Contemplative love

Bob Morley considers mankind’s direct relationship with God revealed through contemplation

Over the centuries and, indeed, millennia of our recent history, I believe mankind has inherited an intuitive awareness of ‘that of God’ (or Spirit, or Source) as our origin and destiny, and to which we belong. This has led to the development of religions, many of which portray certain charismatic humans, through faith, as representatives of, or even to be, God.

I believe this very human desire to serve a go-between, whose physical presence was once a reality, has snowballed in some religions, in particular in Christianity, to a hierarchical power and control regime of go-betweens, distancing the Self from God to an ever greater degree. Sometimes the go-betweens have used the written word as an additional barrier to direct communion with God. It is much easier for the human mind to worship something rather than no-thing.

But a very small minority of people have retained that original intuitive awareness of God, that unknown but ever-present mystery of being. This awareness is enhanced by regular and frequent periods of contemplation, stillness and silence, and emptying of mind. Today these people are called mystics.

Through the ages they have wrestled with this ‘knowing’, often against the background of religious knowledge deemed ‘correct’ or ‘orthodox’ by the hierarchy of go-betweens. I believe the ‘common thread’ which links all mystics, past and present, is the direct experience of God as Love. Often the spiritual journey that takes them to this ‘knowing’ is painful or distressing, as it involves the ultimate letting go, in contemplation, of all that has gone before, at a cost of ‘not less than everything’. It is indeed the ‘pearl of great price’. Any preconceived idea or image of God, whether based on religion or not, is revealed as completely false. Furthermore, many, if not most, mystics come from a background of commitment to an institutionalised religion, which makes the ‘letting go’ even more difficult. This ‘letting go’ does not mean rejection. But it does mean non-dependence.

My understanding is that, in the time outside contemplation, our minds and bodies are reignited into the active life, the ‘doing’, rather than the ‘being’. We need the active life and our ego to survive this temporary earthly life. Without regular and committed times of contemplation the presence of God seems to fade away (masked by the ego), even though it is ever-present. But with the commitment we find that more and more our ‘doing’ has, as its source, our ‘being’. Our actions become congruent with who we are. It becomes clearer and clearer – we are Children of God – Children of Love.

I believe this is the message that Jesus of Nazareth felt empowered to share with all he encountered. For me, this ordinary human being, who was extraordinarily gifted in insight, shows us how to live this temporary, earthly life. Of course, this is a personal opinion, and others may have an equally valid and different point of view.

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