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
