Good day good people,
As human creatures we tend to orient the rhythms of our lives to the various cyclical and seasonal rhythms we are tuned into, such as climate, moon, circadian, holiday, musical, time, etc. For those rooted in a Wisdom tradition, we also orient ourselves around spiritual cycles and seasons honoring, celebrating, and embodying the essence and urgings within them. In the Wisdom tradition anchored in the path of Yeshua (Jesus), a way of living in and from the Heart, the liturgical seasons provide a rhythm and encouragement to cultivate and occupy different inner postures throughout them.
Living in and from the heart requires acknowledging that we live with our lives in this world and the more subtle worlds we often call "the next." We are creatures that exist in time on earth and out of time in realms beyond such as the imaginal world, the realm Yeshua spoke of when he shared with his students about the Kingdom of God existing now and to come, within and all around us. As Wisdom teacher J.G. Bennett said, "We think that 'me,' this something-or-other we are aware of...is going to leave one place and go to another. But if what we do in 'this world' has a meaning for the 'next,' then the worlds are connected here and now.....The worlds are here and now and we live in them so far as we are able. We do not have to go to another place or another time in order to find them. What we have to do is establish ourselves in them; to realize them" (Deeper Man, p. 12). Orienting our rhythms to lean into the currents of the liturgical calendar is one way to remember the meeting ground of these worlds in ourselves and to realize them ongoingly in our lives.
Today is the first day of the liturgical new year and the beginning of Advent. The season from now until sunset on the eve of the day chosen to celebrate the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), Christmas. It is a season full of spiritual significance and depth. . . a time of slowing, preparing, waiting, expecting and trusting the Advent, the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event, in this case Yeshua.
In her teachings about Yeshua as a Wisdom Teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault talks about Jesus himself as a recognition event. She points out that those who first heard him and were drawn by his message didn't have the plot of his whole life, the canons, and creeds that came hundreds of years after his death as we do now. Those who first encountered him would have "had to decide for themselves, by either recognizing something in themselves that corresponded [to him], [something] that they could see as true, or not. And this is an interesting point, it’s exactly the way we recognize teachers today. That it’s something in your heart that in the moment has to say 'yay' or 'nay' to an idea, a presence, a person, before you." Such as in Psalm 42 when the deep in one calls to the deep in another (Interview with Tami Simon).
When we view Yeshua as a recognition event, we are given "the key tool that we need to find and live the path today, to connect with this person that we seem to know so much about. This tool is our own power of inner recognition" (Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, p. 3). We allow our hearts as organs of spiritual perception to awaken the natural capacity to ground-truth a spiritual experience in ones own being (p.8), to find its way "through a raw immediacy of presence" for it is only "in 'the cave of the heart,' as the mystics are fond of calling it" that someone comes into contact with their own direct knowingness and inner authority (p.7).
Some of the first people who would have encountered Yeshua as a recognition event would have been his parents, Mary and Joseph. These two, our spiritual ancestors, reveal to us the pertinent space and postures held amidst this season. Mary would have been in her third trimester, attempting to tend to her body as womb of this recognition event about to flood into time, while enduring physical discomfort and even pain. Her womb was the environment that Yeshua would have been undergoing his final major transformations—increasing in weight, gaining capacity to be able to regulate temperature, maturing the lungs, developing more coordinated reflexes, physical features becoming more defined, moving into position for birth—and readying for life on the planet. Joseph was doing all he could to prepare with her, support her and keep her safe so that she could hold her post in the world, to give birth to this Wisdom Teacher who would reveal our true sacred nature and our role in the cosmos.
As we engage these 24 days of Advent, we might approach it as a time of slowing, preparing, waiting, expecting and trusting, as we too bring to bear Yeshua as a recognition event in the immediacy of our own lives. In this aim, we can allow our ongoing work with creating sun in ourselves to be part of these season. We can continue to consciously absorb the spiritual substance we have chosen to take on and learn from, allowing it to tend to our bodies as wombs of Yeshua. We can also work with the practice, suggested by Cynthia Bourgeault, of conscious imitation.
Conscious imitation is the deliberate act of imitating another's demeanor, way of being, acting, etc. while being aware that one is doing so. It is a form of imitation that is the opposite of unconscious imitation (called secondary imitation). This involves looking for someone, a part of ourselves, a place, a plant, and/or another creature who in a distinct way bears that particular virtue and then putting ourselves in understudy under them. This means we learn from them in order to move from consciously imitating to being able to do so ourselves. We might consider whether Mary and/or Joseph bear the particular nutrient(s) we have chosen and whether their lives are ones we may choose to consciously imitate.
With love and trust,
Heather
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, November 25th with Heather
Reading: “When something so manifestly good and generous happens, it is natural to respond with gratitude. But in a way, the very naturalness of this response has its down side, for it appears to confirm the notion that gratitude is a response; it is evoked by a prior action. And it is exactly this notion that the great spiritual teachers of all traditions have consistently challenged. And precisely in this challenge lies our freedom…
“It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of this motion, to learn the “not grateful for, but grateful TOWARD” motion. As in most things spiritual, it’s learned more easily in the domain of sensation than feeling. A lot of people will tell you to make up lists of things in your life to be grateful for (“counting your blessings,” as they call it). But have you ever noticed that counting blessings sometimes feels no more inspiring than counting sheep? It’s hard to cajole your feelings into logical response; feelings are not logical.
“Instead, I’d suggest simply being quiet inside, paying attention to the rise and fall of your breathing, your heartbeat, the sensation of your feet on the ground or the breeze against your cheek. Let your story go for a few minutes, with all its wants and needs, and pay attention “not to what you are” (in the words of one medieval Christian mystic) “but THAT you are.” That deep sensation of “I AM” reverberating in your being is connected to the “I AM” reverberating in every other sentient being, and in all of life itself. Through it, you are connected to Being itself, and in that connection lies the true source of your abundance and the wellspring of gratitude.” — How to Feel Truly Grateful, Cynthia Bourgeault
Tuesday, November 26th with Heather
Reading: “My friend Kabir Helminski, a well-known contemporary Sufi teacher, summarizes this teaching well: “If you can learn to make all cares into one care, the care for simply being present, you will be cared for by that Presence, which is itself creative Power and Love.” You don’t have to conjure up lists of things to talk yourself into being grateful for; simply tune into that living stream of Being within you and pay attention to how it moves. Gradually you will come to see that gratitude is not a response; it is a river that is always flowing through you, and that you can learn to flow with. Wherever your external circumstances may appear to be heading, it will always be carrying you inwardly toward fullness and love.
“Whoever has learned the secret of proactive gratitude taps into that famous “living water” described in the New Testament, that becomes a source of healing both for one’s own life and for the whole world.” — How to Feel Truly Grateful, Cynthia Bourgeault
Chant: Become a Whole World, for a Whole World (part of a chant by Darlene Franz)
Wednesday, November 27th with Lacey
Reading: "For Presence"
Awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to
follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of
soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek
no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven
around the heart of wonder.
— John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us
Chant: I am present to the presence, it is is my only care, I am held by the presence, the fountain of creative love
Thursday, November 28th with Tom
Reading: "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." — Buddha
"At the heart of every spiritual tradition, we find the teaching of compassion. Through the gate of compassion we are invited to enter the wider conversation with all life. Compassion binds us with all things through the shared encounter with suffering. Compassion: from the Latin … “to suffer with.” It is through our experience with loss, sorrow, and pain that we deepen our connection with one another and enter the commons of the soul.
"But how are we with self-compassion? Too often our caring is reserved for those outside of ourselves, as though we haven't earned the right for kindness. We judge ourselves and resist offering gestures of mercy to ourselves. Yet, every one of us knows loss and defeat, loneliness and failure. We hurt and harm others, are hurt and harmed by others; we close our hearts to the world and often choose self-protection as a way of life.
"Bringing compassion to our suffering is an act of generosity. It helps us remember that we too, are part of this breathing, pulsing world. We are reminded that, by the mere fact of our being here, we qualify for the soothing waters of compassion. We can then come out of our sheltered world of self-scrutiny and make our way back into the fuller embrace of our belonging." — Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow, p. 151
Chant: I am sending you light, to heal you, to hold you, I am sending you light, to hold you in love (by Melanie DeMore)
Friday, November 29th with Tom
Reading: "The Unbroken" by Rashani Réa
There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.
Chant: Come now child, lay it down. Just breathe. Just be. Come be cradled in the arms of love. Just breathe, just be (by Alexa Sunshine Rose)
Saturday, November 30th with Tom
Reading: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” —Matthew 5:8
"This may well be the most important of all the Beatitudes—from the perspective of wisdom it certainly is. But what is purity of heart? This is another of those concepts we have distorted in our very morality-oriented Christianity of the West. For most people, purity of heart would almost certainly mean being virtuous, particularly in the sexual arena. It would be roughly synonymous with chastity, perhaps even with celibacy. But in wisdom teaching, purity means singleness, and the proper translation of this Beatitude is, really, “Blessed are those whose heart is not divided” or “whose heart is a unified whole.” Jesus emerged from his baptism as the ihidaya, meaning the “single one” in Aramaic—one who has unified his or her being and become what we would nowadays call “enlightened.”
"According to Jesus, this enlightenment takes place primarily within the heart. When your heart becomes “single”—that is, when it desires one thing only, when it can live in perfect alignment with that resonant field of mutual yearning we called “the righteousness of God,” then you “see God.” This does not mean that you see God as an object (for that would be the egoic operating system), but rather, you see through the eyes of non-duality: God is the seeing itself.
"So this Beatitude is not about sexual abstinence; it’s about cleansing the lens of perception. It is worth noting that Jesus flags this particular transformation as the core practice of the path. Somehow when the heart becomes single (undivided, whole), the rest will follow." — Cynthia Bourgeault, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/be-whole-hearted-2017-04-20/
Chant: Become, become a living spirit. Ihidaya, Ihidaya (by Elizabeth Combs)
Sunday, December 1st with Heather
Reading: "Our thinking about different worlds is bedeviled by notions of 'this world and the next.' We think that 'me,' this something-or-other we are aware of...is going to leave one place and go to another. But if what we do in 'this world' has a meaning for the 'next,' then the worlds are connected here and now.....The worlds are here and now and we live in them so far as we are able. We do not have to go to another place or another time in order to find them. What we have to do is establish ourselves in them; to realize them." — J. G. Bennett, Deeper Man, p. 12
Chant: Let me hear what you will speak, when I turn to you my heart
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