The Risk of the Mystery

Returning to Our Centre

‘Return within to the place where there is nothing and make sure that nothing comes in with you. Penetrate to the depths of your self. To the place where thoughts no longer exist and make sure that no thought raises its head. For there where there is nothing is fullness, there where nothing is seen is the vision of being, there where nothing appears any longer is the sudden appearing  of the self (the spirit?)  Dyan (meditation) it is this’

In our quietest moments and at our deepest centre, human beings have always been aware of and attracted to that sense of mystery that lies at the heart of creation. This awareness and attraction to mystery is all around and within us. We are each faced, at our deepest depth, with the essential questions ‘Who am I’ ? , What is my ‘true’ self ? and How am I connected to the Ultimate Source, the Self that is the Mystery at the heart of creation?  These are existential questions and, although we often deny or suppress them, they bubble beneath the surface of our awareness and if ignored can lie at the heart of our inner restlessness and angst.

All the Spiritual and Faith Traditions have struggled with these questions and the mystics, sages and teachers of the past have provided some pointers and possible answers. There is a wonderful story from the Zen Buddhist traditions that attempts to provide an answer or, response, to the questions

The Candle & the Mirror

A Chinese Empress once asked a Buddhist Master about the relationship between the ONE ( Mystery) and the Many. The Master sat for a moment and then has a series of mirrors placed all around the room – to form a complete circle.

He then placed a candle in the middle and lit it. The Empress was both moved and delighted by the wonder and splendour of the reflected light.

The Master explained that the light from the candle was the ONE and the reflections were the Many

This story provides us with a useful metaphor that is a typical of the many attempts that can be found in all the Traditions. They can provide us with a view of the Mystery at the heart of our being. This Mystery reaches out to all and invites us to enter into a deeper on inner relationship of Self to self. This is an invitation to an encounter with the Mystery .  This is an example of the I : Thou relationship outlined by the famous  Philosopher +Martin Buber. Now, encounter is a central concept for Buber and for his theory of relating. For Buber, this encounter   occurs with ‘God’  or Mystery  ( by whatever name you call It) who is the eternal Thou and who sustains the I/Thou relationship.

This spiritual relationship is one of total encounter and can be equated to that of the Jewish Scriptures and the Hindu Upanishads.  It also has echoes from Celtic Spirituality, where ‘presence’ is such an important part of encounter (See the Resources page of the Satsang Website http://www.satsang-companionship.org.uk/ ‘Echoes of Creation )     In this ‘encounter, this ‘Presence’, this I/Thou relationship between the person, others , the environment  and Mystery, there is a unity of being, a sense of ‘indwelling presence’ one to the other. Thus there is no barrier of other relationships which separate the individual from Mystery , and thus there is direct communication. All is seen as ‘Presence’, be it Mystery, nature, the environment or people.

However, for the vast majority of us, there is  deep seated the reluctance or fear  of this total encounter that causes us to draw back and resist this I:Thou relationship. What is it that causes us to resist this invitation to encounter by the Mystery ?. What Sadhana ( spiritual practices) could assist us to enter more fully and deeply into this encounter with Mystery ?   Some answers or , more properly, responses to these questions have been the focus of Sister Ishpriya’s teaching over the past few decades. Ishpriya, like many other Teachers,  has focused her teaching on reflecting on these questions and encouraging her listeners to explore their own responses to this invitation from the Mystery. She encourages all to fearlessly and honestly take the risk to engage in the ‘inner relationship’ with the Mystery we call God. or  Ultimate Reality.

Ishpriya often reminds us that all the Traditions stress that Silent Prayer or Meditation is one of the surest and effective ways of developing and deepening our relationship with the Mystery. She also regularly advises us to beware of the barriers caused by our projections of the ‘Me’. We need to be aware that life and culture conditions us to avoid intimacy personally and spiritually. This conditioning can also play its part in our tendency to erect barriers or defences between ourselves, others, the environment and the Mystery. These barriers include areas such as culture, religion, caste, class, race and ethnicity. It is precisely barriers such as these that the Satsang Commitment encourages each one of us to resist, diminish and demolish. Satsang Members strive to eliminate these barriers , the emphasise is on ‘striving’ .

To return to our common human tendency is to focus on the ‘Me’. We live in a transitory body – psyche. It is our ‘home’ for the short while we exist in this world. We need to remain awake and aware of  the transient nature of the world and resist  getting  drawn into focusing on our ego self.  Focusing on our ‘ego self’ is always at the expense of developing our awareness of the ‘I’ , our real self. 

It is this I  that can more truly relate with the ‘Self’ ,the Atman  of Hinduism, the Mystery.  It is in silence that we can enter and find ‘the silent desert places’ where we can truly meet the Mystery in that I : Thou relationship that Martin Buber reflects on. This journey within, this journey of silence, is truly a a return to the centre.