In Yoke

I have heard stories of men and women who were imprisoned in solitary confinement, without anything but their own hearts and their own memories to examine. These same folks tell of how whole passages of scripture, complete stories of Jesus and of the Apostles, of prophets, of Psalms, have come clear to them, untrammeled, descriptive, like medicine to their lonely, tortured soul. These “balms of Gilead” are also available to us-like myself, who have been instructed in the ways of the Lord throughout our lives…even when being spared imprisonment. I know His word has come to me many times in my lowest moments, and in my humdrum day to day existence, to enlighten, to encourage, to clarify, to inspire, to energize. Paul the apostle states- Christ dwells in our hearts through faith(Ephesians 3:17), and all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden and can be found in Christ. It stands to reason then, that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God can be found—in the hear...

A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within. -Eudora Welty I am sitting in my chair at home in my study, looking out on the ancient live oak trees in the forest that has become my neighborhood. There is everything right here in my hometown, Waco to satisfy me: birds, flowers, trees, reasonable comfort, loyal companions, and the precious opportunity of selfless service. Right here is everything I need for complete happiness always. But as I look out of my study window I see a man with a camper-trailer driving down my street heading for the open road. Somewhere in my mind is the uneasy stirring of a wanderlust, a pent up desire to jump into that camper and go out chasing rainbows to find the pot of gold at the end. This belief that somewhere out there is the land of joy dogs my footsteps wherever I am. Contentment is the ego search of my short life. The truth is that as long as I look upon happiness as something outside of me, I shall never be...

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found, not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater. -Saint Teresa of Avila From Eswaran --- The widest possibilities for growth lie in the give-and-take of everyday relationships. The truth of this is brought out sweetly in a story about Saint Francis of Assisi. Three young men approached Francis and asked his blessing to become hermits and seek God, each in his own cave, deep in the mountains of Umbria . Francis smiled. He instructed them to be hermits indeed, but hermits all together in a single hut. One should take the role of father; a second should think of himself as the mother; and the third should be their child. Every few months they should exchange roles. Living in this way they were to establish among themselves perfect harmony, thinking always of the needs of one another. We can almost see the th...

"Like a ball batted back and forth, a human being is batted by two forces within." -Yogabindu Upanishad "As human beings we have a divided nature - partly physical, but essentially spiritual. We are constantly batted by two conflicting forces. One force is the fierce downward thrust of our past conditioning as separate, self-oriented, physical creatures. Yet built into our very nature is an inner drive that will not let us be satisfied with a life governed only by biological laws. Some inner evolutionary imperative is constantly exhorting us to grow, to reach for the highest that we can conceive." Eswaran I liken this ancient Indian spiritual teaching in the Upanishad to the concepts of the False Self and the Essential Self. "The Work" of Transformation would cast the dilemma in the terms of being open to an objective observation of the driving force within my life. Which of the polar opposite influences in my life do I follow? 1. The Holy Ghost , expansi...

I have been studying the works of Kabir Helminski , a contemporary Sufi mystic. His book, "Living Presence, has had a profound effect on me, and has profoundly impacted my own personal journey of transformation. The Sufi descriptions of the fundamental aspects of the Self as defined and utilized through Shaikh Helminski's teachings have been quite instructive. It applies to me, quite pointedly, and I believe in varied ways and from varied points of view, to all of us. What I believe I pursued for the first 45 years of my life, was a constructed, fearful and compulsive self, driven by ego and my own sense of "I, me and mine". I have become accepting of this the more I have grown in "The Work" of transformation. What the process has involved in my own sense of awareness and awakening is to become fully cognizant to what is contained within my Essential Self, where my own true, un-constructed soul emanates. This is where "Spirit" is manifest. Thi...

Hugh Prather, in his book, "Spiritual Notes to Myself" comes to a rather interesting conclusion about our own desire to engage in the development of our own contemplative practice, or in his simple way of cancelling religious sounding words--our own "capacity for stillness"... Prather quips, "If you love your inner peace, you must learn to "break with the situation". If you need to pray, then PRAY NOW. "Oh, but that might be awkward", or "that is too much trouble", we say to ourselves. However, just think about it--if you have diarrhea, don't you do everything possible to "break with the situation"? We will get up from the meeting. We will get out of line. We will pull the car over to the side of the road. We will excuse ourselves from the dinner table. We will put down the phone." As my former Pastor Julie PR would say when she began to sense herself becoming overwhelmed by a situation-- "I need to set this...

"That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love." -Mechthild of Magdeburg There is nothing on earth like meditation, or the cultivation of stillness, as Prather puts it. Each day it has the potential to be new and fresh. Why doesn't everyone "take to it"? Millions dedicate their lives to art, music, literature, or science, which reveal just one facet of the priceless jewel hidden in the world. A life based on meditation penetrates far beyond the multiplicity of existence into the indivisible realm of reality, where dwells infinite truth, joy, and beauty. In the cu...