Marguerite Porete

I have just discovered a mystic I was not aware of, or I simply forgot and just glossed over her name and life 😪,  Marguerite Porete. She wrote a little book, "The Mirror of Simple Sou!s" that was translated into four languages and widely distributed, especially among the Beguines. I just downloaded it myself yesterday. 

She was born in 1250 C.E and burned at the stake in 1310 C.E. Below is just one of the reasons the official church was opposed violently to her, as well as many parts of her writing and teaching, such as that you could find God everywhere. She had tapped into the deep mystical well that has fed the souls of so many. Also, she was a female and part of a religious group not approved of by the Roman church, the Beguines.

 In her book she distinguishes between what she calls “The Great Holy Church,” which is the Church of the Spirit, and “the Little Holy Church,” which she calls the “empirical and scholastic church whose uncomprehending queries are more often placed on the lips of reason than are made to testify to love or the soul . The former church preaches Love; the latter church preaches rules and law and order.          --- "Meister Eckhart - A Mystic Warrior for Our Time"

The church was/is not open to ideas that interfere with their dogma or their control. Yet, all through history there have been people who knew greater, deeper truths. I celebrate Marquette and am grateful for her witness to God's Truth, even unto death.

 

 

Ideologues

 I watch with fascination, and maybe a little horror, as partially aware people rant and rave about some position orthe other. They are wound up emotionally, so not able to use their higher thinking. They are sometimes led to violence. They are civilizations' downfalls all across history. They are controlled by false and nonspiritual ideas. they are not skilled in critical thinking and ao are easily led whichever way their friend or leader leads them. The herd cries "get them" and they do. Group think takes over and bad things happen.

This can happen in any area. In politics we see it. Ranting and raving about this or that party or person, as if they actually knew what was going on behind the scenes and oblivious to how they are being manipulated. There is almost nonexistant civil discourse regarding ideas and principles and consideration of all points of view.

We see paid demonstrators riling up young people to loot and burn and attack. Actually it is to bring down society, but the wild demonstrators think at first it is for some bogus cause and then are so wound up in emotion, they are out of control. The puppeteers behind it all laugh.

I sometimes wonder it Hitler could have been stopped, if people stopped and thought about what he was actually doing, and if they really wanted all that violence and death.

We see it in religiion. Some clergy get people whipped up in emotion and seed in them wild ideas quite unlike the original teaching. All the while, some of the leaders are doing the opposite in their own lives. Think of the clergy who abuse children sexully, or  have multiple affairs with young women, or who live in mansions in lusxury. There is very little actual scholarship going on, if any. There is a twisted and literal interpretation of scriptures with no understanding of what's really being written and by whom.

I don't know how we are going to do it, but I thihk it is urgent that we wake up and help others wake up. We are in a more precarious situation than ever before because of media and also our advanced weaponry. We who see and understand, need to be voices for reason, for thinking beyond the boxes we are in, to step up and live in freedom mentally. 

Please deeply consider this.

Interbeing - Oneness

 I've  been reading some Thich Nhat Hanh and also some Meister Eckhart. Some of their concepts are remarkably alike. I have been pondering one of them this morning. I'd like to share some of my thinking with you.

Eckhart talks about the seed of God in you, about the Cosmic Christ in all things - in other words, about Oneness.

Thich Nhat Hanh talks a lot about interbeing, about everything being connected and interrelated. He has given many examples. I'll share something like his idea. Look closely at a piece of paper. If you look closely, you can see the tree it came from, and the plant that turned it into paper, and all the hands that touched it umtil it came to you. If you look closer, you can see the cloud that rained on the tree and gave it water, and the oceans and lakes and rivers that evaporated to make the cloud to make the rain. You can see the sun that shone upon the tree giving it photosyunthesis and life, you can see the orbit of the earth around the sun and the orbit of the solar system around the Milky Way. And if you look very deeply, you can see the big biang and know that every atom that makes up everything vivible came from that big bang, that the visible is all made of star dust.

It boils down to us being one, participating in a connected, interrelated life. Everything is partof everything.

Everything, everyone, every moment are all sacred and part of the Grand Divinity, the Intelligence orchestrating the manifest universes and beyond.

Contemplate this with me and open to the Great Mystery.

Taste It To Know It

 “The ultimate dimension of reality has nothing to do with concepts,” he warns us. You cannot just describe and talk about apple juice — you must drink it. "Things cannot be described by concepts and words. They can only be encountered by direct experience.”               ---  Matthew Fox,"Meister Eckhart, A Mystic Warrior for Our Time"

Words are useful, but cannot convey meaning alone, for example if the listener has no experience to understand the particular words used or has a mind-made-up-already stance based on other people's experience. They might as well be speaking a different language. The words "apple juice" have no useful meaning to someone who has not tasted actual apple juice. They may understand what the category juice is, but not the taste of this juice.

You may be thinking it's no big thing to not understand apple juice. Yet this us a principle that can be applied to important things, important things like God, soul, unconditional love, forgiveness, peace, and other spiritual principles. 

Most people allow television, internet and social media to colonize their minds. With techniques of hypnosis, these things impart control and seed a mixture of untruths, partial truths, with a smattering of truth. They numb us to the greater Reality.

People become more concerned about what's supposedly going on in some celebrity s life than in the lives of people actually in their lives. They get upset by propaganda. They miss the gorgeous sunset. They miss the tear in their loved one's eye. They block the essence of life and lessons so dearly the soul needs and yearns.

It is an honor to be able to come to earth and experience the spiritual hiding behind the appearances, to develop our spiritual muscle and understanding, to experience the Divine and know Oneness. 

Here in this place we have limits. All is on loan. All is temporary. We must learn to be present so as not to miss those precious moments sculptured, tailored for our soul growth. You may not pass this way again. Be present for every moment.

Speak to Me

 Speak to me,

I speak to you in the morning breeze.

Speak to me,

I speak to you through the cooing of the morning doves.

Speak to me,

I speak to you through the happy faces of the flowers.

Speak to me,

I speak to you through the exuberance of children.

Speak to me,

I speak to you through the eyes of love of all whom you know.

Speak to me,

I speak to you even in the shadows, in deep valleys, and darkest of nights.

I speak to you at all times, in all places. 

I am always with you.

I am everywhere. 

I am the Energy at the heart of all.

I am you.

My Teacher Across Centuries

“All roads lead to God for God is on them all evenly.”                                               ---Meister Eckhart, 1260-1328 C.E.

 As Thomas Merton wrote in the margin of one of his journals - Meister Eckhart is my lifeboat. When I first discovered the mystics during my studies in the 70's, I thought "I have found my people." Meister Eckhart  was my first, then along came a village with Mechtild  of Magdeburg, Hildegard of Bingen, Jacob Boehme, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence and many others, including others not Christian, but from other centuries and places.

I discovered there is something like a deep well of wisdom and knowing and that some people in all cultures, all times, have drunk from this well and have known the same truths. You could say Cosmic Christ (as Colossians 1), the Tao (The Way) or use other terms. Interestingly, the original followers of Jesus were followers of The Way.

The same well is open to us. However, we need to prepare our inner ground so that the seed of God in us can grow and flourish, and so that we become ready to receive the immense Truths, Wisdom and Love that await us. To everything there is a season, and for the season of our spiritual awakening we now prepare.

We  need to become gardeners of our souls. Pull up weeds of negativity, fear, greed, selfishness, anger, hatred, etc. Spend time in spiritual practices from reading inspirational words, to prayer, contemplation, journaling, to good deeds of kindness and lifting others.

Be ready for a powerful awakening. Without preparation, we could not stand it or even understand it. As Jesus said that it can come like a thief in the night. Even though we prepare, it can be startling. It is absolutely wonderful and unlike anything else.

In God's Image

 God has formed and created the soul very like himself, for we read that our Lord said: “Let us make human beings in our own image” (Gen. 1:26). And this is what he did. So like to himself did he make the soul of a person that neither in the kingdom of heaven or on earth among all the splendid creatures that God created in such a wonderful way is there any creature that resembles him as much as does the soul of a human being alone. --- Meister Eckhart

How wondrously and marvelously we are made! Our centers, our souls, they are in God's image. There is a sacred center in each and every person.

It is our job, those of us who know the Truth, to live our lives aware and awake to the sacredness within, not only us, but also within each and every person. When we look beyond appearances and see righteously, as Jesus taught us, we help bring out that knowing in others. No matter how confused, lost, angry someone appears to be, deep within is the soul made in God's image.

So we have multiple choices daily. We can ask ourselves - Do we help to continue the appearance that imprisoned a soul by believing it, or do we see righteously and help the person set their soul free to live gloriously expressing the imprisoned sp!endor? Our thoughts are energy, As Isaiah said:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;  it shall not return to me empty ,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,  and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Or as Jesus said according to Matthew:

Listen and understand.

11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

What goes out of our mouths is energy that either lifts or destroys. 

Let us strive to be lifters who know the soul is sacred, and, even if apparently hidden, is there and maybe, just maybe our thoughts and words can help free it.

God lives and dwells and has His Being in you.