Don’t look to the sky for Christ
Look within your heart
For Christ is born in a disciples soul
His love shines out into the world through you
Be still and seek Christ within you
Don’t look to the sky for Christ
Look within your heart
For Christ is born in a disciples soul
His love shines out into the world through you
Be still and seek Christ within you
When I bow to you
I bow to God
For you are born in Gods image
Which is love
We must learn to bow to all creation
Bow to the homeless
Bow to the sick
Bow to your enemies
If we can’t bow to all beings
God will not bow to us and give us his holy spirit
We must bow until our last breathe
In perfect humility
šš»
If your God is complex
It’s not the true God
But born in your image and likeness
Our intellect can never grasp God
The intellect will never understand God’s infinite grace and love for all
Only the heart can have divine union with God in pure love
Through stillness we can experience Gods love
God in direct experience is simplicity and purity
Pure love and grace
That can purify our heart from stone to flesh
Turning us into Christ moment by moment
I live yet do not live
I die yet do not die
I live for Christ, yet do not live in this world
I die of self, yet do not die but are reborn in Gods image which is love
For Christ lives within me
Abandoning all worldly things in this moment I awaken to my true self
My inner most being is of Christ’s nature
“Those who seek peace in external things, whether in places or devotional practices, people or works, in withdrawal from the world or poverty or self-abasement: however great these things may be or whatever their character, they are still nothing at all and cannot be the source of peace. Those who seek in this way, seek wrongly, and the farther they range, the less they find what they are looking for. They proceed like someone who has lost their way: the farther they go, the more lost they become. But what then should they do? First of all, they should renounce themselves, and then they will have renounced all things. Truly, if someone were to renounce a kingdom or the whole world while still holding on to themselves, then they would have renounced nothing at all. And indeed, if someone renounces themselves, then whatever they might keep, whether it be a kingdom or honour or whatever it may be, they will still have renounced all things. St Peter said, āSee, Lord, we have left everythingā (Matt. 19:27), when he had left nothing more than a mere net and his little boat, and a saint5 comments that whoever willingly renounces what is small, renounces not only this but also everything which worldly people can possess or indeed even desire. Whoever renounces their own will and their own self, renounces all things as surely as if all things were in that personās possession to do with as they pleased, for what you do not wish to desire, you have given over and given up to God. Therefore our Lord said, āBlessed are the poor in spiritā (Matt. 5:3), which is to say those who are poor in will. Let no one be in any doubt about this: if there were a better way, then our Lord would have told us, who said, āIf anyone would follow me, he must first deny himselfā (Matt 16:24). This is the point which counts. Examine yourself, and wherever you find yourself, then take leave of yourself. This is the best way of all.”
Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings
“If you want to be free, if you want to heal your relationship with God, with others, and yourself, enter your Inner Roomā The Office, where the Divine Therapy takes place. Close the door so you donāt run away.
Quiet your interior dialogue, so that you can listen to what the Spirit is saying to you.
An enormous intelligence is guiding us through this process with a love that is unconditional and determined to bring about this healing, whatever the cost to Itself. Gregory the Great expressed it as resting in God.
Donāt judge Centering Prayer on the basis of how many thoughts come or how much peace you enjoy.
The deeper oneās awareness of oneās powerlessness and the more desperate, the more willing one is to reach out for help.
This help is offered in the next two steps. You turn yourself over to a Higher Power who you believe can heal you and work with you in the long journey of dismantling the emotional programs for happiness. They are the root causes of all our problems.
How should we handle these afflictive emotions? By facing them. By feeling them.
Feelings that are being repressed have to be allowed to pass through our awareness once again, in order to be left behind for good.
The radical healing is the acceptance of the situation. Because in some way, God is present there.
The real work of prayer is just to get rid of the very assumptions that was the foundation of all these other modes of prayer. It is a matter of shifting the location of the sense of identity.
The false self is deeply entrenched. You can change your name and address, religion, country, and clothes. But as long as you donāt ask it to change, the false self simply adjusts to the new environment.
For example, instead of drinking your friends under the table as a significant sign of self-worth and esteem, if you enter a monastery, as I did, fasting the other monks under the table could become your new path to glory.
We have to accept that the word āIā does not have a fixed, and clear, and obvious referent.
This is where the transformation that we undergo becomes more and more radical with each breakthrough or illumination.
The contemplative journey, because it involves the purification of the unconscious, is not a magic carpet to bliss. It is an exercise in letting go of the false self, a humbling process, because it is the only self we know.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Nothing is more helpful to reduce pride than the actual experience of Self-Knowledge. If we are discouraged by it, we have misunderstood its meaning.
Contemplative prayer is a deepening of faith that moves beyond thoughts and concepts. One just listens to God, open and receptive to the divine presence in oneās inmost being as its source.
One listens not with a view to hearing something, but with a view to becoming aware of the obstacles to oneās friendship with God.
God has not promised to take away our trials but to help us change our attitude towards them. That is what holiness really is.
In this life, happiness is rooted in our basic attitude toward Reality.
For human beings, the most daunting challenge is to become fully human. For to become fully human is to become fully divine.
The Spirit calls us to transformation of our inmost being, and indeed of all of our faculties, into the Divine Way of being and acting.
Divine Love picks us up when we sincerely believe nobody else will. We then begin to experience freedom, peace, calm, equanimity, and liberation from cravings.
A total surrender of ourselves to the Spiritual Journey is required.
When the Presence of God emerges from our inmost being into our faculties, whether we walk down the street or drink a cup of soup, Divine Life is pouring into the world.
God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of this Divine Life in us.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit grow in direct proportion to the depth and sincerity of our love.
To live in the Presence of God on a continuous basis can become a kind of fourth dimension to our three-dimensional world, forming an invisible but real background to everything that we do or that happens in our lives.
Silence is Godās first language, everything else is a poor translation.
Whatever we say about God is more unlike God than saying nothing. If we do say something, it can only be a pointer toward the mystery that can never be articulated in words. All that words can do is point in the direction of the mystery.
Let Love Alone speak.”
The interior life is one of silence
Striving only for divine union with God’s love
It is not one that strives for earthly riches
The false beacon of wealth, status, or fame will all fade away and lead us to great suffering
Look only within your own heart and seek the inner riches of being one with Christ in perfect love
When you are one with Christ, true joy and peace will rush within your heart
Do not be bothered by the impurities in your brothers and sisters
Focus on your own journey to Christ and God’s light will cast into the darkness of the world
Do not gossip about God and only speak humbly
Learn to he silent and listen to God’s voice within you
Be still and seek the Kingdom of God within your own heart and soul
“With an empty mind and open heart, let yourself be naked before grace.
Let your mind rest in this dark awareness of God in all of this naked existence.
It is not who you are or what you’ve been that God sees with merciful eyes, but what you want to be.
Contemplative prayer, when done right, is the respectful love and ripe fruit.
It’s the cloud of unknowing, the hidden love-longing offered by a pure spirit.
It takes you into silence, far from thoughts and words.”
These quotes are from “The Cloud of Unknowing” which is a book of anonymous European monks from the medieval times. Full video on YouTube.
Enjoy šš»