Part 2 - Face to Face A Direct Experience of the Mystery

Only The Mystics Will Survive ‘

Theme 2 -     Face to Face

A Direct Experience of the Mystery



Facing the Light

Face to Face

Day After Day, O Lord of my life,

I stand before You face to face.

With folded hands, O Lord of all worlds

Will I stand before You face to face ?

And under Your great sky, in solitude and in silence,

With humble heart, I stand before you face to face.

In this arduous world of Yours

Turbulent with toil and struggle.

Among hurrying crowds. I stand before You face to face.

And when my work shall be done in this world,
O Lord of all worlds.

Alone and without the need of words

I will  stand before You face to face.

Rabindranath Tagore

‘At the moment humanity is searching for its soul’

Ishpriya opened this Theme on Mystics and Mysticism   with Rabindranath Tagore’s poem , Face to Face. This poem expresses the intimacy of our unique relationship with the Source and that ultimately we will ‘stand’ face to face. She then reiterated and reminded us of the crisis and challenge facing our world and summarised this with the statement ‘At the moment humanity is searching for its soul’. Ishpriya then suggested , that in this search for the Reality, for a different relationship at all levels of being, the word ‘

Now for some personal reflections which are not directly connected with Ishpriya’s Conference Talks but arise out of lived experiences and reflections.

This searching for ‘soul’ has become more prevalent and urgent in most recent times. The great changes in both Science and Technology have challenged and changed many of the old certainties that have held sway for centuries. The growth in modern communications, allied to the exponential growth of computers, means that we have more information at our fingertips and that  this information can be shared in seconds around the world. We are living in times that are changing faster than either individuals or institutions can either keep up with or manage and this can be both challenging and unsettling.

For many of our Institutions, particularly Religion, these unsettling times can give rise to great anxiety and panic.  Thus we see an ever increasing growth in fundamentalism and conservatism as Institutions and Organisations try to avoid the chaos of change and cling relentlessly on to old and outdated theology, worship and ideas. This is particularly true of male dominated Institutions, which applies to most of the formal Faith Traditions and certainly in Western Religions.  These resist and even deny any ideas and advances that suggest that we could benefit by acknowledging the on-going evolution of Creation and the importance of balancing the patriarchal dominance with the feminine aspect of our humanity. 

Yet both Science and the Universal Wisdom of the Mystics, along with the wisdom of the aboriginal peoples of the world, acknowledge and recognise that there is both Chaos and Conservation. Chaos and conservation are a natural part of nature, the environment and the human experience. At the moment, modern humanity is over-focused, and arguably obsessed, with the patriarchal and masculine side of its psyche. Part of the solution could be for  humanity  to tap into and balance its feminine and masculine gifts in order  to find a new  and wiser way through this quantum leap.  In this respect we have much to learn from the wisdom of the ancients and the aboriginal peoples who both recognise and celebrate the feminine aspect of the Divine. This could result in us finding the balance required that will enable us to cherish, respect and appreciate the richness of both the feminine and masculine. In this way mutual respect will grow and the oppression, abuse and failure to acknowledge and accept the great talents and gifts of women will cease.

 There is nothing too surprising in all this if we just look at history. In the middle ages the invention of the printing press brought about terrific changes. The spread of information and ideas was rapid and played a huge part in the turmoil and chaos of the Reformation in Western Christianity. At that time the Catholic Church tried to cling on to the old ways and to suppress the growth and spread of new reformist ideas. However, like the famous story of King Canute, the  ( formal) Church failed to stem the tide. Instead it resisted the necessary reforms and the ensuing conflict let to centuries of war, dispute , torture and general disharmony between peoples and Faith Traditions..

Now we have entered the Digital Age, with rapid changes in technology and communication. Information and ideas move around our planet in seconds and all forms of authority are struggling to contain and control the pressure for reform and change . Modern people do not communicate in the old ways, hence the dying spasms of post ( snail mail) and the growth of email, ipad, blogs etc. Yet, in the West, our Churches still rely on written texts and outdated and outmoded rites and rituals which fail to appeal to so many, particularly both the young and the discerning older people. Little wonder that churches are almost empty and cinemas , shopping malls and dance studios and clubs  are filling up. Many people find worship boring and irrelevant to modern times. They are searching for answers to questions that very often the main stream churches don’t or won’t address.

But now to return to aspects of Ishpriya’s Conference Talk.  Focusing on this search for the soul, Ishpriya went on to address the fact that many people hunger for the direct experience of the  Mystery  that is mysticism. The modern search, which initially focused on Meditation, began in the 1960s.  This was a time of great change in music, culture and ideas. The children of the Second World War , the Baby Boomers, entered adulthood and began to challenge and reject many of the accepted norms. People outside the mainstream Religions began to search for meaning in their life. They were not convinced by the ‘certainties’ of their parents and therefore were looking for something different and more authentic. With the growth of modern technology and travel , they began to look further a field. This led to searches in places like India which had a rich heritage of spirituality and its long tradition of Gurus ( Teachers). 

In Indian Spiritual Traditions it is the Guru ( Master) who is more important and spiritually relevant than the priests. The latter merely perform the rites and rituals but the Guru is the reservoir of spiritual truths. In addition, the Guru never seeks disciples, it is the disciple who must first seek and recognise the Guru. In Christianity this is similar to the disciples of Jesus, they recognised the Master and followed him.

Ishpriya then suggested that in this search for the Reality, for a different relationship at every level of being, the word ‘GOD’ could  be a block. This was certainly true for many of the young generation, who were inclined to reject the ‘God Concept’  as it was being presented by both the formal Religions and the older generation. This was also true for many of us. Many of us have a become too used to the God word.  She told us about  a lovely Canadian Children’s Prayer Book with a title ‘WHAT IS GOD?’  This introduces the difficult question of who and what is God using language and ideas that could and would appeal to children. It uses language that they can readily understand.  

Perhaps we can learn from this. Because the question posed  in the title of this children’s book, is the first and most important one to ask on our Journey towards being human.  As we journey and mature it is inevitable that the answer to that 1^st question will keep changing because the ‘entity’ we so glibly refer to as God is so immense and unknowable, that our sense and vision of this entity changes.  Similarly, it is hardly surprising that our 'image' of and our answer to the Who and What of God will grow and shift as they are informed by our direct experiences of the Ultimate Reality.

However, many feel challenged and threatened as this view of ‘God’ emerges from human reflection, understanding and consciousness. This is entirely natural. Humanity has always been wary of great changes, in fact Neuroscience shows that we are ‘hard–wired’ for flight , fight or freeze. We are also hard wired to resist or feel wary of great changes. However we can manage small to medium changes. Therefore we need to see this wariness and reluctance as a sign of genuine growth in our spiritual relationship. Any time we feel a ‘resistance’ to change it is a sign that we have accessed some fear and/or anxiety about one of our core beliefs

This is O.K. It is a sign of growth and it merely invites and challenges us to examine the resistance and the core belief. If after reflection we still wish to hold on to our core belief, that is O.K. Otherwise, we drop the ‘false belief’ and have a deeper and more rooted picture of and relationship with the Mystery we call God.

We live in a dynamic world, which is part of an ever changing and ever expanding cosmos. Everything changes both in this dynamic world and in our dynamic inner and outer life. Therefore, so too must our understanding and responses to the perennial questions  of ‘What is God and Who ( for me) is God’ ?    Only be being aware of all the above can we find a way to  re-assess our understanding of our relationship with God, who is Truth and Mystery.

To assist us to both recognise and better manage this change, Ishpriya suggested, that it could be very helpful if we were to go for one year WITHOUT the word GOD.  This could force us to get to grips with What or Who it is  that we want to come Face to Face with.  For example we might be guided by  Meister Eckhart the great ( arguably the greatest )  Christian medieval teacher and mystic. He doubtlessly shocked his congregation when he exhorted them ‘You must discover God as God is. You must come upon him naked in His dressing Room’!   Eckhart seems to be advising us to drop all the pre-conceived ideas we have of God and be willing to face the 'naked' truth. 

 Whether God is He, She or It, our 1^st challenge is to ‘ drop  the language and images of God ‘ and be opened up afresh to the experience of Reality.  This requires us to have an unmediated, direct encounter with this Absolute whose various names are Truth, Reality, the One without a Second, the Source of All Life etc.  Daoism, manages this as it calls ‘The Dao, - ( the Way) a word for what we cannot name’. Therefore anything we can name cannot be the Absolute Experience’ or the Dao.  Ishpriya she reminds   us, that there is a SOURCE, an Unchanging Reality – a Mystery , at the heart of everything. This ( Mystery) is something ‘we cannot know’ and the question for each us is;  ‘Do I have a conviction of the existence of this Source?’   

This question requires a personal and not a group or institutional response. We need to remember that ‘Faith comes before belief ‘.   Beliefs are very often secondary because  ‘faith’  (i.e. a deep understanding and experience of the existence of God , Ultimate Reality) is deeply personal and based on our experience of the ‘presence’ of  God. In addition, we are advised by both modern psychology and the mystics to remember that  many of our ‘beliefs’ are false or misguided and ‘borrowed’ from others. They are not truly our beliefs. To paraphrase the Greek Philosopher ‘ the unexamined belief is a wasted belief’ . Thus,  faith that is based on lived experience is rooted in truth and therefore not easily tossed and turned around by changes in science or accepted ‘beliefs’.

And yet, as Meister Eckhart and all the Mystics remind us, there is an underlying paradox in our relationship to this Mystery or Source. Even though it is a Mystery, paradoxically , it is a Mystery that  each of us can experience to some degree or level.  The Mystics of all ages have recorded this paradox and this experience and ever person has had moments or glimpses of this experience.  She reminded us of St  Paul’s prayer that we  may be   ‘ Filled with the absolute fullness of God’ .  

 Ishpriya’s reference to St Paul’s prayer in Ephesians, both reminds me of another occasion when she spoke about the In-Filling Presence of God and  also how Paul’s great prayer so aptly describes the wonder and awe of the In-Dwelling Presence of the Mystery – or Spirit. The text appears below. St Paul prays :

... that [God] may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Returning to the thread of Ishpriya’s input. She reminded us that we can be assured that the Mystery will reveal ITSELF to us. In other words, the self-revelation of God at a soul-to-soul, spirit-to –spirit can come to each of us and can be known at some level. But this ‘ knowing’  IS NOT an intellectual knowing, it is experiential  revelation  of  ‘The Mystery’.  

 She challenged each of us to try telling your children ‘that God is  that’ , whatever ‘that’  is. The pitfalls in this approach-  i.e. telling children that ‘ God is … ‘ is that nobody can  define God!  God IS NOT a ‘super person hidden in the skies’.  God is a Mystery and this Mystery  cannot be defined at either the intellectual, emotional or imaginative levels. The Absolute Reality merely  IS!  Personal experience reveals that our understanding of God ( at our fairly simple level) is constantly changing as we grow and experience this ‘revelation’ in life.

 All Traditions have great respect for those who experience the Mystery and all Faith Traditions accept the existence of this Absolute Reality, this Source, and this Mystery. How can we know of this experience of the Mystery ?  Now, the mystics of different Traditions can tell us about this. Interestingly, regardless of their cultural or Faith Traditions, all indicate some common aspects. They all seem to talk about, reflect on and record much the same thing. There is One Source, One Mystery, One God and He, She or It can be found in a Face – to Face encounter.  This returns us to Tagore's words and his wonderful poetry.

Day After Day, O Lord of my life,

I stand before You face to face.

With folded hands, O Lord of all worlds

Will I stand before You face to face ?

And under Your great sky, in solitude and in silence,

With humble heart, I stand before you face to face.

In this arduous world of Yours

Turbulent with toil and struggle.

Among hurrying crowds. I stand before You face to face.

And when my work shall be done in this world, O Lord of all worlds.

Alone and without the need of words

I will  stand before You face to face.

So this leads us on to  the next question which is this. How do we know and experience this ‘encounter’ and   not just at an intellectual level?   Well, the first thing to realise is that being a Mystic does not mean having visions. The mystics, even those who had visions will tell us that visions are not the thing.  Having 'visions'  is not living in the mystery. So if not visions then how can or do we experience the Mystery? This is the subject of the next set of reflections.  

( to be continued in Theme  3 : - Signs of Mysticism )

 Ishpriya ended this theme by posing some questions to guide our reflections. Readers may find the following questions helpful :

 I could take a look at my picture(s)  and name(s)  for  God. What are these?

 How many of these have I ever looked at and/or challenged, particularly since childhood?

 How can or might some of these get in my way of encountering the Reality ‘Face-to-Face’?

 Postscript   
Our understanding of who or what ‘God’ by whatever name we call it; is extremely important in our efforts to make sense of ourselves, our environment, creation and the cosmos. This then effects how we relate to ourselves, others and our environment.In developing that relationship we need to seek a face-to-face encounter with ‘God. However, this requires much soul searching. Modern humanity is drifting away, both from formal religion and authority but also from themselves and their  ‘soul’. The challenge was much greater than  previous challenges and the example given was the Reformation struggle in Western Christianity in the 15^th to 17^th centuries.  

 The next part of this series is Theme 3 :- The Signs of Mysticism .

This  third part  will appear shortly. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the Spirituality of the Satsang then visit the following websites:

www.international-satsang.org

www.satsang-companionship.org.uk