Divine Tears

 

Why is the journey to the Divine Union such a painful journey? because, in the words of a Persian song,

The ego will not go with laughter and with caresses

But must be chased with sorrow and drowned in tears.

But love is more powerful than all our evasions, than all the walls we have erected around ourselves. "

From Love is a Fire: The Sufi's mystical journey home.

Dhyana Meditation

This is from a good friends blog, and originally from Llewellyn Vaughn Lee, a Jungian Analyst/Sufi Teacher :) I have been doing the practice consistently for a few weeks and it has many positive levels :)

Dhyana meditation connecting heart and mindfulness . .

" The heart meditation that we practiced was developed in India, where it is also known as dhyana meditation:For the heart meditation, as long as the body is relaxed the physical position does not matter: one can sit or even lie down.

The first stage in this meditation is to evoke the feeling of love, which activates the heart chakra. This can be done in a number of ways, the simplest of which is to think of someone whom we love. This can be God, the great Beloved. But often at the beginning God is an idea rather than a living reality within the heart, and it is easier to think of a person whom we love, a lover, a friend.

Love has many different qualities. For some the feeling of love is warmth, or a sweetness, a

softness or tenderness, while for others it

is peace, tranquility or silence. Love can also come as a pain, a

heartache, a sense of loss. However love comes to us, we immerse

ourself in this feeling; we place all of ourself in the love within the heart.

When we have evoked the feeling of love, thoughts will come, intrude

into our mind—what we did the day before, what we have to do tomorrow. Memories will float by, images appear before the mind’s eye. We have to imagine that we are getting hold of every thought, every image and feeling, and drowning it, merging it into the feeling of love.

Every feeling, especially the feeling of love, is much more dynamic

than the thinking process, so if one does this practice well, with the utmost concentration, all thoughts will disappear. Nothing will remain.

The mind will be empty. The state of dhyana is a complete abstraction of the senses in which the mind is stilled by the energy of love within the heart, and the individual mind is absorbed into the universal mind. The actual experience of dhyana rarely happens during the first practice of meditation. It may take months, even a few years, to reach this stage. And once we do begin to experience dhyana we may not realize it. The initial experiences of dhyana usually last for just a split second—for an instant the mind dips into the infinite and just for a

moment we are not present. There may be little or no consciousness

that this has happened; the mind may not even be aware that it was absent. But gradually, the mind disappears for longer and longer periods; we become aware that our mind has shut down. The experience can for some time seem like sleep, since sleep is the nearest equivalent we have ever known to this mindless state.

The experience of dhyana deepens as the lover is immersed deeper and deeper into a reality beyond the mind. More and more one tastes the peace, stillness, and profound sense of wellbeing of a far vaster reality where the problems that surround us so much of the time do not exist—a reality beyond the difficulties of duality and the limitations of the world of the mind and senses, into which, for a little while each day, meditation allows us to merge. Dhyana is the first stage in the

meditation of the heart. It is, as Irina Tweedie described it, “the first stage after transcending the thinking faculty of the mind, and from the point of view of the intellect it must be considered as an unconscious state. It is the first step beyond consciousness as we know it.”(6)In dhyana, the heart is activated and the energy of love slows down the mind. The mind loses its power of control and individual consciousness is lost, at first for an instant and then gradually for longer periods of time. The lover becomes absorbed, drowned in the ocean of love.

Then in this state of unconsciousness a higher level of consciousness, or samadhi, begins to awaken. The evolution of dhyana into samadhi happens “by easy degrees,” as “the highest stages of dhyana are gradually transformed into the lower stage of samadhi, which is still not completely conscious,” and this less-conscious state leads in turn to the higher state of samadhi, which “represents a full awakening

of one’s own divinity.”(7)

The experiences of samadhi cannot easily be described. They belong to a level of reality beyond the mind, to a dimension of unity in which everything is merged, where the mind, operating as it does by making distinctions, cannot get a foothold. In samadhi we begin to experience our true nature which is a state of oneness: we are what we experience. Gradually we glimpse, are infused with, the all-encompassing unity and energy of love that belong to the Self and

underlie all life. And this oneness is not a static state, but a highly dynamic state of being that is constantly changing. Also our experience of it changes: no two meditations are the same and our experience becomes deeper and richer, more and more complete. On this plane of

unity everything has its own place and fulfills its real purpose. Here the true nature of everything that is created is present as an expression of divine oneness and divine glory. In the outer world we

experience only a fragmented sense of our self and our life. Here everything is complete and we come to know that everything is just as it should be.

What do you want?

Matthew 6:33 ‘Seek ye first, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you’

In the Spiritual walk, do you want something from God, or do you want God?

Will God alone satisfy, or will what you want from Him satisfy? Does being stripped of everything, your money, your family, your culture, your health, and  having only the Love of God, scare you or seduce you?

As God draws us towards him in the supreme act of Love, He wants us to want Him, not the things He can give us.

In this way, God is a jealous God.

Burning

At prayers this evening I was feeling the hunger for new vision, to be captivated by something new. A speaker came up as I was thinking that, and said he felt God saying that we need to get fresh for God, to go beyond the habits of our words, and find new purpose.

I came home and wrote this short poem, called ‘Ignite’.

Ignite me.

Burn me, oh Lord.

Raise your fire within.

Brand with me your torch so I burn, burn

with your light, for your light, by your light.

Ignite me, oh lord.

Let your angels speak your Holy Vision.

Set fire me to with your Holy Vision,

releasing me into service of

‘Thy will be done, thy kingdom come’.

How I hunger to burn with your light,

To act guided by your compass.

A man without vision is an empty shell.

Ignite me oh lord. Set the days on Holy Fire.

Bringing me back to life

One of my favorite songs is from Cade Del Mar, “A man called Adam-Easter song”. In it are the words “I put myself in your hands completely. You’re bringing me back to life”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzCM-rC3d6Q&feature=PlayList&p=4D97454FA471F5CA&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=14

I love this song. When I get caught up in myself, I have learned to stop, slow down, remember that Christ supports me if I would only trust and let go of my way. Christ came to give life, and give it to the full. When I stop and let go of my way, and open to God’s way, the sign that the opening is authentic is a feeling of life.

This is the miracle of spirituality, one of the central teachings of awakened living. The self-contraction can be held in loving awareness, in an embrace of gentle compassion and self acceptance, and slowly openness returns. Life returns. Possibility returns.

This is beautiful. This is the miracle of surrender, the fountain of life.

Awareness liberates.

Who do you say I am?

Matthew 16:12-16 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

¹⁵"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,^[a] the Son of the living God."

 

Who do you say Christ is? Not what you heard at church, not what you have always believed, but right now.

What if the most powerful, loving, intelligent, creative force in the Universe was sitting in the room with you. Would you pass off some glib answer? Or would you recognize your infinite smallness and fall on the floor, humbled into eternity?

Would you casually keep watching TV and live tomorrow as you did today?

Somehow, I know that if what I say He is doesn’t shake me to the core and shatter me open with fresh death and rebirth, then I have forgotten what it means to be in relationship with God, and I have fallen back into relationship with my pride.

Just think. What if you knew God was really in the room with you. Who would you say He is?

If I say He is God who suffered and died for me, does my heart reflect this truth, or am I a liar?

Disciples

Today I thought about spreading the kingdom. What came to mind were the words of Christ from John 13 vs34-45

“34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is the kingdom of Christ.  I see Christ established on this earth when we live in healthy relationship. We encourage and support each other. We hold each other to our highest truths. Our hearts are open and we live our lives in service and honor of a greater truth, of The Way of Christ.

In the kingdom our small self-centeredness, our pride, will have gone. In the kingdom I see us open, Gods love pouring into us, Gods love pouring out of us, and this flow creating life for us and those around.

My inquiry is simple, yet the answer is nothing less than the complete dissolving of my separate self.  “How do I love like Christ?”

In this is the miracle. If I can allow my little human self to get out the way (which is all Christ is asking), I am released into Love, I am released into discipleship of Christ.