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THE LAW MUST BE FULFILLED IN BOTH
DIRECTIONS
9.1
In the Way of Divine Communion, the
transition is made from self-possession, the contracting
life of Narcissus, to the constant, moment to moment
condition of submission to Grace, through the constant
recollection of the Real, Divine Presence, constant
reception-release of the Presence with every breath, and
through bodily, whole-being participation in service through
right disciplines. The Way of Divine Communion, in its
maturity, involves a specific meditation. It is not merely a
philosophical point of view. It must be realized in
intentional living and in formal meditation. However, its
initial stages are not meditative. The first thing the
individual must do is be very clear in the twofold argument
I have presented, which includes the criticism of the usual
life in the form of Narcissus and the consideration of
Divine Ignorance, the Principle of Grace, or That which is
prior to the contraction which is the separate ego-soul. On
the basis of that consideration, in response to that
argument, he takes on conditions of life, including the
personal disciplines and the orientation of service and
study. Then, on the basis of his response to me, having
entered into this Company on the basis of the Teaching, the
individual will come to enjoy conscious initiation into the
Divine Condition and Presence.
If the devotee will use me in the
spiritual sense, if he will approach me properly, then, in
this Company we enjoy with one another, there is the
awakening to the various aspects or moments of this Divine
Revelation. Its characteristics are different at each of the
stages of practice. In the stage of the Way of Divine
Communion, it is the realization of the Divine as Presence.
If the devotee approaches me only in worldly terms,
argumentative and self-defending, I cannot have this
function for him, it does not work. In that case it works
only to offend, or else seems to support, his illusions,
whereas the true realization of the Divine Presence is
immediately effective in the dissolution of the ego
principle.
People talk in all kinds of
religious ways about the Divine Presence, but it is commonly
from an egoic, separative point of view, and so they use
childish religious madness to justify the usual life. The
approach must fulfill the Law of sacrifice in both
directions. In the devotee's own case, there must be
submission to Grace, literally, which is expressed as
release of the possessed and worldly point of view, the
separative point of view of Narcissus. The natural response
on my part is one through which this sense of the Divine
Reality is awakened very naturally in the devotee, and very
directly, so that his surrender is also true.
The occasions of my meeting with
people are for the sake of this Revelation, this Initiation,
this Divine Communication. That is why I sit with people in
formal Communion. My verbal communication to devotees is
served through the publications and seminars of Vision Mound
Ceremony. I sit and talk from time to time with individuals,
but since my meetings with people are very occasional, they
are essentially formal, meditative, silent-in other words,
most directly useful in the spiritual way.
So the devotee practices this
approach to me regularly and sacramentally in the natural
way, in his privacy but also directly, personally with me
from time to time. Through that process there is the
awakening of the sense of this Divine Presence, which is the
Real, his Very Condition. It is communicated in a special
sense that initiates the whole process of spiritual
practice. Its communication is coincident with the
dissolution of self-possession, the relaxation of the
separative sense, of anxiety, and the essential refusal of
the Divine as his Condition which is what anxiety is all
about. Religious people may accept the Divine in some sense,
as Other and Parent to the ego, but they still refuse the
Divine as their Condition. They have a childish, egoic
relationship to the Divine. An individual's relationship to
the Divine is mature only when he realizes the Divine as his
Very Condition, so that the sense of independent,
self-referring, and self-possessed existence is dissolved
along with the Otherness of God. The Divine Presence is
properly felt as Other only as long as the ego-illusion
survives.
When this initiation or awakening
begins to take place, then the meditative aspect of the Way
of Divine Communion begins to develop. It has very specific
characteristics, which are principally described in the
Teaching on the Service of God, the the Breath of God, and
the Name of God. These practices are essentially a single
process. The Way of Divine Communion is Communion with the
Divine, release of the separated, separate, and separative
condition into the Divine Condition through participation of
the whole being.
That aspect of the meditation which
is described as the practice of the Name of God is simply
awareness, present recollection, or re-attention in the
Divine Presence. The verbal Name "God" may be used mentally
at times. It may even be spoken aloud, as it is in chanting
and singing. It may also be used audibly or mentally brought
forward in private, but in any case it is not a mechanical
process. The Name of God is not a "mantra" in the
conventional sense. It is not a "thing" in itself. It is
simply an instrument for the recollection of the Presence
which is awakening in this Way of practice. Without that
specific use, the engagement of the Name "God" is
essentially futile self-involvement. Rightly employed, it is
simply the bringing of the awareness of the being into that
Presence. Through the practice of the Breath of God, as well
as whole-body Service to God, there is participation bodily,
wholly, altogether in that very Presence, as the
all-pervading and tangible Reality and Condition of the
body-being. The sense of the Divine Presence matures in the
formal times of meditation set aside each day. Ultimately,
on the basis of formal practice, it progresses from a random
to a constant process. It matures as the moment to moment,
simple, single, direct, and most intense enjoyment of the
individual.
If that foundation is not there,
the Way of Relational Enquiry, which follows the Way of
Divine Communion, is empty, essentially motivated in the
conventional way. It is then engaged only as part of the
habit of Narcissus. The Way of Relational Enquiry is very
attractive to mentally-oriented individuals, who cannot
submit bodily and emotionally, as the life vehicle, who
essentially are not convinced of the argument, and cannot
presume it bodily. For them the Way of Divine Communion is
seen as an obstacle. They do not like to hear about it. They
think it is childish and not "really necessary" for them.
They think they are very sophisticated, and they want to
begin the practices of the Way of Relational Enquiry
immediately. The Way of Divine Communion serves as an
obstacle to the usual mind, so that it becomes very clear
what is truly required, what the process of this devotional
Way of Divine Ignorance is all about. It is not a dry
philosophical, mental point of view. It absolutely requires
devotional sacrifice, or perfect submission of the being.
Devotional sacrifice is the foundation of the whole Way of
Ignorance. It is the foundation of every stage and continues
through all four stages.
Thus, when an individual has
matured in the Way of Divine Communion, he or she shows all
the signs of someone who is surrendered in God. Not in the
usual, dingy, middle-class religious sense, but in the most
genuine sense. A devotee's life should have taken on the
qualities of harmony, regularity, natural discipline,
intelligence, pleasurableness, and native humor, without
irony or giddiness. The heart, the center and epitome of the
being, should open naturally. There should be the clear
signs of one who is dependent on Grace, not on self-effort,
and whose dependence on Grace does not take the form of
waiting for God to come out of the sky to heal his
tuberculosis and give him a new car. No, it is dependence on
the Grace that is Reality. The whole body-being must be
adapted to Grace-` as his or her very Condition, presently,
completely independent of all the worldly destinies that the
mind would like to assume are initiated by an act of some
conventionally graceful Deity outside the body, in the
heavens. When that natural quality of devotion, of
surrender, begins to appear in the individual, and he or she
naturally, spontaneously, moment to moment is involved in
true devotional meditation, then the consideration of the
Way of Relational Enquiry can appear for such a
one.
People should know very clearly,
then, what the practice of the Way of Divine Communion is.
It does have two stages. There is the more practical aspect,
the preparatory dimension of practice that includes all of
the life-disciplines, the way of service, the preparation
for meditative practice, and the maturing of a real approach
to me. Then, on the basis of all of that (and that can take
some time), when there is natural Awakening into the Divine
Presence, prior to self, in my Company, the beginning of the
real meditation of this stage awakens. That meditation must
be realized formally, privately, during certain regular
times every day. During that time the process is very
specific. It is simply recollection of the Presence and
whole-body participation in That, dependence on It, release
to and into It, release of everything of self, of mind, of
meanings, of similarities, of memory, of body, of all the
kinds of possession, of the image the world itself.
Meditation is the releasing of everything into the Presence,
which is the Condition of all of it, in time with the
breath, the ordinary life cycle of reception and release.
That process becomes constant under all conditions through
practice.
This meditation is an extension of
the Sacrament of Universal Sacrifice. It is essentially the
same thing. And the Sacrament of Universal Sacrifice is part
of the initial discipline, the practical aspect, the
preparation. It is the Way of approaching me in the true
sense. It is the Way of constantly remembering what the
nature of the true approach is, what the Condition of life
is for a devotee, that it is a mutual sacrifice.
Participation in that Sacrament becomes realized as real
meditation, which is the same as that Sacrament, that
Universal Sacrifice which pervades the whole life. This way
of Universal Sacrifice is not an effect like the
conventional sacraments in churches-a bit of bread and wine
to produce some effect, or the awakening of awe relative to
some objective, believer's Deity. It is not a matter of
gaining anything through the process. Theprocess itself is
true. It is not to be understood in terms of results It is
itself the Real Process of participation in the Divine
Reality.
So the practical and meditative
disciplines of this Way of Divine Communion are very
specific. They are not ambiguous. They are founded on the
presumption of the Teaching and of the lessons learned
through the argument of my play with people. Without that
presumption the Way cannot begin. Having begun, it is very
specific, very orderly, and very real. It is very much a
matter of life-obligation. IL fulfills itself in a natural,
ordinary, human maturity. The Way of Relational Enquiry that
is built upon it is the natural extension of that process.
It is not a matter of drying up, or ending the process of
Divine Communion. The Way of Relational Enquiry is an
extension of the same devotional sacrifice, the same
Universal Sacrifice. It is a way of continuing the
dissolution of the adaptation of separation, of Narcissus,
of the avoidance of relationship, through re-adaptation to
the Real Condition in stages of natural growth. The stages
of the Way of Re-cognition and of Radical Intuition follow
naturally in the same order.
The Divine is not objective to us,
not Other. The Divine is our Condition. That is the
Principle through all four stages, and it is the Principle
of the Way of Divine Communion. But that Divine which is our
Condition is realized as literal Presence,. all-pervading,
9.1 from which we are tending to separate ourselves, and
which we are tending to objectify by separating ourselves.
We must participate in the Presence through submission of
the separative principle, through surrendering of the whole
being into that Condition itself, and thereby falling out of
the adaptations of separation and the subjective
lie.
9.2
Never abandon the orientation of
Ignorance.
Never abandon the obligation of
service.
Never abandon the attitude of
humor, or
intuitive freedom from the
necessity of any condition,
high or low.
Always maintain the
disciplines.
Always be confronted by the
Teaching.
Always contemplate and breathe the
Presence to
which you are awakened by all of
this.
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