INCARNATIONAL GUIDANCE

I've written recently of the rich, young ruler and of my realization that each and every moment, both the pleasant and unpleasant, is an occasion to be molded by and respond to love.  It is a chance to embody true non-possessiveness, which is the key to dependence on the divine. 

When it comes to surrender, the guidance I've been looking for is intrinsic to life itself.  The dynamic unfolding of circumstance is not random noise or a lifeless backdrop, but an I-It relationship calling forth everything God intends for me as the present moment. 

In the end, I’m called to stand where I am right now, embody what I am right now, and say the words in my mouth right now.  Alan Watts quotes master Ch'ing-yuan Wei-hsin in his book, The Way of Zen:

Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and waters as waters.  When I had arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to a point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters not waters.  But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest.  For it is just that I see mountains once again as mountains and waters once again as waters. (1951, pg. 126)

St. John of the Cross offers a similar insight when he observes that, "My beloved is the mountains."  Going forward, the key is to let be what will be, to unfold as it unfolds, and not fall victim to the rich, young ruler's stumbling block - no, I'm sorry, but it’s too much.  You can’t have that.  Yet that is what is consummately necessary, that openness to the rise and fall, the reception and loss, of whatever God sees fit to provide.  For those things matter only in their power to carve out the heart space and provide occasion to embody infinite love. 

theperennialjourney