Post a Comment On: Inner Pearls

Extract from the Gospel of Thomas, The Nag Hammadi Coptic Text, as translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer:

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest]."

Taken from 'The Invitation' by Oriah Mountain Dreamer:

" ... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain."
" ... I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back."
" ... I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away."

Wikipedia: The Cloud of Unknowing ... is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work proposes that the only way to truly "know" God is to abandon all preconceived notions and beliefs or "knowledge" about God and be courageous enough to surrender your mind and ego to the realm of "unknowingness", at which point, you begin to glimpse the true nature of God.

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As we watch an infant mature through its various development stages and into adulthood, there is a recognition that development, growth and a sense of self or identity occurs through a series of levels, from the least developed and integrated to the higher.

We see that there is an opportunity for a sense of self to encounter a series of tasks in order to progress healthily and well through each stage.

That a sense of self identifies with a particular stage and must be willing to let go of or grow out of that stage (to differentiate from it) as it encounters and identifies with the next.

That it must be able to integrate or allow for fusion of the higher with the lower.

We can move into imagination for a moment and see this process of growth, or movement, as being like a rippling effect, a wave, or even a dance of consciousness, between Subject and Object. This helps us to move into awareness of a spaciousness of relationship, of a sense of 'between two worlds' i.e. that something is not this or that, but both. This can be clear to us as we watch an adolescent struggle with their identity, in that they are not quite an adult and yet not a child either.

What often appears as a hurdle for us, in the midst of this great chain of being, or path of our human development, is that somewhere in our adult years, we become very rigid towards and try to fix our sense of self or identity. We can experience ourselves as being resistant to change and of expanding our concept of how we fit into and relate to the world around us.

It is interesting and amusing as well, that we can have such a love-hate attitude with regards to relationship, in that we try and define what value it has for us, and of how far we are willing to embrace it. This can surface as we encounter the collapse of our structures, in that we often struggle, experience suffering and look about for various coping mechanisms.

In the midst of our confusion and uncertainty, there is both a challenge and an opportunity for us to reflect upon how we are always immersed in what is a normal and integral part of our continuing growth and expanding sense of self, even as we are engaged with clambering from one step to the next, much like a toddler learning to walk.

Mystics have referred to our immersion into unknowing as being akin to a 'Dark Night of the Soul'. We could also refer to it as Dante's Inferno, the Pilgrim's Progress, the Hero's Journey and a number of other expressions.

It is also when we are most open and receptive to an experience of grace and by this, I am referring to an experience of light that illuminates us from within. This brings with it an emergence of depth and perception of life that is not revealed through any information given to us from outside of ourselves, although this is instrumental, but comes about through an inner sense of knowing. It could be seen as a deepening of perception of a relationship between the subject and object, although a mystic might prefer to use the language of a realization of being one with the divine.