Others come alive when we see them for who they truly are.

One of the 2nd century Christian mystics we studied in class yesterday - St. Irenaeus of Lyons - says that "The life of humanity is the vision of God." For a contemplative, life would be nothing without this seeing of the Divine in all things through a mind suffused by love. However, we might more accurately say that we come alive because WE are seen by our Source. As Franciscan teacher Richard Rohr says, "The 'beatific vision' is perhaps God looking at us instead of our seeing God." We have this experience during the silence of contemplative prayer, when a nameless magnetic Love wells up from the center of our being and holds us in its embrace. This is the Gaze of God grasping us with love and affirming our own inner beauty and goodness. As a Renaissance mystic named Nicholas of Cusa so aptly says of God: "I AM because You look at me . . . With You, to behold is to give life . . . Feed me with Your gaze, O Lord . . . For with You to see is to cause. Your vision, Lord, is Your essence."

On the other hand, we experience the gaze of the sacred feminine - Sophia, Gaia, Mother Earth, the Goddess - holding us in its loving embrace whenever something beautiful grasps and holds our attention. I especially notice this with photography, when a beautiful tree, rock, mountain, sunset sky, flower or animal grasps ahold of my attention. In both of these cases - with God and Goddess - we come more alive when we are seen for who we really are.

Each of us is meant to mediate this gaze of God and Goddess to one another. When we come alive inside, it is because we are truly SEEN by one another. This seeing awakens us to our own beauty and goodness on a whole new level. In "The Soul's Code," James Hillman puts it this way: "To be is to be perceived . . . Phenomena need not be saved by grace or faith or all-embracing theory. They are saved by our simple gasping at their imaginal loveliness. The AHH of wonder, of recognition. The aesthetic response saves the phenomenon, the phenomenon which is the face of the world."

May each of us this day feed one another - and bring one another to fresh spiritual birth - through the gaze of appreciation and love.

Photos: The same scene viewed on January 13 and 20, 2015, Lory State Park, CO.

In our time, we have a great need for inner simplicity.

In our time, we have a great need for inner simplicity.  Our attention is distracted and dispersed across a world of tragedies, needs, work duties, technological gadgets and passive pleasures.  All the while, we feel unhappy because what we really want is to return to our inward Center, where all true riches reside.  All real relating and all true pleasure arises from this Place, not from the superficial dramas and distractions of life.  In order to recover our Center, we need to be able to say "no," to put up a wall that serves as a protection against excess distraction, a fasting from things that are needless.  When we once again return to ourselves, we will then discover the Divine, ready and waiting to flood our lives with peace. As Renaissance mystic Nicholas of Cusa once wrote: "And when I rest in the silence of contemplation, you, Lord, speak to me within my heart, saying: 'Be yours and I too will be yours!' "

Photo: Fremont's Buckwheat and one of the Courthouse Towers; Arches National Park, UT; September 28, 2013

God's eyes are painting fields again

 

The sun's eyes are painting fields again.

 Its lashes with expert strokes

Are sweeping across the land

 A great palette of light has embraced

This earth . . .

God's eyes are painting fields again . . .

Hafiz

14th century

I am because You look at me . . .

Life eternal is nothing other than that blessed regard

with which You never cease

most lovingly to behold me . . .

With You, to behold is to give life . . .

 Feed me with Your gaze, O Lord . . .

For with You to see is to cause.

Nicholas of Cusa

15th century

To sit and look at light-filled leaves

May let us see, or seem to see . . .

Time when the Maker's radiant sight

Made radiant every thing He saw,

And every thing He saw was filled

With perfect joy and life and light.

Wendell Berry

Photo:  Feathery Mountain-mahogany seeds glow silver in last light, Lory State Park, CO, February 21, 2012