Heart Space Meditation

Monday, March 24, 2008 Repost: Heart Space Meditation This is something I was inspired to write out today for a waitress at my coffee shop. It is a meditation and healing metaphor. I recommended reading this once a day and practice as often as desired. Heart Space Meditation Imagine an infinite space beyond the physical limits of this world. Know this space as your true mind. There is no-thing there, only infinite possibility. The first possibility to appear there is your secret heart, the one no one knows but you. Your heart can fill the whole of this space or any part of it. It is in fact the only thing big enough to touch and fill this infinite expanse. Let the heart make some room here for other possibilities. Understand that whatever your heart dreams will appear in this space. Let your hearts desire appear now from and within this infinite space of all possibility. Whatever you find there, contemplate its beauty. Know that the more beauty you can find here the more beauty will be revealed. That is all to do for now. Just enjoy this experience for as long as you wish. When you are ready say thank you to the space and receive the form into your heart. Know that you can - whenever you wish - re-enter this space again and manifest your heart and anything it desires. © Arjay 2008

Magician or Mystic?

Tuesday, January 03, 2006 Repost: Magician or Mystic? So many ways that insight has sought to be revealed. It is not because there is more than one Truth, but there are many minds to behold it and many ears to receive it. And it is infinitely more vast than anything that could be said. If an inspiration does not grab you intuitively do not follow it. Do not mold yourself to it. The purpose is only to seek inspiration and let it strike you as a string on the instrument of the soul. As long as you seek, you can not help but become attuned to the melody of angels, and become one with the music of the spheres. Then all teachings will be found lacking and you will speak from your own voice. Know that whatever is said herein, the dream is to hear your song. The song that only you can sing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The mage (magician) casts a glance over the face of the world and sees the struggle of life-death. Like a carpenter he seeks to build a better house for the indwelling of life. Like a healer he teaches to do no harm. Like a lord seeks to make whole what has been divided. Like a mother he seeks to teach the laws of the universe that all children of life may have a life fulfilled. The mage ever labors as creator, ever outdoing himself. The sage (mystic) beholds the world and sees the known and the unknown as a great divide. As architect he looks for the perfect plan. As a surgeon, he cuts through surface appearance to find beginnings. As a king he brings order to all disagreements of thought. Like the bornless one, a resurrected one, he finds self as preexistent seed in a timeless womb birthing over and over again. The sage is ever pointer to Eternal Being-ness. The sage sits as if in the center of a circle. The sage is fixed but without location in space. The sage is timeless for there is no change of movement. The sage is pure potential because there is nothing to be done and nothing left undone. The mage is as the circumference. ever expanding as with ripples in a pond, becoming more subtle and refined as they disappear into the infinity of the horizon. The mage is energy of motion, inspiration and indwelling all that changes. How is the center to be center without its circumference. How is infinity to be stretched without a reference. To seek a Godlike presence and unity, and deny a material world. To be advocate of change without knowing the cornerstone of formless reality. These are but follys of spiritual paths. It is however a folly we all are heir to in the human condition, so think not that you are judged, nor judge others because of loose ends which needs to be tied up. The Psalmist asks "Do ye not know that ye are gods?" What god lacks knowledge of self? What god denies its own responsibility for that which it creates? The god called man lies unaware of self, and claims it is not responsible for what it created. And in this denial the god is divided within itself, the unknowing effect of its own cause seeking to place blame where it can not exist and looking for salvation where it is never to be found. The path of mage and sage are one. Creation spills forth from knowledge. Knowledge deepens with creation. They unite in one realization. If either piece is missing, the spiritual path - any path really - is a grand self deception. So the inscription at Delphi to Know Thyself is in our modern divided view incomplete. To it must be added - Re-create Thyself. In this next moment re-create yourself, for there is no un-creation. At the same time, in every act of self creation know that any idea of "I" and "me" and even "mine" is a creation. Seek to know the creator which lies at the center of all thoughts and beyond concepts. This is no quick fix for anything considering the aeons of sleep. Then - by grace rather than effort - one day, perhaps before this "mortal coil" is shed, the center may be found secure within all of creation. The glib refrain that "all is One" will be glib no more. And the paradise lost will be paradise found - because to create is not a choice, but inherent in existence itself. © Arjay 2006, 2008

All About Nothing

Friday, October 14, 2005

Repost: All About Nothing I remember reading an apocryphal story about the boy Jesus being tested by a scholar. Jesus was asked to explain the letter Omega/Tau. If I can be allowed a paraphrase, Jesus relied "Do you not know the Alpha/Aleph (beginning)? Then you shall know the Omega/Tau (end)." Emerson wrote: "Our eating, trading, marrying and learning are mistaken by us for ends and realities, while they are symbols only; when we have come by divine leading, into the inner firmament, we are appraised of the unreality or representative character of what we esteemed final." What we seek then, is what we must have already had or known in order to feel a present loss or desire. Then we try to fill that emptiness with objects. Our true end and goal is not the object but that "feeling of" something which the object we hope will provide, such as satisfaction, fulfilment, or belonging. Edward L Kramer says it this way: "The secret attainment does not begin with the possession of an object but rather the feeling of an objective, a feeling that you alone can conjure but it must be ascertained before any object can be yours." As a child I contemplated numbers, being inspired by my seventh grade teacher. I was fascinated by the zero which was a non quantity, a place holder. But more than that it is was an absence of something which made the presence of a mathematical something meaningful. In my ordinary life too, there seemed to be nothings, or no-things as well, which made life meaningful. No-things in the sense of their inability to be weighed and measured or located in geometric space. These no-things were love, truth, beauty and happiness to name few. It seemed that the more I pondered these nothings as having a real existence apart from any desire for the things themselves, which I attached these feelings to, then I could conjure my happiness almost at will. And as a paradox, the less desperate I was for the object, the more readily did it appear in my life in unexpected ways. I think of the Buddha saying "life is suffering". I think of the saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas; "That which you do not have within you will kill you." And I smile as I look at the monks rejection of the world as he abides in perfect peace. Apart from the ego "I" am nothing. Yet to know this No-thing is perhaps the fulfilment of everything. And all in between is simply a game called life and death, which we forget is only play and hang on with dire seriousness. "Know Thyself " was inscribed above the door to an earthly temple. Said a living temple; "The kingdom of heaven is within." © Arjay 2005, 2008

The Friend

Friday, October 21, 2005

Repost: The Friend

From : "Se Cniht" (The Knight) - unpublished

That Friend who gave the very Grail to my lips
and made me drunk with eternities bliss.
That Friend resides within the core of hearts.
That Friend by many names is G-d,
the very throne and crown of Life.
Yet, of all the beautiful names of Adonai,
I cherish especially this single one;
El Shaddai ... “the breasted one”.
For Beneath Her blessed wing like robes
I find fulfilled my knightly quest.
My lady's mercy is a true abode and rest.
No more can I discern between earth and sky
As these days of sacred madness unfold
A honey filled fountain is my only desire,
So sweet the wine from warm moist lips.
And each sigh a tear in the fabric of time
through which I free my soul, Oh yes,
Sigh O' surrendered, wine enamored heart,
for sake of love, awakened kiss by kiss.
How false a God that would not espouse
this faultless essence of our longing,
or be not present in a single flowers bloom.

© Arjay 2005, 2008

Quoth the Lovers Evermore

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Repost: Quoth the Lovers Evermore "The path of all religions beats with the same heart of love and oneness when the dogma is removed." ~ Anonymous (from Jennifer) "The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire." ~ Pierre Tielhard De Chardin "This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet." ~ Rumi Burning with longing fire, wanting to sleep with my head on your doorsill, my living is composed only of this trying to be in your Presence. Wine to intensify love; fire to consume. We bring these, not like images from a dream reality, but as an actual night to live through until dawn. The wine we really drink is our own blood. Our bodies ferment in these barrels. We give everything for a glass of this. We give our minds for a sip. ~ Rumi Dhikraki tasbihun wanahdayki ma'badu, wa-ana taqiyyur rahibul muta-abbidu (evoking you is heavenly praise, your bosom a temple and me the praying hermit, adoring you) ~ attributed to Leyla with comment by Amin al-Jundi "Someone went up to a madman who was weeping in the bitterest possible way. He said: 'Why do you cry?' The madman answered: 'I am crying to attract the pity of His heart.' The other told him: 'Your words are nonsense, for He has no physical heart." The madman answered: 'It is you who are wrong, for He is the owner of all the hearts which exist. Through the heart you can make your connection with God.'" ~ Attar of Nishapur "My heart can take on any appearance. The heart varies in accordance with variations of the innermost consciousness. It may appear in form as a gazelle meadow, a monkish cloister, an idol-temple, a pilgrim Kaaba, the tablets of the Torah for certain sciences, the bequest of the leaves of the Koran. My duty is the debt of Love. I accept freely and willingly whatever burden is placed upon me. Love is as the love of lovers, except that instead of loving the phenomenon, I love the Essential. That religion, that duty, is mine, and is my faith. A purpose of human love is to demonstrate ultimate, real love. This is the love which is conscious. The other is that which makes man unconscious of himself." ~ Ibn El-Arabi "One went to the door of the Beloved and knocked. A voice asked: 'Who is there?' He answered: 'It is I.' The voice said: 'There is no room here for me and thee.' The door was shut. After a year of solitude and deprivation this man returned to the door of the Beloved. He knocked. A voice from within asked: 'Who is there?' The man said: 'It is Thou.' The door was opened for him." ~ Rumi "Love and intimacy are at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing." ~ Dean Ornish, MD © Arjay 2006, 2008 {FEEL FREE TO OFFER YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES}

A Consummate Rain

Monday, June 19, 2006

A Repost: A Consummate Rain I practice my art called life. Like potters clay it stands before me, spinning on the wheel of time. Awareness is my potters knife, the only tool I can call mine own. I seek to change nothing, but realize the present perfection of the malleable shapes arising as mind and matter. Let faults and virtues be the concern of others. Beauty belongs to the beholder thereof and a future perfection is the deception of the immature. I wait patiently for rain, the water of life which softens the medium I am - for clay and this potter are one to understand. I work in the open air, unconfined, my studio is space and the stars my witness. I cleave to nothing but a smile... The first drop of Bliss comes unpredicted from a cloudless sky. An apparition of wonder and anticipation. But no, the arid heart is to dry to support the rain. The clay to parched and crumbles. such is lifes familiar troubles. I must settle for tears and persevere. One day a drop is followed by another, and through cycles of bareness and occasioned sprinkles I learn to trust. Faith lies not in me but the perspiration of tireless gods on my behalf. Such a meager philosophy is my sole consolation, true or not. One day there is a downpour and the awakening thunder is boundless. Inspired hands and mind dance in the flashes of light and lightness. The earthen clay of life can now take new and elevated shapes, before hardening again. And it will harden again and again. Still, no matter appearances, I know now that whatever form life takes it is never so solid as to remain unchanged by Bliss-full rain. Potter and clay are one with water. Gods or no - this is my simple truth. I long for that continued down pouring of spirt from on high, that remote mountain stream to dissolve in and merge into. Attentive, I cherish the process, the Bliss running over like water, smoothing the rough edges, polishing as it flows it course. Can anything be more wondrous or more ordinary, this rain, endless outpouring from the ocean of Being itself, forming rivers and tributaries all within. Yes, this rain, its rivers, its polishing and dissolving nature has its origin within. No wonder others can not see it. No wonder others remain dry. © Arjay 2006, 2008

The "Mystic Secret"

THE MYSTIC SECRET

"The world is filled with G-d." ~ Psalm 24:1

"... if G-d were to remove His attention for even an instant, all worlds (explicate order) would revert to the state of utter nothingness (implicate order) that existed before creation." ~ Chaim of Ohalov

Quantum theory seems in agreement with the above mystical insight. The act of observation and the thing being observed arise together in the moment, influencing each other. Here is cause for my faith - undergoing testing at the moment in the laboratory of the "solid" world - that things, circumstances and events do not arise apart from us. In other words, there is no "out there" apart from the "in here" of "I am." As it says at the bus stop "you are here" - which perhaps is our only certainty andthat place upon which we may stand to move the world. To change anything, all there is to work on is me, my perception, which is at best a fragmentary perception of reality, yet a place to start.

Remember that the brain is a part of the quantum universe, and may engage quantum processes as well as neurological ones. The unconscious alone would seem to provide the required attention needed for a material event to unfold in time. Memories and beliefs are certainly a major part of our every action and reaction.

That both the act of observation and the thing observed arise together, being a reciprocal influence on each other seems strange to us yet here is a cause for hope and faith. As there is no persistence of things without an observer, so all events and circumstances are in theory not "etched in stone." Changing me in fact, changes reality - as I perceive it.

As living systems we may be able to take advantage of quantum effects in unexpected ways such as retrieving buried personal and archetypal memories and virtually erasing them as one might wipe a computers memory. The effects that our programs generate would then be completely different. We would have discovered how to change our experience without a lag in time.

Those without any familiarity with the "New Thought" Churches, might be surprised that the so called law of manifestation is derived from religious scriptures. There is a fundamental LAW of existence which us encoded in the Tetragramaton of YHVH. This law is the objective order of manifest existence and is the objectification of Life, Life itself is a subjective Being which manifests through time within all universes as the Person of G-d ... Emanuel; G-d with us, G-d made flesh. In spite of popular books like The Secret, we are still learning about this LAW and in the process many have relegated the Person of the LAW to near irrelevance, substituting our ego in its place. Notwithstanding, any success in using these partial teachings is due to the likeness be share with G-d.

Of this mystery I believe the Zohar referes when it says:

"Since that first day [of creation], it has never been fully revealed, but it plays a vital role in the world, renewing every day, the act of creation."

Properly understood, This LAW and its Person as Presence gives us a path not only of manifestation but of return to G-d. It allows us to see where the worlds religions have been lacking in failure to include one aspect or another, and even gives hints to the new science of quantum mechanics for the resolution of the "problem" of consciousness in the the equation of the universe, not to mention providing a clear understanding of the healing of the soul in spiritual guidance. There is much to say about this at a later time (it will take a book). For the moment I will simply give the formula of existence as YHShVh, where Sh = the Divine Presence. The English translation of these Hebrew letters an astute reader would note, would be; Jesus!

It is said that before the world was created only G-d and His Name existed. Thus the importance given to meditation on the letters YHVH. Writes Elijah de Vitas:

"A person who desires to gladden his soul ought to seclude himself for a portion of the day for the purpose of meditating on the splendor of the letters YHVH.... For our souls issue from the name (LAW of) YHVH.

The stumbling block in applying all of this, when understood, seems to be the let Letter V (Vav), which has to do with time, especially psychological time. Enough said for now, but perhaps was refered to by Nachman of Bratzlov when he wrote:

"The man of true love is a great man indeed, and the very existence of time depends on him."

Love, by the way (and the theory of the Rasa's), has to do with the letter Y (Yud) and its (blissful) union with H (Hei). What St. Paul referes to as the "Mystic Secret" has, I believe been found. It is for a few of us to elucidate it, G-d willing.

Happy Holidays!

© Arjay 2008

The Living One

I can think of no better name for G-d than the Living One. I think that would translate into any language and retain its meaning. And what could be more sacred than life itself. And what does life desire more than to live, and that eternally. Yet merely to live is not enough for life ... life seeks also to love. And love is reflected in the forms that evoke it - which is perhaps what Blake meant when he wrote that eternity is in love with time.

It can also be said that the quality of life is expressed not in possessions themselves but in their capacity to evoke love and maintain a loving relationship. Within the continuity of this loving attentively is also found happiness. On the eve of death, it is our relationships which take center stage and those who have barely escaped a visit of the reaper often re-think their priorities in life in terms of loving relationship.

For objects themselves when pursued and possessed as property have a way of strangling love and the energy of life. We loose interest, become comfortable rather than passionate, and eventually dispassionate about our possessions... ceasing to be our friends they become clutter and baggage.

To be bluntly sacrilegious here, the only difference between a dollar and a crucifix is the meaning we give it. Either can be said to be sacred, depending on its creative use in enhancing the quality of love for life. Under the cross has mass murder been done. Under philanthropy much goodness and healing.

And to the question: how much life and love can one actually stand? Life is creative. Creators are obsessive in their devotion and the risks they take to live, considering even survival nothing compared to life. And it amazes me how the sacred and the profane may be distinguished as essentially a difference in the embrace or avoidance of of living in love - intensely, consciously, continuously. It is as if sometimes life becomes tiring and we surrender to the exhaustion, turning our responsibility for life over to various programs, whether thy be psychological patterns, social agendas, or even on the TV as vicarious living.

So perhaps there is a part of us that does not want responsibility for life. Perhaps this is where our gods come in. It is they that are responsible, they who withhold pain. And all I need do is get with the program of their kings, priests and interpreters. All I need do is follow and believe.

Of course the mystical secret is that life is not a personal possession, but the universal truth of being. It is the same Life that gives to each creature its essence, much as the blood gives to each cell its sustenance. One (energetic) blood stream, one Life stream, one boundless stream of love creative. And so it has been said that love is not an emotion - though it fills the heart with bliss. Love is a decision to live, and the ultimate commitment to transcend mere existence.

© Arjay 2008

Foi et Amore (Of Faith and Love)

I have been asked by some who have read my profile here if I am looking for a lady. An interesting question proposed to a professed celibate and who also promotes agapetism, karreza and the teachings of the More Institute on male-female relationships.

Being honest I can say the only things I have ever sought at the bottom of my heart is a souls mate. Yet I follow in the footsteps of the Fideli d'Amore (Faithful in Love) whic includes such names as Novalis (Protestant), Dante (Fede Santa), and Arabi (Sufi), each of which, like the Medieval troubadours and minnesangers had a lady whom inspired their spiritual quest. It to is this human image and dream of perfect and eternal love which birthed the desire within for a unio mystica; a mystical union with G-d.

I too owe a debt of gratitude to my Cistercian (Catholic) heritage in that my brothers of the Order were among the first to restore the Divine Feminine as an aspect of the G-dhead (after it was nearly obliterated by the Church of Rome), which allowed heterosexual male monks and laypersons to deepen their love of G-d without denying aspects of their humanity. men to could then more easily experience and express the the ecstasy of the Eros of G-d reminiscent of Theresa of Avila.

If we are very honest, we probably we have a love-hate relationship with other people including spouses. There is this alternating desire for union in opposition to a desire for separation. The ego sees life as we vs me. One purpose of marriage and intimate relationship is to bring this inner conflict to the forefront where it may be observed and surrendered.

The dream of the soul mate is ancient. The Bauls have it correct I think, when they say that the soul mate is G-d. Carl Jung puts it differently and in a psychological context, in saying that within each of us is a contra sexual archetype - an opposite sex image - of our "other half," being the anima for the male and the animus for the female. It is this psychic image by which we judge potential mates. Yet it is with this "inner lover" that we need to unite to find wholeness and in religious language, to restore our true image as Elohim male and female. This is not a matter of becoming a hermaphrodite, but of a reintegration of an androgynous soul.

This I believe Jesus referes to when he says in heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage. We become complete, a self contained unity within the greater unity of G-d. There is cross cultural confirmation in the Buddhist idea that one of the marks of a Buddha (free/liberated being) is that they are in perpetual embrace with their "wisdom seal" (a contra sexual aspect).

As we are all one in G-ds sacred Unity, our outer soul mate is potentially everyone to the degree that we embrace all the diparate parts of ourselves. Only one who has attained this inner marriage can appreciate this. A union outer man and woman may then be centered in expressing the Divine Unity as a reflection of Emanuelle; G-d with us, whereas "normal" pair bonding is at best a chance to heal one another of the idea of separation from Love itself.

"The Blessed Holy One does not place His abode in a place where male and female are not found together (YH). Blessings are found only in a place where male and female are found, as it is written: "He blessed them and called their name Adam." A human being is only called adam when male and female are as One."
~Zohar

© Arjay 2008

Lux et Amore (Of Light and Love)

"God is Love" Gospel of John

"Do you not know that you are made of light and love?" Asks Allah the Divine Unity) in the Koran.

The image of light is an objectification - the conceptual part of the equation in Descartes famous "I think therefore I am." Yet from the inside out - the viewpoint of our subjective being as living light - The unity of Light appears as ahava rabbah (a Great Love); a Divine Ardor.

For the seeker, the Presence of G-d comes as gift of Self revelation - This am I - cloaked in ahava beta' anguim (love accompanied by delight). I refere to this as simply the love-bliss, which takes up residence in the heart and mind of the seeker, dissolving the ego's separation. This Love-Bliss is the radiance by which we learn to see clearly, which opens the hearts eye to reveal the "I" of the cosmos and beyond.

"A lovers food is the love of bread, not the bread." Writes Rumi. "No one who really loves, loves [sperficial] existence .... Lovers pitch tents in a field of nowhere [specific]. They are all one color like that field."

The Universe is a wanting thing and in this we too share its nature. This cosmic desire is an innermost fire burning through space and time (agni). This Ardor of G-d in unborn and deathless yet through it life and death come into being. At some point the mystic becomes that fire which consumes all things in each transient moment and renews all things, resurrects them again and again, creativly seeking a more perfect reflection in its shadows. The shadows are the rainbow worlds of the senses, on of mixed color and contrast which can only in part express the brilliance of the One. The world of rainbows in all their beauty are a reflected light. The inner light is clarity (rigpa); the clarity of Unity into which one dissolves and out of which one expands as a heartbeat in the presence of G-d's reality.

And what is that Reality? The Psalmist asks; "Do you not know that you are gods?" And thus Jesus affirms not only that He abides in the Father and we in Him Yet also He in us... to be realized when the living light of love consumes the outer shell of its host and reveals the pulse of life itself a living spring running from everlasting to everlasting.

Rumi concludes; "A candle is made to become entirely flame. In that annihilating moment it has no shadow."

"Peace shall come in one day which is known to the Lord; which shall be neither day nor night, but light eternal, infinite clearness, steadfast peace, and undisturbed rest.
~ Thomas a Kempis

© Arjay 2008

A Living Light

G-d said: Let there be Light, and light was.

Christos said: I am the light of the world.

The Light (Ein Sof Ohr) of consciousness is the self luminous, the I AM (Ehieh). By this Light all things are perceived. Nothing perceived is apart from this Light. Subject and object arise together with-in this Light - simultaneous cause and effect (Ehieh Asher Ehieh; I will be what I will be). Should it ever appear that they do not arise together (as a potential cause without manifest effect) It is unfathomable. The Light too is unfathomable (Ein Sof).

The light itself in "impersonal" (without a mask/persona), being the Light of the knower of all things - The True Self of all persons (Atik yamin : Ancient of Days). That which arises with the Light, in the Light, is compared to the moon, a reflection of the Light which from its "own" apparent viewpoint (so to speak) is a separate person or thing, appearing as needed - as the light requires - to know itself and its boundless power. All things have an end in time save the Light of Self. Thus the only knowable Reality is the Light - a Living Light (Chaim).

All Things that appear with and within the Light have life then, as a borrowing from the Light, much as a story is a borrowing from and as the imagination of its author. The grand story of the Light is as an autobiography of sorts, of the Light itself. The Living Light is the creative (Elohim) - in who's image humanity is formed. From one point of view it is the creator, and from another the creature, yet these and other viewpoints are but conventions of the relativity of creation, in so far as it may be spoken.The creative is best revealed in pre-conceptual silence and its inspiration. The Light calls us home, beyond the bondage of the ego.

According to Einsteins theory of relativity, if one could travel at the speed of light, one would be a witness to the whole of space and time and its unity. If we are living Light, and form-bodies are in a sense "frozen" light, our spiritual journey may be conceived as an acceleration to the limits of the speed of light. We do this by identifying with the subjective qualities of Light as self luminous consciousness itself (such qualities as Love, Bliss, Purity, etc.). Selah (Think of that)!

© Arjay 2008

G-d as Unity

As a mystic I seek to dwell in the Presence of G-d. But What does the word G-d mean? Even as I write the word with a hyphen, respectfully to give some sense of the vast mystery, I can not hep but attribute some concept to it, some form to make it understandable. Yet I know that whatever the understanding, the concept is not big enough. And too our understanding of "G-d made flesh," whether it be Christos or Buddha, is certainly not big enough.

As concepts necessarily limit and divide the Universe, we seem defeated before we begin. Yet the mystics of our faith, all faiths, tell us or knowing will come as a matter of feeling-intuition rather than philosophical understanding. So a question remains of what is this felt-meaning that so occupies the mystic lover that all finite things may pale in importance?

Some say it is bliss, others peace, or even beauty and wonder. All these it seems, are variants of love as whatever sublime emotion the mystic relates to best. And looking a bit more closely, all reflect a root of profound intimacy which fills the existential void which all all of us in our separate lives dread to face. G-d's Presence and this intimacy go hand in hand.

But with what then are we intimate? In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions, the word for G-d that perhaps best describes the context for this mystic intimacy is Unity - A sacred Unity Elohim, Alaha, Allah. This idea of an underlying Divine Unity which embraces ALL things is a given in the cultures of the middle to far east and Christianity is a child of the Middle east. Have the Western churches chosen idolatry over Unity I must ask? Certainly the mystics of Unity have often been seen as heretical to the faith of Roman Catholic and protestant alike.

The Mystic is one who has chosen - or been chosen - to dissolve the boundaries of the soul and personality to live a fluid felt connection with the life of all things and even be granted to see the face of the living G-d in all creation. Put another way, the mystic is one who chooses to become intimate with the unity of all life, making little distinction between I and other.

Jesus said to love thy neighbor as thyself ... and in the same vein, to also love our enemies. We have given these sayings a moral interpretation backed by a "should"- we should do this. Yet this is no moral command. Rather, such love is a natural outcome of dwelling in the Presence of This Divine Unity. The truth of this unitive presence may be the highest truth humanity can come to know. What seems certain however is that exploring this unitive intimacy fulfills every human desire in due course.

© Arjay 2008

Introduction to Arjay's Blog

Introduction to Arjay's Blog

In older Rabbinic usage God's face is called the Shekina (presence) and no distinction between G-d and the Shekina is made. Shekina litteraly means "in-dwelling," namely God in the world - meaning simply G-d's omnipresence and activity in the world.

"Arjay's Blog" will be devoted primarily to an interfaith discussion of the mystical theory and practice of seeking the "face" of G-d - the Shekina, or "presence" of G-d. The evolution of the word Shekina links it with El Shaddai, sometimes translated as God Almighty and also refered to as the God with breasts as it is a nurturing image of a mother goat nursing her young. As "Almighty," it referes to Pneuma Hagion, the Power from on High. By Shekina is also meant Hochma, the Holy "Wisdom" which became the Holy Spirit in Christian usage.

G-d's wisdom is a traditionally feminine image and so Jesus says Wisdom is justified by Her children. She is G-d's creatrix that hovered or brooded over the waters of creation to give them form. She too is mediatrix between G-d and humanity, being the mother of the second birth and giver of the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Thus Jesus says that a blasphemy against the Father or Son shall be forgiven but not against the Holy Spirit for She is the Power that lies behind the "Word;" the reason, the order of manifestation itself.

While such theoretical knowledge is valuable, it is intimacy with the Presence of G-d that brings true understanding, which requires "devekuth" - communion with G-d, which according to Israel Baal Shem (Tov) and Issac Luria is more important than the study of books ... or blog.

Arjay - Dec, 2008