This morning I am deeply struck and inspired by a post titled The Place of Wisdom which delves into the “The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ” by Levi. In this dialogue Jesus is asked from where the light and the wisdom that surrounded him came. His reply?

“There is a Silence where the soul may meet its God, and there the fount of wisdom is, and all who enter are immersed in light, and filled with wisdom, love and power.”

This Silence is where we learn to rest in meditation. It is not a place where the world and our mind literally fall silent, but where we let go of our wrestling with these things. This is where we stop striving and start being. Jesus uses the word God. I think of it as a surrender to our interconnection. When I allow myself to simply be, the pain of separation ends and I rest in knowing I am a part of everything and there is no “me” to fight for, build, or defend.

The beauty of this piece is that Jesus does not stop simply at naming the source of wisdom, but goes on to encourage his questioner to seek it in every aspect of life. It is not simply here or there. It is everywhere. We carry this secret place within us at all times.

He even goes on to note the burden of daily life and that it may at times be difficult to move beyond the noise and disturbances of thought. In these cases he recommends one “go out and seek a quiet place to pray and meditate.” This reminds me of words of the Buddha which I often find myself chanting when feeling overwhelmed by daily life. “Go therefore monks and find a tree to sit beneath.” (this is my simple rendering of the Buddha’s words)

So it is both. The Silence that gives forth wisdom and light is with us at all times. And yet we need to listen and note when we are overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of daily life. We need to take note and take action when life becomes too loud to hear the wisdom within. In these moments, go find a tree. An open field. A river or a beach. Find a quiet place in nature and allow the Silence to come forth.

It is there. It is with you at all times. And it cannot be destroyed.

Jesus goes on to say,

“When in the Silence, phantom forms may flit before the mind; but they are all subservient to the will; the master soul may speak and they are gone.

If you would find this Silence of the soul you must yourself prepare the way. None but the pure in heart may enter here.”

So he is encouraging us to move beyond the mind states of doubt, fear, aversion, etc. These voices that try to prevent us from knowing our interconnection. And so he notes their impermanence and delusion. When he says, “pure in heart” I interpret this as those who are not fooled by these impermanent hindrances of the mind. Those who do not allow these things to dissuade them from entering the Silence. We may think of “pure in heart” as being those who have purified all of their sins or let go of all bad habits, but what if it means we simply stop listening to them? We stop allowing them to run the show and instead trust our connection with Silence.

“And you must lay aside all tenseness of the mind, all business cares, all fears, all doubts and troubled thoughts.

Your human will must be absorbed by the divine; then you will come into a consciousness of holiness.”

The mind tells us to worry and act in defence of ourselves. Jesus encourages us to let go and “be absorbed by the divine.” A place of light and wisdom indeed.

Thank you to Harsh K. Luthar for posting this piece. I look forward to more of your premier enlightenment offerings. Click here to read the full account of Jesus’ words: The Place of Wisdom 

And yet it has taken some time. It has taken time for me to fully recognize and own this creative force. It has taken time for me to say, “I want to be a writer.” For years, perhaps since I was 20, my mother has been telling me to write my life story. She knew what I was supposed to be doing. She knew and she had no problem stating it. Why did I?

The answer came this morning. As I sat down on the couch in the kitchen (we’re getting the carpet cleaned) and began to reply to an email from a fellow Dharma woman (thank you, Tracey!), I felt the words “dark blessing” come forth. I felt them and I knew what I had been waiting for. I knew, what two seconds before, I did not know. And suddenly it was time to move forward…

But before moving forward I want to insert another piece of the story that I think is relevant because it says something about forming a vision, having a dream, and then watching that dream come to life. This summer I had the incredible fortune of spending two months on the Italian island Sardegna. My home during this time was Il Giardino Incantanto which means “the Enchanted Garden” and does more than live up to it’s name. During this time, I slept under the stars, practiced yummy yoga on a terrace overlooking the countryside, feasted on amazing meals, and shared deep heart secrets with lovely people from around the world. It was on June 26th, the night of the full moon, that I sat under the stars with three of my garden companions and shared my dream for spiritual writing. I shared that I wanted to write a book on the Buddhist teaching of 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. This came out of the insights that came forth last year while honoring my father’s life after he committed suicide. Moments of crystalline awareness of the simultaneous joys and sorrows of life opened my heart to an entirely new perception of the Buddhist teaching I had always loved. My companions were inspired and promised to support me in the endeavor. And then that was that. I thought of the wish frequently over the following weeks, but simply sat waiting for a call to action.

And now we have circled back to this morning when I was hit with a shot of inspiration. And I would like to share with you that as of about two hours ago, I am writing a book called Dark Blessings. Here is a quick peek into the beginnings of the book…

“Sometimes we are blessed. Sometimes we are deeply blessed in a way that is full of light and what seems like the universe aligning in our favor. Sometimes it all seems too good to be true. And sometimes we are blessed in other ways. We are blessed in darkness. We receive gifts that we actually refer to as curses, bad luck, bad karma, or evil forces. We fall to our knees and scream, “WHY?” Sometimes we are blessed with pain and destruction. It is easy in these times to fall into great self-pity and distress. But that is not our only option. There is also the potential for a dark blessing to arise. The key is to surrender to the darkness in a way that allows it to rework you, to remake you, to heal and empower you.”

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. And a simple outline of what the chapters of the book may look like. And to honest, I’m not quite sure what to do next.

But at this moment, my idea is to share with you my process for writing the book. To let you in on where I get stuck in the mud and where it comes forth like the waves of the sea. I want to share sentences and paragraphs that excite me. I want to share moments that bring tears and healing. I have this blog which is very much in line with the spirit of the book and I figure, “Why not join the two? Why not create a little yoga of writing?”

Just two months before my father died, I decided to share with him a collection of papers I wrote for my undergraduate degree. These papers were deeply personal and delved into my experience with things such as trauma, grief, isolation, and despair. After my father died, I found a handwritten letter that he wrote in response to reading the papers. The note is one of my most cherished possessions and within it he tells me to write. “You have a gift for communication,” he says, “and you need to write.” 

And so it was in his dying process that my father gave me the guidance and courage to bring forth what I have always wanted to do. And because I know this will be both a deeply challenging and rewarding phase of life for me, I want to share it with you.

Thank you for joining me. Stay tuned…

With love & warm wishes,

Rachel

But I digress. What I really want to share is something from Taijo which went something like this…

When we bow we bring our hands before us, heart center, and acknowledge our left hand as “I” and our right hand as the Buddha. This is a mudra to remind us that the Buddha is within each of us. Often we think of the Buddha as living high above, far away in the sky. And we see ourselves as very small and low to the ground. But that does not make sense. There is no mudra with one hand way up high and one hand low. So we bring our hands together and we come to see that always the Buddha is with us. We can each become the Buddha.

Oh, my melting heart! (that’s me, not Taijo) Freedom is so close, so present, so direct. It is with us every step of the way. Mystic and otherworldly are right here, right now. We simply have to acknowledge it and that can be as simple as bringing our two hands together. This beautiful teaching also reminded me of a note I sent to some of my fellow Dharma Punx last year. I’ll just give you the tail end of the message and let Mos Def take it from there…

…here is a little something from Mos Def. Replace Hip-Hop with Dharma and you get us. It’s in our hands.
 
Fear Not of Man - Mos Def

Listen…people be askin me all the time,
“Yo Mos, what’s gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?”
Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin?
I tell em, “You know what’s gonna happen with Hip-Hop?
Whatever’s happening with us”
If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright
People talk about Hip-Hop like it’s some giant livin in the hillside
comin down to visit the townspeople
We +are+ Hip-Hop
Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop
So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin
So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin
ask yourself…where am I goin? How am I doin?