will and wisdom

"No one is so foolish as not to desire wisdom, yet why do so many remain ignorant?" asked Eckhart. Because, first, they forsake their unlimited and detached will to know and think instead that reality is something to behold. -- C. F. Kelley

We ditch our will to know the Ultimate, divert will's waters into the irrigation of our irritations and their soothings, flood our plains of stupor with tepid motionless waters.

We forsake our precious unlimited will to know and hang around beholding life, waiting to die, forgetting that in doing so we are already dead.

We are ignore-ant because we give up, surrendering our will to superficial blatherings, watching our life go by as just another reality show.

Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328) was so far ahead of the generally accepted learning curve that we are still catching up with him. He incorporated all the major thinkings on earth at that time and came to this conclusion: if we keep knocking on heaven's door, it will open. But not unless we knock and keep on knocking.

If we want wisdom (instead of mere knowledge), we must use our "unlimited and detached will to know." We possess, we are given, we are unlimited will. And it takes unlimited will to pursue and open to wisdom. We've got what it takes.

But in opening to wisdom, our will must be detached -- not attached, no clinging, no velcro-brain. How can we be filled unless we stay empty?

Second, wisdom cannot be acquired without disciplined intellection sustained by divine grace.

"Oh God! Does that mean I have to think!? This will thing sounded okay, but this is starting to sound like work (shudder). How come the universe can't just pop my head open and pour some wisdom in? And discipline! Don't even begin to speak to me of discipline!"

Discipline means to become a disciple, a follower of wisdom. It doesn't mean wearing a hair shirt or flogging oneself with brain-cracking whips. Disciplined intellection means to turn one's attention to higher and deeper understandings and to keep it there, unwavering. To open our heartminds to that which breathes us, sustains us, gives us life.

This is where the Overdrive kicks in. When we knock with unlimited and detached will to know, the Door opens. And keeps opening. I find this astounding. We are born to open to wisdom. And the Universe is in our favor.

morning reading

"If you have understood all of this, then know (may God grant success to us both) that if you want to enter the presence of the Truth and receive from Him without intermediary, and you desire intimacy with Him, this will not be appropriate as long as your heart acknowledges any lordship other than His. For you belong to that which exercises its authority over you."-- Ibn 'Arabi, Journey to the Lord of Power. (my emphasis)

the world of appearances

The world of appearances is made up of objects -- "things" "out there." The world of appearances is teeming with objects: baseballs, persons, coffee cups, God, and so on. Any time there is an object, there has to be a subject, someone or something perceiving the object. If there is no subject, there is no object. It takes a perceiver for there to be the perceived, a conceiver for there to be the conceived. That's why some of our wise guys in the past said, "When I die, a universe disappears."

Stay with me here. The 64 trillion dollar question is who is the subject? Your answer might be, why I am of course. So who are you? As soon as you start to answer, you are describing yourself as an object. You cannot accurately say who you are. All you can do is endlessly create descriptions. You never can catch hold of the describer. It is like an eye trying to see itself, or a hand trying to hold itself.

Of course, you can, as most do in the world of appearances, glom on to a set of descriptors and say that is you. You de-cide who you are, which given the realm of infinite possibility, is a form of sui-cide. You kill off part of yourself in order to fashion a "vehicle" to putter through the world of appearances. By defining yourself, you have spurned, denied all aspects of you outside those strict bounds you have created.

You do not know who you are. You have settled on a definition and plan to live out "your life" (another object) within the bounds and bonds of that definition.

This is what it means to live within the world of appearances.

"those who adore Me with knowledge"

The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God) is one of the most powerful holy books on this planet, designed especially for warriors of spirit. Mahatma Gandhi's actions were supported and inspired by the Gita. In the Gita, Arjuna the warrior is in agony over the duties he must perform in his life as a human. His charioteer turns out to be God himself.

I read this portion of the Gita this morning. It is followed by a commentary on the passage from that wonderful sage, Sri Aurobindo.

God (Krishna) is doing the talking:

"Among the virtuous ones who turn towards Me with devotion, O Arjuna, there are four kinds of bhaktas (lovers of God); the suffering, the seeker for good in the world, the seeker for knowledge, and those who adore Me with knowledge.

Of these the knower, who is ever in constant union with the Divine, whose bhakti (attention) is all concentrated on Him is the best; he loves Me perfectly and is My beloved.

Noble are all these without exception, but the knower is verily my self; for as his highest goal he accepts Me, with whom he is in union."

Sri Aurobindo comments about those who adore God with knowledge:

"This single devotion is his whole law of living and he has gone beyond all creeds of religious belief, rules of conduct, personal aims of life. He has no griefs to be healed, for he is in possession of the All-blissful. He has no desires to hunger after, for he possesses the highest and the All and is close to the All-power that brings all fulfilment. He has no doubts or baffled seekings left, for all knowledge streams upon him from the Light in which he lives. He loves perfectly the Divine and is his beloved; for as he takes joy in the Divine, so too the Divine takes joy in him. This is the God-lover who has the knowledge, jnani bhakta." (jnani: the wise; bhakta: the loving)

We can be centered in our suffering and the suffering of the world. We can be centered in world reform. We can be centered in the seeking of knowledge. We can be centered in loving knowledge of our Source. The Gita is saying that the fourth is the best route to take. It includes and goes beyond the other three. The intellect merges with the Intellect and the heart merges with the Heart. Right action follows naturally and easily.

kiss your ass goodbye

A friend of mine was asking me about all these doomsday predictions. My advice to her is the same advice I give myself all the time, regardless of anyone's predictions: "Give your soul to God and kiss your ass goodbye." That may sound pessimistic to some, but not so to me. It sounds realistic and positive. The ecological part of ourselves could interpret it as world-denying. Not so.

Many of the monks of old called their bodies "Brother Ass," meaning that it bore their souls through this earth existence. Which is more important, saving your ass or saving your soul, the essence of you? The chick emerges from the egg, shattering its shell, following the creative planful pecking order. We can't save our asses anyway. The mortuary and the earth will reclaim and recycle them.

So I think that's pretty good advice. Commit your soul to God and kiss your ass goodbye. (P.S. The emphasis is on kissing, not on kicking. No extreme asceticism here.)

spiritual drive-bys

I saw yet another person today in suit and tie going to people's homes to convince them their thought process and thought system is wrong and his is right. Seems as if that is an occupational hazard of professional religionists. It must be pretty wearing to think you have THE TRUTH and others don't, though I surmise that most every one of us feels that way, but are too courteous to mention it.

I think God, our Source, is quite benign about it myself; it being where we will spend eternity. There is only one place and that is the Wellspring from which we sprung and even now are springing. But that's the truth I know and I don't really want to get all spruced up and hunt you down in your lair to beat you over the head with it, like some kind of spiritual drive-by. Next thing I know your posse would be swinging by my place and slinging some spiritual ammo my way. No one listening to anyone, just spouting and shouting.

I guess we could go visiting those suit and tie visitors in our flip flops and shorts and let them know our truth, since they have already fired the first shot. Nahhh... Too much trouble and more than a little sardonic.

I guess we better leave well enough alone and just keep being courteous to each other.

wisdom

"I myself also am a mortal man, like to all, and the offspring of him that was first made of the earth . . . .Wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given me: I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. . . .I learned diligently, and do communicate her liberally: I do not hide her riches. For she is a treasure unto men that never faileth: which they that use become the friends of God, being commended for the gifts that come from learning. . . .For wisdom is more moving than any motion: she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. . . .And being but one, she can do all things: and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new: and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom." (From Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 7)

One can either look at these words as pertaining to and descriptive of someone else (which is what we humans often do with treasure: stand and look) or one can enter into these words and claim them as one's own.

Does anyone see what I see here? Wisdom is an energy, a vital force. An informational flow. The outbreathing of the Source birthing the universe. Ki, Prana, Baraka, Mana, Holy Spirit, Pneuma, Chi. Lively intelligence "more moving than any motion." The Logos.

the ongoing process of spiritual evolution

The inner infinity and the outer infinity are the same infinity. We are the gateless gate between the two infinities. The most transcendent knowledge (outer infinity) is simultaneously the innermost aspect of our being (inner infinity). This expansion of awareness with its resultant actions and mode of being in the world is an ongoing process of the spiritual evolution of humankind -- the evolution of transcendent awareness with feet planted firmly on the ground of Earth.

the vast boundless

"Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore you are blind." (John 9:41)

In opening to the wisdom of the Ground of Being, of the Wellspring, I look for instruction, knowledge, understanding from only the Source, the Source Itself.

I do not trust the frame of any thought system. Such frames are approximations to be left behind -- jungle gyms within which one can play and swing but which allow only certain movement, a specified range of motion. Truth is a series of successive approximations. Ongoing. But I do not look for Truth. Too tricky. I look for, open to Wisdom.

Wisdom dwells in and is the water springing from the Wellspring, the Vast Boundless. Wisdom cannot be captured by any man or woman's butterfly net, no matter how intelligently and expert-ly woven, no matter how common sense-ical.

Wisdom is not that far away. Wisdom is.

A flat rock skipping across the water does not know the water though it may speak learnedly of its touch-points. Only when the rock finally stops skipping and sinks to the depths, saturated and still, does it begin to know the water. And the water begin to know it. A mutual seamless comprehension.