Good day good people,
Last week we turned our attention to join in the collective work of creating sun in ourselves. We allowed ourselves to be drawn to or by one of these spiritual substances/energies/nutrients—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, trust, mercy, compassion, faithfulness, perseverance, forgiveness, courage, steadfastness, generosity, fidelity, abundance, serenity, equanimity, metis (skillful action at exactly the right time), ethical discipline, sobriety, integrity, impartiality, concentration, wisdom, discernment, etc.—through the end of the year.
This work of creating sun in ourselves is seen as part of our cosmic role and responsibility as humans. As William Segal, a student of the Work, says, “the role of a conscious human being is to provide the phenomenal earth world (World 48, 96 and denser) with energies (from World 24, 12 and finer) which otherwise would not be effectively transmitted to the creations and units that make up this earth world.”
Part of our ongoing preparation, for this role we are tasked with, is the work of self-observation (observing what we say, think, sense, emote, do and not identifying with all that we see) and Self-remembering (having an awareness and felt sense in the moment of our Greater Self, I Am, Real I). This Work contributes to our passing into a deeper level of ourselves beyond mechanicality, as we continue to stabilize and strengthen an inner center of gravity (or moon) that is not so influenced by externals.
Gurdjieff student Maurice Nicoll says, “that this is called in the Work development. You might think that development means increase of laws but if we take the level of the Moon in the Ray of Creation it is under 96 orders of laws and this is no development. On the contrary, it is a descent into increasing and useless perplexity. All development consists in becoming more internal in your understanding through seeing what you are like and separating from it and at the same time it signifies a raising of the whole level of your being in terms of the Ray of Creation to a level where fewer laws exist. The Work teaches that it is possible for a [human] to reach the level of the Sun in [oneself]. As you know, in the Ray of Creation, the Sun, as it is called, is under 12 orders of laws, and such a [human] has Real 'I' or Master at work [inside]—i.e. obeys [which comes from a Latin word meaning "listen to," "give attention to, “to listen intently, “to understand,” “to hear and to act”] these highest principles concealed in [Human's] psychology” (Psychological Commentaries, p.801).
Thus our work with creating sun in ourselves, is about coming to operate by the laws of, and cultivating a receptivity to the more subtle spiritual substances or energies coming from, World 24 and 12 both within us and beyond us. We learn to perceive and act in accordance with those laws and become both co-generators and decanters of the nutrients that are needed here by way of receiving, storing, allowing them to breath and serving them to others.
With love,
Heather
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, November 4th with Chris
Reading: 'A River of peace' by Lee Van Laer, Morning Five, Nov. 4 2024
What does it mean
To receive truth more deeply in the body
Without the mind interfering?
Can I relax enough to sink my awareness down
Into the beginning of my life where awareness arises
To be much more simple
To just be here with the breathing,
With the cells,
With the energy and force of life
That brings me here to the threshold of my being.
There is a song that is sung here at the root of being.
It is a single note that has all notes in it.
And it rises up from nothingness into creation like a psalm, like a hymn.
It is the song of stillness, the song of being.
It is a song that I listen to by sensing, by feeling.
and there is much more being in it
than in even the greatest portion of my thought.
So I am here in relationship
This is the place from which I need to manifest my life.
To stop here first,
on my way to each event,
and drink from the love and the truth and the goodness that are present here.
The reason that I so often thirst for life is that I don't drink this water.
But here on the edge of the desert, it is available.
So I drink the water of life.
Chant: Be right here, in the Heart of God (by Henry Schoenfield)
Tuesday, November 5th
Body Prayer (video found here)
Here I am, as I am
Holy, Human
In this world, as it is
Sacred, Profane
Ever connected, in this wondrous luminous web
Ever abiding, in the Heart of God
Chant: "Well Held" by Lyndsey Scott
Just so that you know
There is nothing wrong in this moment
When you breathe
Can you touch
There is nothing wrong
I will hold for you
All is Well in this moment
Relax and breathe, we’ve got your back, love is scheming all along
You are well held
You are held
You are well held
You are held
I know who I Am when I stand in my power
I know how to live from my heart
I know how to think the truth
regardless of circumstance
This is my art
Wednesday, November 6th
Reading: “The point is that our spiritual awareness seems to be given to us in order to hone in on and not lose touch with that "point or spark of pure truth" at the core of our being, from which both the true compass track of our life and our existential conviction of belonging emanate. That is what the magnetic pull is all about. And as we learn gradually to trust it and let it draw us along, we discover that those core fears of the egoic level-that something terrible can happen to us, that we can fall out of God or suffer irreparable harm-do not compute in these deeper waters of our being. Try as we will, we simply cannot find them there. They can only affect us when we are at the surface of ourselves.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope, p.51
Chant: Keep Walking, Keep Singing, Keep Praying, Keep Trusting, Keep On, Letting go into Love (part of chant by Lyndsey Scott)
Thursday, November 7th
Reading: “Do not be afraid, little flock. It is my Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
“These sublime words from Luke 12 accompany me this morning as I awake to an America vastly different from the one I bid farewell to last night. The people have spoken; my country has collectively expressed its wish for the future. The decision was clean and unequivocal. By the hand of democracy, my fellow citizens have chosen this path. As fellow Americans, we will now walk it together. I know that many, if not most, in my Wisdom School network were hoping for a different outcome, had their hopes pinned on it.…I would ask you to honor your grief, give it space, but not to barricade yourself behind it, not to let it incapacitate you or harden your heart to your neighbors who have seen things otherwise. The job ahead of us, in whatever way we experience it, is reconciliation and rebuilding. Just as in Asheville, where red folks and blue folks came together in a remarkable unison to rebuild their beloved city, that is what we must do now. Rebuild our beloved city.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, https://wisdomwaypoints.org/2024/11/do-not-be-afraid/
Chant: Keep Walking, Keep Singing, Keep Praying, Keep Trusting, Keep On, Letting go into Love (part of chant by Lyndsey Scott)
Friday, November 8th
Reading: “Do not be afraid, little flock. It is my Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
“Until then, as we all navigate through this season of winnowing, it will be more important than ever for those of you who can stay with it, to hold fast to sobriety, integrity, impartiality, and mêtis (skillful action at exactly the right time). To be able to look sphinx-like into the eyes of this necessary winnowing and not wince or flail. Not to indulge in nostalgia, self-pity, blame, or rumination. To keep walking forward in forgiveness and quiet hope into the future. Our Father is still trying to give us the Kingdom; the timing depends on our readiness to bear it. Let us continue, quietly, with the readying.
Chant: Hold fast the hope that anchors the soul, which is sure and steadfast, that you may float above the world’s seas (by Paulette Meier)
Saturday, November 9th
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