As we continue on in this Paschal Season, many of you holding vigil with me, I hope you are finding ways to ‘keep within’. . . to stay within your own atmosphere. Gurdjieff said we have an atmosphere, like the earth, that surrounds us on all sides about 3-5 feet. The quality of our atmosphere matters and impacts the larger atmosphere. I have an image of each of us like a cell in a body, all connected and all needed to function as a whole. We can trust that as we work to remain within and steward our atmosphere, filling it with three centered presence - clear thought, feeling, and sensation - we will bring something forth of benefit for all.
That is what we are here for isn’t it? To function as a Whole body and to be vessels of something beyond us to move through us and into this world. I return to Cynthia Bourgeault’s teaching on the fruits of the spirit and virtues as actual substantive nourishment that feeds our hungry body of humanity, all beings of all times, the planet, and the cosmos. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, serenity, humility, truthfulness, equanimity, non-attachment, courage, sobriety, innocence and engagement are some of the ingredients we are starving for right now. I challenge each one of us to more intentionally bring the missing ingredient needed in any given situation, to open up and become a chalice pouring it out into our weary traumatized world.
May your mind be open, heart be wide, body be at ease.
May you re-collect and re-member yourself.
May you stand in firm in that which is pure.
May your heart be full of grace, your soul fueled by love.
With love,
Heather
Here are a some of the readings from this week:
“The ancient Wisdom traditions all saw (I do not mean they theorized; they directly perceived) that the physical world we take for our empirical, time-and-space-bound reality is encompassed in another: a coherent and powerful world of divine purpose always surrounding and interpenetrating it. This other, more subtle world is invisible to the senses, and to the mind it appears to be pure speculation. But if the heart is awake and clear, it can directly receive, radiate, and reflect his unmanifest divine Reality. And to the extent that the nervous system is purified and conditioned, it too can participate in the floods of divine grace and purpose that stream from this far more intense energetic realm without being consumed or harmed - like a bush that "burns but is not consumed," to cite the biblical image (from the Book of Exodus) that became a favorite metaphor of the Desert Fathers and Mothers for depicting this state.”
— Cynthia Bourgeault
"Please Come Home"
Please come home. Please come home. Find the place where your feet know to walk And follow your own trail home.
Please come home. Please come into your own body, Your own vessel, your own earth. Please come home into each and every cell And fully into the space that surrounds you.
Please come home. Please come home to trusting yourself, and your instincts and your ways and your knowings, And even the particular quirks of your personality.
Please come home. Please come home and once you are firmly there, please stay home awhile and come to deep rest within. Please treasure your home. Please love and embrace your home. Please get a deep, deep sense of what it’s like to be truly home.
Please come home. Please come home and when you’re really, really ready, And there’s a detectable urge on the outbreath, then please come out. Please come home and please come forward. Please express who you are to us, and please trust us To see you and hear you and touch you and recognize you as best we can.
Please come home. Please come home and let us know all the nooks and crannies that are calling to be seen. Please come home, and let us know the More that is there that wants to come out.
Please come home. Please come home, and when you feel yourself home, please welcome us too. for we too forget that we belong and are welcome, and that we are called to express and fully and be who we are.
Please come home. Please come home, you and you and you and me.
Thank you Earth for welcoming us, and thank you touch of eyes and ears and skin, touch of love for welcoming us.
May we wake up and remember who we truly are.
Please come home. Please come home. Please come home.
—Jane Hooper
“Becoming Human”
Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about
"His great visions of God" he felt he was having.
He asked me for confirmation, saying,
"Are these wondrous dreams true?"
I replied, "How many goats do you have?"
He looked surprised and said,
"I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!"
And I spoke again saying,
"Yes, brother - how many do you have?"
"Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two."
"And how many wives
How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children,
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?"
And to all he answered.
Then I said,
"You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,
More kind to every creature and plant
That you know."
— Hafiz translated by Daniel Ladinsky