love, and freedom. Wakefulness means being conscious of life in its flow. This might also be called pure mindfulness, or open-mind. Love is the Essence of God-Being, so it pervades God-Consciousness. And love is related in meaning to caring and compassion. Freedom is essential to God-Consciousness. It means nonattachment and transcendence. It means freedom from the world; yet even more importantly freedom from oneself – freedom from self attachments, desires and reactions. Freedom is also the key to God-Consciousness. Without freedom, there can be no God-Consciousness. So we have to be free of the world and free of ourself. No bonds, no attachments. Then, through this freedom, the love and creativity of God can emerge. Freedom is the key on the spiritual path, but it is not merely a freedom to do what we want; rather, it is freedom from mechanical impulses, so that Divine Creativity and Real Love may emerge through us.
Within God-Consciousness, freedom-from-the-world and caring-for-the-world are equally balanced.
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So although there is spiritual importance and transformation in the mystical experience of self-annihilation into the Divine Essence of Pure Being, or in the self-abandonment into God; the individual self reality and power of the individual self [as a centre of God-Divine] is spiritually important in the creative process of divine manifestation and in the practical work we need to do. For the self centre is, potentially, a power for divine work and creativity.
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One of the practices in Sufism is to recognize the Essence of Divine Being in everyone, recognizing the One Essential Self, the very Spirit or Essence of God. This is part of an even wider practice of realizing the Divine Essence everywhere, throughout all life. The sound and name of this Essence is Hu; so everywhere and in everyone there is Hu. This is the sound of the Living Spiritual Breath. It is the sound of the One Divine Presence. Everything is Hu, and everything comes from Hu. It is the Pre-manifest Being and the Being within all that manifests. It is both the Source and the Substance of life. It is the essential Substance of the form. So when we meet and relate with others, it is possible to perceive the One Divine Essence-Substance, as well as the unique form of this Substance.
In some cases the form or actions of a person may be likable, while in other cases it may not be likable. But in all cases the Divine Essence is present. The Divine Essence may be realized and better expressed in some people more than others, but in all cases it is nonetheless present. On one level of human relations we have to deal with likes and dislikes, and work out reconciliations of disagreement. But on a higher level we need to develop this recognition of the Divine Essence in everyone, independent of our judgments of form and action. On this higher level we learn to respect and appreciate the Divine Essence, in them as it is in us, in recognition of their Divine Potential and inner Essence of Beauty/Goodness. Their actions may not be what we believe is most good and beautiful, but there is still the Divine Essence present in their being, just as it is in us. So the key to right relationship is to interact with their Divine Essence, rather than get caught up in their form of expression. Speak and relate to their Divine Essence, rather than their patterns of behavior.
Realize that at the core of everyone is Love. Everyone is motivated by either the need to express love or the need to receive love. We can see this in everyone. Even the most oppressive or egotistical people are essentially motivated by a need to be loved. It is just that their strategies for this love are often convoluted. We have a need to be loved by others, but unfortunately this need can produce strange pathological behavior trying to manipulate this love. In extreme neurotic behavior a person may even act with hate to harm others, attempting to strike back at those who do not seem to love them.
The solution to this struggle is get beyond this desperation for love from others by realizing God’s Love. We still need love from others and we can still be open to receiving love from others, but not with desperation, because we know that we are already loved – from the Divine Source. Then we will not act from a desperate need for love, because we know that we are already loved. Then once we know we are already loved, we will naturally have motivation to express love.
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Prayer is essentially invocation of the Divine, and it is also having a sincere relationship with the Divine Source. Invocation is asking for the Divine Power to enter our lives, for self transformation and healing. We are asking to be transformed, purified and perfected in the Divine Light, and to be a clearer mirror of the Divine. So this is not an asking for the sake of an ego; it is rather for the sake of the Divine. We want to be a clear mirror and excellent instrument for the Divine Unfoldment and Radiance. We want to be aligned with the Divine Purpose and in the Divine Path.
So there are some essential aspects of true prayer that we need to remember and work with. Though there are no exact formulas of prayer or liturgy that we all are meant to follow. There are many possible forms of prayer, yet true prayer includes some essential aspects. The first aspect is the asking, however one does this. In relation to asking, or as another way of describing this essence, one is in an attitude of sincere humility, openness, and receptivity. Also, there needs to be an allowing of the Divine to move through us, purify us, transform us, heal us, and bring us into a more spiritually refined state of being. We are allowing the Divine to bring us into a finer harmony of being. We are allowing ourselves to become more aligned with the Divine.
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The essence of prayer is an opening to the Great Spirit, Divine Being, God. The purpose of this opening is that we may receive the Divine Grace, Love, Wisdom, and Healing-Transformative Energy. This is not a minor act. Prayer is not just for religious kind of people; it is a necessity on any true spiritual path. For we need to be open to the Divine Spirit, and we need to receive from the Divine Spirit. We need to be in this open, receptive relationship. For this is how the Spiritual Energies and Qualities may come into us and then be transmitted through us to others and the world in need. We need to be receptacles or chalices for the Divine, and also become channels for the Divine unfoldment into the whole world. We become such chalices and channels by the attitude of openness, receptivity and humility. In this way, the Divine transforms us and enters more fully into the dimension of creative life and into the world in general. This is the practice of prayer.
The Divine Power and Qualities are as potential, from the perspective of this manifesting world, and the Divine enters more fully into this world through the awakening minds and hearts of manifest beings. In one metaphysical model, the Higher is entering into the lower. Thus the lower needs to be in an attitude of openness and receptivity; then the Higher can flow freely through the lower. The lower can block out new input from the Higher, or it can open to this flow. So prayer is opening and allowing this flow from the Divine.
The Divine Energy is flowing from its Source through various levels into the manifest world. This Divine Energy is the Light of purification and perfection. The Divine must traverse through these levels, and each level is as a veil. Light moves through each veil, yet each veil obscures the Light to some degree. But if the veils become more transparent, then the Light of purification and perfection can come through with greater intensity.
Now to understand this in relation to ourselves, there are various veils (of our own psyche) obscuring the Light of God, the Divine Power, Presence, and Qualities. These can be understood as psychological veils blocking the flow of Divine Energy and Transformation, and blocking the realization of the Divine Reality. They might even be better understood as walls. Basically there are four walls: fear, resentment, pride and envy. But whatever is the cause of any wall, it is our responsibility to bring down the wall. It is our own responsibility, because we are holding the wall up. These walls may have been caused by early social conditioning or as a reaction to circumstances from childhood. But no matter what originally caused the walls to be formed, it is now up to us as conscious choosers to bring down the walls. Whatever walls exist, we are responsible for holding up these walls. Yet if we are holding these walls up, then we can surely bring them down. It is not up to God; it is up to us. So how can we do this?
These walls have become patterns in our psyche. And these patterns have become subconscious, which means they are not immediately present to our usual awareness. The subconscious is repository of all of our psychological and behavioral patterns. Some of these patterns are useful and practical, but some are not. So we need to consciously work at observing our subconscious patterns, especially for the purpose of seeing our up-held walls blocking Divine Truth and Energy. If we can see a wall or block, then we can take it down, we can dissolve it. This taking down or dissolving of the wall is a matter of conscious choice. It is a matter of our choice to do this; it is our responsibility. We need to regain responsibility for this wall, in recognition that we are actually holding it up, and then we need to let it go. We need to take responsibility for this pattern of the subconscious, then consciously let it go, consciously sacrifice it. Consciously bring down the wall, let it go.
Once a wall has become subconscious, it continues without our awareness. So we have to become aware of what is going on in the subconscious. We won’t be able to notice all that is going on in just one moment, but we can at least begin to be more aware of these subconscious patterns. Then, if can notice a block we can consciously dissolve it. To do this we must accept responsibility for it, once it is noticed. One must realize that it is oneself that is maintaining the block, and therefore it is one’s own responsibility for letting it go.
Taking responsibility is important, because this affirms our power to undo what is there. We have to know that we can bring down the wall, or the veil, because we are the one who is holding it up. Bringing it down then becomes a matter of our own choice. So if we choose to let go of the wall, and consciously let it go, it will immediately come down. Then we will be more open and our experience will be more full. We can see this power of choice at work in our human interactions. At one moment we may be experience a separation and wall between ourselves and another. But if we can notice this wall and take responsibility for it, then we can consciously choose to let it go. Then when we do this, the wall immediately dissolves, and we experience a sense of openness and communion with the other person. This is the result of our consciously letting go of the wall that we have subconsciously built between ourselves and the other.
If we try this out with someone, we will see how it is so. And there may even be multiple layers of these blocks or veils, such that there may be even more dissolving to do. Now this is really a subconscious pattern that may be happening a lot, so there is much work of noticing and dissolving to do. And this also happens in our relationship with the Divine.
For with the Divine, there are many layers or veils between us and the Divine Absolute Source. To some extent there is always some degree of Divine Flow moving through us. We could not live without this. { Some amount of Light seeps through } But there is always much more that is possible. So the spiritual path can be understood as a gradual dissolving of the veils, or an opening up through the layers. It can be understood as a continuing opening of the heart to the Infinite Spirit, so that this Great Spirit may move freely through us, enlightening our mind and inspiring our heart and bringing goodness into our self expression. This is the purification of the heart and mind, so that one may become evermore transparent in Divine Spirit. This is the coming into union with Divine Spirit, Pure Love, or God.
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note – Once the veil dissolves, the reality of Divine Being suddenly is revealed. The veil is lifted and we see what was always behind the veil. We see reality without any veil, without any wall, without any separation. --------
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Knowing our closeness to God and our true sincerity on the spiritual path is a subjective knowing. It is only known within oneself. We each must come to know ourself and see directly where we are at. What others think is of no real matter. It may be helpful to consider how others view us, but the ultimate discernment of our closeness to God and our purity on the path is up to us. And it is worth the time to reflect on our own spiritual state of being. In fact, this self reflection is an important spiritual practice in itself – to see what is real inside oneself and to honestly know how close and sincere one is to God.
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From the heart I surrender to God, and lose myself in God (the Whole Being). Then more of God comes through. Greater Light, Consciousness, and Love-Power shines through this life. Thus in surrendering and losing oneself, the Greater Life of God is able to emerge through this individual vessel. This is the meaning of resurrection and being born again, where by the Phoenix of Divine Spirit emerges from our self-surrender. We allow ourselves to die in God, so that God may be born again through us. This is part of the Great Purpose, that God may come into the world, being born into the world through our own individual vessel. This is the purpose, that God may come into the world, which in Christianity is called the birth of Christ. Yet this is a purpose for everyone, and for every moment, rather than being one particular, isolated, historical phenomena. Annihilation
So through our sincere self-surrender of egoic identification; more of God, more of the Great Being, is able to come forth into actuality. Yet this has to come forth through an individual vessel. And thus in the particular expression of the Divine, even in the purest of people, the Divine manifestation will be somewhat colored and conditioned by the particular vessel of its expression. This vessel is comprised of three main aspects: the physical body, the emotional body, and the mental body. So for instance the Divine expression will be limited and colored by the particular cognitive abilities, ways of thinking, and knowledge already functioning in the mental aspect. Thus, in all three aspects/bodies, the Divine will be somewhat enhanced by the positive qualities and abilities of any individual vehicle, while also being somewhat limited by any negative qualities or deficiencies in this individual vehicle. Therefore, practical work involving one’s own three aspects of the personality vessel is greatly important.
{ The pure Spirit/God comes through the empty vessel, the vessel that is empty of self-focus, self-reference, self-absorption. Yet the expression of divine quality takes on a coloring of the vessel it moves through a. It follows the unique capacities and mind of the individual self being a vehicle for Its expression, So there is always a need to develop the vessel, the physical body, the emotional sensitivity, and mental understanding. }
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Yet even though the Divine expression is somewhat colored and conditioned by its individual vessel, the Divine Power emerging through the individual has its own transformative effects on the individual being/vessel. The Divine coming through us, or God coming through us, is Itself transformative and is the true secret ingredient in spiritual alchemy, the Divine transformation of an individual. The power of God, which is the power of Love and Enlightenment, comes through and transforms the individual being. The actual vibration and state of consciousness of the individual is transformed higher. The complete process of this alchemy, though, is generally gradual, and it depends upon the intensity and sustainability of one’s meditation and spiritual practice.
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Spiritual teachings, sacred religious books, and sayings from great prophets can of course be very helpful as guidance on our path. But these are all secondary sources of wisdom and guidance. They can point out directions for us to look at. But they cannot be substitutes for directly seeing truth from our own eyes. Ultimately, we need to see what is true from our own eyes, from our own heart, from our own mind. Nothing and nobody else can do this for us. So there are guides and guidances available to help us, and we can learn from these, but ultimately we have to take the path of knowing truth by our own intuition and experience. For this is the primary source of wisdom, and we cannot escape this responsibility. Otherwise we are blindly following others, rather than seeing for ourselves. Thus, the most radical and true spiritual path is to put these books and teachings into our backpack for occasional reference, then embark on our own unique, unpredictable, exploratory journey to discover truth and a more profound way of living. Of course, one could accept being a mere follower of some teaching or another, and one could become quite good at following a tradition or way to the exact letter. But being a mere follower can never be completely sincere. For true sincerity must come from our personal centre of intuition and experience. There is also the question of what is really relevant in that which we read or hear from others. So we need to continually question and consider what is useful, relevant knowledge.
Now as said, primary knowledge comes from our own intuition and experience. Yet we need to derive this from God, for God is the ultimate true Source. So ultimately we need to turn to God for direct knowledge, for direct truth. God is the direct, primary Source of truth and knowledge. So ultimately we need to connect to God, to learn and be guided by God. This is the direct path. Learning from other sources is secondary, though useful. Make your own direct connection to God. Then you will be guided by the ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom.
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Divine Benevolence increases in our life and the world, as we increase our wish and prayer for it. God answers all calls of sincerity. This is the way divine power works. Loving benevolence, wisdom and guidance increasingly enters our world when there is an increase in asking and receptivity. This is because the divine power is essentially loving, so it responds to our sincere asking. We are like the beloved of the Divine, and the Divine is like a lover who responds to the beloved. The Divine is like a loving parent who gives to the wishes of the child. The Divine is like a loving friend who comes to the aid of friends when they ask. It is also analogous to how new creativity comes forth in response to need, like when beautiful love poetry comes forth out of love for a beloved.
But this loving response, or giving, only increases when there is sincere and trustful asking. This is a basic principles of metaphysics; divine unfoldment increases with asking and desire for it. The asking draws it out from potential, and trusting receptivity allows it to flow. So if we increase in our asking and in our desire for divine love and knowledge, then the divine power responds accordingly. This is the way life is, so it is up to us to make this increase. This is the power of prayer, the power of deep desire and asking. So may we increase our desire for divine guidance and enlightenment.
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The practice of consciously breathing love and light is always useful, at any time. At any time, we can bring in love and light from the Divine Source. It is an abundant reservoir, and its only purpose is to flow abundantly. But it cannot enter us unless we consciously breathe it into us. So this is one of the fundamental practices.
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In the practice of deep meditation, God is revealed in a unique way for each person. This is one’s personal experience of God. First, one has to deeply wish for an experience of God. Then, if one is open and receptive, God is revealed. But God is revealed in a unique for each person. This unique way of revelation depends on the person’s present understanding and it also depends on their present need. If two people are different in this respect, then they will experience God differently. Each revelation is a quality or portion of God, but not the fullness of God, for the infinite fullness of God is unattainable in any human experience. Only portions, greater or less, are possible. Yet each portion revealed is significant to the person receiving it. So we should revere this with reverence, as God revealing, and also acknowledge that this is significant to us. For this is one of the Faces of God.
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The face of God, or how God is revealed, depends on conditions of the receiving vehicle. Also, the way that the Divine is expressed depends on conditions of the expressing vehicle.
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We are in God/Being, like fish in the sea. God is everywhere around us and everywhere in us. This is what we need to realize, that God is present, right here around us and right here in us. Our mind is in God, and our body is in God, which means that we are fully in the Love and Wisdom-Knowing of the Universe. We just have to break out of our contracted-constricted state of awareness and open our mind/heart to the greater Mind/Heart. Then we can be in the expansive Mind and Heart of God.
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What’s important is being conscious. The Divine Presence is all around us, whether we know it or not. But unless we are conscious of this Divine Presence, it won’t have much effect on our lives and our immediate experience will be the same – scattered and diffused. We need to be conscious of being IN the Divine Presence. The positive spiritual energy of the Divine Presence will flow through our mind/heart only when we are conscious of being in it. So its all about being conscious and that which we are conscious of. When we are conscious of the Divine Presence, then this Presence can be real in us and produce a positive alchemical transformation in our being. But none of this happens unless we are conscious of it, including being conscious of the alchemical transformation itself.
Coming into resonance with the Divine Presence is also essential in this spiritual alchemy. So consciousness and resonance are essential keys in spiritual alchemy. Consciousness opens the pathway for this alchemy of being, and resonance lets in the transformation. So in order for self-transformation to occur, we need to be conscious of being in the Divine Presence and then come into vibrational resonance with the Divine Presence, the Presence of Love.
Come into resonance with the Divine Presence, the Divine Spirit. Surrender into this Presence, and then live from this Presence.
We come into a realization that we are in the Divine, and the Divine is in us. We are in Love, and Love is in us. We come into a conscious resonance with this, surrender our full self into it, and then allow this Presence to live through us. This is the spiritual alchemy.
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The great illusion is "separation from the One Divine Being," or separation from Unity. The truth is... there is only one I am, only one real self, only one heartfulness.
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In the higher stages of the path, the self-I is relinquished.
As my self I-ness is released, God's I-ness is revealed.
Be drunk with God, yet sober in the practical world. Only speak to others about the Truth, to the extent of their capacity to understand the Truth. Otherwise, the listeners will misunderstand and then ridicule you.
As long as there is self I-ness, there is dividedness from God. Empty the self I-ness, and know there is only God. Then we become the medium for God's expression; then our eyes and hands are God's.
"I am the Truth." The limited self can say this only with qualification, because this Truth could only be a limitation of absolute Truth. Yet the God Reality can say "I am the truth", saying this through the limited vehicle. So it depends on who's speaking. It could be the limited self suddenly realizing its universal truth nature, its reality in God, or it could be the God Reality affirming its own nature. As long as we don't get bigheaded about this, we can make a practice of it, affirming "I am the truth, the one Reality; my actions are God's actions, and my thoughts are God's thoughts." And it is best to qualify this with the attitude of still being relatively limited, and that my thoughts and actions are climbing the ladder of perfection, rather than always perfect.
If we look deeply into our self, or deeply into the world, there can be a discovery of God. Then, if the self is sacrificed, there is only God seeing the world through us.
God consciousness is like God seeing through us.
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The difference between a worshiper and God is that the worshiper only knows God limitedly, but God Itself is never limited. God is 'there' in the limitation, 'there' in the worshiper's mind and heart, yet God is not limited in its own Essence. This can be explained by the duo aspects of God. The Transcendental aspect of God is unlimited and eternally pure in its Essence, while the Immanent aspect of God is inevitably a limitation (or limited portion) of the Transcendental Essence. The Immanent has form, and form always has limitation, whether it be forms of knowledge or manifested forms. Yet the Transcendental Essence always pervades and spiritually energizes the forms of Divine Immanence. Thus, God is never limited in its Absolute Being. God is always there in any limitation, yet not limited in Itself. Ultimately all forms of immanence are by God's Grace. All spiritual awakening in the world and all spiritual forms in the world depend upon God's Grace, which has the same meaning as God's Natural Emanation, the pervading Transcendental Emanation through the world. In tantric terms, the qualities and energies of Divine Immanence are known as Shakti, while the Divine Essence-Transcendence is known as Shiva.
For the sufi, knowledge disappears in knowing God. Knowledge of God disappears in the gnosis of the sufi.
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God is inside. Look for God inside. Inside of oneself and inside of every life. The old way is to think of God as outside oneself or out-there. Instead, find God inside. For God is the inside life, power, essence, love, wisdom that is deep in the core of everyone and everything. That is where God is; not outside of life, not out beyond there, but rather inside life and in here. For oneself, God is inside here. So if you can leave behind the surface level of awareness and sink deep inside oneself, consciously, you will find God here, inside, and right in the middle of each present moment. Our usual mind wanders between past memories and future expectations or worries, and the mind also wanders around the surface level of life; yet God is always in the present, God is always present here, deeper within the surface of phenomenal life.
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flow and glow in the Spirit of God.
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I am copying this also to Metaphysics
We have been learning the goal of God-Consciousness, but for some this may be too ultimate to consider as realistically possible. Yet God-Consciousness basically means the essence of pure consciousness. Some may think that God is much too vast to really know. Yet we are really speaking about the very essence of self and life, about who we are in essence and what life is in essence. So to use another term for understanding, we could say Life-Consciousness, or the pure consciousness of Life, or conscious-life. All of these terms mean basically the same.
So let us introduce another term, Earth-consciousness, which again is basically the same. This could also be called Nature-consciousness, or the consciousness of Nature. Nature-consciousness, or Earth-consciousness, means being conscious of our essential Earth-Nature, or having the consciousness of Earth-Nature. This is essentially the same meaning as God-Consciousness, since God-Universal Consciousness is the essence of Earth-Nature consciousness. The Earth is a great conscious Being, of which we are part. The Earth is God particularized in the infinite space-time, and it is in process of spiritual unfoldment.
The significance of Earth-consciousness, in regards to spiritual practice, is that this can become our spiritual goal, to be united with Earth-consciousness. In this practice, one enters into the Earth-consciousness, to be at-one with it, at-one in it. The practice is to become Earth-conscious. This also involves empathy with all of nature, all of life. It is being at one with the spirit of Earth, the spirit of nature.
We human beings are part of this Earth-Nature, part of this living Earth-consciousness and intelligence. It is our own essence, and it is what we are in. We are in this consciousness and intelligence of the Earth-Being. In fact, humans are the special creatures who have the capacity to be Earth-consciousness in a comprehensive way that includes all of the Earth life. This comprehensive consciousness and intelligence also includes a loving empathy with all life on Earth. In other words, humans have the unique capacity for an empathetic consciousness, an Earth-inclusive consciousness, viewing life from the perspective of this Earth-Being Itself. One then cares for all life on Earth, as the Earth cares for all of its life. In many traditions the Earth is viewed as the Mother, generating life and caring for all life. The Greeks understood the Earth as the Goddess-Mother Gaia.
The Earth is in process of evolution, and we are part of this evolution. In one eastern story the son of Shiva (Universal Consciousness) and Shakti (Life-Force), Kumara, enters into the mineral earth to become spirit rocks, mountains, and valleys. Kumara is pleased because he can be materially stable. But Kumara longs to change and grow, so he becomes a plant, and he is happy to grow into a completion and reproduce. But Kumara then longs to be mobile and be able to see and sensually interact with others, so he become animal, and he is happy to move about intelligently. Then Kumara longs to be a consciousness that is empathetic to all of life, so he becomes human, and he is still evolving to the completion of this.
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soul:
The soul is an individuation of the One Being, God. It is a reflection of the One Light. It is not the All of Light, yet within its being potential is all of the One Light. The soul can also be understood as a level or degree of Self-realization, God-realization, God-consciousness, or Divine Knowing. So within the overall possibility of God-knowing, there is a hierarchy of levels. Each is a level of conscious I am. Our goal, as individual souls, is to ascend the levels towards the One Absolute Realization of Divine Being. On the one hand, we as individuals are ascending into greater realization; while on the other hand, the Divine Knowing is descending down into the levels of individuation. Realization firstly descends from the Divine Knowing Itself, Yet it is our responsibility to receive this Knowing and ascend into greater realization.
The One Knowing divides Itself into plurality, or individuations, which limits the Knowing in each individual. Yet each individual being contains the full essence of knowing within itself. Then the work (or path) of each individual is to gradually (in gradation) discover more of the Divine Knowing in oneself. This may continue until complete Knowing is attained. One is thus traveling back to God. The I-consciousness is expanding towards the ultimate One and All Consciousness of God.
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After the One Divine Being divided into a plurality of individual beings, creating the intra-inclusive spheres or levels of being, and also the universe of nature, each individual drop of Being must traverse the path to greater self-realization. The microcosm is to realize the macrocosm within it. Yet let us review some of the steps, which is really about practice and experience.
The first awakening is to our individual selfness, which is our own conscious centre or will. This experience of self, or ‘I am’, has the sense of being separate from other selves. Some spiritual-mystical teachings devalue or criticize this separate sense of self, but it is actually an important practice to intensify this experience and develop a strong individual self-knowing. This experience/practice is an intense present moment realization of I am, and this I am is centered here rather than there or everywhere.
After this separate experience of I am is strong, the next stage of is experience/practice is the realization of ‘I am in relationship.’ This is the experience of being in relationship with others or with the world around. Yet one has not lost the separate I-ness; rather, the relationship experience is added on to the experience of being a distinct selfness, so that the individual self ‘I Am’ now discovers its relationship with the present world that is around oneself.
The third stage of experience/practice, after the previous two stages have been well developed, is an annihilation of separative self-experience. This can be understood as a dissolving of the subject/object distinction. The world is present to experience, but without individual/separate self-experience. The subject (self) has disappeared into the present moment. Now this kind of self-transcendence in nature, in the world, or in God, can be found in mystical narratives, and it has sometimes been called mystical union. It is, of course, a profound experience and way of being, but we should also remember the due importance of the other stages, the previous modes of experience already discussed. Because a common attitude among many spiritual teachings is to hyper-value this mystical mode of self-transcendence while devaluing the separative mode of experience.
The correct and balanced attitude is to accept both modes as significant, in the same way that an in-breath is just as significant as an out-breath. So the mode of individual/self I-ness is equally important as the mode of mystical self-annihilation. Each mode can be understood as two aspects of one Great Process, such as the in and out aspects of breath. And the second stage of conscious relationship, whereby the individual I/self enters into an interconnected relationship with others or the world at hand. This middle mode is a kind of blending between the other polar modes.
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knowing the Will of God
An experience of God has meaningful relation to knowing the Will of God. That is, the practice of 'remembrance' may also mean a re-connection with the Will of God. A Muslim fundamentalist may reduce the meaning of 'remembrance' to remembering the basic commands of God as set forth in the Quran or in legalist dogma; but the sufi meaning is more directly experiential, in that God's Will speaks to the mystic directly through the heart and intuition. This is not to deny the value of remembered principles or precepts along the Way, but the aim of the sufi is to directly know God's Will in any conscious moment. This knowingness of God's Will is by knowing God. By experiencing God emerging in oneself, one DOES know God's Will, because the experienced Quality of God IS God's Will. For example, if one experiences God's Love and Caring through oneself, then this IS the emanation of God's Will. And the expression of such Qualities into the world IS God's Will in action. Also, the inner emerging Presence and Qualities of God transforms oneself, such that our own will becomes more reflective of God's Will. So as we enter into a conscious experience of God, or as we allow God to enter into our experience, God's Will begins to express through us - (through God's Qualities emerging through us) - and this helps God's Will manifest on earth.
Sometimes people speak of God expressing or working through them. I've heard people say things like, "It's not me doing it, it's God" or "I wasn't playing the instrument, it was God." Frankly, I would feel uncomfortably insincere in saying such things because of an uncertainty as to how much should be attributed to God and how much to me. I can feel sincere in saying at times that I'm experiencing God, such as God's Presence or Love, but I feel more reserved in stating that God is working through me, maybe because it seems to imply an absolute perfection. I suppose I could feel more comfortable with the statement in its more general meaning, that God sometimes generally works through me, but I feel uncomfortable with the implied arrogance of believing that God is fully at work here and I'm not responsible for it.
It seems quite arrogant for someone to say "I'm not doing it, it is God." Not only does this lack any personal responsibility, but it actually implies that what they are doing is absolutely Fantastic. Imagine an artist or musician who says her work was really done by God, like "I had nothing to do with it; my hands were just an instrument of God." Might this really be a statement of pride and conceit, a suggestion that this particular work is the Work of God? Of course we might give the benefit of doubt to any creative expression, and I don't want to deny the possibility of God working through us, but it seems we should be somewhat reserved and cautious in what we say and even in what we believe regarding this issue of divine immanence moving through us.
The intelligent view, I believe, is to admit that there can be varying degrees of God emanating through us, a possible continuum between virtually nil and extremely full. Sometimes when we are in the right receptive state and when we have developed some needed skills in a given area of expression, it IS possible for God to 'work through us' in higher degrees than usual. But even in these cases, in order to avoid possible self-delusion we should admit some responsibility, rather than simply assume it is 'Just God' at work. For if we just assume that a given work or expression is 'from God', then this becomes protected from any reasonable critique. For example, if I simply assumed that everything written here is actually the work of God (because it's not my will but Thy Will), or if I convinced you that God is writing through me, then how can we critique or question or try to improve on what is assumed to be God's very work?
Let us give praise for God working through us, to whatever degree this is. Yet keep in mind that whatever one shares from their experience may be from a slightly different perspective than how others might experience God or higher self or the spiritual path. I speak from my perspective and my experiences and with my added reasonings; but hopefully my perspective is wide enough and my experiences are expansive enough to include more of Reality. God is working through me, and my experience is of God, to the extent that it is Transpersonal vs. little-personal. Hopefully in sharing we can widen our views and expand our experiences, and hopefully we can understand one another and find some deeper common ground in how Divinity is experienced.
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When one has fully surrendered the heart and mind to the Divine Reality underneath the heart/mind, and allow the Divine to be conscious in oneself; then there is Union and the Divine emerges through oneself. At this point it takes perseverance of centeredness, in order to maintain the direct connection; for otherwise, the mind tends to revert to its previous mechanical habits. And also the expression of Divine Being in the world of circumstances requires the instrumental medium of thoughts and mental concepts, so the Divine has to use whatever is available.
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To be 'conscious in God’ IS the Will of God.
It is the key to both the inner and outer paths.
First, it is GW that we become God-conscious.
Second, to the degree that we are God-conscious
we are conscious in Wholeness
and have Unitive consciousness,
and so our actions will come forth from this conscious Unity,
which means that our actions will be in harmony with Unity.
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I copied this section into Balance
There are two different ways to be on a journey, OR upon life..... two different styles.
There is the preplanned way
and there is the spontaneous way.
Each of these ways has its positives and each has its negatives, so it would not be fair to claim that one of these ways is always superior to the other. We all probably have at least some experience with each of these ways, though people tend to be inclined toward one of the ways over the other. And if you ever go on a trip with someone who is excessively committed to one of the ways, which happens to be the opposite of your style, then you know of the frustrations for one way to adapt to the other. But right for now, let us consider how these two ways factor into our own spiritual journey and in how we live life. The pre-planner is always much more organized than the spontaneous traveler. The problem, though, is that if one decisively preplans the whole journey, then one will be able to only experience what has been planned, and one can miss out on experiences that would only be possible in a more spontaneous and unplanned exploration. Imagine a journey being planned out with utmost detail, and then imagine that such plans actually work out. Then the plan is success, but all experience has been limited and in a way manipulated by the preplanning. One calls it a success, but how much of possible exploration has been missed? That is the ironic thing about the preplanning style; the preplanner is determined that the plan succeed, but even if succeeding there may well have been unknown loses accrued. Then, if the plan does not succeed one is disappointed. And of course, plans do not always succeed because life is somewhat unpredictable. So if we consider the spiritual journey, and the meditations and other practices one does, the preplanning approach has the problem of often being too rigid and fixed, such that possible experiences other than planned are usually missed. One tends to get too fixated on the planned goals, whereby one is less open to what the universe unexpectedly offers. Can you see how this might limit or suppress other possible experiences of the journey? Furthermore, the preplanner tends to follow fixed directions, like details found in a book or tradition that exactly spell out how one ought to practice meditation or live a spiritual life. And some people follow such directions all their life, believing that this is the best way to make the journey, and they never take any chance to explore some other way or to just be spontaneous in their exploration of oneself and life. On the positive side, though, the preplanning approach is quite organized and often avoids potential pitfalls of taking wrong turns and ending up lost on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, which is of course the negative possibility of the spontaneous style of journeying. So the spontaneous approach can lead to lost highways and circular dead-ends. And it too may lead to lost experiences. Which is why traditions and religions suggest a more safer journey by following the directed guidance of its founding teacher or prophet. But then, is one really living a spiritual exploratory life, or merely trying to repeat someone else’s path by safely trodding along the confines of a narrow trail through the mountains and valleys of possible experience? One succeeds in having the panoramic views from that guided path, but one misses out on other possible perspectives. The spontaneous, unplanned and undirected journey offers a unique possibility to experience what life is about, without any preconception. The journey is then an open-minded exploration, where there are no confining paths, no fences, no fixed directives. One needs more courage in this undirected, spontaneous approach. But one also needs more personal discrimination, intuition, and responsibility. Yet, there are potential problems with the purely spontaneous approach, such as becoming lost and confused, or going off on wrong tangents. Many of the philosophers of this spontaneous approach declare that there are no wrong paths. Its all good, and any place to be, or any experience, is just as good as any other. But this spiritual optimism, or spiritual relativism, is flawed; for we can see in our own lives and in others that people do sometimes take wrong paths or get into circular confusions. This is where the directed and guided path comes into value.
So the true teaching does not hold that one of these two approaches is solely superior to the other. Each has its value in the journey, and the truly better way is to balance both styles. Begin from the directed approach and follow the advice of previous journeyers. Make some plans from such advice and seek to follow them through. Yet remain open-minded to other possibilities, and then at times explore life and the spiritual realms with spontaneity and undirected abandon, though always retaining some proven maps and directions if one gets lost or confused. The directed and planned path can act as a foundation, but then one can courageously explore beyond such directed paths and be in the freedom of a true explorer. One can work with set practices to see where they lead, but one can then step off of the planned path and open-mindedly walk into new territory, exploring what-is without preconception or preplanning. This sort of balance is important.
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{{ One can see the expression of divine qualities in others, and this is good, but the subjective knowing of divine qualities can only be known in oneself. In others one might see the expression of love and other qualities of divine beauty, but one cannot see love from the inside. Love can only be experienced from the inside by experiencing the love within oneself. We could say the same in regards to God. One can see expressions of God in others or in the world, but the subjective knowing of God can only be experienced in oneself. The ultimate experience of God, subjectively or from the inside of God, is the experience of love from the inner perspective of being a lover. Only the lover truly knows love from the inside of love, or from the inside of God. }}
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Poverty has been a theme in many mystical traditions. Many of the mystics have in fact been materially poor, or wanderers without material possessions, but material poverty is not the significant meaning of this theme. It does not necessarily mean that one must be materially poor or in material poverty. Giving away one’s material wealth and possessions may actually be beneficial to one’s spiritual path, but it would be false to generalize this as right for everyone. Rather, the meaning of poverty, in the context of the spiritual path, is a kind of mental and emotional attitude in relation to God (or Spirit).
This attitude involves humility, in the sense of being humble in relation to the power and wisdom and greatness of God. Humility also involves being in a receptive mode in relation to God. This means being receptive to divine inspiration or guidance, and also acknowledging one’s need for this inspiration. It is like acknowledging one’s essential need for food, air and water; but in this context, one’s essential need is for divine love, inspiration, and guidance. An even deeper need is for experiencing divine union.
A related meaning of mystical poverty is emptiness, for poverty means having little or no possessions. Once again, this has to do with attitude and self-experience, rather than literally about material possessions. The needed experience of poverty, then, comes when one willingly sacrifices or lets go of one’s many attachments to personal desires and self-identities. Thus, the spiritual meaning of poverty is to be empty of these attachments and self-identifications, in order that one is empty enough to receive divine inspiration and revelation.
The mystic willingly surrenders all their stuff, its all given up. If one surrenders one’s attachments and self, then there is no holding on. This is the emptiness and poverty of the mystic. One bows their head to the ground and says, “Here, take all of me and everything I have.” Even the identification of “I” is surrendered. This is done so that one may be a pure servant of Divine Will, or Divine Love (both are the same). This is real humility in relation to the Divine. One is also bowing down in reverent respect to the very Source of all life, the supreme Root of all being and existence.
The sense of poverty also involves an attitude of gratefully accepting what God gives us. However, this attitude of acceptance is often misunderstood as a suggestion to accept whatever the world gives or expresses. Sometimes what is given by the world is merely an expression of someone’s compulsive ego or an expression of someone’s attempt at manipulating others. So there is misunderstanding if one believes simply that everything given or expressed by the world is synonymous with God’s giving or divine good. Gratefully accepting what God gives means accepting whatever inspiration God gives. We cannot demand this or that divine inspiration. In other words, divine inspiration is fully beyond our control. We cannot simply get inspiration by our own efforts, which is why we are in poverty and in need of God as our provider. We have to go out and work for material needs, but we can only gratefully accept and receive divine inspiration. Though, we can make certain efforts, to do with a change in our attitude and relation to God, which will make a more favorable condition (in us) for divine inspiration to come to us.
So with this spiritual attitude of poverty and humility, we seek the pure clear Spring of Divine Inspiration. We seek the Source of Divine Water, and only this can truly satisfy our real thirst or spiritual need. Nothing else will ultimately satisfy but this Source of Divine Water, this Spring of Divine Inspiration, or the pure clear experience of Divine Essence. We only want the pure Spirit. So we leap into this Divine Spring. We cleanse ourselves in this and are revitalized by this, and we drink and fill up with this Spiritual Water of Life and Inspiration. In poverty we are empty and also thirsty, so we know the need for this pure water. We should always remember this need and always remember that we can come to this eternal Spring of Divine Sustenance. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we can drink from this pure water of Spirit deep within. This will give us what we truly need, heal us, and protect us. So drink freely from this eternal Spring of Pure Spirit, which is directly within us.
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For many people on a spiritual path, there is a need for 'intermediate Presences', between one's own divine soul and the ultimate Reality of God (or Absolute Divine Self). This would include the experience of Presences such as Jesus (or Christ), Buddha, Quan Yin, Mohammad, or other Mystics or Masters or Saints or Teachers, or even possibly Teachers or Gurus still alive, and also included would be Angelic Spirits, Spirit-Guides, Devas, or the various gods or goddesses spoken about in various traditions. These are great Being-Presences which can be mediators between ourselves and the Great Spirit Itself. They can be helpers and guides, and also transforming powers.
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A person with Being, who possesses and expresses spiritual Being, is one who possess consciousness, love and will. We could add further qualities to this by saying the person has intelligence, peace, beauty, and a sense of purpose. This is a person possessing and incarnating the Being of God. We might call this person is a Christ (meaning an incarnation of God-Being), though to be a Christ (God incarnate) is matter of degree. That is, we can have consciousness, love and will to some degree. Each of us can be the living Word of God, the Expression of God, to some degree. We can embody God, The Divine Being, to some degree, more or less, and inwardly work to make this embodiment more expressive of God, thus climbing the spiritual ladder. In one sense we climb the spiritual ladder of realization, while in another sense we bring Divine Being right down here.
We bring the Divine Being into self-presence ... and ..
participate in the Being of God.
the courage to love all one can love..
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Another analogy: Silence is also like the empty sky behind the usual clouds of thought.
Another practice of the Sufis is the sounding of Hu. Talk about the Hu as divine Essence, before qualification, before knowledge. And the practice of emptying.
So, how do we develop this capacity? What can we do to promote the expansion and refinement of God Consciousness in our being?
The keys are: emptying (which is same as purifying mind), trusting, opening, and receptivity. {{talk more on emptying and trusting}}
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The first requirement is emptiness. If one can empty the mind of fixated, obsessive thinking, and all thought-content, then GC will soon be present. GC will enter and pervade the empty mind, like Light filling an open space, or like clear water filling an empty receptacle. The empty mind has the capacity to receive. The degree of emptiness is also the degree of purity, just as emptying the mind is the same as purifying the mind. So the empty, pure mind is also the clear mind, clear of all mechanical and obsessive thought, and also clear of emotional entanglements and reactions.
Now, the clear, pure and empty mind has the capacity to clearly see the true reality of Being. So here there is Self-transparency. And through this transparency, GC and God-Being is able to reveal Itself. God Consciousness can now be present and experienced. The clouding obstructions have disappeared, so the radiance of GC is now evident. This GC was already here, for it is everywhere in reality, throughout the mental and physical worlds; but it was not evident and present to mind until the clouding obstructions disappeared. These obstructions were the fixated, obsessive thinking, the thought-content, and the emotional preoccupations. Once these are cleared, GC becomes radiant in one’s experience. Again to note though is that this happens in degree, so we are not yet at a final end goal yet we have moved closer to full GC. Then, through our degree of GC the Qualities of Divine Being emerge and manifest.
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Unconditional acceptance.....
..go on with more on this??
... God could still love, guide heal directly. but often it is via human.
.. often the need to let/allow God to..
(which is a willingness) or act of will)
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how in zikr – meditation, one surrenders and enters a wider space of Being, which is Baqa; and this occurs in stations or levels, as if one enters new dimensions.. of Baqa.
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Relating to Inner World....
the invisible world.
the invisible work.
the invisible life.
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3 through zikr prayer, call to God, whereby we can experience God’s Love – God loving us and receiving God’s Love. (could go more into this)
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