Aloha! I have been away house-sitting, but now I am back. I left you with the second verse of a poem about the great Friend and Partner, the Holy Spirit or knowable Presence of the Unknowable Oneness. Let's continue our review of the seven states of consciousness, with an account of the second state of
consciousness that awakens us to Her Presence: Empty Mind.
Centering Prayer (described in an earlier blog) leads to Empty Mind, because through Centering Prayer you stop labeling things with names and reactions. Without names and commentary the things around us seem to be
One Flow. And in that Flow anything can exchange information with anything else
because we are all parts of One Thing, like organs of a living Body. You also
are part of that flow in Empty Mind. Experiencing
unseparateness, you remember you are not separate. The barriers between you and the world are
subtly weakened, as if some veil had dropped.
Suppose
you have chosen to do your Centering Prayer in a forest glade.
A
thrush lands on a stone five feet away. It cocks its shining black eye at you,
turning its head quickly one way and another. You perceive it without reacting. Because you are Empty, you hear,
“Good
morning! Good morning!”
You
turn your attention to the thrush. You must fully believe the thrush spoke, or
you cannot do this. Faith makes the technology work. If your brain believes it picked up the thrush’s
thoughts, then you can open a dialogue. If you tell yourself, “thrushes can’t
talk,” you short-circuit the process. The inner portal dilates shut like a
startled anemone. Instead, think back to the thrush,
“Good
morning. No harm! Are you having a good day?”
“Good
Day! Good day! And you? And you? Are you having one too?” And without waiting
for an answer, it flirts its wings and is gone.
The
stone says, “She’s nesting near-by, that’s why she is so flighty. There have
been thrushes nesting here for centuries, since long before your time, young
friend.”
“Have
you seen her parents and grandparents come and go?”
“Back
to the beginning, child, when the first thrush alighted on me. I greeted her and
made her welcome, and she flew off into a thicket to nest nearby, she and all
her generations since.”
“How
do you know she is a thrush?”
“I
hear people talk, as they come and go. Rocks learn a lot just sitting and
listening.”
Part
mentally from your new friends with courteous friendship. Your inner portal has
dilated to shamanic levels, communicating with spirits in all things. Practice
your new skill with anything.
But remember always that in the end there is only One Spirit, that pervades us all and gives us life. In communicating with individual spirits, in other people or in any other object, you are communicating with Her through the mask she wears in this form.
Trees know Her tree wisdom -- root deep, twine branches with your neighbors, seek the sun. Rocks know Her rock wisdom -- hold on, wait patiently, let things change around you but remain steadfast to yourself. Spiders know Her spider wisdom -- build for the joy of it, build again if it is destroyed -- build for life and nourishment. But these are only Her masks. She is the great Partner in all things, with Whom we dance our lives away.
