Liminal Space<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresence of Spirit<\/strong>\nMonday, \u202fApril 27, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Many\nthings can bring us to the \u201cthreshold\u201d of our ordinary ways of thinking and\nbehaving, but even good rituals are merely \u201cstand-ins\u201d until Reality itself,\noften in the form of great love or great suffering, steps in and changes us\nforever. My friend Paula D\u2019Arcy, with whom I have taught many times over the\nyears, lost her husband and young daughter in a tragic car accident while she\nwas pregnant with their second child. This story from Paula reveals how liminal\nmoments can occur at any time. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One\nafternoon, my heart breaking, I began sorting through the clothes my daughter\nSarah would never wear. A dress lay across my lap, a little piece of white\ncotton. It evoked one more moment . . . of bitter tears and confused disbelief.\n. . . Life was not supposed to turn out this way. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nwas such an innocent and common thing\u2014a child\u2019s garment. Yet even as it broke\nmy heart, that dress became an opening; the soft cotton tore at me from within\nand began to empty me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You are not the\nonly heartbroken parent in the world, it said. The pain of loss is not yours\nalone. Disappointment is the human condition<\/em>. I continued to stare at\nthe cotton and lace, but something had shifted. The dress was somehow\nconnecting me to the texture and mystery of greater things . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without\nfully understanding why, I began to soften. I saw life\u2019s contour, its density\nand its brilliance, just as it is, nothing more. . . . I saw how I\u2019d been\ncaught in a script of my own creation and . . . was totally caught up in my own\nworld\u2014my emotions, my wants, and my needs. . . . Now it was simply my time\u2014my\nturn to know the darkness and discover whether or not I was brave enough to\naccept the human journey and find a way through. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nslowly began to see that within the cells of every living thing is the same\nessence\u2014the presence of spirit. The heart of our journey is to awaken to this\nspirit within. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hardly anything turns out the way you expected it to, and you\u2019re frequently ready to write life off as too paradoxical and too difficult to endure. Then some indescribable light fights its way through the impenetrable dark\u2014an unpredictable, unimportant, runaway moment that lights up everything you\u2019ve been unable to see until then. That light removes all the shoulds and oughts, all the illusions about fairness. You enter liminal space . . . In that space you take your first script [<em>or what I call your false or separate self<\/em>], the one that weighs five hundred pounds, the script that was cutting into your heart all along, bleeding you to death but you didn\u2019t realize the wound or its seriousness\u2014and you simply let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A RECAP of LAST WEEK…\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>\n \n Teresa of\n \u00c1vila and<br>\n John of the Cross\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>\n \n <em>April\n 19 – April 24, 2020<\/em>\n <\/td><\/tr><tr><td> Teresa of \u00c1vila and John of the Cross were part of the \u201cfinal supernova\u201d of nondual, mystical consciousness in 16th-century Spain. <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-r\/\">Sunday<\/a>)<em> <\/em> <br>Our hearts open either because they have been softened, or perhaps because suffering makes us feel like we have nothing more to lose. It often takes us to the edge of our inner resources where we \u201cfall into the hands of the living God\u201d (Hebrews 10:31).<strong> <\/strong><br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-y\/\">Monday<\/a>) <br>It was the deeply mutual and loving nature of the \u201cspousal\u201d prayer Teresa entered into with God that led to such bold and faithful action. <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-j\/\">Tuesday<\/a>) <br><em>For the first time in [John\u2019s] life, he questioned the existence of a God he could no longer feel or remember. He cried out, \u201cWhere have you hidden, my Beloved?\u201d<\/em> <em>Echoing from this cry came an outpouring of love poetry to God.<\/em> \u2014Mirabai Starr (<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-t\/\">Wednesday<\/a>) <br><em>John\u2019s core intuition is that the Infinite Love that is the architect of our hearts has made our hearts in such a way that nothing less than an infinite union with Infinite Love will do. \u2014<\/em>James Finley (<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-i\/\">Thursday<\/a>) <br><em>Night signifies that which comes upon us and takes us out of our own control; it announces that as the place of resurrection. A God who heals in darkness\u2014 this is John\u2019s word of hope in a destabilized world<\/em>. -Iain Matthew <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-d\/\">Friday<\/a>) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liminal Space The Presence of Spirit Monday, \u202fApril 27, 2020 Many things can bring us to the \u201cthreshold\u201d of our ordinary ways of thinking and behaving, but even good rituals are merely \u201cstand-ins\u201d until Reality itself, often in the form of great love or great suffering, steps in and changes us forever. My friend Paula […]<\/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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18796,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions\/18796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Many\nthings can bring us to the \u201cthreshold\u201d of our ordinary ways of thinking and\nbehaving, but even good rituals are merely \u201cstand-ins\u201d until Reality itself,\noften in the form of great love or great suffering, steps in and changes us\nforever. My friend Paula D\u2019Arcy, with whom I have taught many times over the\nyears, lost her husband and young daughter in a tragic car accident while she\nwas pregnant with their second child. This story from Paula reveals how liminal\nmoments can occur at any time. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One\nafternoon, my heart breaking, I began sorting through the clothes my daughter\nSarah would never wear. A dress lay across my lap, a little piece of white\ncotton. It evoked one more moment . . . of bitter tears and confused disbelief.\n. . . Life was not supposed to turn out this way. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nwas such an innocent and common thing\u2014a child\u2019s garment. Yet even as it broke\nmy heart, that dress became an opening; the soft cotton tore at me from within\nand began to empty me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You are not the\nonly heartbroken parent in the world, it said. The pain of loss is not yours\nalone. Disappointment is the human condition<\/em>. I continued to stare at\nthe cotton and lace, but something had shifted. The dress was somehow\nconnecting me to the texture and mystery of greater things . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without\nfully understanding why, I began to soften. I saw life\u2019s contour, its density\nand its brilliance, just as it is, nothing more. . . . I saw how I\u2019d been\ncaught in a script of my own creation and . . . was totally caught up in my own\nworld\u2014my emotions, my wants, and my needs. . . . Now it was simply my time\u2014my\nturn to know the darkness and discover whether or not I was brave enough to\naccept the human journey and find a way through. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nslowly began to see that within the cells of every living thing is the same\nessence\u2014the presence of spirit. The heart of our journey is to awaken to this\nspirit within. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hardly anything turns out the way you expected it to, and you\u2019re frequently ready to write life off as too paradoxical and too difficult to endure. Then some indescribable light fights its way through the impenetrable dark\u2014an unpredictable, unimportant, runaway moment that lights up everything you\u2019ve been unable to see until then. That light removes all the shoulds and oughts, all the illusions about fairness. You enter liminal space . . . In that space you take your first script [<em>or what I call your false or separate self<\/em>], the one that weighs five hundred pounds, the script that was cutting into your heart all along, bleeding you to death but you didn\u2019t realize the wound or its seriousness\u2014and you simply let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A RECAP of LAST WEEK…\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>\n \n Teresa of\n \u00c1vila and<br>\n John of the Cross\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>\n \n <em>April\n 19 – April 24, 2020<\/em>\n <\/td><\/tr><tr><td> Teresa of \u00c1vila and John of the Cross were part of the \u201cfinal supernova\u201d of nondual, mystical consciousness in 16th-century Spain. <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-r\/\">Sunday<\/a>)<em> <\/em> <br>Our hearts open either because they have been softened, or perhaps because suffering makes us feel like we have nothing more to lose. It often takes us to the edge of our inner resources where we \u201cfall into the hands of the living God\u201d (Hebrews 10:31).<strong> <\/strong><br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-y\/\">Monday<\/a>) <br>It was the deeply mutual and loving nature of the \u201cspousal\u201d prayer Teresa entered into with God that led to such bold and faithful action. <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-j\/\">Tuesday<\/a>) <br><em>For the first time in [John\u2019s] life, he questioned the existence of a God he could no longer feel or remember. He cried out, \u201cWhere have you hidden, my Beloved?\u201d<\/em> <em>Echoing from this cry came an outpouring of love poetry to God.<\/em> \u2014Mirabai Starr (<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-t\/\">Wednesday<\/a>) <br><em>John\u2019s core intuition is that the Infinite Love that is the architect of our hearts has made our hearts in such a way that nothing less than an infinite union with Infinite Love will do. \u2014<\/em>James Finley (<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-i\/\">Thursday<\/a>) <br><em>Night signifies that which comes upon us and takes us out of our own control; it announces that as the place of resurrection. A God who heals in darkness\u2014 this is John\u2019s word of hope in a destabilized world<\/em>. -Iain Matthew <br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtullky-bdudkgkj-d\/\">Friday<\/a>) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liminal Space The Presence of Spirit Monday, \u202fApril 27, 2020 Many things can bring us to the \u201cthreshold\u201d of our ordinary ways of thinking and behaving, but even good rituals are merely \u201cstand-ins\u201d until Reality itself, often in the form of great love or great suffering, steps in and changes us forever. My friend Paula […]<\/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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18796,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions\/18796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}