A Season of Love: We are all called to be everyday mystics
During this holiday season, I have been reflecting on the everyday ways we love one another. My favorite line in the bible is “God Is Love.” How can we embody this Divine Essence of Love and be love every day, moment to moment? We have some great role models.
I have been fascinated by mystics my entire life. When I was young being raised in my Catholic tradition, I learned about the saints and mystics who could hear God speaking to them directly, who floated when they said mass, who experienced bilocation and were seen in two places at the same time, and whose body had the wounds of Christ called the stigmata. Over time, through my own experience and study of sacred traditions throughout time and the world, I have come to understand a mystic as one who lives a life loving out-loud.
Names for mystics
There are many names for mystics; saints originated in Christianity, the Jewish call them Tzadik, the Islamic Mu’min, the Hindu Rishi, and the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva. Mystics recognize a sense of oneness, wholeness, and completeness, sometimes called unity with the “All That Is.” They experience a feeling of encountering what some call the “the true self,” a sense of the nature of our essential cosmic self: one that is beyond life and death, beyond difference and duality, and beyond ego and selfishness. A mystic sees the unifying vision of the One in the All and the All in the One. Once someone has an experience of unity, his or her world-view is forever shifted. There is no longer an experience of “other,” whether it is someone or something, as disconnected from themselves. The interconnection of self and other remains in in their awareness. We are each invited to live our lives as everyday mystics; to love out loud.
Yes, there are parts of ourselves, inside and outside, that are underdeveloped. The call of the mystic is to be with “the many manifestations of the All That Is” in love. When we, as mystic, are moved to heal the wounds of war in our own minds and hearts, in our families and communities and in the world, we bring our open heart. Our intention is to heal the holes of separation. In the healing process, it is useful to maintain patience and ease. Similar to raising a puppy or a child, we offer guidance and limits. We do not accept bad behavior, violence or others imposing immature ideas on each other. We do not allow destruction by extremist, greed, or intolerance.
When we notice inner and outer wars that are causing damage, we are invited to love out loud. Think of this aggression like a cancer cell in our body. One of the best ways to diminish cancer cells is to improve our whole body. We can eat healthy foods, diminish stress, be in nature, spend time with people who nourish us and move our bodies mindfully. We can step up our self-love. If needed, we carefully remove the cancerous tissue that is stubbornly imposing overgrowth on the whole.
We are each invited to offer this same love in everyday encounters with the earth, strangers, people we care for and all living beings. We are all called to be everyday mystics; to give love, receive love, radiate love, and be love. Humanity is in a large shift towards realizing a higher level of interconnection. Part of this process of radical change is disruptive, chaotic and messy. When we love out loud, we cultivate ease, flow, and grace. We remind ourselves and each other that our essential, divine nature is One in the All and the All in the One.
You make also like my other blog post Inviting Your Essence to Shine to Radiate Divine Presence.
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