The True Way is to empty oneself of everything. Give up everything, everything that is held onto. This especially applies to all our preoccupations of thought and emotion. In the western religious tradition this might mean returning to God, and in the eastern traditions it might mean returning to the Way. Because as we empty and give up, we return to the state of Primary Being (which is God). Emptying is not a sudden, absolute happening. It is a process. And the more we empty, the closer we come to True Being, the Truth of who we are. So as we empty, what remains is our True Being. Our True Being has three essential aspects: consciousness, heart, and will. To reach our true Being we need to empty the mind of everything - except consciousness; for consciousness is the essence of who we are. So one step is to empty the mind of everything but consciousness itself. Another step, equally important, is to empty the emotions of everything - except heart; for heart is the essence of who we are. In the heart are true feelings of our True Being. Another step is to empty the will of all intentions - except the intention to know and express the True Self. So the Way is to empty oneself of everything - except consciousness, the heart, and pure intention. The final result of this is a purity and oneness of consciousness, heart, and will; which is the experience of Being Itself.
Poverty has been a theme in many mystical traditions. Many of the mystics have in fact been materially poor, or wanderers without material possessions, but material poverty is not the significant meaning of this theme. It does not necessarily mean that one must be materially poor or in material poverty. Giving away one’s material wealth and possessions may actually be beneficial to one’s spiritual path, but it would be false to generalize this as right for everyone. Rather, the meaning of poverty, in the context of the spiritual path, is a kind of mental and emotional attitude in relation to God (or Spirit).
This attitude involves humility, in the sense of being humble in relation to the power and wisdom and greatness of God. Humility also involves being in a receptive mode in relation to God. This means being receptive to divine inspiration or guidance, and also acknowledging one’s need for this inspiration. It is like acknowledging one’s essential need for food, air and water; but in this context, one’s essential need is for divine love, inspiration, and guidance. An even deeper need is for experiencing divine union.
A related meaning of mystical poverty is emptiness, for poverty means having little or no possessions. Once again, this has to do with attitude and self-experience, rather than literally about material possessions. The needed experience of poverty, then, comes when one willingly sacrifices or lets go of one’s many attachments to personal desires and self-identities. Thus, the spiritual meaning of poverty is to be empty of these attachments and self-identifications, in order that one is empty enough to receive divine inspiration and revelation.
The mystic willingly surrenders all their stuff, its all given up. If one surrenders one’s attachments and self, then there is no holding on. This is the emptiness and poverty of the mystic. One bows their head to the ground and says, “Here, take all of me and everything I have.” Even the identification of “I” is surrendered. This is done so that one may be a pure servant of Divine Will, or Divine Love (both are the same). This is real humility in relation to the Divine. One is also bowing down in reverent respect to the very Source of all life, the supreme Root of all being and existence.
The sense of poverty also involves an attitude of gratefully accepting what God gives us. However, this attitude of acceptance is often misunderstood as a suggestion to accept whatever the world gives or expresses. Sometimes what is given by the world is merely an expression of someone’s compulsive ego or an expression of someone’s attempt at manipulating others. So there is misunderstanding if one believes simply that everything given or expressed by the world is synonymous with God’s giving or divine good. Gratefully accepting what God gives means accepting whatever inspiration God gives. We cannot demand this or that divine inspiration. In other words, divine inspiration is fully beyond our control. We cannot simply get inspiration by our own efforts, which is why we are in poverty and in need of God as our provider. We have to go out and work for material needs, but we can only gratefully accept and receive divine inspiration. Though, we can make certain efforts, to do with a change in our attitude and relation to God, which will make a more favorable condition (in us) for divine inspiration to come to us.
So with this spiritual attitude of poverty and humility, we seek the pure clear Spring of Divine Inspiration. We seek the Source of Divine Water, and only this can truly satisfy our real thirst or spiritual need. Nothing else will ultimately satisfy but this Source of Divine Water, this Spring of Divine Inspiration, or the pure clear experience of Divine Essence. We only want the pure Spirit. So we leap into this Divine Spring. We cleanse ourselves in this and are revitalized by this, and we drink and fill up with this Spiritual Water of Life and Inspiration. In poverty we are empty and also thirsty, so we know the need for this pure water. We should always remember this need and always remember that we can come to this eternal Spring of Divine Sustenance. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we can drink from this pure water of Spirit deep within. This will give us what we truly need, heal us, and protect us. So drink freely from this eternal Spring of Pure Spirit, which is directly within us.
The greatest human beings have both humility and dignity.
They are humble in their recognition that, they live within a much greater Life, they are conscious within a much larger Consciousness, and their love is reflective of the larger Love of God. They have dignity in their recognition that, they are the representatives of God on earth, they are instruments for God’s wisdom and healing, and they are the reflections of God’s Light and Love.
Walking through life, the mind can be pure and unobstructed by preconceptions and prejudgments. This is the empty mind, yet completely awake and open to experience. The pure mind is transparent, with no content of preconceptions or prejudgments. One is simply open to what-is and seeing what-is. Even this openness is not limited; for it is open to all and not closed to anything. This openness is fearless. As well, the heart can be pure and open to all, unobstructed by preconceptions and prejudgments. This is the heart that includes everyone and everything in its love. Nothing is prohibited, nothing is suppressed. This heart is devoid of judgment and devoid of suppression. Its love includes all, no matter what. This is the foundational state of spiritual awareness. It is the foundational level of pure mind and pure heart. If we are not there now, then this will be our returning. But although it is the foundational state of pure being, we must enter into the discriminatory state of mind and heart in order to best function in the world of action. For we need to use discrimination and discretion in making decisions for action. So the pure state of being must enter into the discriminatory state of being, in order to make intelligent decisions about how to act or what to do. This cannot be avoided. But if we can blend both states together, then there will be a higher synthesis of intelligence in our decisions. There will be more freedom and less conditioning in our decisions. This blending is the key; rather than upholding one state in opposition to the other, that is, rather than remaining in the state of pure non-judgmental observing nor in the state of automatic judgment. The non-judgmental state of pure openness loosens up the often rigidity of the discriminating state, while the discriminating state brings practical intelligence into play.
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Cleansing
We can form a relationship with God, the Divine. In reality God is already in an intended relationship with all of us. But a true relationship requires mutual consent, mutual willingness, and mutual interactive participation. God is already waiting and willing; so it is now up to us. The relationship has to be mutual. It also has to be conscious, meaning that it has to be a conscious choice and a conscious opening on our part.
One kind of relationship with the Divine is an opening to cleansing. We often get wrapped up and entangled in the world, or we get fixated on some desire, or caught up in emotional turmoil and frustrations. This then colors our mood and our energy. Our energy becomes chaotic and imbalanced. Our aura becomes cloudy. In other words, we take on a chaotic and dirty kind of energy. If we are self observant, we will know that this sometimes happens. So we need a cleansing, a cleaning of our mind, heart and aura or energy field.
The best way to be cleansed is by the healing waters of Divine Rain. Nothing cleanses better than Divine Rain. Ask for this Rain and open to it. It is a gift from the Divine Source. It might also be called the forgiveness of God, because Divine Forgiveness cleanses and makes us fresh. But we have to consciously open to this and allow it to happen. So allow the Rain from Heaven, or the forgiveness of God, to cleanse and make oneself fresh. This cleansing is so very important, because without a clear mind, heart and energy, we cannot receive and experience the higher divine qualities. Thus, cleansing is always the first step. So make this an essential spiritual practice.
Ways of purification have been historically practiced throughout the world; for example, purifying oneself in water, bathing, and sweat lodges. These are beneficial physical techniques that are also related to psychic purification, and many could be recommended, but our emphasis in this discussion is purification or cleansing through visualization and imagination. Visualization (or imagination) opens a psychic door for our cleansing, whereby the mind is used as a medium for this purification.
Remember that the cleansing power comes from the higher world. Only the higher can purify the lower, so we are dependent on a higher power of purification and healing. Yet we must do our own part, which is to be open, receptive and allowing of this cleansing. The right use of imagination (or visualization) is necessary, so that the mind is cooperatively participating and helping, while our emotional part of self is sincerely wanting this cleansing and willing to be transformed by it. Then, once the receptive (myself) is ready and consciously present with breath, and the mind is participating with cooperative imagination, the higher Divine Power can now enter through us to cleanse and purify us, like pure water or pure light descending through this medium of oneself.
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Water also has a purifying quality, besides its nourishing quality. Light also has a purifying quality, besides its other qualities of awakening and nourishment. Purification, or cleansing, is one of the significant and needed aspects of what is called The Way or The Work. In the process of spiritual alchemy, purification is an essential step before distilation of the essence. The old stuff and the distorted stuff need to be purified or eliminated, in order to make room for new and higher forms of creativity. The mind and emotions need to be purified, in order for awareness to be clear and open to higher realms.
There are esoteric practices for using spiritual water to purify the emotional body and spiritual light to clear the mental body. These practices involve visualizing and sensing the spiritual qualities of water, or light, flowing through us and purifying our bodies. As part of this practice we might see ourself in the midst of the purifying water or light, being cleansed and healed. In this purifying process we need to take time to let go and release any tensions or attachments held within our subtle bodies, especially the emotional body. Actually, we should begin releasing tension in the physical body, then when this is released we should begin releasing the tensions of the emotional body, and so on with the mental body. The emotional body is often in need of purifying, because it easily accumulates tensions and subtle debris from our interactions in the world. Inharmonious energies can attach to the emotional body, due to our desires, attachments and reactions in the world. So the emotional body needs an occasional cleansing, much like the physical body, and as the emotional body clears the mental body begins to clear as well.
In conjunction with the visualization practice stated above, one should consciously and intentionally release all emotional tensions and inharmonious energies, letting these fall down into the earth below. This does not harm the earth because it is organically composted. One should keep letting go of everything that feels heavy or disturbing, until the mind and emotions become calm and light. In doing this, with the use of breath to let go, one will soon notice a lightness and purity in both the emotions and mind, as the heavier and disturbing emotions disappear from our feeling and awareness. And as these things are released, there will be an increase in the light and awareness of mind. Then our true soul will begin to appear, and our being will become more radiant. This is because our soul is obscured by these clouds of emotional and mental entanglements. So when the clouds are released and disappear, our true soul begins to shine, and God shines through our soul.
Thus, a major step in spiritual awakening is the intentional release of emotional and mental disturbances. These disturbances will continue to cloud our inner being and consciousness, until they are intentionally released. This release is a major part of the process of what sufis call fana, the surrender of all the attachments and indentifications that keep us in separation from Divine Realization. Letting go of attachments and inner disturbances is also an essential process in both the Yoga and Buddhist path. The fact is, that our True Self (the Enlightened Mind, or God) will naturally and spontaneously emerge in experience when there are no more clouds of attachments or disturbances obscurring IT. Then, the mirror of consciousness will clearly reflect our True Self and also be able to clearly perceive the universe around us in all of its spiritual depth.
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purified consciousness
The aim of our spiritual journey is a more purified consciousness, a consciousness that is clear of superficial thinking and desires and reactions.
Consciousness and being can become as pure and clear as a clear quartz crystal.
We must continue clearing our consciousness of all its usual baggage. If we can clear the consciousness of all content, then only the Reality of Being remains in consciousness. Then there is only Conscious Being. Clearing the mind (or consciousness) of all content is not practical in many situations of life, since we usually need to think or remember things in order to function in normal situations, but in order to renew ourselves in Divine Being we need to clear away everything in consciousness. This clearing is the only way we can reach Divine Consciousness, or God. God IS Conscious Being Itself. So the spiritual aim is to clear away everything in order to reach God, or Pure Consciousness. Higher Consciousness is Purer Consciousness.
Practice continually letting go of everything, until God Being emerges, until God Consciousness emerges.
The usual sense of self disappears and becomes lost in God Consciousness. This not becoming lost in unconsciousness, but becoming lost in Greater Consciousness.
Also emerging here is Greater Love, as our love becomes wide and expansive.
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Opening our heart, or opening our love, is equally important.
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Walking through life, the mind can be pure and unobstructed by preconceptions and prejudgments. This is the empty mind, yet completely awake and open to experience. The pure mind is transparent, with no content of preconceptions or prejudgments. One is simply open to what-is and seeing what-is. Even this openness is not limited; for it is open to all and not closed to anything. This openness is fearless. As well, the heart can be pure and open to all, unobstructed by preconceptions and prejudgments. This is the heart that includes everyone and everything in its love. Nothing is prohibited, nothing is suppressed. This heart is devoid of judgment and devoid of suppression. Its love includes all, no matter what. This is the foundational state of spiritual awareness. It is the foundational level of pure mind and pure heart. If we are not there now, then this will be our returning. But although it is the foundational state of pure being, we must enter into the discriminatory state of mind and heart in order to best function in the world of action. For we need to use discrimination and discretion in making decisions for action. So the pure state of being must enter into the discriminatory state of being, in order to make intelligent decisions about how to act or what to do. This cannot be avoided. But if we can blend both states together, then there will be a higher synthesis of intelligence in our decisions. There will be more freedom and less conditioning in our decisions. This blending is the key; rather than upholding one state in opposition to the other, that is, rather than remaining in the state of pure non-judgmental observing nor in the state of automatic judgment. The non-judgmental state of pure openness loosens up the often rigidity of the discriminating state, while the discriminating state brings practical intelligence into play.
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The True Way is to empty oneself of everything. Give up everything, everything that is held onto. This especially applies to all our preoccupations of thought and emotion. In the western religious tradition this might mean returning to God, and in the eastern traditions it might mean returning to the Way. Because as we empty and give up, we return to the state of Primary Being (which is God). Emptying is not a sudden, absolute happening. It is a process. And the more we empty, the closer we come to True Being, the Truth of who we are. So as we empty, what remains is our True Being. Our True Being has three essential aspects: consciousness, heart, and will. To reach our true Being we need to empty the mind of everything - except consciousness; for consciousness is the essence of who we are. So one step is to empty the mind of everything but consciousness itself. Another step, equally important, is to empty the emotions of everything - except heart; for heart is the essence of who we are. In the heart are true feelings of our True Being. Another step is to empty the will of all intentions - except the intention to know and express the True Self. So the Way is to empty oneself of everything - except consciousness, the heart, and pure intention. The final result of this is a purity and oneness of consciousness, heart, and will; which is the experience of Being Itself.
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God-Presence is all here.
So may I be pure and clear in heart and mind, in this present time; so that the divine expression emerges most refined and without personality distortions.
The I becomes clear and pure, yet consciously awake.
Then only God/Spirit flows through.
Only Light, Love and Divine Will flows through.
Become the purest medium possible, purest Conscious being, purist Presence, purist mind and heart; so that there is no personal ego or boundary dividing Spirit and self, or dividing Presence and this individual being. No walls, no closed doors, but only a clear channel for the free flow of Spirit, Light, Presence.
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