other mystics

12-19-2001, 08:28 AM

All great mystics teach surrender to the will of God - though they may
use different terms depending on their cultural background. De
Caussade was brought up in Christian Europe, so he used Christian
terms. Thus he spoke of God - God who is the source of all things,
transcendent and utterly beyond the world. Surrendering to the will
of God means aligning yourself with that will as manifest in the
present moment. Yet God is also immanent, your innermost being. This
too is a vital theme amongst the world's mystics. As St. Catherine
herself said, "My Me is God, nor do I recognise any other Me except
my God Himself." Your true nature is God - the Self, the Beloved, the
Buddha-nature, the Tao. At heart you are the origin of things, the
power behind the world, the love that includes every being, the love
that makes the world go round. And so the present moment turns out to
be your will because you are its Origin.So often when we awaken to
this truth, to who we really are, we have a 'wow' experience of some
sort. Yet inevitably this fades. We might then think we have lost the
vision, lost God. But the great and saving truth is that our true
nature does not come and go. Always present, always accessible, we
cannot lose it. The Godhead is not a state of mind, not a feeling,
not a 'thing' of any description. It is steady and unchanging, it is
no-thing - the awake spaciousness that underlies and contains all
things, including our changing states of mind. Recognising this, and
finding one's way back, over and over again, to trusting God - this
is the heart of the matter. Nor is such awakening to and trust in God
only for the great mystics - it is for you and me too. They simply
point the way.Awakening to and trusting in God is a letting go, a
recognition that the self is not central, not in charge. Normally we
live as though it is we who sit on the throne at the centre of our
lives, but this is an illusion. Really only God abides here. But
seeing this truth is a kind of death - the deepest of deaths into
absolute emptiness. No wonder we resist it. And yet the self is not
destroyed. It is simply placed, left where it belongs (and
flourishes), acknowledged and loved for what it is from the emptiness
at centre. There is nothing wrong in having and being the small self -
the problem arises when we imagine it at centre.As we step into God,
leaving ourselves behind on the threshold, though we die to ourselves
we are at once reborn into all the world. Awakening to our inner
no-thingness we find we are all things. And this our deepest being is
revealed as central to the mystery and wonder of creation. All things
flow from here.

PS.
by Richard Langhttp://www.headless.orgRichard Lang who has written
extensively of the work of Douglas Harding was my source for
discovering Caussade. Glo

12-19-2001, 11:28 AM

.....my inter-faith inquires and studies in comparative theology
confirm this viewpoint...the perennial wisdom is found as the ground
of all true seekers....mythologies, theologies, liturgies differ only
on the surface in the outward manifestations....the more i progress in
my practice, the more i see the face of my beloved in all directions
and discover her within all things.....^^~~~~~

further up and further in,

white wolfe
----- Original Message -----
From: Gloria Lee
To: HS
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 7:28 PM
Subject: [HarshaSatsangh] other mystics

All great mystics teach surrender to the will of God - though they may
use different terms depending on their cultural background. De
Caussade was brought up in Christian Europe, so he used Christian
terms. Thus he spoke of God - God who is the source of all things,
transcendent and utterly beyond the world. Surrendering to the will
of God means aligning yourself with that will as manifest in the
present moment. Yet God is also immanent, your innermost being. This
too is a vital theme amongst the world's mystics. As St. Catherine
herself said, "My Me is God, nor do I recognise any other Me except
my God Himself." Your true nature is God - the Self, the Beloved, the
Buddha-nature, the Tao. At heart you are the origin of things, the
power behind the world, the love that includes every being, the love
that makes the world go round. And so the present moment turns out to
be your will because you are its Origin.So often when we awaken to
this truth, to who we really are, we have a 'wow' experience of some
sort. Yet inevitably this fades. We might then think we have lost the
vision, lost God. But the great and saving truth is that our true
nature does not come and go. Always present, always accessible, we
cannot lose it. The Godhead is not a state of mind, not a feeling,
not a 'thing' of any description. It is steady and unchanging, it is
no-thing - the awake spaciousness that underlies and contains all
things, including our changing states of mind. Recognising this, and
finding one's way back, over and over again, to trusting God - this
is the heart of the matter. Nor is such awakening to and trust in God
only for the great mystics - it is for you and me too. They simply
point the way.Awakening to and trusting in God is a letting go, a
recognition that the self is not central, not in charge. Normally we
live as though it is we who sit on the throne at the centre of our
lives, but this is an illusion. Really only God abides here. But
seeing this truth is a kind of death - the deepest of deaths into
absolute emptiness. No wonder we resist it. And yet the self is not
destroyed. It is simply placed, left where it belongs (and
flourishes), acknowledged and loved for what it is from the emptiness
at centre. There is nothing wrong in having and being the small self -
the problem arises when we imagine it at centre.As we step into God,
leaving ourselves behind on the threshold, though we die to ourselves
we are at once reborn into all the world. Awakening to our inner
no-thingness we find we are all things. And this our deepest being is
revealed as central to the mystery and wonder of creation. All things
flow from here.

PS.
by Richard Langhttp://www.headless.orgRichard Lang who has written
extensively of the work of Douglas Harding was my source for
discovering Caussade. Glo
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Magazine and Website is athttp://www.harshasatsangh.comAll paths go
somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights, perceptions,
and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside back
into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than
the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of
Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always Present. It
is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart to be the
Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the Truth of
Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It Self.
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