With the Mystics

With the mystics: 

although I'm no longer a Christian, not by faith or practice, there remains a deep love for the traditions and teachings of the mystics, how they traveled against orthodoxy to their own inner revelations and dared to share it with the world. Some of the finest insights of non-duality come from this tradition, with quotes from Meister Eckhart fitting in easily with those of Ramana Maharshi. I still return to their teachings, finding a long familiar sense of love that seems to always reach me. 

it seems my faith still remains with the mystics. 

an important quote that I often return to is from Catherine of Siena, who wrote the much loved line..."all the way to heaven is heaven. More follows, but it's those seven words that so deeply affects me, accurately describing my practice of yoga, meditation, and immersion in nature perfectly. My practice is my arrival, it's not aimed in any particular destination other than my own inner experiences. 

all the way to awakening...is awakening. 

I am with the mystics here, my meditation cushion connects me with the prayer mats of the Desert Fathers of long ago, we meet in the very same interior silence, a seamless realization of the singularity of our existence. I remain with the mystics, not by faith or even practice, but through the deep love we experience in this silence, a holiness found that defies every other word in its description. The words of Meister Eckhart ring so true to me now, that the man of God never rejoices, because he is joy itself. The word God is less important than the joy of my experience, it's trivial in comparison. When I'm with the mystics, silent, with no use for words...

all the way to joy is joy. 

~

Peace, Eric