The ultimate human quest is a quest for that depth of meaning proclaimed by all the world’s major religious traditions. The individuals that gave rise to these traditions experienced the eternal source, or Spirit, breaking through to their consciousness. We glimpse what this is when we consider the words of two of the most significant of the Enlightened Ones, Jesus and Buddha:
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.[1]
Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state. Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another. As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings. So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings; radiating kindness over the entire world. [2]
In these words, we see the highest blessing that our universal humanity has given voice to in our current phase of evolution. We behold humans like ourselves who reveal to us that we are called to be receptive to the eternal spirit of love within us. Here we touch upon the deepest of all mysteries – only the freedom of eternal love, or Spirit, accounts for the world, anything/anyone in it.
Spirit always yearns to breakthrough to us that we may realize being the “human expression of the divine.” An image for Spirit in my book, Innocent Perception: A New Lens for Healing, is transcendent loving wisdom. Transcendent loving wisdom, to use the words of the poet Dante, is “the love that moves the sun and other stars.”[3] It is the outpouring of the divine all-permeating light, the eternal spirit of love, which we are meant to experience as “our life.”
Spirit, transcendent loving wisdom, may be described as the “maternal aspect” of the ultimate sacred mystery, which brings forth, nourishes, sustains, and liberates all that exists in the world. It is our eternal loving source, unfailing guide, and the final goal of the created Cosmos, our lives, of all that is. As the divine core of human personhood, transcendent loving wisdom is the source of human love and friendship, the source of goodwill and justice among peoples, and our caring for Mother Earth, and all her creatures. It is the source of all the acquired human wisdom that has sought to uplift humanity. And as we are receptive to “her presence” we can be guided rightly.
When we consider this we are faced with the fact of human evil that is a very deep mystery and a reality as evidenced in human history that opposes realizing ourselves as the beloved sacred spirit-persons we are created/called to be. This echoes a profound insight in all the higher spiritual traditions, which is that whenever as human beings we resist, neglect, or ignore the call from Spirit we fall prey, to use a Buddhist teaching, to grasping/greed, and aversion/hatred. In the Western traditions, the term for this is sin, which is a state of consciousness that is motivated by these pairs of energies. And as any person falls prey to evil they affect others adversely. Here we have a karmic chain of suffering at work that can only be broken by awakening and responding to our call from Spirit.
In considering briefly the evolution of human consciousness, we lived in the hunter-gatherer phase for at least 70,000 years as we transitioned to the agricultural societies, which began around 10,000 BC. The perceptions that motivated humans at this time were those of master and slave, kingly ruler and societal submission to such rule. For the past 12,500 years to our present day what has primarily motivated civilizations have been grasping after wealth, power, and control and all the suffering this causes.
In human civilization a powerful breakthrough of Spirit began around 820 BC to 200 BC with the Indian seers, the Buddha, the prophets of Israel, the prophet Zoroaster, and the Taoist sages. After this came Jesus, then Muhammad in 610 AD, and then the newest religion, the Baha’i religion founded by Baha’u’llah in 1844. What we have here is living religious traditions in which the “outbursts” in the hearts of Buddha, Jesus … touch countless people, and us who are living today.
The writing of my book was my own experience of Spirit touching me through the Catholic faith I was born into. When I was going through a crisis after graduating from college I experienced Spirit touching me through the sung liturgy during the Catholic mass. This led to my reading the writings of Christian mystics. One day I was home recovering from an accident and I happened to be reading a poem by a mystic of the Catholic tradition. When I finished the poem, I experienced a deep touch of the Spirit awakening an infusion of new life with tears. Within a year I entered a Christian contemplative monastery, the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky back in 1968.
As my monastic vocation unfolded I became involved in interreligious dialogue. I studied and practiced meditation in Hinduism and Buddhism along with my Christian spiritual practice. I also participated in giving Christian/Zen retreats at my monastery with a nearby Korean Zen Master for a number of years. In the late 90s, I began to experience a crisis of pain and grief coming up. This eventually guided me to leave monastic life in 1999 to pursue a path of healing work. What I discovered in pursuing this path is that I was sexually abused in early childhood. The writing of my book came from my experience of healing from pain and grief in both my mind and body, which the repressed pain from early abuse caused.
I developed the guidance and body meditations to heal from the impact of abuse. It is these meditations I always present in a private session or workshop. Why these are crucial is that they bring to light and release any negative subliminal messages about ourselves, as well as bringing to light supplements and healing modalities we may need. Article 4 on the spiritual and physical causes shed light on this.
As I experienced healing from using the guidance and body meditations, which included making use of the way given to access guidance from Spirit, transcendent loving wisdom, I began to give sessions to others. They too experienced healing and inner transformation.
If in the present moment you are experiencing relationship issues, health issues, and even financial issues it almost always goes back to traumatic experiences in early developmental stages when your yearning to experience unconditional love was thwarted in some way. The Spirit in you is free of all negative/limiting perceptions of yourself that have impacted you at any time in your life and can profoundly heal and awaken the blessing of true freedom within you to respond to your own unique call from Spirit.
Reading the articles on my website will give you a sense of how the two meditations in my book might truly benefit your life. You only need to become aware that you can awaken to transcendent loving wisdom in the present moment. It is this experience of your innermost truth that can give you what nothing else can.
[1] Matthew 5:44-46
[2] Sutta Nipata I,8
[3] Divine Comedy