Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Living from the Origin


Mary Magdalene
Painting by Pietro Perugino, year 1500
One striking characteristic of the human mind is the tendency to look for solace and answers only in external world. 

Also true is the fact we have always heard remarks such as “the truth is inside you, search inside”; but do we really understand that? The clumsy mind thinks it does, then looks inside, finds distress, gets bored and scared of those monsters and tries to escape, ending up as confused as before.

As Heraclitus and other great guides already pointed, our problem is a lack of faith on the voice of the Logos, that universal intelligence that connects and reconciles all things, uniting opposites, solving all conflict.

In the beginning was the Logos/Verb –John 1:1

Yet listening to the Logos can only take place by getting in touch with our deeper nature, the Light Soul that acts as guardian and guide of our life, hoping to merge with oneself, to live trough oneself [1].

The Light that dwells deeply inside does not get incarnated but its finer vibrations speak from each cell and are expressed in silent intuitions that break any mirage and deceiving thought. 

But even our rapport with the senses and intuition is missing, and thus, Light is not born in the body and one cannot to receive the gifts of the spirit.

The genuine spiritual task is not the search for a suicidal extinction in an inner void or fullness of light, or getting strange spiritual experiences. Enlightenment in itself cannot be reached because our Essential Nature is already enlightened.

Truly I say unto you that he who is not born from above cannot enter the Kingdom of God–John 3:3

In the Gospels, the Christ receives his baptism of Water, Spirit and finally Fire. Thus he goes through the Cross of the senses to resurrect and rescue the atoms of light of the First Adam, which are spread in all directions since the fall, in the lost sheep of Israel, that is, the Soul of Humanity.

In a similar way, in his sacred tale, the Buddha is born in the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaia –the Earth–, freeing himself from inner slavery and helping others to do the same. 

That is the reason why the Soul must be born in human individuality, otherwise it would have remained in the luminous heights. 

Thus, the essential task is to live from the essential being, returning every single perception to its source, by means of the conscious use of the senses and the mind, bathing the world with conscious acceptance and compassion for others.

Each element of life is part of the Great Truth. Everyone is right, yet no one has all the truth.

The practice of returning all perceptions to their origin was known by the Iranian sufis as ta´wil, and it seems clearly linked to the teachings of Empedocles and the ancient idea of common sense koiné aisthêsis–, as Peter Kingsley observes [2].

Incredibly revealing is to find this spiritual art at the heart of Christianity, and more specifically in the teachings that Mary Magdalene supposedly received from her master and companion Yeshua. 

Of course, it can be found in a veiled form in the Canonic gospels, but very explicitly in the wonderful Gospel of Mary Magdalene [3]:

Then Peter said to him:

Since you have explained everything to us, tell us one more thing. What is the sin of this world?

The Savior replied:

Sin as such does not exist. You only bring it into manifestation when you act in ways that are adulterous in nature. It is for this very reason that the Good has come among you pursuing its own essence within nature in order to reunite everything to its origin.

Then he continued:

This is also the reason for sickness and death, because you embrace what deceives you. Consider these matters, then, with your spiritual intellect.

Attachment to matter gives birth to passion without an Image of itself because it is drawn from that which is contrary to its higher nature. The result is that confusion and disturbance resonates throughout one’s whole being. It is for this reason that I told you to find contentment at the level of the heart, and if you are discouraged, take heart in the presence of the Image of your true nature. Those with ears, let them hear this.

This passage dispels the dualistic idea that some Gnostics had concerning the evil nature of the world. The visible universe is full of divine goodness waiting to be recognised and thus returned to its divine root.

However, the gospel hints at something else which is incredibly intriguing: Attachment to matter gives birth to passion without an Image of itself, what causes suffering.

These ancient traditions teach that everything has a model of perfection, an ideal way of manifestation. But because of our lack of contact with the perfection of one´s authentic being, we become shadows or caricatures of what we should be, and thus everything else gets twisted too, and the world appears as a frightening monster, protection of the inside.

Do not judge and you shall not be judged; do not condemn and you shall not be condemned –Luke 6:37

Everything outside mirrors the inside. So if one only finds malaise in life, it means one is not living as one should, but throwing crap buckets upon oneself.

And what the gospel is stressing is that the only possible way of correcting this distortion is to live from our perfect being, "take heart in the presence of the Image of your true nature".

To receive the guide of the authentic being entails to let go of physical, mental and emotional knots that keep one trapped. And that is only possible with conscious attention and heart sensitivity.

The space of silent loving awareness recognizes everything as a reflection or shadow of herself.

Precisely, what we don´t like in ourselves and others, is what more love and attention needs, being the repressed part that we need to recognize and reconcile. Nobody can feel offended with something which is not already inside. The same is perceived by the same.

But only from the silent and intuitive space one can embrace without fear the caricature and its pain, purifying it from the root, gaining force, understanding and humility. It is then when the kiss of the Soul arrives, and with her serenity and conscious love.

We should not forget this is not something to consider intellectually, but it implies conscious work, what also requires certain daily discipline to prepare the ground.

Useful approaches might be silent sittings, incubation and other conscious activities, such as cleaning, cooking, washing the dishes, tasting the food, gardening, doing with full awareness of what one is doing, without striving to arrive anywhere or finishing anything, but simply living the moment as if it were eternal, from the Soul.

For related articles on unconditioned meditation see articles:

–Unconditioned Meditation III, published on October 16, 2013:
http://cantoderealidad.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/que-es-la-meditacion-no-condicionada.html

Incubation, a western form of meditation, published in April 6 2006:
http://themusicofwisdom.blogspot.com.es/2009/04/incubation-western-form-of-meditation.html

© Copyright 2015
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[1] Further insight into the inner guide or being of light can be found in Henri Corbin´s jewel: Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Those who can read Spanish will find it for free here:

http://laescalera-sophia.com.ar/biblioteca/El_Hombre_de_luz.pdf
[2] See Peter Kingsley´s interview Common Sense:
[3] Excerpt from the article The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, by Cynthia Bourgeault, published in Parabola Magazine. Highly recommended:

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