Friends,
I heard a few years ago what is reportedly a true story. A young couple brought home their new born second child. On the first night at home, they awoke to hear their oldest daughter, now three, approach the crib of the infant in the nursery. She peered into the face of her young brother and said, "Tell me about God, I've almost forgot."
Now this is an endearing story but it speaks a profound and simple truth. The experiential knowledge of God, what the Greeks called "gnosis," and the Hebrews called "da'ath," is what we already possess. In Christianity and in the Semitic mystical origins of Christianity "remembrance" is the essence of all prayer and worship. The word used in the Middle East mystical traditions, whether they be Jewish, Christian, or Islamic, is "Remembrance" or "Anamnesis" (the Greek word). If we possess the knowledge of God in the Heart then there is an understanding that our origin and end is God, God is our Home, always was and always will be in eternity. By inference then the real adversary in our spiritual work is forgetfulness. Forgetfulness of our true nature and our origin and belonging is the source of every spiritual ill in the human condition. To Wake Up!! is then our task in remembering. We are admonished again and again by the Yeshua of scripture to be awake, because the "bridegroom comes." This is falsely understood by some as an apocalyptic reference. Rather it is the practice of 'every moment' unceasing prayer of remembrance, of cultivating spiritual attention and listening to the Heart of Christ beating in our own Heart or Spirit.
To wake up from the unconsciousness of our soul captivated in the ego-mind it is necessary therefore to cultivate a spacious interior silence the ancients called Hesychia. This spacious silence happens as we learn to observe and release from the traffic of the ego-mind and sink into and abide in the interior silence and Presence of the Heart. Prayer of the Heart as a process then, is "observing the mind, abiding in the Heart." In this abiding we began to recognize we are Home, and our inner ear of the Heart is listening more and more to the Heartbeat of the Universe, the Heart of Christ within us. As we listen, we attune our soul, our consciousness, our will to this deep, deep, and Life-giving Heartbeat. Our soul, every aspect of our humanity then becomes an expression of this Inner Heartbeat of Christ. This is Christosis, becoming Christ and we are all the Beloved Disciple with our cheek resting on the breast of Christ. We are Home, and we are remembering who we are, and the Life pouring forth from that Great and Universal Heart that upholds and sustains us.
Many blessings to all,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Being on the Way
Friends,
The early followers of Yeshua were called people of the Way. It's a pity that present day followers don't have the same understanding. In Chinese spiritual tradition the Tao, or the Way, is both the Divine Mystery and the path. In Semitic Eastern Christianity, Christ is both the Divine Mystery manifest in the world, and the Way into that Mystery, the Way we participate in the Mystery.
Inevitably students of mine, as I have done in times past, ask if they shouldn't be having experiences, or noteworthy steps of attainment in the course of their years of practice of Prayer of the Heart. I can only say what I tell myself. There is nothing to be attained, and no separate person to attain it. The goal is the process, participation in the Way. The flow of the Christ Life in our Life is the Way. And we can either unite ourselves in it, in our awakened attention and in our self-offering surrender, or we can resist it, attempt to deny it or flee from it. Clearly having come a certain way, there is only one choice but to say "Yes". Saying Yes is what we can do. We may not be saints, we may not be illumined mystics, but we can continually say "Yes." And quite simply there is nothing else to do.
I awake in the morning. I drink my morning tea and look at the goldfish. They are awake, they are swirling around in their space. As thoughts of the day ahead begin to form, I can return to here and now as I am about to enter my prayer space. Yes, I can do this. I can sit and be present. I can be in Remembrance of the Way, of the appearance of Christ in me, in the world. I can shake off forgetfulness, here and now, and keep returning. This I can do. I can enter the Way, and return, again and again, without ceasing. This is the Great Way of Yeshua. We can do this!
Many blessings on your day,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net
The early followers of Yeshua were called people of the Way. It's a pity that present day followers don't have the same understanding. In Chinese spiritual tradition the Tao, or the Way, is both the Divine Mystery and the path. In Semitic Eastern Christianity, Christ is both the Divine Mystery manifest in the world, and the Way into that Mystery, the Way we participate in the Mystery.
Inevitably students of mine, as I have done in times past, ask if they shouldn't be having experiences, or noteworthy steps of attainment in the course of their years of practice of Prayer of the Heart. I can only say what I tell myself. There is nothing to be attained, and no separate person to attain it. The goal is the process, participation in the Way. The flow of the Christ Life in our Life is the Way. And we can either unite ourselves in it, in our awakened attention and in our self-offering surrender, or we can resist it, attempt to deny it or flee from it. Clearly having come a certain way, there is only one choice but to say "Yes". Saying Yes is what we can do. We may not be saints, we may not be illumined mystics, but we can continually say "Yes." And quite simply there is nothing else to do.
I awake in the morning. I drink my morning tea and look at the goldfish. They are awake, they are swirling around in their space. As thoughts of the day ahead begin to form, I can return to here and now as I am about to enter my prayer space. Yes, I can do this. I can sit and be present. I can be in Remembrance of the Way, of the appearance of Christ in me, in the world. I can shake off forgetfulness, here and now, and keep returning. This I can do. I can enter the Way, and return, again and again, without ceasing. This is the Great Way of Yeshua. We can do this!
Many blessings on your day,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net
Monday, July 11, 2005
The Edge
Friends,
A master of the spiritual journey is the African American mystic, Howard Thurman, who was reportedly a spiritual guide to Martin Luther King and many other prophets of our time. In the collection of writings Meditations of the Heart he has a short paragraph reflection called "The Growing Edge." He is speaking about that spatial zone in our life when we are most open to growth. He says, "Look well to the Growing Edge. All around worlds are dying and new worlds are being born..." Life brings change to us, and the path of growth is the open hand, which releases and receives and releases and receives. And it is the moment when there is space that new life can come, especially when we have reached the end of our limits. He states it eloquently this way, "It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor." The retreat experience is an attempt to deliberately place one in this space of the "growing edge.' The spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, calls this "liminal space." Whether a short or a year long retreat, the schedule and the discipline is such to move into liminal space. The hours of formal silent sitting practice are increased, the external sources of social and emotional support are severely limited. The role of being "hermit" wears thin, the romance leaves quickly. There is just you and your practice, nothing to divert you, nothing to excuse you. There is only Breathing Yeshua, nothing else. And one moves into an emptiness that is the liminal space of growth, when what is essential can be revealed. There is no reward system, there is no quid pro quo, the bowing and offering are itself all that is to be found and strangely to our ego-mind it is complete, it is enough. This creates crisis for the ego that continually seeks reward, living in the world of self and other. The numinous world is just ceaseless bowing and ceaseless self-offering. It is its own fulfillment in the flow of Divine Life. To do this and find one's true life is to let Christ live in us.
Many blessings,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net
A master of the spiritual journey is the African American mystic, Howard Thurman, who was reportedly a spiritual guide to Martin Luther King and many other prophets of our time. In the collection of writings Meditations of the Heart he has a short paragraph reflection called "The Growing Edge." He is speaking about that spatial zone in our life when we are most open to growth. He says, "Look well to the Growing Edge. All around worlds are dying and new worlds are being born..." Life brings change to us, and the path of growth is the open hand, which releases and receives and releases and receives. And it is the moment when there is space that new life can come, especially when we have reached the end of our limits. He states it eloquently this way, "It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor." The retreat experience is an attempt to deliberately place one in this space of the "growing edge.' The spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, calls this "liminal space." Whether a short or a year long retreat, the schedule and the discipline is such to move into liminal space. The hours of formal silent sitting practice are increased, the external sources of social and emotional support are severely limited. The role of being "hermit" wears thin, the romance leaves quickly. There is just you and your practice, nothing to divert you, nothing to excuse you. There is only Breathing Yeshua, nothing else. And one moves into an emptiness that is the liminal space of growth, when what is essential can be revealed. There is no reward system, there is no quid pro quo, the bowing and offering are itself all that is to be found and strangely to our ego-mind it is complete, it is enough. This creates crisis for the ego that continually seeks reward, living in the world of self and other. The numinous world is just ceaseless bowing and ceaseless self-offering. It is its own fulfillment in the flow of Divine Life. To do this and find one's true life is to let Christ live in us.
Many blessings,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net
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