Deep Calls unto Deep

 

When you undertake the search for what is not within your grasp, what urges you forward? Will you know when you feel it, when you hear it, or will you know it when you see it?

 

When you have a burden; and you long to share this, unless you prick it with a dart of love, it will erupt into a wash out, neither satisfying your intent nor the recipient's thirst.

Thus not only are you both longing, more importantly neither has succumbed to the call of;  "deep calls unto deep."

 

To be drowned, and to die of thirst, are deaths widely different; yet water is the cause of both; abundance destroys in one case, and want in the other. So here the fullness of grace stills the activity of self; and therefore it is of the utmost importance to remain as silent as possible and listen with the ear of your heart.

 

When you search, do you have thecorrect tools; not the "right tools," the correct tools.  You indeed must hear that still and small voice, which reminds us all to come in and take a rest, to refresh and reconnect ourselves; not "reconnect with ourselves."

 

Once there, what shall you do? What shall you satisfy first? The answer once again is wait, for "deep calls unto deep."  This inward "knowing," is the voice that you need to hear and tune out all others. It is the same as how a mother, who can so quickly identify her newborn's cry over the myriad of others; for "deep calls unto deep." 

 

When you are there, you will know? This is because your five sense will not render their support, nor will your recollection and a quick wit, be capable to survey the area and relay understanding.  Note: as you build your ladder of ascension, the higher you build, just as deep must the base be. You cannot ascend when you have not dug deep within yourself clearing the space for a strong footing.

 

Remember: Deep calls unto deep! The source is equal to the means by which the ends are alike.

 

Peace,

 

Bro. Smith SGS

 

 

The Life of a Mystic

The average individual has seldom understood the Mystic, this is often because they conceive the Mystic Life, with its ceaseless spiritual activity, and its restlessness, which knows no stay until it reaches its goal, as a life of tranquility, if not one of indolence and ease. Yet, many have no conception of what it really is, and for that, perhaps they should not be blamed.

Nevertheless, not being content with misinterpreting the mystic's life, some currently have become more daring; asserting that mysticism is essentially "unpractical," and that one whose aim is to reach the state of Union with God must necessarily be as a fool in their relations with the world.

Here this type of person is grossly and inexcusably mistaken. Their error has again and again been exposed, confuted and disproven by example after example to the contrary. Yet, for all that, it seems to thrive in the indolent soil of a fettered mind.

What can I refutewhen I see their ignorance has covered their eyes and dulled their perception. Shall I raise up an army of 26 type faced infantry and assail them and under the guise of innocence and rape their minds with napalm fire, and rake the carnage into a funeral pyre?

Ho! Ho! Oh no, no my friend, Nero's scourge has lost its fury and the fruits are tasted by those who reach for them under the tree of knowledge and life. Walter Hilton, whom I contend is indeed the author of the "Cloud of Unknowing" has repeatedly instructed his young apprentice to dismiss this and other assorted affairs, and place them beneath him and insert a cloud of forgetfulness between them and himself.

In this way, much like a flying in a jet, the pilot lifts you up above the turbulence. You continue undisturbed and on into your destination while the turbulence beats against the opposing air, and both are brisked away by the a new incoming front.

The mystic's life is indeed one, which place and time have no effect. Just as you have numerous relationships with others where time and place are simply moments for replenishment and endurance, so too, the mystics in their relationships are physically industrious separated perhaps physically, but never emotionally not alone spiritually. It is the same if you are married, your relationship does not lessen nor is any attachment diminished because of the normal nuances of daily life.

So I ask that you consider where you are and begin to place this same cloud between you and these things, and as you ascend, you will see that the fruits are closer at hand, and your view of things becomes far wider. For there will be little to hinder your perception, not alone vision and you shall begin to experience a gentle breeze and within this breeze contains more than you will ever know.

Tiz, there to listen, listen now with the ear of your heart to the whispering winds as they speak. For your mortal ear will be of no value here as you engage your spirit and your mind catches those glimpses of spiritual "Aha's" and your heart acknowledges these timeless echoes.

Peace,

Bro Smith SGS

FYI; I have assembled the collected works of Walter Hilton and intend upon publishing them; the first of these works will be his infamous "Cloud of Unknowing" as Vol 5 of the current series entitled "Great Christian Mystical Classics," by summer of 09' see http://revelationinsight.tripod.com

>The fact is, that there is no gulf between the ordinary and the supernatural in prayer.  The soul in its quest, passes through unconscious and undistinguishable steps, just as the old year melts tranquilly into the new, without any sound breaking the silence of midnight.
 
<br>Theologians differ as to where the precise point begins, when the ordinary ceases and the supernatural prayer begins.  Now if we speak of common, or acquired, or as it is commonly called, natural contemplation, with respect to the subjects who are capable of contemplation, St. Gregory says, that people of every sort, of both sexes and of all conditions, are capable of contemplation, if they are instructed. St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure say, that unlearned simple individuals are quite appropriate for contemplation.
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<br>(The order of the five rungs of Jacob's Ladder are as follows: " Reading leads to Understanding, Understanding leads to Knowledge, Knowledge leads to Meditation, Meditation leads to Contemplation, Contemplation Leads to union with God.)  (1)
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<br>It is enough for my purpose at present and touch upon the easiness of common or acquired contemplation. It is obvious then, that the prayer of the desert monks, in its ordinary state, was not so far removed that it's useless to us. We may distort the words of the poet, and say; one touch of grace makes the whole world kin.
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<br>Therefore, it is with no antiquarian curiosity that we gaze down into the hearts of those old hermits. Their fragmentary sayings, their simple, piousness, their almost humorous utterances are indeed remarkable, if only as orphans and strays from that great ocean of the past, flung up on the shore out of the depths where so much is sunken forever.
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<br>Even as men we read with interest those verses of the dead, and love to think of those uncouth hermits, and of Mary of Egypt wandering about the solitude of the Moab covered with her long, black, crusty hair. She, too, was a veritable daughter of Eve,(2)  with her heart full of the memory of life's sorrows and sins, and her eyes no longer lit up with the wild light of the delirium of vice and of Alexandrian orgies, but glowing softly with the blessed peace of conscious forgiveness.
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<br>(1) Taken from "Jacob's Ladder" a book in progress by Bro. Smith SGS
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<br> (2)A snippet from "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe."