Reflecting on the TRUE SELF

OUR JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE TRUE SELF

Our Journey in search of the True or Real Self  paradoxically results in us returning to the place where we first started. It is a journey back 'home'. I find the following quote from  Thomas Merton, a  great Christian Spiritual Master so telling and true .

 

Encounter with Mystery

ENCOUNTERING THE MYSTERY

( a short 'reflection' ) 

In our quietest moments and at our deepest centre, human beings have always been aware of, and attracted to, their  inherent sense of mystery that lies both at their heart and 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. 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 I/Thou relationship is one of total encounter and  many examples can be found in 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 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.

Discovering True Joy

Discovering True Joy

We live in a world that can easily get fixated of the search for pleasure and not Joy.  The following quote is offered as a short reflection on true Joy

 

Day of Reflection with Sister Ishpriya

               

“There is a Crack in Everything, that’s how the Light gets in”

L Cohen song

A Day of Contemplative Encounter
Led by Ishpriya Mataji

Saturday 18th March 2017 9.30am– 4.30pm

At The Kairos Centre, Roehampton, London SW15 4JA

About Ishpriya Mataji

Ishpriya is a spiritual teacher and guide. Although English by birth, she has lived in India among Hindu holy men and women for many years. Along with Vandana she founded three Christian ashrams for dialogue with Hindus and for meditation and spiritual practice, drawing on the wisdom of east and west. Ishpriya is the last remaining of the Christians who led the Christian Ashram movement in India, alongside Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths.

As well as an in depth experiential knowledge of eastern spiritual traditions, Ishpriya has a doctorate in western psychology. She has taught and led retreats world- wide and has a gift for integrating our Christian heritage with the wisdom of the east.

About the Day

This will be a time for us to explore ways of relating to our world, in which darkness appears to be gaining ground at all levels. This world needs light and love more than ever, so finding ways to live and radiate peace and joy to those around us is vital for ourselves and the world. To do this we need to be in touch with our own inner resources and the Source of all life. This requires a deep faith/certainty that there is more to life than the material, and that true happiness comes from within not from without.

Ishpriya Mataji, will take us on a journey to explore how we can unveil our inner resources, and bring them to our world, to become the cracks through which light can come in. This day will show that there is a clear, simple and radically practical way to live this fullness of life, while journeying through the demands of contemporary daily living.

During the day there will be teaching, with time for reflection, stillness and questions.

Cost: £25 for the day with concession of £15 for those on low income.
Schedule: 9.30am -10.00am for tea and coffee. Lunch break: 1pm – 2pm, bring your own lunch. Tea and coffee provided. End of day: 4.30pm.

To book: click here

New Year - A Time to Reflect

EXAMINE THE GROUND WHERE YOU STAND

New Year is a time for reflection. It is an opportunity to look back , to pause and to look forward to the coming year ( our future). 

We can often err when we make 'rash' resolutions as these are often rooted either id 'wishful thinking' or in external pressures from our culture, religion etc.  Both Neuroscience and personal experience demonstrate that we are 'creatures of habit' and thus very rarely either keep or manage to achieve our new year resolutions.

To ensure ANY lasting change we need first to both recognise and understand exactly who and where we are at this moment in time. In truth  the 'lure of the distance' , often a wishful and imagined future, is truly deceptive. I find that it  is better by far to focus honestly on the present, to recognise who and what I am . In short, to examine the ground where I currently stand.

The ancient mystics of all Traditions have always encouraged us to stay in the present moment and , once there, then decide the next step forward. This is a more certain path and one where many have successfully travelled before.

I wish all who read this a Happy, Peaceful and Love-Filled Year

Advent- A Time for Reflection

An Advent Reflection

Regardless of our Faith Tradition ( or none) it is important to remember that we are human BEINGS not human DOINGS. The Christian Season is a time to pause and to reflect on our True Nature and Source.  The following Reflection from Sister Ishpriya is respectfully offered to all

 

Timely Reflection

An interesting contemplative video from the Garrison Institute. It looks at the need for  Contemplation and Reflection in these times of  change.
 Timely Reflection

Cosmos & The Great Turning

The Wonderful Cosmos

Our growing knowledge of the Cosmos , which is still mainly a mystery to humanity, can only cause us to pause in awe and wonder at its beauty and vastness. The above picture, with some words from Thomas Keating, were part of our introduction to our Satsang Theme of THE GREAT TURNING.

 Further details will shortly be posted  

Awakening Consciousness - Satsang Meeting

The Satsang Association

Sat 12th Nov

Another meeting

on the theme

The Spirit of Creation

 Many experts and leading thinkers consider that our world, and certainly humanity , is  facing an Ecological and Social  crisis. This  can be viewed either as a very negative and gloomy situation or as an opportunity and adventure  for humanity  to begin the journey that requires us to make significant changes in our relationships with each other, our environment and the Cosmos.

Our meeting will reflect on the need for Humanity to pause and begin to undergo   a  Shift in Consciousness. However before we can 'shift' we need to WAKE UP..

 This will be the first of TWO session on Consciousness and  will focus on its Awakening. We will have video input from Eckhart Tolle a renowned Western Spiritual Master.

VENUE :  Friends Meeting House, Summerfield Road, Wolverhampton   1.30 - 4.30 p.m.

Suggested Donation towards Hire of Venue     £5

Prophets of a future not our own

A reflection by Oscar Romero,

He was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador and a champion of justice  for the poor and the oppressed. He spoke out against the Salvadorian Regime and its ways of torture and assassination. A regime that oppressed the masses and protected the powerful and rich.

He practised 'reading the signs of the times' and clearly understood  what was really happening. In short, he was a prophet of our times and a man of the people. Like many prophetic mystics before him, he was feared and hated by those who held and abused power. It is no surprise that to 'still his voice' he was assassinated in 1980 at the Altar of his church. However, this did not silence the Regime's critics it merely empowered them to protest even more.

This reflection reminds us to resist measuring our accomplishments and gives a very liberating picture of the roles of the Master ( Teacher or Guru) and  the Disciple. It also emphasises that our task is to live a fruitful life in order to hand-on a better future for our descendants and our planet

We accomplish in our life time only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No programme accomplishes

the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives

 includes everything.

This is what we are about

We plant the seeds that one day will grow

We water seeds already planted,

Knowing that they hold promise.

We lay foundations that

Will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces

Effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and to do the rest, but that is the difference between master builder and the worker.

We are the workers, not master builders. Ministers, not Messiahs We are prophets of a future not our own

Oscar Romero