Thomas Keating: The Secret\nEmbrace\nPart One<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nSecret Embrace<\/strong>\nWednesday, \u202fOctober 21, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Before being\nborn into the world of time,<\/em><em><br>\nThe silence of pre-existence\nwas all absorbing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The transition\nfrom eternity to time<\/em><em><br>\nIs full of sufferings, fears,\nand little deaths.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But, in the\ntransition from death<\/em><em><br>\nTo eternal life,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The silence of\npre-existence<\/em><em><br>\nBursts into boundless joy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All that can be\nmanifested emerges<\/em><em><br>\nFrom the endless creativity of<br>\nThat Which Is.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But<\/em><em><br>\nThe Secret Embrace<br>\nOf<br>\nThe Source of all creation<br>\nWith<br>\nInfinite Transcendence<br>\nCan<br>\nNever be revealed.<\/em><br>\n<br>\n\u2014Thomas Keating, \u201cThe Secret Embrace\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Today we include\nthe title poem, \u201c<\/em>The\nSecret Embrace<em>,\u201d in its\nentirety. Cynthia Bourgeault comments on one aspect of it in particular:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nis remarkable to trace how Thomas\u2019 understanding of God evolved over the last\nthree decades of his life. In the 1980s, when his first books and videos were\nbeginning to appear, God was still very much framed within the classic Western\nmodel with God as \u201che\u201d\u2014a father figure. Thomas\u2019 initial focus during the early\nyears of his teaching was to shift that image away from a fearsome father, the\nwrathful God who has caused so much misery and woundedness for Western seekers,\nto a \u201cdivine therapist\u201d: supportive, trustworthy, and a hundred percent behind\nus in our journey of transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nby the end of his life, Thomas is in a very different place. God co-inheres and\ninterpenetrates everything, the ocean-in-drop and drop-in-ocean, constantly\nexchanging in a dance of endless fecundity. God is not the \u201cauthor\u201d of\ncreation, removed and overarching; the whole thing is God. There is not a\nsingle place in all creation where God is not, because God is creation itself,\nendlessly outpouring, endlessly receiving itself back. From top to bottom, we\nlive and move and have our being in a participative reality, every fractal\njoined to every other fractal in a symphony of divine becoming pouring forth\nfrom that infinite wellspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nfact, with one singular exception, Thomas does not actually use the word \u201cGod\u201d\nin this entire collection of poems. It is always \u201cthe Divine,\u201d \u201cI AM,\u201d or \u201cthe\nSource.\u201d He clearly did not want what he was trying to say here co-opted back\ninto conceptions of a distant, male-gendered Being sitting up there in the\nheavens. He wanted us to keep our eyes on the big picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nmore important, he wanted us to swim in the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some may say\nthat Thomas took a turn late in life toward a more \u201cBuddhist\u201d approach to\ndivinity, but I believe this is not really accurate. We are not talking about a\ntheology here, but a level of consciousness, universal across all the religions\nand accessed primarily through the consistent practice of meditation. To see\noneness, it is necessary to see <em>from<\/em> oneness, with the eye of the heart, not the\nbinary skew of the mind. From his decades and decades of faithful Centering\nPrayer, along with some very courageous and painful inner work, the rewiring of\nbrain and heart that supports this seeing was gradually accomplished within\nhim. These poems are its joyful fruit. They are tiny cameos of what non-duality\nlooks like when approached from a uniquely Western and Christian perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Keating: The Secret Embrace Part One The Secret Embrace Wednesday, \u202fOctober 21, 2020 Before being born into the world of time, The silence of pre-existence was all absorbing. The transition from eternity to time Is full of sufferings, fears, and little deaths. But, in the transition from death To eternal life, The silence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19422,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions\/19422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Before being\nborn into the world of time,<\/em><em><br>\nThe silence of pre-existence\nwas all absorbing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The transition\nfrom eternity to time<\/em><em><br>\nIs full of sufferings, fears,\nand little deaths.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But, in the\ntransition from death<\/em><em><br>\nTo eternal life,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The silence of\npre-existence<\/em><em><br>\nBursts into boundless joy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All that can be\nmanifested emerges<\/em><em><br>\nFrom the endless creativity of<br>\nThat Which Is.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But<\/em><em><br>\nThe Secret Embrace<br>\nOf<br>\nThe Source of all creation<br>\nWith<br>\nInfinite Transcendence<br>\nCan<br>\nNever be revealed.<\/em><br>\n<br>\n\u2014Thomas Keating, \u201cThe Secret Embrace\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Today we include\nthe title poem, \u201c<\/em>The\nSecret Embrace<em>,\u201d in its\nentirety. Cynthia Bourgeault comments on one aspect of it in particular:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nis remarkable to trace how Thomas\u2019 understanding of God evolved over the last\nthree decades of his life. In the 1980s, when his first books and videos were\nbeginning to appear, God was still very much framed within the classic Western\nmodel with God as \u201che\u201d\u2014a father figure. Thomas\u2019 initial focus during the early\nyears of his teaching was to shift that image away from a fearsome father, the\nwrathful God who has caused so much misery and woundedness for Western seekers,\nto a \u201cdivine therapist\u201d: supportive, trustworthy, and a hundred percent behind\nus in our journey of transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nby the end of his life, Thomas is in a very different place. God co-inheres and\ninterpenetrates everything, the ocean-in-drop and drop-in-ocean, constantly\nexchanging in a dance of endless fecundity. God is not the \u201cauthor\u201d of\ncreation, removed and overarching; the whole thing is God. There is not a\nsingle place in all creation where God is not, because God is creation itself,\nendlessly outpouring, endlessly receiving itself back. From top to bottom, we\nlive and move and have our being in a participative reality, every fractal\njoined to every other fractal in a symphony of divine becoming pouring forth\nfrom that infinite wellspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nfact, with one singular exception, Thomas does not actually use the word \u201cGod\u201d\nin this entire collection of poems. It is always \u201cthe Divine,\u201d \u201cI AM,\u201d or \u201cthe\nSource.\u201d He clearly did not want what he was trying to say here co-opted back\ninto conceptions of a distant, male-gendered Being sitting up there in the\nheavens. He wanted us to keep our eyes on the big picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nmore important, he wanted us to swim in the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some may say\nthat Thomas took a turn late in life toward a more \u201cBuddhist\u201d approach to\ndivinity, but I believe this is not really accurate. We are not talking about a\ntheology here, but a level of consciousness, universal across all the religions\nand accessed primarily through the consistent practice of meditation. To see\noneness, it is necessary to see <em>from<\/em> oneness, with the eye of the heart, not the\nbinary skew of the mind. From his decades and decades of faithful Centering\nPrayer, along with some very courageous and painful inner work, the rewiring of\nbrain and heart that supports this seeing was gradually accomplished within\nhim. These poems are its joyful fruit. They are tiny cameos of what non-duality\nlooks like when approached from a uniquely Western and Christian perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Keating: The Secret Embrace Part One The Secret Embrace Wednesday, \u202fOctober 21, 2020 Before being born into the world of time, The silence of pre-existence was all absorbing. The transition from eternity to time Is full of sufferings, fears, and little deaths. But, in the transition from death To eternal life, The silence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19422,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions\/19422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}