Constant Mindfulness of Spirit

[Zack]

And resentment, that's a big one. Resentment of being placed in a life where I know in my bones this is the only option, and that no one in my remote vicinity would know what the hell I'm talking about if I even tried to explain it.

[Jhanananda]

John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

This statement has always stuck with me.  Even back in the days when I was forced to attend church three times a week, I knew that God was not a white-haired, white-robed bearded man on top of a mountain.  When I finally came across Carl Jung in the early 90's -- with his concept of the collective unconscious -- and then read all the Hindu material saying that Consciousness is all there is... it has made sense that "God is spirit," and when I pray, it is into the collective soup that I'm projecting my individual thought-imprints -- and through some Mystery, there is a profound effect over time.  That the charisms appeared sometime in 1994 or so, and that I've been walking around saturated in the stuff ever since, suggests that the Holy Spirit is set to "ON" in my being, and it seems like the least I can do is acknowledge its presence on a regular basis.

This is pretty good support for the charism=spirit, as are other references in the Gospels that clearly show the experience of the holy spirit is through the charisms.

As far as being cultivated in jhana, bodhimind -- I'm finding that a regular meditation practice that dips into the charisms sets up an automatic transformational process that unfolds over time.  We just keep dipping in until it becomes apparent that we are changed beings, at which point we are walking, talking jhana bunnies.  Everything else is just talk....

Or, when we are saturated with the charisms, then we could say that we are soaked in the holy spirit.

Thanks again for a great post Michael. I am struggling to find any reason to continue with this, so once again a post of yours drops like a positive antidote against the hatred, loathing, and futile anger that continually envelope me.

And resentment, that's a big one. Resentment of being placed in a life where I know in my bones this is the only option, and that no one in my remote vicinity would know what the hell I'm talking about if I even tried to explain it.

Yes, Zack, the life of the mystic is to be marginalized by the human herd.  However, we have the consolations of the holy spirit to comfort us in our alienation.

[Zack]

Right. By 'continue with this' I did mean this life at all, and it is a concurrent battle. It is a consolation to know others have and have had struggled with that.

[Tad]

Thank you for the warm welcome, Michel, and for your kind words.

I've been thinking about an answer to your question about the form that my prayer takes, and it seems I can't find a satisfactory characterization.

I will say, though, that this extended Dark Night of mine seemed to bottom-out a couple years ago (not to say it's been all roses since then!), at which time I could not see the point of going on in life.  In that place, I decided that if life made no sense to me, I'd try one last gasp effort before blowing the whistle on this game we call life.  (This is how I felt at the time -- can't say I would really have gone through with it -- although I was having those thoughts way too frequently for comfort....)

I wrote a letter to God that day.  It occurred to me to start it out with an expression of thanksgiving -- "Thank you for a good night's sleep and a pleasant, peaceful morning.  Thanks for chirping birds and acrobatic squirrels outside my window.  Thank you for the wonderful meditation I just had."  Etc., etc.  Then I just talked about whatever was there at the time, handing it over, washing my hands of it as best I could -- and where I couldn't get it off my hands, I asked for help, patience, surrender....  Then I would ask for Divine guidance as I read from scripture, ask for a good day with lots of help along the way, then I'd sign off.

That was two years ago and I've been starting (and ending, usually) each day this way ever since -- opening up LibreOffice Writer, dating it, hitting the keys.  I do attribute my continued presence among the living to this practice, as it's been the only thing that's allowed me access to vibrations that are higher than anger, fear, resentment, self-hatred or whatever else I've been mired in.  There's something about expressing thanks and appreciation that opens a person up, even when they are stuck in the darkest places -- and if it's done enough, one gets to layers that contain love.

If life is one long, humiliating assault on entrenched ego personality, I do recommend a practice like this.  Jhana/samadhi may be blissful in its arising and saturation... but holy shit, it has no mercy when it comes to removing any and every blockage along the path Home.

Hi Michael,

This was a very interesting thread. Do you still use this method of prayer?

[Michael Hawkins]

Hi Michael,

This was a very interesting thread. Do you still use this method of prayer?

Well, I still write letters/prayers to God, although I miss some days.  The format became pretty regimented after a while, so now it's more free-flow, and I don't have a daily Bible reading like I was maintaining at that time.  Now I seem to focus more on surrender to God's Will, and on the fact that there is an unlimited resource for dealing with life that (Who) I can talk to.  It's like I'm giving myself a chance to touch That which is inexpressibly beyond comprehension - not unlike the deeper states of absorption.  Anyway, yes I do, but in a modified way.

[Tad]

Michael,

I think the idea of God can be a powerful tool. But I often struggle on how to make sense of good in moments outside of calmness of mind. I feel like this material world is some sort of a manifestation of our separation from the original source. Yet at the same time, even the material world probably depends on the energy of the original source, except that it is only a distortion of it. What has been your experience with it?

[Michael Hawkins]

Michael,

I think the idea of God can be a powerful tool. But I often struggle on how to make sense of good in moments outside of calmness of mind. I feel like this material world is some sort of a manifestation of our separation from the original source. Yet at the same time, even the material world probably depends on the energy of the original source, except that it is only a distortion of it. What has been your experience with it?

Tad,

I share your notion that this material world is some sort of a manifestation of our separation from the original source, and that it also depends on the energy of the original source, albeit only a distortion of it.  My experience includes an expanding sense of the Mystery reflected through the inner vs. outer paradigm.  Lately in meditation there has been a strong apprehension of the difference between the two - how the mind (ego) produces one thought, perception or feeling after another, seeming to tempt me away from what's right here - and then I go back to the breath and body, which leads to stillness of the mind, where "good" is so much easier to perceive.  It's the recognition of how my attachments and clinging to what is transient and "other" leads to nothing but anxiety, pain and suffering, and how important it is to give my being repeated experiences of bliss, joy and ecstasy - which sounds repetitive and maybe trite, but there it is.  When I pray to God, it's like I'm acknowledging an inability to transcend my limited perception of the Big Picture, while drawing from the living energy of the Source in order to merge more and more with That.  God and the deeper jhana states are, in my perspective, one and the same.

Hope that wasn't too convoluted.  There's probably a simpler way to state it - now you've got me thinking!

[Tad]

Michael,

You made a good point about the fact that our ability to transcend constraints of our minds is often more limited that we would like. So I think anything that points toward the reality beyond the material world is helpful even in limited forms.

[Jhanananda]

I have been ruminating upon this thread for a while as it has progressed, and what I would like to remind everyone that we who come from a foundation in the Abrahamic religions is a root belief in a Benevolent Creator God who punishes the wicked, while benefiting the righteous, but if we closely examine the material world that is not what we see. The material world is better described as what Siddhartha Gautama was prone to saying that this world is a holocaust, a disaster, a flood, a tidal wave, an epidemic, a hurricane, an earth quake... I find it better to understand that we are on our own here. We cannot blame this disaster of a material existence on any outside agency. We are stuck here until it is over; however, as contemplatives who have become mystics we have a way off the, otherwise, infinite conveyer belt back to material existence through cultivating our spiritual existence by meditation into saturation in the charisms which transforms our attention from our obsession with material existence into a continuity of the bliss, joy and ecstasy of the spiritual existence, and what I found I needed to do about 50 years ago, is what I call, Enriching the Religious Experience, or, Set and Setting. It is a reminder to myself that this world is all about suffering, but the spirit world is all about bliss, joy and ecstasy.

[Michael Hawkins]

I have been ruminating upon this thread for a while as it has progressed, and what I would like to remind everyone that we who come from a foundation in the Abrahamic religions is a root belief in a Benevolent Creator God who punishes the wicked, while benefiting the righteous, but if we closely examine the material world that is not what we see. The material world is better described as what Siddhartha Gautama was prone to saying that this world is a holocaust, a disaster, a flood, a tidal wave, an epidemic, a hurricane, an earth quake... I find it better to understand that we are on our own here. We cannot blame this disaster of a material existence on any outside agency. We are stuck here until it is over; however, as contemplatives who have become mystics we have a way off the, otherwise, infinite conveyer belt back to material existence through cultivating our spiritual existence by meditation into saturation in the charisms which transforms our attention from our obsession with material existence into a continuity of the bliss, joy and ecstasy of the spiritual existence, and what I found I needed to do about 50 years ago, is what I call, Enriching the Religious Experience, or, Set and Setting. It is a reminder to myself that this world is all about suffering, but the spirit world is all about bliss, joy and ecstasy.

Good reminder, Jeffrey.  Lately I've been sitting with the idea that attachment to (or investment in) all phenomena leads to suffering.  Meditating until the mind stops churning, then into deeper and more sublime states of bliss, joy and ecstasy, brings release from attachment and investment.  Saturation makes it much easier to find relinquishment when off the cushion.  None of this comes from outside influence, it's all coming from the cosmos within.  The spirit world, as you put it, is the only place to look if we want off this merry-go-round from Hell.

[Jhanananda]

Yes, I agree. Good to read from you. I have been wondering about your health with air quality declining in the greater Denver area.

[Michael Hawkins]

Yes, I agree. Good to read from you. I have been wondering about your health with air quality declining in the greater Denver area.

Thanks for checking in on my health, Jeffrey.  Physically I've been doing quite well for about a month, so I'm happy about that.  The main stress is about income, of course - same story my entire adult life.  Learning how to live on pennies, eat simply, do without certain creature comforts.

How is your health, my friend?

[Jhanananda]

Thanks for checking in on my health, Jeffrey.  Physically I've been doing quite well for about a month, so I'm happy about that.  The main stress is about income, of course - same story my entire adult life.  Learning how to live on pennies, eat simply, do without certain creature comforts.

How is your health, my friend?

I'm glad that your health has improved. After our last interaction regarding weather in Colorado, I had forgotten that Colorado gets a double blessing of weather because the jet stream shifts back and forth going around the Rocky Mountains so the Rocky Mountains receive weather either from the southwest our the northwest, which has surely improved the air quality there. The southwestern USA also gets weather patterns in the same way, but not nearly as rich with moisture as you get.

As for poverty, that is the fundamental conflict for the contemplative. If we are prosperous then we are often too engaged in culture for that prosperity to engage in a rigorous, self-aware, contemplative life; whereas, if we take up "holy poverty" as St Francis of Assise called it, then our health is poor, like St Francis and myself; consequently those mendicants who are going to have any progress internally and have any influence socially will have robust health that can sustain them through the rigors of the mendicant life. I did not. I had to be a recluse off in the wilderness as far as I can get from the pollution plume of the cities.

[Tad]

I have been ruminating upon this thread for a while as it has progressed, and what I would like to remind everyone that we who come from a foundation in the Abrahamic religions is a root belief in a Benevolent Creator God who punishes the wicked, while benefiting the righteous, but if we closely examine the material world that is not what we see. The material world is better described as what Siddhartha Gautama was prone to saying that this world is a holocaust, a disaster, a flood, a tidal wave, an epidemic, a hurricane, an earth quake... I find it better to understand that we are on our own here. We cannot blame this disaster of a material existence on any outside agency. We are stuck here until it is over; however, as contemplatives who have become mystics we have a way off the, otherwise, infinite conveyer belt back to material existence through cultivating our spiritual existence by meditation into saturation in the charisms which transforms our attention from our obsession with material existence into a continuity of the bliss, joy and ecstasy of the spiritual existence, and what I found I needed to do about 50 years ago, is what I call, Enriching the Religious Experience, or, Set and Setting. It is a reminder to myself that this world is all about suffering, but the spirit world is all about bliss, joy and ecstasy.

This is very deep. The world is a very strange place indeed. On one hand, the complexity of the universe and beauty of nature can be so inspiring. But when we look at the life of beings, there is struggle and stress everywhere. Even the most fortunate ones are not free from fear. Humanity keeps coming up with new solutions for problems, but every solution causes new problems. This world is by design inseprable from stress.

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Tad, well said